FEATURE | WHAT ’ S NEW I N CAMERA MOVEMENT
Now, even programmes that go out in HDwant to record in 4K and beyond
IMAGE Mr Helix recently found work on The Favourite, particularly shooting carriage interiors.
MR HELIX
HELICOPTERS
Automatic stabilisers are a topic in every conversation about camera motion, with options to mount them on more or less anything – including a person. Rizwan Wadan is remote head technology operator at Mr Helix, who develop and operate a combined system. Composed of a body-mounted exoskeleton and a gimbal, it is capable of stabilising cameras as large as the Panavision Millennium XL2. “There’s two things we’ve developed,” Wadan says. “The gimbal and the arms. When I got into the industry, we could only stabilise DSLRs up to 5kg with camera stabilisation technology. Gimbals didn’t have power outputs and they couldn’t take proper cameras. Our gimbal solution was a customised version. We kept on trying to find solutions for on-set, as opposed to engineers making something thinking ‘this is what you need’.” “Our system is very different from other gimbals,” Wadan continues. “You control the tilt with your right hand. You don’t have a frame. You’re closer to the camera physically and in the way you operate – it’s like stabilised handheld.” Perhaps unusually for a stabiliser developer, Wadan has a word of caution that might apply to many camera movement systems. “You have to be disciplined when you pick up this tool. It does give you the freedom to move around. The way we use the exoskeleton and the helix means the operator can be a portable jib. You can get as high as you can reach and low to the ground.” Mr Helix’s exoskeleton and gimbal combination recently found work on The Favourite , particularly shooting carriage interiors for the period drama under DOP, Robbie Ryan. “Usually you’d have to have the roof ripped off, a crane, you can’t be in there. We took the arms off the vest and put the gimbal on scaffolding poles like you do with a Garfield mount. We had the director, the AC and Robbie sitting in the carriage with the actors.”
The variety of work for aerial DOPs has grown over the years, as Pete Jones of PDG Aviation explains: “Once upon a time, you’d be after film jobs, but now a lot of these TV series – Netflix and the others – have a budget that will pay for a helicopter and camera. It used to be only films that had those kinds of budgets.” Cameras, too, have changed. “We do more high resolution filming. It used to be dominated by HD. Now, even the programmes that go out in HD want to record in very high resolutions, 4K and beyond. That’s something that’s made quite a difference, because it’s allowed us to deliver the best quality.” Demand for different cameras has driven more flexible mounting arrangements, and several helicopter service providers use Shotover mounts. Jones describes PDG’s Shotover F1 as “a state-of-the-art system that’s able to do movie work, broadcast work and general production. You can change the camera and the lens inside it. As a new camera comes out, we can pop that in quickly. If you want to fly with a particular lens, you can integrate that easily.” Jeremy Braben of Helicopter Film Services echoes both points, though camera evolution impacts the company’s drone armmore than its helicopter operations. “We’ve just been working on Netflix’s Messiah . We’ve done quite a lot for Netflix and they have the same production values as you’d see in a feature film. We’re getting more requests for bigger, larger format cameras, which affects the drones – to lift the bigger payload you need bigger motors. The limiting factor is the power you can get from batteries versus the weight of said batteries.” There are, however, options to compromise on the broad compatibility of the larger camera mounts. “There’s a new camera system from Shotover called the M1,” says Braben. “It’s a Cineflex-size gimbal and it’s primarily aimed at people who don’t need to change payload that often. So, you would buy it and put in the camera and the lens knowing you’re not going to put something else in it next week. As a result, they can shrink down the package.”
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