We've seen them at every company event...the dreaded photo booth! Well there are photo booths...and then there are HOLY CRAP WHAT IS THAT? Photo booths! This year, to close out PhotoPlus Expo, Resource Magazine with Scheimpflüg & Bathhouse Studio held their 6th annual Flügoween party and the Fstoppers team were there in force to see and play with one of the most epic Bullet-time Photo setups since The Matrix!
Scheimpflüg is New York’s premier rental house based in Hell’s Kitchen specializing in cameras, lighting, grip, and trucks for the motion and photographic industries. They created their 360º setup to create an environment to have the absolute, MOST fun possible with a photo booth, and having witnessed it personally...they nailed it!
The Fstoppers Team in New York....We know kung-fu!
Starting out in the Dumbo area of New York City, The Flug team started growing pretty rapidly and as such, partnered with the Bathhouse Studio in an effort to continue to provide the best venue, and service for their products! The 360 / Bullet-Time project started out as simple QuickTime VR projects for commercial work, (some examples here), and grew and adapted as the clients and technology requirements changed!
The current system starts with 60 Canon Rebels to give about a 180º coverage and expands to WELL over 100 cameras for a full 360º spin! Depending on your preference, they can run Canon, Nikon, and several other models of cameras available to accommodate you, however, the older versions of the camera bodies tend to work better & faster for on site needs. You can also see from the images below and the Setup video, that a LOT of lighting is needed to pull these images off! The system is nearly entirely custom built, from the triggering system, (which even allows you to create a ramped up continuous shots!), the AC power running the whole setup, a custom built power pc tower with raided NAS for storing the AT LEAST 300meg per image sequence (3-4 times that in RAW), to the proprietary software they've developed to give you nearly instant rendering on site of your images! It's pretty easy to create some really unique and fun images with this system, and with the right planning, you could even shoot your own "Matrix" sequences!
One of the most energizing things of the night was being able to take these crazy images and then step just a few feet away and within 90 seconds, (most of the time), seeing the finished creation play in a loop until the next image was shot. This team and their system is so good, that the entire library of images was available online in under 24 hours!
Take Flight with The Flug!
Making it Rain!
Even Morpheus made an appearance! You can't have bullet-time without someone from the Matrix!
While these images included are GIFs, they can render the files in nearly any size/quality as well as time lapse/movie files based on the clients preferences and requirements. The Timeslice team isn't afraid to get their feet, and equipment, wet either! They have even shot a series of promos for Rip Curl back in 2010 showing off their tech with some of surfing's elite!
The setup for a system such as this takes the team an entire work day (6-8 hours), to setup and then another 4 hours to strike! So if you're interested in having them at your party, you'll need a 3 day window. As you can see, everything fits remarkably compact in a series of Tenba Cases ready for travel! Check out the time lapse below of the setup for the Halloween party we attended!!
Now for the scary part! Doing the math on everything, the basic setup for this system costs a breathtaking $60,000-$80,000 and the Flug team have about 3 full kits in service at any given time! So the cost per rental will not be cheap, but we know they are very flexible and operate on a case by case basis...and lets face it, this system would be worth it at your party for the sheer bragging rights! On a personal note, I don't think I've ever had so much fun at a company party, and it was insane to see so many photo/video industry people just cut loose and go completely nuts in front of the cameras for a change! Go through the gallery and see how many photographers you can identify. The costumes may add a level of difficulty, but that's half the fun.
Check out the following links for more info and to view a complete gallery of images from Flügoween, visit: www.theflug.com/flugoween14
Flüg website: www.theflug.com
Flüg Facebook: www.facebook.com/flugfilms
To see what they're doing check out: #fluglife
For 360° rig booking info please contact:
john@scheimpflug.net or 212-244-8300
This was a friggin amazing setup. Absolutely memorable !! <3 <3
It was totally the trophy piece of the entire party haha love it.
I love how in the highlight reel, Peter Hurley's holding you upright in the thumbnail! :D
Again??.......nothing new here. bullet time has been around for 15 years....next!
Not for office Christmas parties though!
I thought it was interesting anyway.
Party pooper!
This was awesome! Yeah, not a new concept, we've all seen the matrix... but done like this at a party was pretty epic
We've been doing this for years: http://bigfreeze.com/
Yes! Love our friends at Flug. They are always helpful and know their shit. Flugoween is the industry standard for Halloween parties. Hoping that all of us over at Hudson Radios ( https://www.hudsonradios.com ) get an invite this coming year!