FEATURE | AER I AL SPEC I AL
IMAGES Marzano Films managed some amazing interior shooting in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
We were mounting the camera on top of the drone so you can look up, unobstructed by propellers
operations and air-to-air simulated dogfights for movies. Jet Cam can shoot up to 8K cameras and there’s no confirmation of whether the Top Gun: Maverick movie has been using it. PROJECTS The one thing we are hearing from all the aerial specialists that we talk to is the amount of work there is in the UK at the moment. “The UK has become a kind of Mecca for aerial cinematography; there’s more work here than LA and around the same as Atlanta,” says Aidan Kelly. This is the main reason that the company now has a base here. Within the projects shot in the UK, there has been some great innovation, not least in the latest Bond movie where film was used in 35mm and IMAX. For Bond 25, John Marzano shot both 35mm with an Arri 435 camera and IMAX. With his Eclipse XLHD gimbal he was able to shoot with IMAX cameras. “The best system in the world is the Eclipse XLHD, it’s the most flexible and capable system in existence. We worked throughout the summer with the IMAX technicians and they were relieved to be working with the Eclipse because of the ease of magazine change and access to the camera and everything that goes hand in hand with that. “We were able to do a 1000-feet IMAX reload on the ground with rotors running in about two minutes – other systems need a shutdown and a 30-minute change around. It makes a massive difference to the production as well. Shooting at 24fps with an IMAX camera you get about four minutes screen time. That actually is quite a long time but when you’re shooting an
action sequence chasing cars on a hilltop, cliff-side road, looking for moments of brilliance, that 1000 feet of IMAX film goes through very, very quickly.” XM2 also shot 35mm film on the new Bond movie but was also able to offer something new with its drone, as Aidan Kelly explains. “We were mounting the camera on top of the drone so you can look up unobstructed, and don’t have the propellers to look through. So, for instance if someone’s on a cliff, you can come up towards them. We presented the idea quite early in the production and it wasn’t until later on that they had a go with it. Once they did it gave them huge possibilities.” Having worked on Season 1 of Jack Ryan in Morocco in 2017, The Helicopter Girls drone unit spent three months working with the crew out in Colombia last year on season 2, airing now on Amazon Prime. Company founder, Aerial DOP Katya Nelhams-Wright was thrilled to be working again with cinematographer Richard Rutkowski. “We got into some very challenging environments in the jungle,” she says, “which is where you’re grateful for an aircraft like the Alta 8, which had to be sent down a zip line to the jungle floor while the crew climbed down the ravine on ropes and wires to film a character climbing down a waterfall. “As well as jungle, the drone unit covered explosions, car stunts, riots with thousands of people storming the presidential palace and US Embassy, and got to film some epic scenics. This included a lot of work operating from boats on some of Colombia’s fast-flowing rivers and out at sea off the coast of Cartagena, which delivered the opening shot of Season 2.”
48 DEF I N I T ION | DECEMBER 20 1 9
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