'From 1994' First To Use Freefly System's MōVI M10 With ARRI Alexa M

The emotionally powerful short film, From 1994, produced by Seattle-based MINDCASTLE, is the first film to be shot entirely using Freefly System's MōVI camera stabilizer with the ARRI Alexa M digital cinema camera.
Produced by MINDCASTLE's directing team of Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger, From 1994 is a sensitive tribute of love, loss and a mother's last wishes for her child. Warren credits the MōVI M10 gyro-stabilized 3-axis gimbal system with allowing him to achieve the film much as he had imagined it.
"The MōVI is its own unique thing, sort of a floating crane that can go anywhere," explained Warren. "I've shot with cranes and jibs and things like that, and once you set it up, you can only try shots you can reach from where the base is set. The difference with the MōVI is that the base can be anywhere, and you can start experimenting right away."
When a shot demanded the camera be relocated, that was easily done in seconds. The MōVI features Freefly's proprietary and highly advanced control software/hardware and 3-dimensional navigation avionics providing smooth stabilization and acceleration correction. Designed to handhold camera packages up to 12 pounds/5.4kg, MōVI M10 is the ideal gyro-stabilization complement to ARRI's modular Alexa M, which packs all the same sensor, image processing, and image quality features of the groundbreaking ARRI Alexa into a separated camera head and recording electronics package. The MōVI operator carried the Alexa M's recording body in a backpack, which was connected to the camera head by a flexible fiber optic cable. To facilitate the Alexa M, the team used the new MōVI Extended Cage option that also accommodates the Sony F55.
Warren and Kreiger used MōVI both in single operator mode, where the cameraperson self-steers the camera panning and tilting, as well as dual operator mode. In dual operator mode, using the MōVI remote controller, a remote operator has the same camera-steering control over a wireless connection.
Warren said that the freedom the MōVI provided allowed the team to shoot portions of the film tightly to the script, while freely shooting other material to choose from during editing. "I think the shots all kind of contain the same speed of movement and dynamics. For me they cut together really well."
MINDCASTLE will showcase From 1994 in film festivals throughout the coming year. Warren and Krieger are a Seattle based Emmy® Award winning creative duo whom direct and produce content for the web, television and the big screen. They have created work for HBO, Showtime, Canon, ESPN, Microsoft, Chevrolet, Nike and Gatorade.
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