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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Helicopter pics...

Wait... Does this mean that Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine are finally getting that oft-rumored new album finished?? That would be awesome!

EDIT: Oops. Never mind. Guess My Bloody Valentine 3D is not the shoegaze-rock followup to last years U2-3D concert film... My bad.
 
Offhollywood said:
Here's some snaps from the US 2nd Unit of Knowing - AMAZING footage.
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There's the photos, was waiting for them to pop up. That was a fun shoot, I was skeptical at first but on the 3 jobs I've done now I've loved working with the Red.
 
The lens was a Optimo 15-40 with a doubler. The only ND's around at the time were straight ND's. I was on main unit at the time but I believe Richie and Sean ran either a ND.6 or ND.(Perhaps Richie could confirm!?)

To OpalFilm ,the Preston remote focus was supplied by CineFocus New Zealand as it had all the necessary RED cables. Dion Hartley sorted out the logistics of the aerial shoot (monitors, cable looms etc) and the Preston was hardwired into this loom for extra insurance! All aspects of lens were controlled (Focus, Iris and Zoom) from inside the helicopter....
 
Big T said:
Yep The pilot was Alphie Speight, He's one of the best Heli film pilots in NZ.
Steady Eddie we call him.

We used the same Libra 5 head that's based out of Queenstown NZ with our RED about a week after Peter used it for Lovely Bones.
It worked a treat! We got some great pics from it.
Only problem was we had 2 operators driving the LIBRA, one to level the LIBRA the other to operate the wheels for pan and tilt. (I heard they are sorting this out very very soon so to have auto horizon correction.

Still it's not as steady as Spacecam or the CINEFLEX unit and you could not really shoot anything over say 100mm without a little bit of wobble, but still a good cheap alternative with a RED in it.
For most shots you do, the Heli mounted LIBRA it's very very good. I'd recommended it for any wide/ mid lens shooting.

Note: SPACECAM with RED in it is the best Heli platform out there with a RED in it, CINEFLEX HD is the best most stable heli mount in the world today. It's like a tripod in the sky! You can shoot 2000mm rock solid!, it's like magic. Blew me away when we first used it, yet still it's 2/3 inche chip HD video camera. Still awesome pics though.
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- don't forget the HD Gyron; just as stable as the Cineflex, but unlike the Cineflex you can, in principle, fit any similar sized camera in it...
 
Big T said:
Only problem was we had 2 operators driving the LIBRA, one to level the LIBRA the other to operate the wheels for pan and tilt. (I heard they are sorting this out very very soon so to have auto horizon correction.

Still it's not as steady as Spacecam or the CINEFLEX unit and you could not really shoot anything over say 100mm without a little bit of wobble, but still a good cheap alternative with a RED in it.
For most shots you do, the Heli mounted LIBRA it's very very good. I'd recommended it for any wide/ mid lens shooting.
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We fly with the Libra in Europe several times per month, and have just recently flown with the Red One, on a Jetranger at 2800 meters. As for needing to people to operate it, this is mostly resolved. Typically we fly with the Libra operator and a Director. Also with the Jetranger you can shoot longer focal lengths than with the A-star.
 
Libra_Unlimited said:
Also with the Jetranger you can shoot longer focal lengths than with the A-star.
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Curious on this.. back when there used to be Jet Rangers in NZ we always chose the A-Stars.
A - Star is generally much smoother with the 3 blade main rotor in my opinion.
I guess depending how you configure your mount the hard points around the nose landing light could help with extra rigidity. Seen some vibration from nose mounts on the A-Stars that were not built to the hard points behind the belly pan and also mounts that were not ultra solid construction from those points forward.
 
The A-star is a 3 bladed helicopter, using a semi-rigid rotor system. This transfers more vibration into the structure than a 2 bladed rotor system. Granted, by nature more blades are smoother, but it also depends how those blades are attached. Eurocopter uses 2 anti-vibration "hammers" under the cabin floor of the helicopter, to make it feel smoother. These hammers can sometimes be out of adjustment, which leads to a rougher helicopter. The A-stars can also vary widely in how smooth they are from one helicopter to another. The Jetranger on the other hand has less variation from one to another. A properly tracked and balanced Jetranger can be very smooth. The Jetranger is also easier to track and balance, so you also have a greater chance that the company will actually do it, when you ask them to track and balance before you shoot with it.
 
The A star does not have a rigid head. The elastomeric bearings in the rotor heads are hinges. The Eurocopter BO105 Bolkow does have a rigid head and will rattle your fillings. The benefit is that it can do aerobatic maneuvers!

Both AS350 (A Star) and Bell 206 Jet ranger have semi rigid heads.

As I understand it, nose mount a Libra on a A star and it interferes with those very hammers that are designed to reduce vibration!

As the libra does not have any means of protecting the camera from aerodynamic forces its stability gets progressively worse as speed increases above 40 knots. Wescam, Spacecam Cineflex Gyron HD have a mechanically isolated (some better isolated then others) outer case that protects the camera from aerodynamic forces, thus allowing both the stability software and hardware to be fine tuned to reduce high frequency vibration.


Yes some helicopter camera brackets are not rigid, they are designed that way, I commissioned a A star nose mount bracket for the cineflex and other gimbals and moving parts was a critical part of the design.
Would love to put a libra on it but it would have to shed a few pounds.

Evaluating effects of high frequency vibration on the image should be done at the delivery resolution.
Beware, some people expect zero on screen vibration, RED's superior resolution demands very careful attention for the aerial cameraman to find and limit the exposure of the camera to the effects of high frequency vibration.

For instance, high frequency vibration that is not visible on a 720 line monitor can be a show stopper when viewed on a 1080 line monitor.




Mike Brennan
 
When the Libra is mounted it does not interfere with the hammers. It mounts to the helicopter the same as the tyler nose mount, and Spacecam. The Spacecam and Wescam systems are primarily stabilized through the use of spinning mass. These systems require protection from wind since they do not have the power to overcome it. The Stab-c / Gyron uses motors for stabilization, but due to their low torque, also require protection from wind. The Libra uses high torque motors, which allows it to fly without a housing. The motors have enough torque for shooting at high speeds with most cameras. Only on some extremely large cameras does the wind resistance prove to be a problem. We have routinely flown aerial shots in excess of 100 knots. Due to the size and weight of the Red One, it is ideal for flying with the Libra, and could be flown to VNE on the helicopter.

If you are interested in flying the Red One on the Libra, please let me know and we could arrange something. One of the other advantages that we offer is that we do not restrict the camera operating to a "company" operator. Any camera operator or DP who is experienced with handwheels or joystick is welcome to operate the Libra for aerial shooting.
 
Libra_Unlimited said:
When the Libra is mounted it does not interfere with the hammers. It mounts to the helicopter the same as the tyler nose mount, and Spacecam. The Spacecam and Wescam systems are primarily stabilized through the use of spinning mass. These systems require protection from wind since they do not have the power to overcome it. The Stab-c / Gyron uses motors for stabilization, but due to their low torque, also require protection from wind. The Libra uses high torque motors, which allows it to fly without a housing. The motors have enough torque for shooting at high speeds with most cameras. Only on some extremely large cameras does the wind resistance prove to be a problem. We have routinely flown aerial shots in excess of 100 knots. Due to the size and weight of the Red One, it is ideal for flying with the Libra, and could be flown to VNE on the helicopter.

If you are interested in flying the Red One on the Libra, please let me know and we could arrange something. One of the other advantages that we offer is that we do not restrict the camera operating to a "company" operator. Any camera operator or DP who is experienced with handwheels or joystick is welcome to operate the Libra for aerial shooting.
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Hi Libra unlimited, Can you send me a private chat, I want to know were your based and also your contact details etc. We do a lot of heli work using all sorts of heads. Libra is my preferred on the ground and we have just finished a shoot in the AIR with it as well. But I would like to keep my contact base up.
thanks
Thanks.
 
helicopter warning

helicopter warning

Hey this may be redundant, but DO NOT SHOOT TO THE DRIVE ON A HELICOPTER. We tested the rig on the gyro stabilizer before going up and we had skipped frames. Long story short we had to ground the shoot for a couple hours to locate a bunch of red cards. Bottom line: if you shoot to the drive on anything with vibration you're risking your footage being NG. Just a heads up, go solid state:)
 
We have done aerial shooting with the Red One, on the Libra, and did not have a problem with dropped frames. When the Libra stabilization is on, the Red One did not drop frames, when off, it would occasionally drop frames. We will be building an isolated drive mount for the Red One as well.
 
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