The Hardest Part of Filming Car Chases

The Ultimate Arm Camera Crane System was created for specialized vehicle photography such as high-speed car chases, trains, motorcycles, and racetrack scenes.

Car chases are often the most memorable parts of action movies, but capturing those scenes on film is easier to watch than to do. An engineer and camera operator worked together to develop a camera crane system specifically designed to film such scenes.

The system was used in the filming of Miami Vice, opening in theaters today.

When Ultimate Arm was awarded an Academy Award for Technical Achievement earlier this year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences called it, a significant improvement in camera car technology that solved many problems inherent in chase vehicle filming.

The Ultimate Arm has many advantages when filming. The system uses a lightweight fiber optic gyroscope to stabilize the crane over just about any terrain. The crane's front is separate from the back, which allows the crane to absorb motion while keeping the camera still. The camera car can be operated at speeds over 100 miles per hour. Ultimate Arm can sweep around the camera car a full 360 degrees in about 5 seconds.

--LiveScience Staff

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Credit: American Institute of Physics