AERIAL DOPS INTERVIEW
CLIFFHANGER (Left) Marzano was the aerial director of photography for 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman
directors’, he admits, such as Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, JJ Abrams and Ridley Scott. “ Black Hawk Down will always be a standout experience for me,” he shares. “As the aerial DOP on the film, I was given two camera helicopters, four US Army Black Hawk helicopters and four Little Bird attack helicopters to play with and an instruction from Ridley to ‘go shoot me some great shit!’ – a challenge the aerial team relished,” he recalls fondly. “I’m so proud of the aerial cinematography, which played a significant part in the final edit, and enjoyed every minute. “At the opposite end of the spectrum,” Marzano continues, “my drone team and I faced some exhausting challenges, riding boats down fast-flowing rapids and carrying drones on long hikes in the jungles of Columbia just to get an amazing shot for Paddington In Peru ,” which hits cinemas in November. “I’m excited to see the fruits of my teams hard work on the big screen.”
drone specifically designed to house an ARRIFLEX 235 ( Saltburn ). In the industry for over 30 years, since the ‘early days of sitting with legs hanging out of the helicopter’s open side door’, Marzano has had a first-hand view of the transformation, noting how drones permanently changed aerial filming. “I’ve been utilising drones for aerial filming for several years and I’m amazed at how quickly the genre has developed,” he admits, having stocked Marzano Films with an ‘extensive inventory of the latest drone aircraft’. To keep the industry abreast of the latest aerial gadgets, Marzano Films
collaborates with major retailers, ensuring new releases integrate with helicopter and drone gimbals. It recently did just this with the Sony BURANO, which James Friend ASC, BSC used on The Wingman . Marzano Films also nurtures fresh talent, feeling “a duty to impart the skills we’ve developed over the years to young film enthusiasts,” says Marzano. “We’ve started a programme to teach drone pilots how to fly for film and train new aerial operators in the art of filmmaking.” LOOKING BACK, LOOKING UP Throughout his career, Marzano has worked with some ‘extremely illustrious
31
definitionmags
Powered by FlippingBook