The project was a video for a UK musician, Maleek Berry, to illustrate his song "Pon My Mind." “The song itself has a quite hypnotic feel to it,” director Meji Alabi says, “so with DP Olan Collardy I decided to focus on interesting long takes for the video.”
They decided to shoot on an ALEXA Mini and anamorphic lenses. The location for their filming was a small flat in West London, which meant limited room to maneuver. “We wanted to let the camera really feel the spaces and rooms, and tie all of Maleek’s performances together,” says Meji,”and the TRINITY was really the only option that could give us what we were looking for.”
“The problem we had was getting a camera which could float through a tight space during long takes where we were tracking movements which were happening at differing heights,” Olan explains. “This would have posed a challenge for the traditional Steadicam going from low mode while tracking feet movement all the way to shoulder height. While a gimble provides us with the flexibility, the feeling you get from a gimbal is somewhat unnatural due to the bobbling vertical movement. The TRINITY was the perfect solution because it absorbs both rotational and vertical forces on the camera.”
Which was where Charlie Rizek came in.
ARRI TRINITY "only option" for "Pon My Mind"
Director Meji Alabi and cinematographer Olan Collardy were commissioned to shoot a music video requiring complicated camera moves, in a confined space, with tight budgets, and only one day to shoot. They turned to Charlie Rizek and his ARRI TRINITY for help.
