Glidetrack review

On Monday (Nov 17) I finally got my Glidetrack from England Scotland. Lightweight camera track/dolly system. I ordered it the week before and soon after complications with shipping a 2,5kg package to Eastern Europe were over, it was on its way. They had stated shipping costs to USA and Europe as £26, but soon after my order was placed, they told me, that they got a message from postal service that shipping to Slovenia will cost them £120. After short search for other options they found new service for £48, that is £22 more than I already paid for, and that they want to meet me half way. So only £11 extra. I am very grateful to the team at Glidetrack.

Glidetrack w/ videohead Manfrotto 503

I wandered a litte, how to test the system. I can’t shoot anything at home ’cause I have all my equipment at work. We had to do a piece on Damjan Kozole, film director, for Dnevnik. We had decided to put some more effort in recording the piece, ’cause he is from the world of film.

So I said, lets make it different then other clips that we do for Dnevnik. I don’t want to have equipment all over the set. I placed 2kW outside through the window difused by a LitePanel, and I put a 500W spot as a back light on a Manfrotto Sky Hook and attached it to the book shelf.

Spletka with Simona Rakuša: Janez Potočnik. This is what it looks like on ordinary set for Dnevnik. Samo is sitting at the back.

Lights from the outside. It looks like a real film set.

I put SGPro adapter with Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor on Sony PMW-EX1 and put everything on Glidetrack which was supported on two tripods (Manfrotto 525 and 055PRO).

The camera has high center of gravity so I had to be careful when moving the rig. I had some small shakes in the footage that is why I put SmoothCam filter on the whole clip in Final Cut Pro.

Below is a very short clip from the interview (just one glide from one side to another). You can see the whole clip on Dnevnik home page when it will be finished.

Professional filming set. Journalist Maja and director Damjan Kozole.

This time I have choose Vimeo for video hosting to test their services. I still haven’t found a way to embed video from my own server. All it does, when I try to add video is to give me a link and then opens a video in another window. And I would like to have the video in my post. So if anybody knows the solution to my problem, let me know.

Glidetrack test – Damjan Kozole from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

Interview contains lots of clips from Damjan’s new movie Za vedno.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej povezavi.