Shooting from a Helicopter - frame rate?

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Denwa

Well-known member
On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be shooting cave explorers as they repel down a cliff into some caves. I'll be shooting from a helicopter with the doors off. Will also be getting scenic shots.

Trying to decide a Frame rate. 30p or 60p? Shooting on an HMC 150. Probably on a counterbalanced shoulder mount.

Would like to shoot 1080 30P but am worried about stutters from quick movement. Haven't shot from a helicopter before.

Any suggestions and tips?
 
Unless you've rented a pictorvision rig, then use wide shots as much as possible. Smaller helicopters work better than those old big beasts, (Bell 212) as the vibration on those big suckers are extremely difficult to compensate for.
 
At least you're on an HMC150, not a CMOS camera. The only suggestion I'd have would be that if you start shooting and you run into issues with vibrations, bring up the shutter speed so that you don't get too much motion blur. You could compensate for the movement in post with something like the smoothcam filter in FCP, but that won't get rid of motion blur. If you go down that route, shooting at 60p would help eliminate the strobey look of a higher shutter speed, but I'd take into consideration other things regarding the project before going with 60p.
 
I find this a very interesting topic, having filmed some heli shoots myself (not high profile at all). I've stayed with 720 50p with 180 degree shutter on previous shots. But would like to know if others have good experience with eg 1080 25p? Or other framerates and/or shutter speeds?

I guess type of heli and what stabilisation used is very important in this combo.

I've just filmed handheld out of small window, only leaning cam (hpx170) to body for stabilising, and found that to be pretty hard. I was restricted due amount of passengers, and could not open any doors.

Any thoughts on this? :)
 
I shot from a Robinson R22. As Craig said.......plan on shooting wide and stabilizing/cropping in post.

That thing uses what I consider a modified Volkswagon engine. And it was vibration hell.

Aerial Cam Op.jpg
 
Coming from an aerial video background using RD Quadcopters, I have to suggest 60fps. If you can do that in 1080p, great, but 720p/60 is good too. This is because even though you can stabilize footage, being able to play it back in slow motion smooths it out even more. You definitely should stabilize everything in post no matter what, but when you can play back 60fps at 30fps, it's very sweet.

Here's some footage I shot at 720p60, then conformed to 720p30, and stabilized in Apple Motion. It's only GoPro footage, but you get the idea:
 
Denwa said:
On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be shooting cave explorers as they repel down a cliff into some caves. I'll be shooting from a helicopter with the doors off. Will also be getting scenic shots.

Trying to decide a Frame rate. 30p or 60p? Shooting on an HMC 150. Probably on a counterbalanced shoulder mount.

Would like to shoot 1080 30P but am worried about stutters from quick movement. Haven't shot from a helicopter before.

Any suggestions and tips?
Click to expand...

Shoot whatever frame rate is required for the end product and dont go too telephoto. Shooting 1080 for 720 works well for stabilisation in post.

Its an R44, Im assuming the door will be off - you probably wont be able to use a shoulder type set up. Few reasons. R44 isnt big enough to allow you to do that and have the camera secure. The camera must be strapped to something.

Its a compromise. If you dont have a Gyro, position yourself comfortably so you arent getting any leg shake and hold the camera down on it. Gaff something to your leg to help keep it flat and even - a small cine saddle or the like. In a R44 with no gyro and doing it the way I prescribed - expect mixed results. But I havent come across a better way to do it in such a small unit. Gyro is your best bet if you can get your hands on one.

http://www.ken-lab.com/
 
I agree with the aforementioned post. I recently did my first two heli shoots a couple of months back, on an aircraft similar to the one you will be using. Unfortunately in my case, the aerials were added last minute, so I didnt have time or budget left to rent a rig, so I had to shoot with my 7D, T2i, and a few GoPro's mounted to the exterior of the chopper. I opted to shoot for what I needed my end product to be (1080p/24).
I used a small weighted DSLR shoulder rig on my 7D for all of my B-Roll and principal footage. I initially brought the T2i to use for stills, but ended up throwing it on a monopod to play around with, and ended up with some great footage.

I agree, definitely shoot wide. My only regret was using a CMOS camera, but was able to clean up the rolling shutter in post. I also agree that without the use of a gyro, you're more than likely going to have to stabilize in post. Have you ever used the Merecalli ProDAD plugins before? I cleaned up all of my aerials in Premiere with ProDAD and was more than satisfied with the results. It stabilized my footage incredibly well, and it also has a rolling shutter fix (which you wont need to worry about). The only advice I can give is figure out the best way to keep your arms and your shots as steady as possible, and the wider you can shoot, the better.

Good luck!
 
Denwa said:
On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be shooting cave explorers as they repel down a cliff into some caves. I'll be shooting from a helicopter with the doors off. Will also be getting scenic shots.

Trying to decide a Frame rate. 30p or 60p? Shooting on an HMC 150. Probably on a counterbalanced shoulder mount.

Would like to shoot 1080 30P but am worried about stutters from quick movement. Haven't shot from a helicopter before.

Any suggestions and tips?
Click to expand...

Quick question. I'm shooting in a MD500 or a Hughes 500 tomorrow morning. I'm just trying to get scenic stuff. How would this affect me?
 
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