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How to film in an airplane?

AndreasOberg

AndreasOberg

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I got invited to shot an Avro Lancaster, a bomber from the second world war.
Only 2 of them in the world can apparently fly, so this is of course a fantastic opportunity.

Now, I never shot in an airplane before so this is a bit new to me. Any tips on
- what equipment would be best
- how many cameras to use
- other films that did this good that I can look for inspiration.

My equipment:
Cameras
- Epic, 5D, GoPro
- Lenses. Canons ones. Probably 11-16 for cockpit, 24-105 for all round, 70-200 (140-400) for outside shots in the air, maybe 100mm macro for detail shots. Red primes stay at home.
- Tripod. Sachtler Video 20 S1. This is HEAVY so not sure I can bring it.

My crew
- Arrg. They could only pay for ONE ticket to Canada. This is my biggest concern. Some solutions:
-- hire a local in Toronto to help. Budget is small, any advice would be great.
-- Buying a very lightweight tripod.

All in all I'm worried about having 3 cameras at the same time, heavy tripods, bags and just one person. We are talking 40kg of equipment.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

This is a nice movie from BBC, but they use helicopters a lot which I don't have access to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4wM0iLymz4
/Andreas
 
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Not sure what kind of footage you're after, perhaps air-2-air, aerials or just inside the plane…


But in general I can think of a few tricks
- detach everything from your cam that you don't need
- shoot at a higher framerate like 50/60 in the highest res possible
- for better stab in post you could use a 90 degree shutter or even faster like 45
- attach the GoPro to one of the cockpit windows facing forward out, gives nice images during landing/take-off or cloud surfing, and run/stop it with the GoPro iPhone app
- a second GoPro towards the crew is nice
- you could try a monopod instead of the heavy tripod
- you could hire a kenyon gyro
- take earplugs with you


Good luck, should be fun!
 
^all good suggestions. sometimes i'll overcrank just to 30 (for 24). make sure you at least try image stabilization on the lens - can realllllly help sometimes (or go crazy with certain vibration frequencies) but be careful about flares or anything in the foreground. you may have to get creative if you're going to be hanging out the window. i'd maybe think about mounting a gopro on the bottom of the aircraft if possible (maybe tucked behind a wheel?) either pointing straight down like a bombadier view or maybe just tilted fore/back.

and of course, always be extra cautious especially around windows or anything open air - nothing loose. don't disturb the pilots too much or ask them to do anything out of their comfort zone. never ever press any red buttons... have fun :)
 
If you are about getting limited time to document the airplane..
try to shoot as much stuff as possible inside it while on the ground..
It's a pretty narrow aircraft, so I think the 11-16 is going to be your go to lens for stuff inside the plane..
pretend you are inside a small car....
as it's a tailwheel equipped plane, and will be tilted nose up while on the ground, you won't have a straight horizon while you do this..
perhaps a slider would be useful to you, set on some apple boxes, instead of a tripod...

I can not emphasize too much how narrow the interior will be (tail gun position looks like 1.2 meters wide to me)
can you get a jib on the tarmac to get some close up exteriors while still on the ground?

It won't be exactly like trying to find your shot in a submarine.. but it'll be close..
small LED brick lights may help you..

Macro 50mm or 60mm in addition to your 100mm may help also..

Now, the end of the wikipedia article describes the layout and pathway through the plane...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster
 
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Hey Andreas I'm sure that there are any number of us local Toronto guys who would drive down to Hamilton to give you a hand - some of us, might even do it for a free lunch.
 
Hi guys!
Thanks so much for the feedback!

I don't know so much about the shoot yet. Its an audio recording company that are recording their engines so they may not think visually so much. As far as I understand there will only be 1 airplane, and I can probably not connect a GoPro outside since its too risky. I'm not completely sure that I will film in the plane while they fly, the audio guys will not go with them. However it seems like the biggest waste to not bring the Epic up in the air! Of course I do wish I had a solid b camera for shooting while the plane is in the air. I'm not sure they will fly up twice. Phew, so many questions. Also it would be great to know what time the shoot is, in the sunrise would be perfect or sunset.

Some thoughts
- I agree about the 11-16 I think that will be the lens I use in the plane. Maybe have a macro with me as well.
- I have no idea what to do regarding tripods in the plane. My first thought would be to do it hand held, but maybe that is not good enough.
- A small light in the plane is great. I got some smaller led pannels from FV Light.
- I always have problems with batteries with GoPro. How do you guys solve this? Just keep switching them?

Glen that is a wonderful idea. Would be so much fun to meet up with some other Red guys and of course what an opportunity to see this wonderful plane!
I will talk to the production what they can do with helpers and if they can help out at least with a minimal budget. Otherwise I may cover it myself. :)

Best
/Andreas
 
What a bonus. The passions of envy and jealousy are aroused.

If you go airborne, either in the Lancaster itself or a camera aircraft, it is unlikely you may be in a situation where you are not looking through Perspex windows. There are two issues with transparency material in heritage aircraft.

Firstly, you need to respect the effort and expense involved in the restoration, in particular, the remaking of the window transparencies.

You may find yourself wanting to move your camera lens as close to the window as possible. This will inevitably bump your lens and other fittings against the transparency and injure its finish because it is not hard like glass.

Try to pad the corners and edges likely to contact and scratch the aircraft. This might be as simple as a few layers of gaffer tape around the rim of the lens and on camera-body corners or edges.

Secondly, in a full canopy cockpit like the Lancaster, internal reflections may abound to haze your shots of the engines, nearby formating aircraft or the ground. This may be probably not such a big heartbreak as you will likely be more interested in what happens inside.

You can't do it all on your own so you need to decide what you want and plan for it.

A polariser may be helpful for through-the-window shots of engines starting and strobing prop blades in flight. A cool shot is through two sets of blades whilst the pilot synchronises the engines after a power setting. My guess is you may not be allowed anywhere near the flight deck until the aircraft is in cruise and trimmed for stable level flight.

With altitude, the colour temp of the ambient light may trend towards more blue.

You will want intelligible sound of those remarkable engines. They are very noisy. If you can bracket levels across several channels of one of more small digital sound recorders try to do so. Offer the crew the courtesy of a check well beforehand with the audio recorders and the camera operating to be assured there will be no RF interference to cause any problems.

Audio recording of intercom and radio voice traffic is nice to have if you can get it. Maybe the flight crew logs all their intercom and radio traffic to their own recorder. Maybe ask if they do so and if you can have access to their recording. You might be able to patch a small recorder into a headphone port however I would not count in it being made available for audio recording purposes. In a less critical circumstance on an entirely different airborne camera exercise, I was lucky that the comms headset had separate mic and headphone sockets. I was able to patch the intercom headphone through my camera recorder via a mixer recorder and kept the mic direct into the comms system. Do not relay upon this source for engine and airbourne ambience. The modern comms systems have noise reduction which works really well. Audio via a noise-reducto0n comms system will likely have most of the lower and midrange audio frequencies attenutated and the upper mid to higher range emphasised.

Take notice of those who know better than I on these things.


Here are some of the coolest airbourne clips on the planet. You have likely seen them already but a reminder can't hurt.
　


　


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXnVQftvIBA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJsZlYIrZY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfQQWOsoB8
 
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Hiya,
Thanks for all the information Hart!
The gaffa tejp is an excellent idea.
Just to be clear. We have a gazzilion sound recorders there, 3 audio recorders so I'm only there to capture video. Of course would always be nice to get a bit of audio I think I will put my simpler microphones on but with 3 cameras I will be bussy I'm sure. Great videos!
/Andreas
 
AndreasOberg said:
I have no idea what to do regarding tripods in the plane. My first thought would be to do it hand held, but maybe that is not good enough.
Click to expand...

i'm thinking bring the tripod along, but you're likely going to have a lot of vibration and your body is best at absorbing that, so handheld/shoulder with a gyro or two if you can get it or as i mentioned earlier, some lens stabilization (if it works ok) and a shutter somehwere above 1/100 for post stabilization - you'd be amazed at what you can stabilize as long as you get a clean capture, then you can usually go in and add motion blur with something like reelsmart or even what's built in to some apps. another thing you might be able to do is wrap the camera rig in some bungies and hang it from the ceiling (2 or 4 points) to take some of the weight and absorb high frequency vibes. and the best thing you can do is contact the pilots, they tend to have good ideas if you only ask...
 
If you go airborne in the Lancaster, I expect it may be a fairly smooth ride. To conserve the airframe from un-necessary stresses of turbulence, they may fly in the early to mid morning.

I cant speak for hand-holding the Epic. It seems to be about the same mass as an old Bolex film camera with a heavy lens and a 400ft mag on top. For hand-holding a Sony Z1 or EX1 in a small aircraft, I adopt an unusual and slightly awkward grip. I am left-handed so it is easier for me.

The heel of the palm of my right hand goes heelfirst under the base and rear of the camera. My fingers grip the rear camera body. On the Z1 I use right-hand littlest ( pinky ) finger for the "run" button. It is harder with the EX1 with the "run" button set forward more. There is an alternative run button on top of the camera I then use.

The heel of my left hand rests on top and on the upper front of the camera with my fingers forward to work the lens control rings from the top, one finger for the zoom, one for the focus. My fingers are used more in a fanning motion across the top of the lens control rings rather than rotating the control rings two-fingered from the side. I pivot my hand on the heel of the palm. I will sometimes use my left index finger to set off the upper "run" button.

It is all a dumb awkward position except for one thing. The position of your wrists, elbows and arms will look like and work like the iso-elastic arm of a steadycam if you hold the camera out from your body about10 inches or 250mm. Any lumps in the air which jolt the camera will only cause an up and down movement with a lot less tilt. If you develop a technique of allowing your hands to float a little with the camera weight, you can make it quite smooth. If you are right-handed, I guess you could swap hands.

If you have polaroid sunglasses, these may help you see your touch monitor screen which may be hard to see in the hard light you will encounter. I find it easier and smoother to use the on-camera monitor rather than an eyepiece. An eyepiece anchors the rear or side of the camera to your eyesocket. Then, unwanted rolls or tilts accompany any uncommanded movements of the camera caused by motion of the aircraft.

I don't like eyepieces in an aircraft for a sudden bump may punch your eye into the back of your head.

Avoid bracing your hands holding the camera or the camera itself to the airframe, even with a pad or a cushion. I think from vague recollection the audio frequency of the three propeller blades may be about 60Hz in climb and about 40Hz in cruise. This may cause a rolling shutter artifact if you brace firmly to the airframe instead of floating the camera.

The exhausts on the engines are very noisy. Bracing the camera to the airframe between the fuselage midsection to flight deck may cause a closely banded horizontal rolling shutter artifact.

Practice my handholding method beforehand. It may not suit you or the Epic camera. I think the camera will be heavy enough to have its own natural inertia when hand-held.

I think your wide zoom lens is a good choice. The Epic sensor is cruelly fast compared to film. It is likely to be fairly bright up there, even with overcast. My personal preference would be to have a small ND.3 or ND.6 filter screwed into the end of the lens to avoid the diffraction zone of the higher numbered aperture (Iris ) settings.

Where you are, the angle of the sun will be lower to the horizon compared to the strong more direct overhead light we experience here. So you may not want the ND filter. My sense is that you may prefer to have at least an ND.3.

If you fly out over the lakes like in the youtube clips and there is a breeze at groundlevel, if you fire off a shot looking down, you may see in your monitor what you interpret as a moire artifact. It will likely be a repeating wave pattern in the water interacting with the pixel rows in your monitor. I thought I had a problem when shooting this clip but the vision itself was okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCIFj1NVR08

I was using a single KS8 gyro. Some of the vision was shot with the Sigma lens at 400mm which is quite ridiculous when using a Super16mm sensor camera. (SI2K). My follows were a bit faster than a gyro likes. It will fight you if you attempt follows of more than about 15 degrees per second. I would not use a gyro on your mission. It is one more battery and two power cords to manage plus extra bulk and weight.

Depending on where they sit you for the take-off, you may have to climb over the main spar to get forward to the cockpit. You may need to be as compact and as agile as you can be to negotiate over it.

As I mentioned above, envy and jealousy. Enjoy your adventure. We have a Lancaster over here in the RAAFA museum in Bullcreek near Perth. There is also one in the War Memorial Museum in Canberra. There was some talk a while back of selling the Bullcreek example for a third airworthy restoration but it was not a popular notion. Like your Canadian example, the Bullcreek aircraft served in a maritime role - for France. It was ferried to Perth from Mauritius as I vaguely recall.
 
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Hi guys!
It seems that the production company has not quite looked into the rules that Canada has. As a camera person hired by a Swedish company filming the Lancaster in Canada. Do I need a work permit?
I do realize I need a carnet, but do I also need a permit to film there. From what I understand that would take month to get so it wouldnt be possible to get in time. If so there may be a job up for grabs for some local talents :)

Any help would be appreciated!
/Andreas
 
To the letter of the law - Yes you would need a permit to work as a camera operator to work in Canada. I used to be the head of production at a Toronto commercial production house, and we would have to permit any D.O.P.'s that we would bring in from the U.S. or elsewhere. Even if the job originated outside of Canada, & was being paid for by a foreign company.

Loophole was to hire a dbl crew, and the foreign D.O.P. was just a 'Consultant'. Harder for you to get around if you arrive with gear in your bag.
 
Thanks a lot for the help Glen!
But is this also the case if the work is done for an Europan company? From what I can see if you work for any Canadian company you will need a permit for sure, but I found a page on the Canadian Embassy that said that if you are a foreign news agent or film crew you do not need a permit. However Im a bit unsure if this only applies for news camera operators.

This is what I read on the CiC
News reporters, film and media crews
An employee of a foreign news company does not need a work permit to report on events in Canada. This applies to:
  • news reporters and their crews.
  • film or media crews who are not entering the Canadian labour market.
Andreas
 
AndreasOberg said:
Thanks a lot for the help Glen!
But is this also the case if the work is done for an Europan company? From what I can see if you work for any Canadian company you will need a permit for sure, but I found a page on the Canadian Embassy that said that if you are a foreign news agent or film crew you do not need a permit. However Im a bit unsure if this only applies for news camera operators.

Andreas
Click to expand...

That is aimed at news crews, I mean you can take a chance... Best is to call the Canadian embassy / consulate in Stockholm, explain and see what they say. Since you're coming in alone, and essentially working alone you may get a pass.
 
This might be completely stupid, but is it considered private property? It's not like you're shutting down public spaces or that you're bringing in a huge non-Canadian crew (where a Canadian crew could otherwise do it)… You're not being paid by a Canadian company, so it's not like they could tax you anyway. No money is exchanging hands and you're not exactly taking work from someone else.

CONVERSELY, if you can only get access to something that is in Canada (like Niagara Falls or the Canadian Rockies, etc.), it should actually make getting a work permit much easier (or might negate it altogether).

On second thought, definitely talk to the embassy. I've been told saying you're "a consultant" (or "tech support" surprisingly) is a red-flag with customs officers, since it's fairly vague/broad.
 
Mike P. said:
This might be completely stupid, but is it considered private property? It's not like you're shutting down public spaces or that you're bringing in a huge non-Canadian crew (where a Canadian crew could otherwise do it)… You're not being paid by a Canadian company, so it's not like they could tax you anyway. No money is exchanging hands and you're not exactly taking work from someone else.

CONVERSELY, if you can only get access to something that is in Canada (like Niagara Falls or the Canadian Rockies, etc.), it should actually make getting a work permit much easier (or might negate it altogether).

On second thought, definitely talk to the embassy. I've been told saying you're "a consultant" (or "tech support" surprisingly) is a red-flag with customs officers, since it's fairly vague/broad.
Click to expand...

Sorry Mike... But as someone who has filled out the paperwork for countless Directors. D.O.P.'s, and other crew members - none of your points are fully valid.
 
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