Hi everyone,
I'm a noob of film making (so this should be the right section for my question) and I would like your help to understand which is the best way to do a moving scene.
My friends and I are trying to do a short film for our marketing class and we have a Panasonic HDC-SD90.
One of the scenes features a person while running.
We want to follow the subject keeping always the same distance from him. Thus, we need to run along with him.
The problem is that, holding the camera while running, we cannot prevent the image from shaking.

Do you know if it's possible to solve this problem without spending a fortune on expensive equipment?

Thanks a lot for the help!

Can either of you drive? If so you could drive alongside / in front of the subject and drive slowly. That's what I did for a shot in me latest short, literally have me and the camera hanging out of the sun roof shooting a tracking shot. If you do it on a quiet street, then it wouldnt be too much of a hassle.

http://i.imgur.com/XIUgH.png

We can drive but, since we are student living in a different city than the one of our families, none of us have a car :\

Any other suggestion? Or do you know if there is any piece of equipment that we can built at home?

Thanks a lot for the answer!

A wheel chair works pretty well.

You could try this. :)

https://vimeo.com/36206229

http://sammigirl.com/DIYZipLine.bmp

^ intense!

First of all, thanks to everyone for the answers!

Second, @Dreadylocks the stickman draw is amazing! Do you have any video of you or anyone building it?

It would be so much fun to actually do it.
The tripod doesn't seem really easy to run with but we will give it a shoot.

In the mean while, any other suggestion?

I've never tried it. It's just an idea I had when I read your question. If you do end up using it let me know how it turns out :)

A couple other thoughts I had after drawing that:

-It would probably be smoother if you (the camera puller) don't actually move with the camera, but stand stationary at one end with a longer cord and just pull from there.

-Attach the cord you're pulling to the pvc pipe, not the camera strap as shown in the picture.

Good luck with the shoot :D

http://sammigirl.com/DIYZipLine.bmp

Ooh. I like! I'm absolutely gonna do this. Bravo!

I would recommend you put the pull cord attached to the lead PVC sleeve so there isn't differential pull on the cord that would tense and slack as you're moving.

What about a bicycle with you sitting on the back paniere rack with stunt pegs for your feet:

http://www.pedalpushersonline.com/images/tubus_02.jpg


There are plenty of steadicam DIY's on youtube, this one seems decent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NDsEFy5Iww


Other than that, I've seen a trolley used on a feature like this one:

http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/395006/2047721/0/1143429185/HAND_TROLLY.jpg

just stand on it and have someone push you leaning back, maybe not for running though.


Or a wheelchair, a skateboard (with quite wheels), a shopping trolly (good louck using wild audio though!),

A wheelchair could work. I would personally try Dreadylocks idea simply for the fun it looks.
If neither of those grabs you, could you not ask around other friends for a car to borrow? Or, and this could be either too expensive or against health and safety regulation, book a taxi and request one with a sunroof?
Good luck.

a very long lens on a camera far away and on a tripod doing a simple pan can look like a track shot for a few seconds..

taxi! Pay the guy and extra $50 to let you hang the camera out the window!

I need to try that zipline idea sometime for a tracking shot :)

http://sammigirl.com/DIYZipLine.bmp

The creativity at this place never ceases to amaze me. Awesome.

Or a wheelchair, a skateboard (with quite wheels), a shopping trolly (good louck using wild audio though!),

I know many skaters do this to record other skaters (they even sell "filming wheels" for boards) but I have never gotten good results, and I have tried several different ways recently. YMMV.

You could try this. :)

https://vimeo.com/36206229

That's really cool, Justin. BTW, what music is that in the background of the test footage?

So has anyone here tried the zip line method yet?

There are two potential issues that I see with the zip line method. First is that there is no tilt stability, so you would have to hang a weight off of the bottom of the camera. That brings us to the second likely problem being that two people are not going to be able to pull the zip line tight enough to prevent the camera from sagging in the middle (it will get easier to pull from the beginning until the middle and harder after the middle until the end). You will also have the camera dipping then raising as it is pulled. Add to that the friction of the PVC as it slides along the rope may cause a build up of static electricity.

I didn't even know such a thing as a "cable dolly" existed...

http://www.thewildclassroom.com/wildfilmschool/gettingstarted/cabledolly.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidvickersphotography/5564020057/

http://tommansfield.blogspot.com/2010/07/cable-dolly-shoot.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4umhOolZPU

http://www.ehow.com/how_8624089_diy-cable-dolly.html

Those setups address all of the issues that I mentioned. You have to attach the line between two stable structures (trees and telephone poles work well), pull it TIGHT (a come along or ratchet straps are good), use wheels to reduce friction (bicycle wheels work), and hang a stable weight (attach a metal pipe with the outer diameter equal to or slightly less the hole in the center of free weights and use weights from a home gym and a screw on cap to secure them) under the camera/cradle to stabilize the swaying motion. You might also want to make an attachment point on the back side of the cradle to hang balancing weights to counteract any off balance issues caused by different length/weight cameras/lenses.