GEAR. AERIAL
As technology advances, aerial filming options have expanded beyond rooftops, cranes and the traditional helicopter. However, how do you know what’s best?
WORDS. Robert Shepherd IMAGES. Various
T he rise of robotics has high-altitude footage. Once limited to helicopters, cumbersome cranes and rooftop access, productions used to have few options when it came to taking aerial shots. Of course, helicopters have also been used in films for decades – but it might surprise you to learn that robotics have been employed in aerial filming for a long time, too. Director Ridley Scott is said provided filmmakers with an embarras de richesse when it comes to capturing stunning, to have used a remote-controlled helicopter with a camera attached to capture some of the iconic aerial shots in the 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner . Three years later, a remote-controlled glider equipped with a camera was used to capture the stunt performer’s jump off the
Eiffel Tower in Sir Roger Moore’s last outing as James Bond in A View to a Kill . These early attempts to use aerial vehicles for filming were limited by the technology of the time. The remote-controlled helicopters and gliders used in these films were large, heavy and difficult to control, making them impractical for most filmmakers. It wasn’t until the 21st century that the development of lightweight, easy-to-use drones, equipped with high-quality cameras, made aerial filming accessible to a wider range of filmmakers. More recently, in 2012 to be precise, producers incorporated drone technology into Bond film Skyfall , when a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a camera captured stunning aerial shots of Istanbul. TAKING OFF Darren Miller, an aerial camera operator/DOP whose credits include Geo and Butterscotch , explains how there is healthy competition in the specialist arena of aerial drone filming facilities across the UK, with around ten
companies servicing features, high- end dramas and commercials. “Drones have become a familiar presence on-set and in the vast arsenal of tools available to image makers, placing the audience in new and unfamiliar spaces, enjoying epic perspectives otherwise unaffordable in past times,” he asserts. Miller made the transition from regular camera operator to aerial camera operator/DOP after recognising the gradual demise of his main role in TV drama, since most of the DOPs he was working with were beginning to choose to operate themselves.
DRONE OR HELI? While drones are often the cheaper choice, they aren’t always best for the shot – there is still a place for the good, old- fashioned helicopter
“Drones have become a familiar presence on-set and in the vast arsenal of tools available to image makers”
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