The hardest thing for me over the past two weeks has been to hold back on my enthusiasm regarding the true potential that I believe the MōVI has, and the potential it has to alter the way we shoot video/films.  

To that end I’ll share two anecdotes with you that I experienced recently that have helped confirm that this technology might just be worthy of the dreaded term "Game Changer."

1. We had a meeting to demo the MōVI last week.   Director/Producer/Writer JJ Abrams came to see the unit and was clearly enthusiastic.   The word "Genius" may have been uttered at one point.   But there are two specific details from that meeting that I will never forget:

First, when Abrams came to see the MōVI for  the second time, he asked his staff to help him execute a shot that had taken him 5 takes to accomplish with what is presumably one of the best crews and gear that one can find in Hollywood…   His staff (who had all of 5 minutes of time w/ the MōVI) nailed the shot on the first take.  Abrams had them repeat it and possibly perfect it on the second shot.  

The second memory I have, began when Abrams picked up his cell phone and called Alfonso Cuarón who was in town, and suggesting that he rush over to see the  MōVI.   Cuarón is the modern master of the "one shot"  – he directed "Children of Men" a modern masterpiece on many levels.   Cuarón showed up within the hour, and I have to say that having the two of them there was a special moment to say the least.   After all, I had spent the night prior to shooting with the MōVI for the very first time looking through a behind the scenes look (check it out here it’s AWESOME) at his long takes from Children of men.  

Having him there in person three weeks later was a bit surreal to say the least.    But even better somehow, was his reaction.    When he saw the MōVI in action… he was simply:  speechless.   He literally cupped his hands around his eyes and mouth.  Twice.   Later he said he’d been waiting for something like this for "20-30 years."    It’s a day I’ll never forget – not because of the two key directors who were there and who I admire – but because of their genuine reaction of discovery and excitement that was palpable to all.   One, let alone both of those things seldom happen.

2.  As you watch the video below, keep in mind it was shot by a Solo operator.    The original MōVI film you saw 2 weeks ago was shot with both a person holding the MōVI and a second operator on the remote control Joystick.   The video below was shot by one person – all alone.   Truth be told, we all deep down want to grab a camera and run out and shoot – unencumbered by anyone else at times…

The MōVI can operate in either dual mode (operator  + joystick operator) or "Majestic" or solo mode.    The MōVI knows to pan or tilt based on input from the solo operator – and distinguishes that input from a bump or roll as you run down stairs for example.    You can also customize the speed of a pan to be slow on a 100mm lens pan, or to do a whip pan … and when you think of that, keep in mind that "Majestic" mode had yet to be fully implemented (the unit was still in the prototype stages) when the video was shot below by Henning Sandström – who also co-edited the MōVI short.   So as you watch the video below, consider the following:  it was shot with a single operator (no joystick or remote control), with a Panasonic GH3 – in a much more basic configuration than what will be released this fall…  

HOOD from Henning Sandström on Vimeo.

Also – for those of you on the East Coast… The MōVI will be use in the Reducation classes May 13th to the 17th at Steiner Studios in New York, and will be available at the Reducation Open House on Wednesday evening May 15, 2013.  I plan on being there as well as I have a shoot in NYC during that time.   You can go ahead and register for classes or the open house by clicking on the following LINK. 

 Lastly if you have more questions or want to pre-order a MōVI you can do so here.   The deposit is fully refundable (ergo it saves your place in line) and Freefly is aiming to ship the first batch of units in the 3rd Quarter of this year (July/September range) –  and yes:  orders are already starting to stack up…   And there’s still a chance to win the 2nd of the giveaway MōVIs by following both @freeflycinema and @vincentlaforet on twitter – read more here.

You may have noticed that I seldom post about workshops, let alone my own speaking engagements on this blog.   Here’s an easy exception for me:  Alex Buono and his "Art of Visual Storytelling Tour."   As you may know Alex and I are both Canon Explorers of Light (EOL) and that means that we both speak at the same big venues (Such as NAB) on a regular basis.    There’s a lot of joking around between the EOLs about who did the best presentation and who waited until the very last minute to finish their presentations before stepping onto stage, but there’s one thing we all agree on:   Alex is very likely the best amongst the group.

Alex will start on June 3rd in Minneapolis all the way through August 4th in Seattle after touring 31 cities around the United States.   If you can’t make it they’ll also be putting a DVD together.  I’ve seen Alex speak a few dozen times for Canon and several times at Masters in Motion (my favorite multi-speaker workshop of the year) – and I can honestly say I’ve picked something up from every one of his talks.    Alex is a fantastic filmmaker – and one of the best educators out there – PERIOD.     

Here’s a quote that I agree with fully:

Alex essentially crammed four years of film school into a mesmerizing two-hour tour de force performance that left people’s brains aching from information overload."

Jon Connor, co-founder – Masters in Motion, shooteditlearn.com

So if you’ve been waiting on the sidelines to attend a workshop because you thought you might not learn anything – this is likely the time to take the plunge.  And the tour’s daily structure is also intelligently broken down into several sections each day, which as an educator I can tell you is the BEST way to educate people of all levels of experience (they can attend the portions they are interested in.)   So go learn something, this is a workshop that I can recommend without reservation.    Go ahead an learn something from Alex – who is also a heck of a nice guy…

 Oh, and did I mention he’s also an Academy Award nominee?

Today was a pretty momentous day for several people related to the MōVI.

As you’ll see above the MōVI made its first appearance on set of it’s first Network Television show – NCIS Los Angeles just a week after it was revealed at NAB.   

As I shot the still frame above (full resolution file here), I saw a pretty interesting depiction of what I think are 3 very important steps in the evolution of Cinema – the Dolly, the Steadicam and the handheld MōVI.   I wish I could show you how the 3 operators worked in total unison to work 3 unique angles on this shot…

The MōVI videos also broke the 1.9 million view mark today with just under 10 million loads.  (I mention loads because YouTube tends to autoplay their videos, ergo everyone who loads the page counts as a view.. ergo a Vimeo metric is a bit different than the "views" you might see on YouTube videos… now you know a bit more about how PSY’s Gangam Style reached a Billion views…)

Another lucky person woke up early this morning in the Leeds, England by a Direct Message letting him know he had won the very first MōVI off the production line.   Mike Ritchie is a 28-year-old director/cameraman who has been making films since he was 15 – which is when I started with photography on my end anecdotally.    The winner  (Mike) was picked when we selected a number from zero to the total number of followers @freeflycinema had on the closing hour of NAB last week with a random number generator app.   Once we downloaded the list of followers, the task of figuring out who that exact person was, took our very tired brains a few days to figure out and confirm 😉    So I’m happy to announce the first winner of the MōVI here!

We’re going to pick the second winner of a MōVI M10 this month – and all that you need to do to qualify is to follow @freeflycinema and @vincentlaforet on Twitter.  

That’s it.  

We’re going to pick a slighlty more exciting way of picking the second winner… we had a great idea at NAB but there was simply too much packing up to do to put that together in time.

The MōVIs are in production and Freefly is taking pre-orders here should you be interested in putting your name down on the list with a $2,500 refundable deposit.   

If you’d like to read more about the MōVI you can do sohere as well as here should you want answers to common questions.   And download footage here while also making a small donation to a wonderful charity.

From Mike:

I’m 28 now and have been making films since I was 15. My first project was a horrendously cheesy gangster film, shot on a PD150, where we pretty much taught ourselves to shoot, direct and edit. My shining moment of creativity that film was the synonymous shot from inside the boot of the car as the gangsters unload the gear. We had no idea what we were doing but it was a lot of fun.

 

I love working with actors and telling stories, I’m also a huge camera geek. The price/performance ratio of cameras and gear now is staggering, which is a brilliant thing for anyone wanting to get into the world of film making.

 

I try to spend as much time as I can working on my own projects – mostly simple, short dramas exploring a particular theme or idea. One day I hope to start making features.

 

In my free time I love travelling – I’ve been fortunate enough to explore a fair chunk of the world so far. I’ve recently bought a wreck of a house, so I’m learning DIY the hard way. And I’m looking forward to getting married to my fiancée, Katy, in 2014.

 

and a final note from Mike that he was nice enough to share:

 

I was absolutely amazed when I saw the first MōVI shots. I couldn’t wait to try it out but had no idea when or how I’d get my hands on one!

This is awesome, I’ve got so many ideas for my first MōVI shoot. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Thank you SO much to the guys at Freefly. Wow!

Blind from Mike Ritchie on Vimeo.