Stink Director Adam Berg's concept for Carousel was a short cinematic film which told the story of armed clowns holding up a bank, then escaping into a nearby hospital, before having a massive shoot-out with the cops. Adam wanted all this action to appear frozen in time and for the camera to fly through the scene in one continuous move.

One of the main challenges was how to shoot such a large continuous camera move without cutting, creating obvious joins, or shooting with the camera rails in shot. Having worked with us previously Visual Effects Supervisor Richard Lyon from Red Rum post in Sweden contacted us to assist in addressing these production challenges. It was decided that our Milo Motion Control system was the ideal choice of rig as it gave us the greater range of speed and movement but also enabled the move to be broken down into smaller sections which could then be seamlessly joined together in post production. Motion Control also allowed multiple passes to be shot, which meant that after shooting action takes, the Motion Control rail could be lifted up and clean floor passes could be shot. Clean passes were then used to remove the wires that supported the extras during the shot.

With a very tight budget and an ambitious two days to shoot the whole sequence, planning out all of the shots in advance was essential. Prior to shooting we were supplied with an initial 3D Previs of the sequence which contained a simple animation of how the camera would move into, through and out of the hospital building. We then used our in-house Motion Control Rig Chase software to calculate the likely speed and range of the move. Using Rig Chase also allowed us to schedule how long each set up and shot would take, which was vital with such a tight shooting deadline.

Once on set, our Previs artist Andrew Bull took precise measurements of the location and built a virtual model of the set in 3D. This 3D set was then populated with models of robbers and cops in key positions. An initial animation of the camera move was then created, which was further refined until the Director was happy with timing and composition of the shots.

The Milo was used in three separate areas of the location, one exterior, and two interiors on different floors. On the first shoot day the Milo was set up and shot the reception interior then it was dismantled and moved outside and reassembled for the exterior shot. Once this was completed the Milo was again broken down and rebuilt for the interior corridor shot on day two.

The whole sequence was successfully shot in two days at Barrandov Studios in Prague.