Glidetrack arrives from UK in a securely packaged tube

When filming things that don’t move, it’s sometimes nice to set the camera in motion. The opening sequence of my first film Shine, for example, is a tracking shot of a crowd made using on a dolly at Fremont Studios here in Seattle. The smooth motion creates a sense that you are taking the audience on a journey, that the story is beginning to unfold. Since then I’ve had my eye out for a way to achieve this effect that doesn’t require a small army of technicians and a fat bank account.

What's in the tube

So when I read about Glidetrack, I was intrigued. After doing a bunch of research, I ordered one just before Christmas (I like to think of it as a gift to anyone who watches my future films). With FedEx shipping, the only option provided, the total was $355. I also considered a Pegasus Carbon System from Cinevate, but it costs $850 configured the way I wanted it. The difference between $350 and $850 is – for me – the difference between actually making the purchase and thinking about it. Although I’d sure love to get my hands on a Pegasus some day.

The Glidetrack arrived via FedEx in a 4″ diameter tube, into which the Glidetrack was carefully packed for overseas shipping from the UK, where they are made by Alistair Brown. Taking it out of the packaging, it’s immediately clear that this is a really solid, simple device: a 1-meter-long piece of aluminum with some channels for the slider, which is already attached, and holes for mounting it on a tripod.

Assembly is a snap

It’s a snap to put Glidetrack together using the included hex wrench – you simply bolt the end pieces on, and you’re done. The end pieces have soft rubber feet that allow you to use the Glidetrack as a table dolly, or on a nice hardwood floor, without leaving any scratches. The big question in my mind: is it possible to mount the 1-meter long Glidetrack on my tripod from a single point in the middle and have it be stable enough? Or would it require two tripods, one mounted under each end piece?

Good to go

I tested out the Glidetrack by making a short film starring the chandelier in our upstairs media room (which I’ll post later – you can see another film I made with it below). I mounted the Glidetrack on the quick-release plate of my Manfrotto 755XB tripod, which has a 501HD fluid head (which FYI I’m replacing with a 701HD head – the 501 is too heavy for use with this tripod and makes it top heavy). The Glidetrack felt stable once I mounted it to the tripod, although I had to really crank the quick-release far tighter than normal to keep the  Glidetrack from slipping from side to side while using it.

Tip: Use a ball or fluid head

The gliding platform of the Glidetrack contains a standard 1/4″ mount which you could twist your camera onto. But that would mean you’d have to adjust your tripod legs to tilt the lense. Ideally you’d mount a small fluid head on this. I used a Manfrotto ball head, which does the job fine for under $40.

I mounted up my JVC GY HM-100, and tested out the stability by sliding the camera all the way out to the edge of the Glidetrack. It does dip a bit from the weight of the camera, maybe a half inch total. And, I found that my already top-heavy tripod almost began to tip when the camera reached the end of the rail in some angled positions – I think this will improve when I swap in a lighter head.

Tip: use rubber band for silky slow movement

I pushed the camera from one end of the track to the other, and the first thing I noticed was the sound: it’s a noticeable swish, but not loud. The faster you push, the louder it gets. But slowing it down, it’s almost inaudible. This would be a problem if you plan to use a shotgun mic to record audio while you’re filming. But for this type of shot, it’s common to use externally recorded audio or track the shot over music, which is what I did. The small noise factor is a tradeoff I’m willing to make to have such such a small, portable, inexpensive piece of equipment (if quiet operation is of critical importance, check out the Cinevate Pegasus carbon fiber system I mentioned previously).

Now for the fun part. I positioned the tripod and Glidetrack under my chandelier, and took my first shot by starting the camera, then pushing the track from one side to the other. The unit slides easily and uniformly. I noticed, however, that my first movements were not perfectly even, resulting in some very slight jerkiness. So I resorted to a trick I learned for smoothing out tripod pans: using an elastic band to pull the handle rather than by touching it directly. That way, the rubber band absorbs the small jerks and the whole thing moves smoothly. I’m afraid I have shakier than normal hands, so I have to use this technique as standard procedure. Works great.

You can see the results in this short film I made using the Glidecam:

A couple of filmmaker tips I learned while producing this:

1. You can actually do some interesting, crane-like shots with the  Glidecam by turning the tripod head and thus the Glidecam track, while at the same time pulling the slider down the track. However, it’s difficult for one person to manage both with perfect smoothness.

2. To make the unit rock solid, you will want to mount it on two tripods, one under each foot. It’s solid with just the one center mounted, but I had to wait for minor bouncing to subside after moving the camera all the way to the end of the track before starting a new shot. I’m willing to put up with a little instability for the added range of motion and ease of repositioning that comes with using a single tripod.

3. You have to move the camera REALLY SLOW, slower than you think, to produce silky results. You can use the elastic band tip (mentioned above) to accomplish this without jerkiness.

I’m thrilled with the results of my first Glidecam shoot. It’s a tad long for taking everywhere, perhaps why the unit is available in a half-meter length. But I like having the full meter of runway to work with. I also like that Glidecam appears to be an indie product, produced by a guy with a name whose Twitter account I can ping to say: Thank you, Alistair Brown, for a producing a solid, affordable tool that puts smooth tracking shots within easy reach of documentary filmmakers.

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My 7-year-old niece can handle the HM100

Back when I was a professional photojournalist in the mid-90s, I preferred to be invisible when I was taking pictures. I was always after moments of truth, and recognized that the presence of a camera changed the way people behaved. So I kept my cameras small and my profile low. At that time, it would have been nearly impossible to have taken the same aesthetic into filmmaking. But today, thanks to cameras like the JVC HM100, it is becoming possible to shoot in full HD with a camera that’s smaller than the largest drink you can buy at Starbucks.

While working on Shine over the summer with co-director Ben Medina, I learned to appreciate quality optics. Ben owns a Panasonic HVX200, which is the workhorse of the indie filmmaking world. We used it for all the interview footage. We were also able to work a deal with Sunshine Whitton of AbsoluteTech, who rents a Red package, that allowed us to shoot quite a bit with this amazing – but very bulky – camera (the dreamy soft-focus opening sequence footage of Shine was shot on a the Red, which is why it looks so dreamy).

But when I got ready to buy my first camera specifically for documentary filmmaking this fall, I was looking for a camera that could accommodate my preferred shooting style. The Red was far too big, not to mention expensive at roughly $50k for a complete kit. I also ruled out the HVX200 as being too big for me, and I hate the Panasonic workflow (which uses tape, or expensive proprietary cards, or REALLY expensive and temperamental FireStore drives) that all have to be laid off and ingested into Final Cut before you can review the footage (more about that shortly).

When I learned about the Canon 5d and 7d from the outstanding blog of British filmmaker Philip Bloom, I thought I’d found the perfect documentary camera for me. The shallow depth of field and incredible optics available in a SLR-sized package was very tempting. Those cameras offer at least some of what the Red provides, for a fraction of the price and with a much smaller footprint. But after a lot of research, I concluded that the audio capabilities just aren’t there yet, at least not without strapping on a lot of extra things like external digital audio recorders or pre-amps. And I knew that I would end up lugging a ton of glass with me everywhere if I was depending on a DSLR as my primary documentary filmmaking camera, a thought I didn’t relish.

What I needed was a camcorder that included a fast zoom with a full range and professional audio capabilities, all in a package not much bigger than a consumer camcorder. And a tapeless workflow that used inexpensive SD cards would be nice, too.

I found the camera I was looking for in the JVC HM100. I first learned about it from this outstanding JVC HM100 review posted by Philip Bloom, which contains a short film he made in London using the camera. What immediately got my attention about this camera was its small size and its streamlined workflow. First of all, it’s tiny. It weighs barely 3 pounds. It’s got a quality Fujinon fixed zoom that gives you the 35mm equivalent of a 37mm – 390mm lens. It packs two XLR jacks that allow you to use it with a wireless or shotgun mic (and a cheap but functional shotgun mic is included when you buy the camera – but I recommend you do what I did and upgrade to something at least as good as a $200 Audio Technica 875 as fast as you can).

But here’s the thing that made the decision easy for me: this camera records data onto two SD cards at 35mps – not in some funky codec that has to be ingested before Final Cut can read it – no, it actually writes the file natively in .mov format. Translation: when you’re done shooting, you can simply pop out the card, drop it into a card reader on your computer, and drop it straight into a timeline on Final Cut. One word: awesome.

The camera does have a few shortcomings. Most notable: to get the small size, JVC equipped the HM100 with 1/4″ CCD sensors. That means you can forget using it for shallow depth of field of any kind except at the long end of the zoom range. That makes it not so great in low light. My second biggest complaint is that the iris controls are a bitch to use when shooting manually. You have to fiddle with a tiny lever at the back of the camera to change iris, rather than spinning a ring on the lens, which is what you’d expect to find on a professional camera. But I gotta say, aside from a few nitpicks like having to hunt through a long menu to turn optical image stabilization on and off (which I do frequently when using it with my Steadicam Merlin), that’s where my complaints end.

One of my favorite things about the camera is the ability to remove the handle, which contains the audio jacks, and go guerrilla. It’s entirely possibly to pass as just some schmo with a cheap camcorder, rather than a filmmaker. I did this a couple weeks ago on a film I’m making about a Seattle street artist, Ryan Henry Ward. He went to Home Depot to get some supplies, and I decided to film him there. I figured I’d film for as long as possible until getting kicked out. (The adage I learned in journalism school, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission,” applies equally to documentary filmmaking.)

As it turned out, they didn’t even notice I was shooting for nearly 20 minutes. When the inevitable security guard finally show up with “Excuse me, sir, you can’t use that in here,” he actually allowed me to talk him into letting me continue shooting. And I’m certain that was due to the fact that the camera did not look professional, hence in his mind I was just a shopper wanting to record the beginning of his friend’s art project. That, and Home Depot has some cool security guards.

Bottom line: This is a storyteller’s camera, a camera for documentary photographers who prefer a low-profile approach that allows them to keep their attention where it belongs: on their story, rather than on their equipment.

I purchased my HM100 from B&H Photo in this kit that includes a well padded Kata/JVC backpack that I actually use, and one 8gb SD card, for $3,500. No regrets!

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