Filmmaking

Filmmaking is entering a new era, powered by the technology that's made video games some of the most compelling entertainment in recent history. It's not green-screen CGI as we know it, either – it's the creation of whole digitally projected sets.

Phone makers continue to cram better lenses and more cameras into their phones, and now app developers are catching up: a new app called DoubleTake from Filmic lets you record from multiple cameras at once on the latest iPhone handsets.

From long-awaited adaptions of classic sci-fi novels, to blockbuster original stories from some of our most creative modern visionaries, here are our picks for the most anticipated science fiction film and TV hitting screens in 2020.

Is high-frame-rate cinema a technological cul-de-sac, or is it a bracingly new visual aesthetic we just need to get used to?

​If you've ever wanted to copy the bullet-time effect made famous in The Matrix, where the camera appears to move around someone as they're frozen in action, then you might like the Wingo Pro. Taking a low-tech approach, it lets you swing your actioncam around your body.

Gudsen Moza has released a couple of new filmmaking tools at NAB 2019, including the interesting Slypod, which is effectively a motorized monopod that you can use as a precisely controlled camera slider. There's also a new AirCross 2 gimbal sized for mirrorless cameras.

Moza's latest DSLR-sized video gimbal is a big step forward from the cheap, lightweight Moza Air we reviewed back in 2017. But while it offers superior performance, and some cool new features and neat touches, it does require a couple of sacrifices from filmmakers.

360-degree VR footage needs to be super high resolution to let you look around a nicely detailed landscape, and now Insta360 has an all-in-one rig, the Titan, that gives 11k/30fps resolution using eight micro 4/3rds sensors and Flowstate stabilization.

​Moza's Mini-Mi is an affordable (US$109) smartphone stabilizing gimbal, letting you shoot cinematic steadicam-style shots. It's got a few tricks up its sleeve too, including wireless phone charging, hyperlapses, "inception mode" and some very cool but not-quite-there motion tracking capabilities.

Smartphones are literally all you need to make solid web video these days, it's just so valuable to have a HD camera with you at all times. And you can take it up a level with the Muwi, a cheap, pocket-sized, modular phone/camera slider capable of shooting powered motion timelapse shots.

Test-driving the Gladius underwater camera drone was awesome, and it made us wonder: what's the state of the art in these devices? That would appear to be the US$30,000 Boxfish ROV, a 55-lb pro video monster with eight vectored thrusters, 20,000 lumens of lighting, and a max dive depth of 3,280 ft.

​If you shoot a lot of handheld video of extreme outdoor activities, then it's possible that you use a motorized camera-stabilizing gimbal. Such devices, however, typically don't offer much protection to the camera – or to themselves. That's why the enclosed-design Arculus Onyx was created.