Helicopter video shooting. No gimbal but Merlin steadicam and pillow

S

Stelvium

Well-known member
Hallo guys,
unfortunately here we can't rent any Kenyon Lab gyros, but the options to bring on board with my d7100 are:
Spyder Shoulder mount
Steadicam Merlin
A pillow

Unfortunately i don't know anybody that could give me a gimbal from DJI or stuff like that in the next hours
What are your suggestion from shooting from helicopter with this gear?
Thx
 
I've done helicopter shoots, big turbo machine - they removed the side door and taped my seatbelt buckle closed.

The door off gave me way more shots (and was way more terrifying). I used a shoulder rig and wedged the camera to my face with the EVF. With the door open, there's some crazy turbulence going on. Get the best OIS you can. Every time we turned for another pass, the pilot would bank so that I was looking down at the ground. Pretty freaky. I wedged my feet against the front seat supports and managed to stay pretty stiff.

In that scenario, there's simply no way any sort of steadicam would have worked - the camera would have spun like a top.

I've heard guys talk about doing sort of an "X" of heavy duty bungie cords and fastening to the camera?
 
Here's me doing a shot for a client with a C300, camera strapped around my neck and nothing else. Pull firmly on the strap to give stability. I told the client what they actually needed to pull the shot off of course, however they didn't want to spend the extra few bucks (when you consider what the helicopter, the pilot, myself shooting etc was it really equated to an extra few bucks). These days I'd hire a drone op for this, so whilst I did a number of these like this in the past, my hanging out the door heli days are behind me.

Couple of notes:

Merlin will not work with the door off.
Pillow probably a no go unless its tapped to you.
Spyder shoulder mount - hard to use in a hell.

Everything needs to be locked down - can't see it in this shot, however Im using a safety cable on the camera. Anything that could exit the heli, needs to be locked down - including yourself.

COPTER.jpg
 
I'd have to agree that many shots that used to done in helicopters can be more easily achieved with drones. Unless you're shooting 35mm film...
 
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