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NIGHT SHOOTING AERIAL
FLYING BLIND
Shooting night aerials in austerity Britain nearly caused career catastrophe for DoP and director David Baillie – until some quick thinking saved the day
WORDS DAVID BAILLIE IMAGES ITV
which had been shot in and around Bolton and Rochdale. GB Helicopters are just ten minutes flying time from both towns, and they have their own GSS 512 gimbal, complete with Red Epic and a Canon 30-300mm lens. Now, I’m not a great fan of the Red because I’m not clever enough to understand the menus. But I’ve worked with GB Helicopters on projects before, so it seemed a no-brainer to use their system. My initial error was the ludicrous assumption that since I’d successfully shot night aerials over cities such as New York and Hong Kong, Bolton would be a walkover. This was a big mistake. Let me tell you, dear reader, Bolton is no Manhattan.
fter a relatively unblemished career as both a director and DoP, it’s very embarrassing to completely mess up a shoot.
Until last autumn I’d only had two major catastrophes in over 30 years, and both were tech faults. The first was literally in the middle of Outer Mongolia and the second was during an interview with Tony Blair – so problematic and embarrassing respectively. But in September, it was mainly a brain fault. I had to shoot some night aerials for the ITV series Bancroft . It’s a dark and gritty cop story set in an anonymous dark and gritty northern town. The brief was therefore for dark and gritty night shots of the buildings and streets that featured in the series,
TOP A late twilight graded shot. ABOVE A late twilight Log shot
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MAY 2018 DEFINITION
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