Natasha getting ready to fly....

[Jarred Land]

http://www.reduser.net/forum/uploaded/1_1177192626.jpg

(thanks Carey)

[Emmanuel Cambier]

Good Girl!!

[Zach Hilton]

Wow! We'll be doing some helicopter shots when we get ours too! Very excited!

[Jarred Land]

that helicopter pilot was such a ninja, and so was James the operator. Peter Jackson sure has some of the best talent in the world.

[Daniel Reichenbach]

Oh, I see, good mount but probably shuttering sometimes, I do a lot of Helimount work, did it in Nasca Valley with to camera on one mount for a special theater for big screen, do it in the swiss mountains and I know, how difficult it is, that the camera don't start to vibrate.

[Alexander Nikishin]

There's just too much fun to be had with that rig.

[Charles Perkins]

thats awesome.

[laguun]

http://www.reduser.net/forum/uploaded/1_1177192626.jpg

(thanks Carey)

what kind of lens is attached to the red supergirl?
doo i see an angenieux?

[Tom Lowe]

Wow, I could think of some places I'd like to fly that!!

[Jarred Land]

what kind of lens is attached to the red supergirl?
doo i see an angenieux?

yes indeed... the Optimo Zoom :)

[laguun]

yes indeed... the Optimo Zoom :)

our 5 angenieux are jealous now :) can´t wait to put the french ladies on the red.

however i am still undecided if we should buy the 2/3 adapter, 2 of the zooms (f2 5.3-53 and f2.2 7.8-208) are B4 mount HD.

[Billy Summers]

Years ago we "helli-ed" in the Remarkables (Mountain Range) in the South of New Zealand. Damn that's a beautiful Country.
...lucky bastards:glare:

[Brook Willard]

Very cool Jarred... thanks for posting. I'd love to see more "behind the scenes" pics if you're able to post them.

[Steve Gibby]

Jarred...is that you in the back seat of the copter? If so, fun ain't it! Done back seat and front seat on those kind of flights many times as a passenger. Also as a shooter. My favorite's were with the back doors taken off, safety harnessed, feet on the skid, leaning against the seat, and shooting shoulder-held low crabbing passes in front of giant waves in Hawaii, plus flying straight down the pali (mountains) and waterfalls on Kauai.

Wish I owned a copter with a Cineflex gimbal system - the 4k footage with RED One would be stunning. I'll work on that...

[Billy Summers]

Gibby, you didn't happened to shoot tow in waves at Jaws did you?
...Riding Giants???

[Steve Gibby]

Gibby, you didn't happened to shoot tow in waves at Jaws did you?
...Riding Giants???

No, I didn't shoot "Riding Giants". Friends of mine did (Don King & others). The director of Riding Giants, Stacy Peralta is a friend of mine, as are the stars of the film - Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, and Jeff Clark. I was on the ESPN and FOX Sports Net crews covering the ASP WCT world professional surfing tour, all stops worldwide, for many years. I lived in Hawaii each winter for several years. I've shot giant wave surfing worldwide - and will with RED One. Surfing is just one of the many genres of production I do, but I've been a lifelong surfer, and it's in my blood.

The Hawaii helicopter shooting I described was during my 2-year stint as director and cinematographer for the ESPN series Hawaiian Sports Adventure for DynoComm (20 half hour programs). I've done a lot of other helicopter shooting since. I'm working on some helicopter solutions for shooting with RED #8 as we speak. Aerial footage seriously rocks!

Nowdays I produce/direct/shoot in a broad range of cine and EFP styles, but action sports shooting was my start in the motion media industry, and I still work in that arena when I get a chance. It reflects my lifestyle...action sports, adventure travel, and nature are my favorite genres of production.

[Greg Voevodsky]

Is that mount Gyro-Stabalized like the ones I see mounted inside a rotating glass ball?

[Yash Keough]

Wow that's pretty badass on the helicopter :biggrin: haha :) love it!

Yash

[Brook Willard]

Is that mount Gyro-Stabalized like the ones I see mounted inside a rotating glass ball?

Nope. That's why the footage appeared so shaky.

[Billy Summers]

Gibby, you da man! I started in action sports as well, Snowboarding to be exact. I used to snowboard professionally, but when I injured myself I was bored and picked up an SLR and started shooting photos of my "pro" friends during re-hab. I ended up selling some of the shots to the Mags and it all started from there.

Later I learned to surf and fell in LOVE with the sport (you lucky bastard). Wish I had picked up surfing earlier, but better late than never I guess.

Sick to hear a little about your journey-

Have you seen Taylor Steele's "Sipping Jet-Streams"?

[Steve Gibby]

Gibby, you da man! I started in action sports as well, Snowboarding to be exact. I used to snowboard professionally, but when I injured myself I was bored and picked up an SLR and started shooting photos of my "pro" friends during re-hab. I ended up selling some of the shots to the Mags and it all started from there.

Later I learned to surf and fell in LOVE with the sport (you lucky bastard). Wish I had picked up surfing earlier, but better late than never I guess.

Sick to hear a little about your journey-

Have you seen Taylor Steele's "Sipping Jet-Streams"?

Very cool! Action sports rule...ask Jarred, he mountain bikes, surfs now, etc.

I was also on the crew that covered all of the pro snowboarding tours for NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports Net, and OLN for several years - worldwide. I learned to snowboard in 1987. If you used to snowbaord professionally, there's a good chance that I shot you doing it. Small world! I've also covered every other action sports professional tour you can name, at on point or another - about 30 different sports in all. I've produced/directed programs covering many mainstream sports (NFL, PGA, etc.), but action sports still rule for me when I cover sports.

I haven't seen Sipping Jet Streams yet, but its undoubtedly good. Taylor Steele is a friend of mine.

You're getting RED #13, so you'll have it soon after I get #8. PM or email me - maybe we can team up for some action sports shooting.

[casey warren]

How do you keep the shots in focus when using Helicopter rigs?

any tricks?

[Billy Summers]

Casey, when shooting daytime exteriors you generally have a huge depth of field, so that always helps as far as focus is concerned.

[Brook Willard]

Generally you'll have focus control on the camera. The AC will gauge the appropriate distance and focus from inside the helicopter. I see motors on the lens in the picture Jarred posted.

On a longer-range shot, they were probably past the lens's hyperfocal distance.

[casey warren]

thats pretty much what I was guessing. But for example, how would you keep the planes sharp and the background somewhat out of focus?

Would you just set the lens to a range and try to fly within that range behind the plane?

[casey warren]

I see

[Billy Summers]

Gibby, I haven't seen "Sipping Jetstreams" either. I just heard that it is on a whole-nother level Cinematography-wise and Culture-wise.

Did you ever shoot any of the World-Extreme's or King of the Hill events up in AK?

Thanks for the offer, I'd be stoked to shoot action sports with you anytime.

B.

[casey warren]

Brook, do you have any suggestions on some good literature on focus pulling, techniques, etc...?

[Brook Willard]

I don't, though I'm sure there's stuff online. Maybe I'll add a focus section to my FAQ when I work on it this/next week.

[casey warren]

that would be awesome.

I think thats a major issue that a great deal of people will have when using the REDONE, how to focus, efficiently and consistently. I know I need to really get on leaning how to get a crystal clear sharp focus 99% of the time

[Jens Jakob Thorsen]

The 24-290? looks like u washed at 90 degrees celsius.

[astro]

Is that mount Gyro-Stabalized like the ones I see mounted inside a rotating glass ball?

Yes it is a gyro-stabilised head but without the soft mount to the chopper.Its the only one of its kind and is still in development stages.
Focus was acheived using a Preston and AC rode in the back with the operator

[Mike Prevette]

How was the camera wiring? start/stop? Were the lens servos camera powered or coming off the mount, like a Tyler mount? So many questions. Was it shot to the drives or redram? Having shot a handfull of heli footage, I know vibration can be a bastard up there.


_mike

[Brook Willard]

Astro, I assume you know better than I in this case. I stand corrected from my previous post.

Mike, it was shot on RED DRIVE. Vibration was an issue. Eventually they snaked the drive cable into the helicopter and had somebody hold the drive to prevent the camera from aborting record.

[Stephen Gentle]

Excellent pic, Jarred! I can't wait to see the actual footage shot by that rig though.

[Mike the beginner]

I don't, though I'm sure there's stuff online. Maybe I'll add a focus section to my FAQ when I work on it this/next week.

Thats really very kind of you Brook. Your work so far on this is excellent.

Mike the beginner

[Greg Voevodsky]

that would be awesome.

I think thats a major issue that a great deal of people will have when using the REDONE, how to focus, efficiently and consistently. I know I need to really get on leaning how to get a crystal clear sharp focus 99% of the time

"Guess, measure, repeat until perfect."
As a very good auto commercial DP taught me in LA long time ago... Practice, Practice, Practice... He was very talented and could shoot all the dealer car footage of the new cars driving by on back roads. He would be set up on a turn with a long lense and shoot the whole line up of 5 Hondas driving by... and then move on, usually after the first take.

His recommendation was go to a freeway offramp and practice with a long lense until you nailed every car. Some tricks can be a spotter yelling off distances like 200 yards, 100 yards, etc... to give you a sense of speed.

Reading a book isn't going to help. Either hire a great AC, and or shoot with higher f-stops for greater depth of field or go practice. Great AC's can focus by eye and practice their art. Hold your hand or an object out in front of you and call the distance like 5'3 and then measure.

I use to call foot candles off walls or differences in f-stops to train my eye on exposure. "Guess, measure, repeat until perfect."

Or as Jim stated before, start with higher f-stops and then lower as you get better. (I did find it ironic that most of the Nab movie was shot at a high f-8 and not lower f-stops with lots of NDs. ;-) )

However, this was Jacksons shoot. I too, plan to shoot f-8 for greater depth of field - makes life easier and for a nature video, people like it.

[casey warren]

"Guess, measure, repeat until perfect."
As a very good auto commercial DP taught me in LA long time ago... Practice, Practice, Practice... He was very talented and could shoot all the dealer car footage of the new cars driving by on back roads. He would be set up on a turn with a long lense and shoot the whole line up of 5 Hondas driving by... and then move on, usually after the first take.

His recommendation was go to a freeway offramp and practice with a long lense until you nailed every car. Some tricks can be a spotter yelling off distances like 200 yards, 100 yards, etc... to give you a sense of speed.

Reading a book isn't going to help. Either hire a great AC, and or shoot with higher f-stops for greater depth of field or go practice. Great AC's can focus by eye and practice their art. Hold your hand or an object out in front of you and call the distance like 5'3 and then measure.

I use to call foot candles off walls or differences in f-stops to train my eye on exposure. "Guess, measure, repeat until perfect."

Or as Jim stated before, start with higher f-stops and then lower as you get better. (I did find it ironic that most of the Nab movie was shot at a high f-8 and not lower f-stops with lots of NDs. ;-) )

However, this was Jacksons shoot. I too, plan to shoot f-8 for greater depth of field - makes life easier and for a nature video, people like it.


Greg Voevodsky, thanks for the great info. The off ramp practice tests seem like a good way to get in some practice, I will def. try that.

"Guess, measure, repeat until perfect." - new motto

[Jarred Land]

We had quite the time with the helicopter setups.. and the NZ crew was incredible at finding solutions around any issues.

Mount wasn't a normal gyro mount so we both were going through prototype testing... and i think we all can agree even though there were a few tweaks needed, both prototypes performed very well.

[donatello b]

at NAB i had no problem focusing the 18-50 zoom using the EVF ..
18mm was easy ... 50mm very easy ... didn't try the LCD ...
the EVF is excellent - kind of forgot that it was electronic ...

[Brook Willard]

You had no problem focusing it to 720p. Focusing it to 4K is another story.

[dalemccready]

We had quite the time with the helicopter setups.. and the NZ crew was incredible at finding solutions around any issues.

I think that'd be Alfie Speight flying the helicopter (corrections/spelling?)

He is a truly gifted pilot

...and James Cowley operating?

[Corrado Silveri]

Yes it is a gyro-stabilised head but without the soft mount to the chopper.Its the only one of its kind and is still in development stages.
Focus was acheived using a Preston and AC rode in the back with the operator

Hey Astro,
can you please give some more info?
In these days I'm trying to find a gyro-stabilised head that fit the Red One.
We're doing a lot of aerial work on some cruise ships.

[Deanan]

I think that'd be Alfie Speight flying the helicopter (corrections/spelling?)

He is a truly gifted pilot

...and James Cowley operating?

That's correct.

Tony and Brian were also very very ingenious at getting
everything to work smoothly.

[Adrian T.]

Hold your hand or an object out in front of you and call the distance like 5'3 and then measure.

Wow! You got to be even taller than Jarred to do that! :blink:

[Bachman]

Although thats a Queenstown chopper, I suspect that airport is in the Wairarapa...PJ's home base and where he keeps his vintage planes. Ive been there and jumped out of a plane.

Did you guys shoot in the South Island Mountains at all? Would love to see what the RED could do with scenery like that.

[Daniel Reichenbach]

Hey Astro,
can you please give some more info?
In these days I'm trying to find a gyro-stabilised head that fit the Red One.
We're doing a lot of aerial work on some cruise ships.

It depends on how big is your budget and what exactly you wanna do, if this are a kind of midlens shuts, here is a very good balanced system (A kind of Taylor mount but better) which is not this expensive.

http://helimount.ch/

We use it often in the swiss mountain for low budget things, there is also a system to fix your camera underneath the helicopter to shoot forward. Ok, when you need a westcam or this kind of stuff... it's not this stable.

[Daniel Reichenbach]

By the way, it was often used also for 007 bond movies...

[Corrado Silveri]

Thanks Daniel,
but I'm trying to find one "Wescam or Gyron" style instrument.

We've worked already with a Taylor mount, but we need more steadiness...

[Mike Prevette]

Tyler side or nose mounted? I find the nose mount almost useless unless your doing a long run up shot, or a tracking shot, but thats all it's good at.

Wescam is nice, good techs.

_mike