Silky smooth
Midway through shooting BRINDABELLAS we were lucky enough to get our hands on a set of original Trost Motion sliders – the 2-axis pairing of 50 and 100 cm sliders. This system proved to both rugged and versatile in the field – plus created some silky-smooth slides!
Trost have since updated their system to the M-series (with native Mitchell mounts and leveling 100mm ball support) which is slightly different to what we used on BRINDABELLAS – and still use as our main sliding system on most commercial shoots now. The original system worked well for us in the field as it could easily be deployed with just Really Right Stuff ball-heads and plates which kept things light and compact for solo shoots in less than perfect weather and terrain.
Most of the general filming on BRINDABELLAS was locked-off shots with telephoto lenses – so we didn’t really require a lot of camera motion. However we did use the Trost sliders for a lot of the macro work as they were smooth enough to slowly slide even short telephoto macro rigs and they were also extremely useful for camera positioning where water and ice made more conventional tripod set-ups difficult to adjust. A lot of the ice footage in part three | winter was filmed with the Trost system – particularly where the camera needed to be positioned above ice that was too brittle to take the weight of the tripod and rig.
Solid but portable
The Trost sliders are beautifully built and have a reassuringly solid feel. But we also found them more than portable enough for the BRINDABELLAS field work – even on solo shoots. The 100cm slider was often deployed with a single set of Gitzo 5 series legs and a Really Right Stuff Groundpod holding up the other end for low shots. This combination – plus the RED Epic-X IR rig – was still portable enough to be comfortably lugged and deployed by one person – even in snow covered forests. The two axis set-up was only used a couple of times – but the 50cm slider was commonly used by itself – usually centre-mounted on Gitzo legs. This was a versatile light-weight option with the stripped down Epic-X IR rig.
The Trost handle base-plates lock very solidly but are also easy to adjust – plus have a lot of mounting options. We usually also attached Really Right Stuff plates to the handles to provide quick-release options for both the base-plates and the actual slider. This allowed for fast breakdown and re-deployment of different rig configurations. Set-up and adjustment was always very simple – with just one hex key required to tighten up the locking collars every now and again.
For what we were after on this project the Trost sliders worked beautifully – in rain, snow and ice. We are looking forward now to using them on a project with maybe just a little more actual sliding required!
Note | We’re not really gear reviewers – and definitely not paid gear reviewers. This is just an outline of some of the stuff we like to use and an excuse to post a few gratuitous rig shots. We purchased our sliders from Trost just like anyone else – although we would like to particularly thank Gabe and the team for the excellent service in getting our order out to us so promptly!
More | see the Trost Motion website | www.trostmotion.com
