Image Stabilization for Helicopter

Justyn, that is fantastic advice. A lot of stuff there I hadn't considered. This company will be very big on safety, and I'm sure they'll be able to get me a full body harness and lanyard to tie me off properly. I was planning on shooting to P2 with my firestore as backup, then going purely to the firestore when the P2 cards ran out (I've only got 2 16GB cards). But I may have to consider this as a time to buy a 32GB card. I'll have to feed back my experience when I'm done.

Thanks very much!

Lawrence
 
Lawrence, You are more than welcome. I had the greatest 2 hours flying in the helicopter and so will you. Safety is a big concern and so will be your offloading. Personally I wouldn't count on the firestore as it failed for a friend of mine due to the vibrations or something like that. 2x 16 gig cards at 720 slow-mo should give you a pretty decent amount of shoot time. How much do you plan on shooting? A 32 gig card might be nice as well.
 
I used "bungee" cords anchored to 4 or more points (see diagram), and a LCD monitor.

Point camera downside before adjust the cords.

Use short focal length (wide angle) or normal lens.

A comfortable seat and a jacket (in cold day) are very usefull.

1217259885.jpg


This setting is very usefull in short travels, try not to force camera towards any point unless it is absolute necesary and for very short amount of time.

Try to let the camera "float", adding little or no force at all.

I hope this is usefull to you.

Sorry about mistakes, english is not my native languaje
 
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Guys, I really appreciate the responses! They have two facilities for which they want aerial shots. I've only got the two 16gb cards, and the stock HVX lens. The more I think about it, the more worried I get. This is my first major client, and (obviously) their business means a lot.

The diagram of the bungies is extremely useful. That gives me some ideas. I don't have an external monitor though (I know, I'm a low-budget guy who's landed a high-budget client, so I might be in trouble). However, they do know that they're getting me EXTREMELY cheap against the market price they are accustomed to paying.

I was thinking that if we are far enough above the facility, focus should not be a major issue and I could use the HVX's built-in LCD.
 
Lawrence. You can chill bro. Don't hold onto this project or your clients too tightly. Have some fun with it. For aerial stuff you will want to follow the action and be wide. you don't need to complicate things. I shot all my stuff with the stock lens and 3x4gig cards. You will have a good amount of record time and just don't roll and roll when it's not optimal. You'll be good and cool and you have to ACT like this isn't a big deal.

ACT like this isn't your first big break. Clients like confidence and the feeling that you've done this a million times before. Take DEEP breaths and relax bro. Just do what you have to do and let them be wowed by the footie... and DONT complicate things for yourself. You don't need to do that to get what you need, and if it doesn't work out you can hire me to come and shoot aerial RC.. we can nail that now... in the beginning it was rough, but now we've shot in the most hardcore of locations and under the craziest of conditions.

peep this, and this was our maden flight. Chopper had just been built and we had a client paying us to do something crazy:


http://www.electriccowtheater.com/SCC/lakeSCC.mov
 
Aerial shots always look best when you are super-low, because you can get a better sense of the space and use a wider lens. Gyros are amazing for heli work. There are some camera operators that can attach a camera to a remote controlled mini-heli. You can get in the "sweet spot" of 50-250 feet more easily that way. The "standard" helicopter shot (think O.J.) uses a gyro and a really long lens, this makes things look super-flat.

If you're good with Trig, you can figure out what altitude you'd like based on what lens you'd like to use.

I would advise against HDD recording of any kind while in a helicopter. Vibrations are unkind to spinning platters.

If you shoot through turbulence, you will get sick, I promise. It's disorienting enough to experience with your eyes, but if you're looking through a viewfinder, it's horrible!
 
For the most part yes, unless you have gyros and some major stabilization, but it depends grately on what you are shooting and your pilot.
 
You haven't shot Helicopter till you shoot standing on the Skids. :beer:
After the first time doing this I got a harness that I attach around the seat. :thumbup:
If you can't afford a tyler mount or a gyrozoom the hand held method is doable. This also gives you somewhat better control and adjustment if your pilot isn't the best.
It's much easier if you have the pilot take the door off that you will be shooting from.
Get on your pilots good side because he is your "tripod" so to speak. I can usually convince the pilot to get down into a decent range, safely of course. :)
Shoot ss wide angle as you can get away with. You can re-frame in post and this allows for better image stableization in post as well.
FWIW, you don't always have a choice, but when you do use the biggest chopper your client can afford. Those R-22's and other 2 seaters really bounce around and vibrate.

We have a chopper shoot in 2 weeks and I WILL be using image stabilization.
Best of luck.
 
Ted.. I agree with you about standing on the skids. I was about 500' up doing that and man alive it was simply awesome and when we banked and came swooshing over the water it was simply the coolest thing ever...
 
Helicopter%20Shoot.jpg


Sat on the floor with legs out the door, tied in with a cargo-strap. This was for a Discovery show.
 
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