DTLA - Down Night - 8K VV Aerial

[Phil Holland]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xKgDRMxow

Aloha. For the few that don't follow me on instagram, shared this 8K VV clip from a DTLA night run.

Just a few minute pass over the city. Best if watched in full screen in a dark room.

Enjoy.

 

[rand thompson]

Phil,

Beautiful, sharp, clean, smoothly stabilized, night footage. It appears like you would image a human flying without an aircraft at night would see L.A.


BTW,


Is that Weapon 8k VV Dragon or Monstro?

 

[Phil Holland]

Phil,

Beautiful, sharp, clean, smoothly stabilized, night footage. It appears like you would image a human flying without an aircraft at night would see L.A.

Love that description

No post stabilization here. In fact, in the last 5 or so years nearly all of my helicopter aerials have no stabilization. Can't say the same for drone work. Those little bad boys get knocked around a bit too easily unless you are on rather heavy duty gear.

 

[rand thompson]

Phil,

But it really does seem that way. So there was no stabilization devices or rigs used at all to get this footage "this" smooth!!

 

[Marc Wielage]

That's amazing footage, Phil. If you haven't started a stock footage business as a sideline, you should.

 

[Philip Lanyon]

It’s impressive to see all that mixed lighting and it all looks pleasing, nothing clipped or neon distracting. Like the eye would see it but softer colors. I find a lot of unnatural light these days, even sky panels, have a digital “bite” to them.

 

[Phil Holland]

That's amazing footage, Phil. If you haven't started a stock footage business as a sideline, you should.

I don't shoot stock, that market doesn't exactly sustain flying around the world in a helicopter a few times with state of the art gear. It's fairly vicious and lowball. But I do appreciate the notion.

Occasionally I'll license footage to a studio or something if I own the material, but it's rare. Did so on a recent project for Fox however.

Long form aerials are a rare and extremely special sort of shoot, which I'm grateful for. It's been much of what I've been doing for 4-5 years now. Outside of things like Aerial America, it's rare to see shots longer than 3-5 seconds. Sometimes longer for IMAX-esque projects. My longest shot to date is 45 minutes long, but it won't be released for a while. It's a hell of a take. Interestingly the timelapse aerial stuff I've done is also long in terms of flight time, usually in the 30 minute range for like 2-4 minutes of footage. That's an even harder sell to companies as you only get a take or four before you need to land and refuel!

Can't wait to show and shoot some more stuff with Monstro up there. The stuff we pulled off in NY in December is crazy pretty.

 

[Phil Holland]

It’s impressive to see all that mixed lighting and it all looks pleasing, nothing clipped or neon distracting. Like the eye would see it but softer colors. I find a lot of unnatural light these days, even sky panels, have a digital “bite” to them.

Thanks Philip! LA is getting pretty crazy with all the different types and temperatures of sources. It looks insanely different from above than it did 10 years ago. Like somebody spilled crayons all over the city

 

[David Coughlan]

Really soothing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Phil, you magnificent bastard. This is so, so good.

The music was appropriate, although usually I prefer ambient sound to music. Music is way overdone, and I don't know why Lucasfilm thinks that bringing back John Williams is going to sell one more ticket to the next SW film. But that's another thing entirely.

The modern blue headlight bulbs appear green here - or at least that's what I think is going on. Why would that be? As I have often said, I love mixed lighting, anyway.

I can imagine this under the opening credits of an IMAX feature.

No post stabilization here. In fact, in the last 5 or so years nearly all of my helicopter aerials have no stabilization.

So, no Wescam? That used to be used quite a bit back in the day, am I right?

 

[Phil Holland]

@karim

What you're seeing on the headlights is indeed the color grade. This isn't straight out of camera.

Wescam hasn't been a part of my life for a long time! Oddly when it was, only briefly. Most of what I've shot with in the bird the last few years has been with the Shotover F1 or K1 with a bit of Cineflex in there and a very little sprinkle of GSS. If you're real curious, the first time I shot aerials from the heli I was on the skids. Luckily, most of what I do is inside the cabin now.

 

[Jonas Rejman]

Very hypnotic.
Grandmasters at work.
Thank you!

 

[Björn Benckert]

Love that description

No post stabilization here. In fact, in the last 5 or so years nearly all of my helicopter aerials have no stabilization. Can't say the same for drone work. Those little bad boys get knocked around a bit too easily unless you are on rather heavy duty gear.

Looks good. But I disagree what you say about the little drones. They are super stable if you fly them right. I´m sure if the pilot of a DJI spark had as much practice as you copter pilot then things would be pretty straight as well.

But sure nice to have monstro picture quality up there.

Here is something I flew with my mavic. I´m not much of a drone pilot. This is in the beginning, like first month of flying. Getting my head around the constant speed features. To me to many drone pilots thinks they should "fly it with the sticks" To me thats wrong the gyros should do the work and then on top of that you give input, not a direct drive kind of approach. Doing so you get really smooth GPS / gyro driven accelerations and such which outperforms what can be done with a big copter and also something thats even difficult with the bigger drones as they got so much momentum, the speed can't simply be micro adjusted.


https://vimeo.com/250175059

The romour is that DJI will do a fixed wing drone. That gives considerable more flight time and sick stability, battery time and lift, If such takes the X7 Zenmuse then that will yet again be quite a game changer. It´s the only thing that makes me not buy a Inspire 2 at the moment.

 

[Ryan Williams]

If you're real curious, the first time I shot aerials from the heli I was on the skids. Luckily, most of what I do is inside the cabin now.

What? You don't trust us helo pilots?

 

[Thai Christen]

Looks good. But I disagree what you say about the little drones. They are super stable if you fly them right. I´m sure if the pilot of a DJI spark had as much practice as you copter pilot then things would be pretty straight as well.

But sure nice to have monstro picture quality up there.

Here is something I flew with my mavic. I´m not much of a drone pilot. This is in the beginning, like first month of flying. Getting my head around the constant speed features. To me to many drone pilots thinks they should "fly it with the sticks" To me thats wrong the gyros should do the work and then on top of that you give input, not a direct drive kind of approach. Doing so you get really smooth GPS / gyro driven accelerations and such which outperforms what can be done with a big copter and also something thats even difficult with the bigger drones as they got so much momentum, the speed can't simply be micro adjusted.


https://vimeo.com/250175059

I must disagree here.
Flyover shots at this pace is relatively easy and usually don‘t require any post stabilization.

Where it gets critical is when you have lots of wind and operate at high speed. Worse is when you fly against the wind, then your gimbal has to work much harder. With wind in your back, it is easier even if the wind is strong.
Next is which lens you are using. 50mm (S35) and wider is usually not an issue. However, 85mm and upward plus wind then you will start to see all the little bumps.

Concerning operating in GPS mode, as long as you have good GPS signal, no interference or strong magnetic field, or sun erruption, then you are fine. Otherwise, I would not recommend flying in GPS mode. 5 years ago my drone dropped from the sky like a rock - out of nothing. Later that day I found out that sun eruption was super strong with K value of over 6 which caused a shutdown of the GPS system of my drone (Wookong V2). Since that day, I swore never to fly in GPS mode again - ever.

So flying in GPS mode is like driving a car in auto modus with lane assistance and all that stuff. You think you are steering the car but in fact they are the sensors and electronics that do the job. If something is wrong with the electronics you must be able to take over control of your car.
Look at what happened to Tesla with the crashes.

 

[luigivaltulini]

WOWO FUCK PHIL AMAZING .. Great WORK my Friend

LOVE THIS .

 

[Björn Benckert]

I must disagree here.
Flyover shots at this pace is relatively easy and usually don‘t require any post stabilization.

Where it gets critical is when you have lots of wind and operate at high speed. Worse is when you fly against the wind, then your gimbal has to work much harder. With wind in your back, it is easier even if the wind is strong.
Next is which lens you are using. 50mm (S35) and wider is usually not an issue. However, 85mm and upward plus wind then you will start to see all the little bumps.

Concerning operating in GPS mode, as long as you have good GPS signal, no interference or strong magnetic field, or sun erruption, then you are fine. Otherwise, I would not recommend flying in GPS mode. 5 years ago my drone dropped from the sky like a rock - out of nothing. Later that day I found out that sun eruption was super strong with K value of over 6 which caused a shutdown of the GPS system of my drone (Wookong V2). Since that day, I swore never to fly in GPS mode again - ever.

So flying in GPS mode is like driving a car in auto modus with lane assistance and all that stuff. You think you are steering the car but in fact they are the sensors and electronics that do the job. If something is wrong with the electronics you must be able to take over control of your car.
Look at what happened to Tesla with the crashes.

Yes all auto things comes with a risk I guess. But its simply possible to keep flying on a more constant speed especially in wind if the accelormeters are in play. To pull the throttle and think you get constant speed is not really possible, with good GPS signal and good gyros it´s quite accurate.

Flying with long lenses is always a problem. GSS does it best I understand. I worked on this film where the GSS sits on a jet fighter plane with a long optimo where they zoomed fully in and still having perfect stability even though they moved at pretty much rocket speed with mad vibrations.... will take some time for the drones to do the same of course but crusing with a wide lens at relatively high altitude small drones does quite well.

https://vimeo.com/182070681

 

[Grzegorz Gill]

Slick Images, thanks for the share.

 

[Phil Holland]

Looks good. But I disagree what you say about the little drones. They are super stable if you fly them right.

Not saying little drones can't be smooth, they are just way more susceptible to interference from the wind than the heli. It's more of a mass thing.

What? You don't trust us helo pilots?

Oh no, I trust pilots with my life. I just don't like freezing my manbits off on the skids!

Flying with long lenses is always a problem.

Super long is indeed always a trick to get banging results, but at the long end of an Angie zoom is standard fair for aerial DPs. It's a very common lens as it provide a big range.

However, if we're talking like 6500mm, well there's only one system that does that well and is 6-axis to boot.

http://shotover.com/videos/f1_live

http://shotover.com/news/article/kabc_tv_unveils_state_of_the_art_air7hd_with_xtreme_vision_and_skymap7_powe


That's actually a tremendous accomplishment. Interestingly Shotover just won their first SciTech award this year for the K1. At the moment and for the last few years they've been the gold standard for cinema applications.

 

[Thai Christen]

Yes all auto things comes with a risk I guess. But its simply possible to keep flying on a more constant speed especially in wind if the accelormeters are in play. To pull the throttle and think you get constant speed is not really possible, with good GPS signal and good gyros it´s quite accurate.

Well, it is possible but requires a lot of practice.
A couple of months ago, I was commissioned to shoot various drone shots for a feature film (shot on Arri Mini and Zeiss Superspeed). For the opening scene of the feature I had to do a 90 sec dolly in at slow pace, flying about 1.5m above water surface into a tunnel under the bridge. There was no GPS signal and lots of magnetic interference from railway on the right. http://thaichristen.tumblr.com/post/166564418207/on-set-feature-film-beast/embed
http://thaichristen.tumblr.com/post/167089329328/flying-low-under-bridge-feature-film-beast/embed
There is no way one could have pulled this shot in GPS mode.

Flying with long lenses is always a problem. GSS does it best I understand. I worked on this film where the GSS sits on a jet fighter plane with a long optimo where they zoomed fully in and still having perfect stability even though they moved at pretty much rocket speed with mad vibrations.... will take some time for the drones to do the same of course but crusing with a wide lens at relatively high altitude small drones does quite well.

https://vimeo.com/182070681

Absolutely, nothing beats 6-axis gyro on a heli for wider aerial coverage.
However, for close up aerials drone is the better choice.