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Red Epic and rig for shooting from helicopter - shoulder rig or handheld? Mövi 10?

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Eirik Nicolai Heim

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I have my first heli shoot in a couple of days. I need some tips on how I can get the best shoots with what I have.

I have a pretty good shoulder rig and a good handheld setup. I will maybe be able to lend a Movi 10, will that be good option?

The lenses I have that I think I will use are Canon 24-105 F4 or the newest Canon 16-35 mm F2.8.
Should I just stick to the 16-35mm?

Will it be a good idea to shoot at 90 degrees shutter for post-stabilisation?

I am a climber and have worked out with a very secure way to be secure when filming out of the door of the helicopter.
Security is no problem, have experienced people with me as well.

Something other that I should be thinking about?
 
I did a shoot recently which was a nightmare! They wanted me to shoot looking straight down, like a satellite kind of view, tight on the action. We looking into using a gyro but from what I understand, using a gyro is great for horizontal shots as the gyro will keep your camera level etc. When looking down, the gyro is going to fight you, to keep the camera horizontal. We went without a gyro.
My producer also found out, officially, after I had already warned him, that the chopper will have height limits which meant, to shoot tight, required a long lens. This is hard enough hand held, without the added fun of a very windy, cold, bumpy chopper ride!
So in the end, believe it or not, we shot 2k, 240fps with 135mm lens handheld, right out the door so I could look down without seeing the skids. Having slow motion made it better for smoothing out the bumps.
Next time, I would rig some kind of bungee rig to absorb the wobble and bumps. Interested to know how you went.
 
I would stay with the wider lens or at least not go much past 50mm it will be hard enough to hold the camera steady and get good looking stuff at 16mm to about 24mm. That said now and then you might need a crash zoom in to something for effect?
You should consider over cranking a bit and also going with a faster shutter if your going to stabilize in post. Don't know if you have a motion mount but the motion mount set to the square shutter along with all the other changes will give post the best possible image to stabilize from. The movi will be great if you have a helicopter with enough space and can take the doors off or if you using a helicopter that has a wide enough door to use it in. Don't know what kind of helicopter your using so use your best judgment. You will have to ask the pilot to slow down to be able to have the camera out side the door much. The pilot will have to slow down to at least 60 knt's other wise you will have a very hard time holding anything in a 60 plus wind.. And all of this will also depend on what kind of helicopter, weight, area your flying in and a lot of things that pilot can answer.
Also the one thing that catches people more than seeing the skids or the side of the helicopter is seeing the prop from the helicopter. Open both eyes now and then to make sure you are not catching the prop in the top of the frame. nothing ruins a shot faster than the prop cutting in to the top of your beautiful shot...
There are about a dozen things you can do but just good logic will help a lot. And a very good pilot is really about half of the equation.

I use a WC shoulder rig with the viewfinder. I have tried a lot of different rig's but this one works best for me when doing hand held…
Hope this helps a little.
Good luck and enjoy the view.
 
I have only limited experience with Helicopter shooting.

Short shutter (so you have no motion-blur "pulsing" after stabilization), wide lens -- anything else will make your life much harder. Motion Mount, check higher frame rates carefully, my experience is that some of the last few builds doesn't even allow for 60fps in 5K. In the current version all seems to be fully functional again.

Keep in mind, if you take out the doors or even the window, you need to have anything that can get lost on a wire/robe.

My one hour experience was based on no door (we removed them), and it was heavily gusty. I have hold the camera in my hands, and had to replace a lot with Imagineer-Software. Our lowest was 1000feet over Downtown L.A.

(What a pilot told me) The Gyro (https://www.ken-lab.com) doesn't care if the camera looks down. Mount it accordingly and two axis should do.

I have no experience with a gimbal, my concern would be: if it can stand heavy wind and strong vibration.
 
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Have shot my Epic from choppers a few times with Kenyon gyro from level to straight down. It definitely helped. Also bumped shutter speed to around 1/500 as I recall, which helped stabilization in post. Safety first! Tie off camera and all gear. And yourself...
 
I think I will go for the Wooden Camera shoulder rig, I am used to it. With the viewfinder mounted on the wooden camera. The camera mounted with 24-105, but I do not think that I will pass 50 mm. (My 16-35mm sadly have a locked focus ring and are on the road to get repaired). Then I think I will shot 4k/3k at 100 fps and a shutter at about 1/400 or 1/500. What do you think about this? It is about 6 hours until I am in the heli. Looking forward!
 
Hang your camera from the roof with some elastic bands, like the ones used to strap skis on the top of your car, good luck
 
Back from the helishoot and have had some time to check out the footage. I am quite satisfied with the shoot! Good feeling. The only problems I had actually was the few times where it was extra turbulence and heavy turns where the propellers made the footage a bit bumpy from the pressure. Luckily for me that did not happen often and I have what I was looking for now! Nice experience!

Also the Lynge Alps is quite a view with bluebird and evening sun! Recommend it!

For the tech: I went with the wooden cam shoulder rig, 24-105mm, red touch mounted in front of me on the shoulder rig. Shoot with 100 4k - 100 fps and a shutter at 1/500. Some clips need a bit of extra post work, but with the standard warp stab settings, it almost looked perfect. But most of the clips are good to go of the camera - nice!

The still photographer brought a movi 10, but he just owns it for rentals to others, and had not testet it good enough, and I had to little time to play with it, did not feel comfortable going in the heli with it this time. Will ask him if I can borrow it for some testing out on other projects that allow for some failing. Must be really good when it is configured as it should be with the epic.
 
http://youtu.be/O3jYYlfeOwg

There are several chopper shots in this clip that I shot hand held, no shoulder rig on a very windy day, from waaaaay up high at 2k 240fps and 135mm lens. I believe some stabilization was done in post but maybe not, because they kept it all slow slow slow. Anyway, its much harder to get permission to get as low as possible around Sydney because it seems everywhere is in a commercial flight corridor.
 
I am a climber and have worked out with a very secure way to be secure when filming out of the door of the helicopter.
Security is no problem, have experienced people with me as well.
Click to expand...

There are significant differences between rigging for climbing and rigging for helicopter!
Climbing harnesses and carabiners are not designed to release a load when under tension.
Helicopters are top heavy and in an accident often roll over. Numerous cameramen have been trapped and perished by using climbing kit that will not easily release if they become hung up.

Fixing a camera by suspending it from bungies is strictly speaking, illegal unless signed off by an engineer.
An errant bungy can take out the tail rotor and blocking an exit affects fast egress in a survivable accident.


Aerial work is the most hazardous activity for cameramen outside of war zones and so, not surprisingly, is one of the few activities that is excluded from your life, accident and mortgage insurances.

There is no statistical correlation to the experience of the pilot and the likely hood of a safe aerial filming or photo flight.

In a recent forum discussion numerous pilots blamed the cameraman and production team for creating an unsafe environment, through poor planning and lack if knowledge about aerial filming.

Dont expect the 10000 hour hero pilot not to succumb to the pressures and glamour of aerial filming.

The archive has significant amount of information on aerial filming.

Those who recount their experiences should think about the potential adverse outcome of fellow Redusers taking their advice.


Mike Brennan
 
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I've had some great experiences with the Tyler Mini Gyro before, but it was more for slower speed, wider scenic shots rather than high speed tighter shots. I stuck between 18-50mm and found 18-35 was the sweet spot. Mind you that was with an FS700 so it was quite a bit lighter. The one thing that worries me with stabilizers like the movi is the wash that hits just beyond the doors if you're going doors off. If you're looking to really punch in and can get a Cineflex (or similar) into the budget, it will work wonders. Just used one the other month on a shoot that needed speed and longer lenses and sold me on stabilized units from now on. It's extremely efficient too and I was surprised how much we got with just under 2 hours of fly time. With rigging, chances are your pilot will also rig you and everything else in order to comply with regulations, but you'll also be able to get pretty far out the door if you want.

Tyler: https://vimeo.com/49986712


Cineflex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZN6DNeOuKc

 
All these solutions are going to fight against you 'till the very last when trying to get the shots you want. Go for a reliable, safe and easy to use system. Below are two highly recommend options.

http://www.shotover.com

http://www.cineflex.com
 
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