One of the best parts of my job is being invited to a shoot to help provide the technical solutions to a creative vision. Director Scott Cudmore had the concept of circling a table and transitioning through time with our talent aging as a seamless "oner". The spot was shot over two nights where near everything was removed after day one so the restaurant could open for regular service. The Technodolly was chosen for its precision of movement, adjustable playback speed and smooth workflow. Of the five time transitions the Technodolly base was moved four times. This meant matching the transition point, a couple seconds in advance of the transition for pacing and position and then into the next beat of the story. There really is no other way to do this as seamlessly and expeditiously on set. The velocity was nearly perfect, tilt angle and camera position matched, to create the illusion of one continuous move. We had a great team on this production and I'm looking forward to the next!
For fun I've included the tech scout test edit below, created by our DP Peter Hadfield, while we worked out the transitions and timing. The results are pretty spot on to the final edit.