Capturing the Gumball 3000 Rally 2011 with an iPhone4

Bob Pank#

Author: Bob Pank#

Published 1st November 2011


Sons of Oscar nominated Director - Mike Figgis, Arlen and Louis Figgis, were tasked this year with following and recording the Gumball 3000 Rally. The Gumball 3000 is an annual 3,000-mile (4,800 km) international road rally which takes place over 8 days on public roads, with a different route around the world each year. Founded in 1999 by Maximillion Cooper, it sees an annual entry of 120 cars, which are mostly exotic and powerful sports cars. However, more unusual entries (such as police cars and camper-vans,) have been seen. The Rally is not a serious race in the traditional sense of Rally races (it is often compared to the Cannonball Run) and there are no prizes for being fastest or official timekeeping of any sort. Organizers emphasize that it is a road trip adventure and not a race, London to Istanbul, 8 days, 8 countries, driving 3000 miles, an adventure of a lifetime!
Due to the nature of shooting a car Rally, Arlen and Louis needed something highly portable that would get great quality results but was lightweight and quick to deploy to ensure they never missed a great shot. They chose the ‘OWLE/Rotolight’ HD Video Kit for iPhone 4' which was perfect for this project and effectively turned their iPhone into a high quality HD Camera, allowing them to shoot, edit and upload on the go. This kit includes the solid Aluminium OWLE housing for iPhone 4 which eliminates hand Jitter, a 180 degree Microphone, a custom Wide-Angle and Macro lens, as well as a Rotolight RL48-B HD Ringlight, Stand and Beltpouch for the whole system. Additionally Arlen and Louis were able to connect a standard Broadcast ‘Reporters Dynamic Mic’ to the iPhone 4 by an special minijack to XLR adapter cable for great sounding interviews on the Rally.
The kit allowed Arlen and Louis to capture significantly enhanced HD 720p on the IPhone 4, allowing better colour saturation, contrast and sharpness, as well as crystal clear audio and effectively Shoot, Edit (in iMovie for iPhone4) and Upload on the go, so fans of the Rally could keep up with the latest news, and publish content real time before other broadcasters and news organisations shooting with traditional ENG cameras even had time to get back to the office or download and edit the rushes from the day!
When using the OWLE Kit for Iphone 4 it is also possible to purchase an EnCinema DSLR lens adapter which incredibly allows Canon or Nikon DSLR lenses to be used with the Iphone, giving full control over both depth of field, aperture, and Focus. Indeed famous Korean film-maker Park Chan-Wook recently directed the first cinematically released $150,000 budget movie ‘Night Fishing’ entirely shot using the Iphone4, OWLE kit and Encinema lens adapter to critical acclaim!
Commenting on their experience on the Gumball Rally, Louis said "We got some amazing footage and stunning stills on the OWLE kits (the Rotolights were also a fantastic bit of kit) ... EVERYWHERE we went we had people sidling up to us asking what we were shooting on, their absolute amazement when we explained it was an iPhone ‘kit’ followed by the inevitable “How much and where can I get one” or “will you sell me yours”!!!
We also had a fair few of the celebs and participants trying them out and even managed to grab a couple of snaps of them doing so!
I know Arlen also found the Rotolight invaluable clamped to his Canon 5D (See the attached pics of Dainton from 'Dirty Sanchez' on a yacht in Monaco and the David Guetta / Gumball party in Barcelona) it really allowed us to go anywhere, in any light condition, to film".
Arlen and Louis intend to use the Rotolight HD Video Kit on another supercar rally shoot, The 'ecurie 25 supercar club' , (Ecurie rent a plethora of exotic cars (Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches, Astons etc) where they will be filming/blogging a road rally of their best cars thru the stunning Scottish countryside over three days.
Louis continues "..our dad Mike Figgis (twice Oscar nominated for Leaving Las Vegas and very much the digital film guru!) is very interested in the Owle kits too.
He was following my twitter feed on the rally and was extremely interested to find out what I had been shooting on and is very eager to get his hands on a kit to play around with "
Rotolight have recently re-released an enhanced edition of their classic ringlight, the RL48-B, which is now 25% brighter and features a host of other updates.
The OWLE HD Video Kit for Iphone 4 is available for £275inc from www.iworld.co.uk , www.solutions-inc.co.uk and www.amazon.com
For more information go to www.rotolight.com, www.owlebubo.com , www.gumball3000.com or call Appleworld Distribution on 01753 422 7444

The fee is £25,000 per car (two people), for a full-on week of partying, high jinks and adrenaline fuelled adventure! The fee includes hotels each night, food, parties and checkpoints on route.

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