Flying Helicams For The Big Screen

One does not need to be particularly prescient to see that the marriage of remotely piloted helicams and digital cinema cameras will continue to evolve and provide exciting, never before seen vantages for the motion picture industry. As interest continues to grow in this arena, the reliability, capability and associated technology will grow at an ever increasing pace. However, the primary reason for expanding use of this tech in film-making is far less complex - quite simply it is cost. It is an order of magnitude less expensive to capture a unique live action shot using a helicam for a day or two of location shooting than paying the wages of several VFX/CGI artists for several weeks. Another reason is the ability to capture tight, dynamic camera movements that give the audience the feel of floating like a bird or flying in a dream.

Close-range, live-action aerial imaging and VFX/CGI are not necessarily competing interests however. One of the best, most dynamic uses of helicams is to capture the background layer of the world from above that later is accentuated through the addition of composited elements added in post production (back plates). Having this real-life template as a starting point, with all it's perfect nuances of texture, shadow, color and motion is priceless in selling the reality of a fantasy or action sequence that incorporates VFX to an audience whose expectations increase daily.

One of the primary obstacles in using helicams in feature films has been the limitation in payload capacity of the unmanned aircraft. Until now, the use of this technology has been primarily limited to flying modified 35mm film cameras with 200 ft. loads. Only recently have digital cinema cameras achieved the weight and form factor to permit efficacy on a remotely piloted helicopter. The most exciting recent development in this area is the RED Epic camera. At around 10 lbs. with battery and a prime cinema lens, this 5K camera is a god-send for helicam imaging for the big screen. While DSLR cameras like the Canon 5D MK 2 are small and seeing increasing use for television programming, the image quality lags miles behind that of the 5K Epic at present for use on the silver screen.

Below is an example of a large industrial size helicam used to carry the RED Epic camera by Perfect Perspectives Aerial Imaging for motion picture filming. As mentioned previously, the primary benefit of this type of platform is it's power and duration. Both of these benefits have proven priceless when multiple takes are required (as they always are) and shot set up is complex. Time is money on a movie set and not having to stop flying for 30 minutes at a time is a very efficient and economical way to operate a helicam. The rig shown below was flown with a Cooke 25mm S4/i prime lens for filming of aerial shots used in Josh Radnor's new hit film "Liberal Arts".

For more info, please visit http://www.perfectperspectivesaerial.com