AERIAL FILMMAKING GE AR .
of Boswell’s. He says: “The most common FPV drones are compact, extremely fast, very manoeuvrable... but with a GoPro on. That’s clearly not good enough for single-camera drama. The conundrum is how you upscale that to take a camera acceptable to the cinema world. This is the technological breakthrough.” Traditionally, the world watches an FPV drone through the pilot’s eyes. But, as Marzano describes, “When you take that FPV drone and stick a gimbal on top of it, a whole new world comes into play. Now, you’re trying to steer a gimbal on a very fast-moving aircraft. Before, you’ve been operating a gimbal that’s floating through the sky on a 25kg+ aircraft without the same flight characteristics.” Inevitably, there is compromise. The speed and manoeuvrability of featherweight sports drones is hard to match with an Alexa Mini LF onboard, but Boswell perceives a burning enthusiasm for a cinema- appropriate equivalent. “DOPs and directors we’re working with have seen FPV... what the people who love it are looking for is dynamism. So, you have to find the sweet spot between the two.”
whereas now we’re more often than not flying the Mini LF, the Sony Venice – and heavier, better glass. We have tripled our drone systems, so can operate three super-heavy lift drones.” One very identifiable creative shift in the industry is FPV – for first-person view – a drone flown not by looking at the drone, but through an onboard witness camera. John Marzano, aerial DOP and founder of Marzano Films, is a specialist in helicopter work and a frequent collaborator
One of the aerial industry’s most established incumbents is Aerialworx, based in north Wales and operating in some of the UK’s most spectacular terrain. With recent credits including Brian Cox’s Universe for the BBC and The Bay for ITV, co-founder Stef Williams describes the company’s frequent haunts. “The majority of our work is north of Manchester. We operate a lot in the Highlands of Scotland – we have a job on the Isle of Skye next week. We’ve enjoyed a lot of very pretty places, where there’s not a lot we can’t do with the permissions we’ve got.” That industry-wide demand for sheer performance from drones
THE SUN HAS SET The Aerigon drone (above and left) was a pioneer, and led to the Newton stabilised head
ALL ANGLES A crop of Arri machines being kitted out for an aerial shoot (below). For XM2, a heavy lift is 40kg+
51. MARCH 2022
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