COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2006

Phil Balsden was at the Commonwealth Games this year and amongst other events he covered the bike road race. "The Polecam worked well here on the outside of a 90 degree bend tracking and counter tracking at road level or tonguing in over the crowd as cyclists approached.

Steffan takes Polecam to a new level in the Arctic

click here to download the full pdf of his story

Christoph used Polecam at its longest and shortest for this job in Hamburg Airport.
Shooting for ARD he produced two short films (3 and 5 minutes) for a Soccer World Championship Show and this wll be aired in March/April 2006.

Sharon Fricker was working for Pratt and Miller who run the Corvettes and the Cadillacs in the ALMS and Speed GT Classes.

"Everyone was really happy with the Polecam shots" said Sharon, "We mounted the pan and tilt head onto the fuel boom overhead. It needs a bit of adjustment if we do it again but overall the shots were fantastic."

AMS productions in Dallas hired Sharon Fricker to film the Forsythe Championship Racing, PKV Racing and the Newman Hass Racing (which is owned by Paul Newman) during the Champ Car Grand Prix of Denver for their reality series "Race Car Driver"

Sharon also filmed in the Forsythe and PKV workshops in Indianapolis at a private motocross track with Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez and filmed the guys slot car racing.

The Executive Producer Andy Streitfeld commented "The Polecam got us some very unusual "high dollar" shots that made it look like we had a full blown jib. It was easy to set up and move - so much so that we took it out to a temporary race track for our reality series Race Car Driver. We were more than impressed with what it could do"

Polecam Press Release
6th September 2005

Polecam showing its new product at IBC 2005

click here to download full pdf

Polecam's existing DiveBag allows the Polecam head to dip and shoot just below the surface of the water, which is more than adequate for most applications but there is sometimes a requirement to shoot deeper down.

FishFace, the new Polecam submersible head, is a completely submersible pan & tilt head and camera housing sold as an alternative head for the rig. The housing will accommodate the normal standard definition cameras sold with Polecam, and suitable remote head high def cameras.

The head can be used to a depth of around 4 metres (13 feet) on the Polecam although it can be used away from the Polecam up to a depth of 10m (33 feet). The head sits at the end of the Polecam carbon fibre boom which is configurable in length from 1.5 to 6 metres (5 to 20 feet).

Like the DiveBag, live transition air-water-air shots are possible. This was used to great effect on the diving at the Athens Olympics and now the with submersible head the possibility of going much deeper!

Polecam Press Release
10th June 2005

Polecam for Hollyoaks and Mersey Television

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POLECAM for HOLLYOAKS and MERSEY TELEVISION

Mersey Television, producer of high-rating UK television programmes Hollyoaks (Ch4) and Grange Hill (BBC), has purchased a Polecam to be used on location and at their Campus Manor, Liverpool headquarters.

Chris Royle, Deputy Head of Cameras there, had already seen Polecam in use on Hollyoaks when the rig had been rented in for some of the episodes, and could see the potential for raising production values.  On the strength of Mersey TV receiving commissions for twelve 1 hour dramas and a series of late night Hollyoaks specials, the decision was

made to purchase their own rig, on the basis that it could be used to enhance creativity on all Mersey productions.

Polecam, a single operator lightweight crane, can be rigged in just 10 minutes, and mounts a 3x CCD broadcast or HD minicam on a precision pan & tilt head at the end of a carbon fibre boom, configurable in length from 5 to 20 ft.

Polecam will give regular crane shots, but because of the unique design and small head, allows an additional range of totally different angles that would be difficult to get any other way. It operates off a standard lightweight tripod or the supplied body harness for complete mobility.

Polecam Press Release
10th March 2005

Polecam for David Letterman Show
New York

click here to download full pdf

POLECAM FOR DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW

The CBS popular late night chat show, based in New York, has purchased a Polecam, to be used in the production of the show. Tim Kennedy, the show’s Technical Director, saw Polecam at the last NAB in Las Vegas and thought it would be a great asset to the show.  The Letterman Show is known for zany inserts interspersed with the interviews, so the cameras are frequently called on to move quickly around the New York building, shooting out of windows, on the roof, out in the street, with very little time to rig and derig, and often at short notice.

Steffan Hewitt, designer of Polecam and owner of the UK company, got a call from his US distributor Ste-Man, asking if they could urgently borrow the Polecam’s DiveBag, an accessory for underwater shooting, for a demo on the Letterman show, needed urgently for an upcoming segment featuring a water skiing squirrel, to be set up on the road outside the building in a large water- filled tank!  Steffan agreed, the squirrel water skied, and they all got to like the Polecam very much.

Tim Kennedy said “Polecam is a great addition to our facility. We already have a jib, but it takes over an hour to rig, and is heavy to move around. Polecam allows us much more flexibility when it comes to those last minute production requests. Having seen what the demo rig could do, the director of the show just didn’t want to let it go.”