On 1st July 2016, Cammotion’s Vortex provided stunning and subtle ‘film-like’ moving shots at the Battle of the Somme 100th Anniversary, adding to the poignancy of the live memorial event.

Vortex – what is essentially a 30 metre high telescoping camera mast – was positioned 400 metres back from the memorial on what turned out to be quite a gusty day. Vortex is a two-person operation. A cameraman operates the remote head to position the lens in 3-axes and a technician controls the tracking speed and positioning of the remote head in the vertical plane between ground level and 30 meters high.

The distance from the memorial was used to provide depth of field on the tight end of a 42x lens. By working closely together, the cameraman and technician were able to keep the foreground and framing static whilst the background appeared to be moving. It would be easy to mistake the moving fields behind the performers / artists to be a screen with moving pictures.

The results are poignant and spine-tingling. Live broadcast filmography doesn’t get much better than this!