Horses

[Todd Mcmullen]

Nate, Use a longer lens. If you need a closer proximity then try to wrap camera in a barney, or blanket. I suspect the horse may think the sound is a snake. Also, get a good horse wrangler.

lol

Todd McMullen
Flip Flop Films
Austin
Cinematography Forum Leader

[Nate Vander plas]

Thanks for the input. We are actually planning on using a telephoto lens for at least some of our work. The barney is a good idea, but we don’t really have one, so we might have to use a coat or something. More suggestions are welcome!

[Frank Nolan]

Get a “movie horse”. There are a number of stables that have horses that are trained for working with film crews.

[Nate Vander plas]

Yeah, that would be great if we had a budget for that kind of thing! Unfortunately since we are poor students doing this for free (actually, we’re paying to make this film) that isn’t really an option. I’d also be surprised if there was such a stable in Michigan, which is where we are. That is good to know though if I ever need a horse when I’m working with a bigger budget.
Question: do you (and by “you” I mean “anybody”) think a generator would completely freak a horse out? We want to use a cherry-picker (a crane-like thing they use for fixing telephone wires and the like) to get some cool sweeping crane shots and it requires a generator to be running. It is fairly loud, but a pretty constant sound that I thought maybe the horse would get used to over a short period of time. We don’t plan on using it very close to the horse, but still, it could be a problem I think.

[George Socka]

from my farm days I remember that most horses were quite happy with tractors – hide your generator under / behind a tractor.

[Nate Vander plas]

Good point! It does sound quite a bit like a tractor! Thanks everyone for the input. When the project is complete I will hopefully remember to post a link to it on here somewhere.