matteo_tgv
01-08-2006, 04:26 AM
Hi there,
Please allow an explanation of the reasons of this thread:
I'm gona do a lot of air/aerial filming this year because:
For the next spring, I am planing to make a Dracula documentary here in Romania (Vlad Tepes - Vlad the Impaler --- actually Bram Stoker's story is nothing more than a story, with few real historical but distorted insertions --- Draculea, not Dracula, was actually the grand-father of Vlad and he was nicknamed so because he had a dragon imprinted on his flag and local people did dot know what a dragon is and they thought it should be a sort of a devil -- Devil=Drac in Romanian language). The real story is much-much longer, and definitely much more interesting than Bram Stoker's novel, even if the vampyre stuff are not to be found in reality. As for vampiyres in Romania and Transilvania, I've never seen one in my entire life or even not heard of something of the sort, even though I live in a city were Vlad and his predecesors had the political capital and headquarters and even if I travel a lot in Transilvania, in the mountains, meet all kind of people and sleep often in tents in the forest and sometimes even in old and abandoned ruins of castles or so. Anyway, it is also true that there are several Dracula-related objectives, but those are only for touristic purporse (for example: The Bran Castle is surnamed nowadays as Dracula's Castle, but the reality is that Vald never entered the door/gate of that castle in his entire life!!!).
More, there are other few castles who really belonged to Vlad and sheltered him in hard times. Those castles are much wilder than you can imagine, the access is very difficult, through tunnels, at high mountain peaks. But such locations are not accessible to tourits, obviously. And, one of our objectives is to fly around and above such places for filming (maybe even parachuting an alpinist cameraman inside, which will take shots and then find his way to the lower grounds where we can retrieve him -- but the main problem in such an operation would be that some of these places are the natural and undisturbed habitat of vipers which can be very violent sometimes if they sense any kind of disturbance --- the anti-venom vaccin should be kept in refrigerated conditions and, also, in case anything happens, it would be mostly difficult and time costing to reach someone in such locations -- so, I'm not sure if the parachuting thing bears only an acceptable amount of risck).
Please do not imagine something with high budget or so (but I have a feeling that the result will be similar). We will pay this from our own pockets, we will use our trikes or friends trikes and help (the UL pilots comunity in Romania is very small, because very few people can aford such activities and gear here, but we are all firends and united and allways help each others).
Also, this year I will be flying in an ultralight aircrafts tour/expedition around Romania (I did this last year, too, but I did not film it because I did not have the proper equipment). We will overfly mountains, remote areas, Danube Delta, cities, hidden monasteries etc.
Is there anybody here with some experience in filmling from an ultralight aircraft ?
I used this kind of filming a lot. And the main problem is shakeing. I am asking myself what should I do in order to stabilize the cam better. (we made several materials shot from the air and in most parts of them, the footage was unpleasantly shaked)
When shooting from a tandem paraglider, things are much easier and you have no options to improuve it, anyway (at list this is what I think). Anyway, a paraglider has more gentle movements and, due to cameraman's position (front harness), he can absorb any shocks with his hands (I hope I'm succeeding in explaining correctly the phenomena).
BUT: the main challenge comes when you film from a motorised UL aircraft (such as an airplane or a trike type powered hang-gilder).
Generally, I avoid shooting from airplanes because of the lack of visibility and usable angles. At this point, the trike (for those who do not know what it is, the pic in my avatar shows one) is by far the best flying filming accessory, if I might say so. Also, the flight hour costs are much lower. Also extremely important: you can carry your trike attached to the car in a simple trailer cart and set it up easily at the take-off place and it is able to take-off only within very short runways and you can use almost anything as a runway (a road, a quite plane field, etc.).
So, I will try to concentrate the discussion towards the trike filming issue.
With the camera in the hands, your material will be very much shaken.
So, I thought that if I attach a chord/cable to the core of the trike (the point where the trike is attached to the wing/canopy) and attach in then on the cam's handle, it might be better. Also, it is very important to maintain the mobility of the camera. I will try this as soon as the weather will be a little better for flying here.
Did anyone try this?
Or, can anyone give me better advice?
Tks a lot,
Dan
Please allow an explanation of the reasons of this thread:
I'm gona do a lot of air/aerial filming this year because:
For the next spring, I am planing to make a Dracula documentary here in Romania (Vlad Tepes - Vlad the Impaler --- actually Bram Stoker's story is nothing more than a story, with few real historical but distorted insertions --- Draculea, not Dracula, was actually the grand-father of Vlad and he was nicknamed so because he had a dragon imprinted on his flag and local people did dot know what a dragon is and they thought it should be a sort of a devil -- Devil=Drac in Romanian language). The real story is much-much longer, and definitely much more interesting than Bram Stoker's novel, even if the vampyre stuff are not to be found in reality. As for vampiyres in Romania and Transilvania, I've never seen one in my entire life or even not heard of something of the sort, even though I live in a city were Vlad and his predecesors had the political capital and headquarters and even if I travel a lot in Transilvania, in the mountains, meet all kind of people and sleep often in tents in the forest and sometimes even in old and abandoned ruins of castles or so. Anyway, it is also true that there are several Dracula-related objectives, but those are only for touristic purporse (for example: The Bran Castle is surnamed nowadays as Dracula's Castle, but the reality is that Vald never entered the door/gate of that castle in his entire life!!!).
More, there are other few castles who really belonged to Vlad and sheltered him in hard times. Those castles are much wilder than you can imagine, the access is very difficult, through tunnels, at high mountain peaks. But such locations are not accessible to tourits, obviously. And, one of our objectives is to fly around and above such places for filming (maybe even parachuting an alpinist cameraman inside, which will take shots and then find his way to the lower grounds where we can retrieve him -- but the main problem in such an operation would be that some of these places are the natural and undisturbed habitat of vipers which can be very violent sometimes if they sense any kind of disturbance --- the anti-venom vaccin should be kept in refrigerated conditions and, also, in case anything happens, it would be mostly difficult and time costing to reach someone in such locations -- so, I'm not sure if the parachuting thing bears only an acceptable amount of risck).
Please do not imagine something with high budget or so (but I have a feeling that the result will be similar). We will pay this from our own pockets, we will use our trikes or friends trikes and help (the UL pilots comunity in Romania is very small, because very few people can aford such activities and gear here, but we are all firends and united and allways help each others).
Also, this year I will be flying in an ultralight aircrafts tour/expedition around Romania (I did this last year, too, but I did not film it because I did not have the proper equipment). We will overfly mountains, remote areas, Danube Delta, cities, hidden monasteries etc.
Is there anybody here with some experience in filmling from an ultralight aircraft ?
I used this kind of filming a lot. And the main problem is shakeing. I am asking myself what should I do in order to stabilize the cam better. (we made several materials shot from the air and in most parts of them, the footage was unpleasantly shaked)
When shooting from a tandem paraglider, things are much easier and you have no options to improuve it, anyway (at list this is what I think). Anyway, a paraglider has more gentle movements and, due to cameraman's position (front harness), he can absorb any shocks with his hands (I hope I'm succeeding in explaining correctly the phenomena).
BUT: the main challenge comes when you film from a motorised UL aircraft (such as an airplane or a trike type powered hang-gilder).
Generally, I avoid shooting from airplanes because of the lack of visibility and usable angles. At this point, the trike (for those who do not know what it is, the pic in my avatar shows one) is by far the best flying filming accessory, if I might say so. Also, the flight hour costs are much lower. Also extremely important: you can carry your trike attached to the car in a simple trailer cart and set it up easily at the take-off place and it is able to take-off only within very short runways and you can use almost anything as a runway (a road, a quite plane field, etc.).
So, I will try to concentrate the discussion towards the trike filming issue.
With the camera in the hands, your material will be very much shaken.
So, I thought that if I attach a chord/cable to the core of the trike (the point where the trike is attached to the wing/canopy) and attach in then on the cam's handle, it might be better. Also, it is very important to maintain the mobility of the camera. I will try this as soon as the weather will be a little better for flying here.
Did anyone try this?
Or, can anyone give me better advice?
Tks a lot,
Dan