Ski porn videos tend聽to all look pretty similar, with sweeping views of big lines and face-shot close-ups.聽But a聽new聽, which professional Swiss freeskier聽聽shot聽by twirling聽an iPhone above his head, stands out. The edit is beautiful and rock solid, offering a full panorama of Vuignier聽as he skis through the fresh snow and a Swiss terrain park.聽聽聽聽
The trick, Vuignier says, was to find a way to keep the camera stable while also allowing it to freely swing around his body. So he set about creating聽a rig that would be as steady as a gimbal聽while orbiting聽a camera, at speed, around a rider. While he wouldn't disclose the details of the rig (he's waiting to patent the design), we do know that he held onto a set of wires and used a 3-D printer to create the device. We suspect centrifugal force helps keep the phone steady, while the camera seems to rotate on some kind of axis so the lens stays trained on Vuignier the entire time. He did say he went through聽six prototypes over the course of two years before arriving at the final model.聽聽
It was also a trick to figure out what kind of camera to use. The speed at which聽Vuignier spins the lens is part of what makes the聽video so fun to watch. And in聽order to capture crisp footage, he needed a full high-definition聽camera that shot at least 240 frames per second. One聽recording at 120 frames per second wouldn't cut it. So he turned to the聽iPhone 6, which has that high-speed capability and, as a bonus, is ubiquitous.聽“I knew if I could get something cool done with an iPhone, it would be even bigger because everybody has one of these,” he says.聽
As soon as the clip went live, hundreds of people looking to buy the DIY camera rig聽started messaging聽Vuignier. He said he plans to release聽open-source plans on the Internet eventually, but wants to keep a large company from stealing the idea. “I don't want somebody to do a product that costs $100,” he says.聽