Film Helicopter in action Fast and Furious

[mickjoebill]

Several shots of a film helicopter in action, in this behind the scenes video of "Fate of the Furious"
https://www.facebook.com/CinefuncionWeb/videos/1472050019506903/

Drones haven't taken over yet:)

Mickjoebill

[BigMike]

Can a drone carry a wescam....

[Hot and Hi]

That's the pessimistic view, as cameras too will continue to shrink in size.

The optimistic view (that I maybe wrongly read between the lines of the OP) would be that for dynamic aerial shots like the ones required in this example, the flight path of the camera ship is so complex and also unpredictable that it cannot be done by a remotely controlled (or preprogrammed) drone.

"... for now", as the OP correctly said.

[Aesir]

Northair´s helicopters did the Iceland shoot.

https://www.facebook.com/helicoptericeland/videos/10154331189955824/

[BigMike]

Re weight, maybe, if shooting digital, however 35mm film is still being used, and is there a drone capable of carrying a gimbal with a digital camera, that meets cinema standard?
Interested to know if anyone has experience with such a setup.
Have seen footage shot with a RED on a drone, but wasn't that good.

[mickjoebill]

Re weight, maybe, if shooting digital, however 35mm film is still being used, and is there a drone capable of carrying a gimbal with a digital camera, that meets cinema standard?
Interested to know if anyone has experience with such a setup.
Have seen footage shot with a RED on a drone, but wasn't that good.

The diminutive Arri Mini and the Red cameras are regularly used on cinema features and both are carried by drones, albeit fitted with "short zooms" ie wide angle zoom lenses.

Whilst the resolution and dynamic range of 35mm film has been matched by a few compact cameras, we are still a little way off matching 15/70 aka IMAX film.

So I'm of the view that 35mm motion picture film is not the standard to aim for anymore.

Extending the scope of this topic....
The current trend is for very short duration scenic wide shots be they aerial or ground. (As distinct from aerial tracking of moving subjects)

What has "uped the anti" is that higher quality digital projection challenges the performance of cameras and lenses.

Also larger screens themselves should be 6k or 8k projection to cover the screen real estate with enough pixels to satisfy 20/20 vision.

As a result of both these factors, wideshots look soft, which is why you'll find very few in a modern movie!

But it is good we are moving toward higher fidelity, as the fine detail usually associated with aerial images
will sing and hopefully sing on screen for longer.


Mickjoebill

[mickjoebill]

Northair´s helicopters did the Iceland shoot.

https://www.facebook.com/helicoptericeland/videos/10154331189955824/

Good example of how a drone could not achieve the air to air shot.

Until autonomous see and avoid is proven!

Mickjoebill

[Hot and Hi]

Ask "Film Pilot" Jerry Grayson if he agrees...

Aerial filmmaker Jerry Grayson's strategic career change (http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/minutes-with/aerial-filmmaker-jerry-graysons-strategic-career-change-20170221-guibla.html)

Jerry is also PPruNer.

[southerncanuck]

From where i sit, we mfg maybe 90% of all the mounts in use today for aerial filming, we don't see any softening of the market, it is steady. The cameras most commonly used for filming are getting bigger, not smaller, due to the lenses. Have you been up close to a Shotover F1, GSS520 or V14 Elite, they are pretty beefy!
Cal

[BigMike]

Recently chatted with Peter Thompson of Aeroptics, and had a look at the Shotover setup.
Very impressive. Don't think a drone will be carrying one anytime soon, however will be interesting to see what develops in the next few years.

[MikeNYC]

Re weight, maybe, if shooting digital, however 35mm film is still being used, and is there a drone capable of carrying a gimbal with a digital camera, that meets cinema standard?
Interested to know if anyone has experience with such a setup.
Have seen footage shot with a RED on a drone, but wasn't that good.

BigMike, drones are already carrying ShotOver setups (see the ShotOver G1 and U1 combo). While they don't have the same payload capacity, they do have a time and a place, and are capable of flying cinema cameras, including anamorphics, with FIZ capability when needed.

Cameras are getting smaller and smaller. The more common payloads for the ShotOver F1 system are Alexa Minis and RED Weapons, both very compact camera bodies. Definitely not getting bigger, at least compared to their predecessors (Alexa, and RED One).

There are certainly drones capable of flying a full cinema setup, and they're used daily. If the RED footage you saw from a drone wasn't good, it's likely no fault of the camera or the drone, but more likely the operator.

With regards to 35mm film, sure, it's being used...but sparingly. And the quality doesn't exceed that of today's digital cinema cameras. Drones and digital cinema are here to stay, and when done properly are indistinguishable from footage produced with a Pictorvision/ShotOver/GSS/Cineflex/FlightHead/Scorpio/Maximus/whatever large gimbal you want.

The ShotOver K1 is the beefy big brother to the F1, which is capable of flying much larger and heavier payloads. The F1 outsells the K1 at a probably 20:1 ratio, despite there not being a huge price delta. It's all about lighter, smaller, more agile, more travel-friendly.

[Flying Bull]

we all miss out another point - rendering!
Most films aren´t shot where you think they are - just blue- / or greenscreen techniques used.
At the end, it will be cheaper to calculate an aerial shot with a computer....
So neither helicopter or drone will be used.....