PTZ ComposerHow to get a smooth push-in on a soloist
Updated
How do we get a smooth push-in on the soloist from the balcony?
Compose the push before the night rather than flying it by hand. Decide the wide frame it leaves, the single it lands on and the pace it travels at while there is time to try it twice, then perform that prepared move when the number arrives. The hard part of this shot is the pace, and pace is the part a rehearsal can settle.
Why the balcony push-in is hard by hand
A push-in from the back of the house is a long lens doing slow work. Every small movement of the stick is magnified by the zoom, so the frame wanders while you are trying to hold it steady. You are also watching a monitor and the stage at the same time, which is two jobs.
Then there is the pace. The move has to be slow enough that nobody notices it starting, and it has to finish with the phrase rather than before it. Operators who can do this by hand are rare, and the one person in your building who can do it is not at every show.
Compose the move before the night
A flight is an authored camera move, with a planned route, framing and pace from departure through landing. For this shot the flight is short: a house wide at the top, a single on the soloist at the bottom, and a gentle start and settle at each end.
Because it is composed rather than flown, you can look at it, change the landing frame by a hand's width and run it again. The version everyone agreed on in rehearsal is the version that runs on the night, and it runs the same way on the second weekend as it did on the first.
It is worth checking the shot on the camera that will carry it, at the zoom it will use, before tech week. A long push at full telephoto asks more of a camera body than a short one across a stage, and you would rather learn that in an empty auditorium.
Match the music, not a stopwatch
A prepared move can run on its own timing, which suits a shot with a fixed length. A ballad is not that. The singer holds the last note longer than they did on Thursday, and a move that finishes early leaves the camera sitting in its landing frame with nothing to do.
That is what a virtual rail is for. The route and the framing stay exactly as composed, and one axis of a joystick drives progress along them, so a person rides the timing while the shot takes care of itself. If the number stretches, the push stretches with it.
What to check in your venue
Note which camera has the balcony position, how it is controlled today, and who will be on the desk when the number comes. Then check your setup with us, and we will say which compatibility answer applies to that camera before you plan an evaluation around a production.
Book the evaluation against a real tech week, not two quiet weeks. If your auditorium was installed by an integrator, ask them for the control path of the balcony camera; it saves a phone call later.