Aerial advice!

[Duane Shrode]

Shooting aerials from a helicopter for the first time, doors off, with a ronin and scarlet mx. Curious to hear any pro-tips/advice from people that have done this before?

 

[Matthew Quinn]

Be safe

 

[Domenic Barbero]

i like the 24-105 lens with IS for copter/movi/ronin use.

 

[Philip Lanyon]

I tried this with an M15 a few weeks ago. It's better than hand held but it's not a perfect solution.
You will need to use the remote with an operator for camera and one man to hold the gimbal. If you use it in majestic mode it will not know what to do as the movement of the chopper effects the imu a great deal. You also need to start the ronin on the ground and don't turn it off for the flight. It needs to start in a static position.
Other than that, keep it out of the wind(ask the pilot to do fly slightly sideways to buffer it) and have fun

 

[e perez]

Some general helicopter aerial tips: Dress warmly, watch any loose gear (when banking you could be at 90 degrees out the open side), try to orient yourself geographically (ie. know which way is north, east, etc.), so you can communicate where you want to go to the pilot. Use terms like "orbit", and "crab" to direct the pilot.

 

[Michael J Brennan]

There is significant tech info on previous threads.
It is the most hazardous activity for cameramen.
We lose a few every year.
The majority are avoidable accidents bought on by poor oversight of flight planning by helicopter company and the production team not understanding how their demands can affect flight saftey.
Surprisingly the pilot can get himself into a pickle following your input.
Glamour of movies and keenness to get the shot effects the judgement of even highly experienced pilots.

Doors off filming accounts for more death and serious injury compared to using nose mounted gimbals. This is to do with both choice of helicopter and flight limitations.

Looking at accidents for past 15 years, with doors off if there is any kind of emergency landing or crash you have a 30% chance of being killed.
You probably wont be wearing a helmet or nomex. You may have rigged camera kit that interferes with safe egress. You may have asked pilot to crab so you can get a forward looking shot, you are probably in a helicopter chosen on price rather than a level of performance with a good saftey margin. You probably havent vetted the helicopter company to ensure the flight planning is overseen by a manager.
You may be seated next to pilot which adds the risk of camera equipment fouling flight controls.

When using a gimbal much of the above is avoided as generally larger helicopters are used, rigging engineers and management oversight are the default.

Doors off requires greater handling skill by pilot as he has to orientate you to the subject indpite of wind and more sympathetic planning by production as to the limitations and parameters of going hand held.

Shooting at 60p so you can fly lower is one tip that makes for both better pictures and safer flight.

Mike Brennan

 

[Nick Gardner]

Unless you are flying really high, or really fast, I can't see what a drone couldn't do for you. Probably not that much different in cost, a lot safer. Just a thought.

Nick

 

[Duane Shrode]

It's sweeping shots of a major city... drone's not an option for this one.

 

[Duane Shrode]

There is significant tech info on previous threads.
It is the most hazardous activity for cameramen.
We lose a few every year.
The majority are avoidable accidents bought on by poor oversight of flight planning by helicopter company and the production team not understanding how their demands can affect flight saftey.
Surprisingly the pilot can get himself into a pickle following your input.
Glamour of movies and keenness to get the shot effects the judgement of even highly experienced pilots.

Doors off filming accounts for more death and serious injury compared to using nose mounted gimbals. This is to do with both choice of helicopter and flight limitations.

Looking at accidents for past 15 years, with doors off if there is any kind of emergency landing or crash you have a 30% chance of being killed.
You probably wont be wearing a helmet or nomex. You may have rigged camera kit that interferes with safe egress. You may have asked pilot to crab so you can get a forward looking shot, you are probably in a helicopter chosen on price rather than a level of performance with a good saftey margin. You probably havent vetted the helicopter company to ensure the flight planning is overseen by a manager.
You may be seated next to pilot which adds the risk of camera equipment fouling flight controls.

When using a gimbal much of the above is avoided as generally larger helicopters are used, rigging engineers and management oversight are the default.

Doors off requires greater handling skill by pilot as he has to orientate you to the subject indpite of wind and more sympathetic planning by production as to the limitations and parameters of going hand held.

Shooting at 60p so you can fly lower is one tip that makes for both better pictures and safer flight.

Mike Brennan

Thanks (i think). I'm actually quite familiar with operating out of a chopper, but shooting 5.56 mm doesn't translate well to .r3d (see what I did there =)).
Looking more for lens considerations, Ronin-specific foibles, etc. ... as it might relate to aerial work.

 

[Scot Yount]

I just did this a few days ago with the exact setup you describe. A scarlet MX and a Ronin and doors off. I used a RED Pro 17-50 lens set at 17mm. I shot at T8 and T11 to give myself a lot of leeway on focus. Also, the kind of chopper matters a lot. I was in a Robinson R44 and the door way is very tight. The Ronin handles barely fit. I had a a safety strap on the Ronin and a locking carabiner which I anchored to the pilot's seat. They also made me shoot out of the right side of the bird because they didn't want any chance of anything I goofed up getting into the tail rotor. That put us off balance and so we couldn't really crab I was told. I brought bungee cords to hang the Ronin but the chopper didn't have anything on the ceiling for me to attach the thing to. So I had to handhold the entire time. If you get the thing even slightly out the door and it gets hit with the wind blast, it will have a nervous breakdown. I didn't have any other operators to run anything (we were at a our weight limit) so I had to do it all in what Movi calls majestic mode. I didn't get very usable stuff because once the Ronin had a breakdown, I couldn't get it to act properly. I got lots of nice shots of my elbows though. My Ronin hasn't worked right since btw. I do think you can get great stuff if you have time to set everything up right. In my quest for information, I found that a company in california uses a Ronin setup out the door with a framework they built so that one person can operate the camera and the Ronin. Check it out.
http://orbicair.com/i-22090333-ronin-side-mount-aerial-production.html

 

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

Nice rig Scot.....

 

[Mark Toia]

I haven't shot out the side of a helicopter for many years, I always use Gryo stabilised ball cams these days,

However, I've done hundreds of hours just hanging out the door with 35mm cameras with I'm sure using and EPIC will be alot easy...

Fast way to get a good shot was to anchor a CINE SADDLE onto your lap, Attached it securely to your body so it does fly away, If it does and flies through the rear rotar.. your dead.
Hang both legs out and place both on the skids. Having one leg in, one leg out makes you wobble on your arse to much.
Shooting hand held or shoulder mounted is a waste of time... to much shake.
Harness yourself and the camera in.
Make sure to use a high anchor point harness that holds the top part of you, so you don't feel like your toppling out the door. Set the length of the harness to your maximum lean out the door. So your can rest on it. Run two actor points so if one tether fails, you have a backup.
SAFTY FIRST !

Shoot from your lap. You'll have more angled range as this position And best for getting your camera far out the door by having the camera sitting on your knees in the saddle.

Dont attach a matt boxes or anything that will create windage as they will blow off... Use screw on filters if any at all.

Its a must that you know the helicopters blades are balanced an the heli your hiring has no shudder through out. As this will resinate through your body into your picture. You'll waste your time and money in this case. Swap choppers if this is the case.

If the heli is smooth and the pilot is smooth... you can shoot up to 50mm like this... And get very smooth shots. if your shooting at speeds 40knots and over... just slide back inside the heli abit to minimise wind buffeting on you and the camera.

Another trick is to shoot 75-120 frames per second.. this will get rid of alot of shake.

Shoot a ZOOM lens (during the day) frame 18 to 50mm... Anything longer is sort of a risk for shake. Changing Lenses in a helicopter can be annoying and dangerous. Dangerous for people on the ground... Annoying because of buffering, dust maybe, general fiddling around... Have a camera assistant in the heli to do it for you, hand the camera back to him to do the lens change.
Run V locks via a cable and put behind you, you don't need that falling off either during a change... If you are planing to run a VLOCK of the back of your camera, make sure it's fully charges, A full size RED Brick will last close to 3 Hours, Tape it to the camera secure the V lock release clip with tape, The last thing you need when hanging out the door is things getting loose or popping off.

Keep it simple and you'll maximise your every hour hired in the chopper.

Good luck, Have fun.

 

[Michael J Brennan]

re the R44rig, is it it FAA certified?


Hanging a camera from bungies is not always legal or prudent.
Using carabinas is a bad idea to secure a harness as you cant release them when they are under load.

It is not the first time whilst posting about helicopter saftey that a crash has occurred
Photographer pilot Richard Green his wife and film maker John Davis were killed on Saturday when Richards EC135 crashed in New South Wales.


Mike Brennan