Can you spin the Arri Trinity 2 head?  

Yes, you can!  DP Ryan Spacone reached out to me, asking this very question. He had some commercials for Ticketmaster and part of the directors concept was use 360 spins as transitions into and out of  scenes.

Arri cameras balance nodal (perfectly centred) in the Trinity head no problem, other cameras you may have to add additional riser plates.  We were shooting on the Sony Venice 2. I hadn't put a the Venice 2 on the Trinity before, so really wanted to make sure it all worked perfectly. 

Having a camera prep with Trinity jobs is a massive time saver and ensures you'll be ready on the shoot day without causing any costly delays. 

We prepped at Panavision Woodland Hills in Los Angeles.  I borrowed a riser plate and also made sure I had a lens support as I knew we were going to be using Panavison Primo lenses.   They are beautiful, but heavy.  The 1st AC provided his own remote focus which was a Arri Hi 5.  This is great for Trinity, as no heavy MDR like with the Preston.  If you do have a Preston system you can make it work no worries, it's best to have the MDR 4 if possible as it's smaller and lighter, right angle cables are also very helpful. 

When spinning the head there's three options:

1) Manually spin it, using the trigger on the master grip
2) Programme the spin time and exact degrees on the RCP (control centre) then select a button of the master grip to activate it
3) Use the Arri Wheels and have either the DP or another Operator spin it for you.

There's a time and a place for each of these.  For the commercials we were shooting it made sense to go with option 2).  As this way I could exactly repeat the exact same move at the same speed each take and be assured it will land at the 0 horizon position (or whatever degree you and the team want).  On a commercial when the Director, Agency and Client have approved and like something, it's sensible to keep it the same.  

When spinning the Arri Trinity 2 head, you have to make sure there's no obstructions.  Most often you need to raise the camera higher in the ring, so there's clearance from the back of the camera.  This will effect the balance, so having some additional weights and non pressured prep time to get this right is crucial.

I've learnt that just cause there's no obstruction when the rig is sitting in the docking bracket and sled 90degrees doesn't mean there won't be any at another angle.  The best thing to do is take the rig through all positions and slowly spin the head.  You can do this off the balancing pin.  I spin the head from the trigger manually so I can start and stop slowly checking it doesn't hit anywhere. 

Cable management is also important.  The head cable needs to be managed.  I have a 3D printed bracket that the cable sits in.  I found pulling this cable to one side, ensures it doesn't get caught up. 

On the two day shoot, I had the head successfully doing 4x 360 in a continuous row 1440.  I'd say this is probably the max you can do, without getting tangled up with the cable.   Our shoot didn't need this many, but good to know it's possible.  

For one scene, I had the camera gliding over a low table approx 2ft (60cm) into a living room set, then up to a lady sitting on a couch and at a certain point in her action hit the button to rotate the camera.  You can set the Trinity2 to rotate clock or counter clockwise all from the MDR (control unit).  I saved the speed and degrees so I could rotate into the next scene and so on.  

It was a fun time and fortunately all worked smoothly!  

If you have a shoot where you want to rotate the camera, please get in touch harvey@panup.io