skydivinmartin 0 #1 May 1, 2002 Hello camera guys,I was watching Joe Jennings' "Good Stuff" with some friends last weekend. We can't figure out some of the footage - when the subject is shot from above and appears to be really close to the ground. (wingsuit footage, Greg Gasson under canopy, chuteless; and an RW bigway) I believe it was shot with a "stabilized camera", but I'm not sure what that is. (in the army, we had a stabilized gunsight on our Bradley Fighting Vehicle, although it broke down a fair bit and I never really understood how it worked). How do they get such incredible depth of field? Does the camera aircraft dive after the subject in freefall, or remain at altitude with the exit aircraft and track the subject all the way down? I believe they used a helicopter for Adrian Nichols' world record tracking dive, but how about to film freefall from exit at 13,500' all the way down to deployment? One of my friends thinks the footage is an illusion, that the background was added later - doubt it.Anyway, I tried a search on this forum for some info, but no luck. Anyone out there know how they shoot such footage?Thanks,Martin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 15 #2 May 1, 2002 Check out Joes website at www.skydive.tv for details. You can also write him and he's good at replying to emails. I can tell you its not an effect added later...If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nacmacfeegle 0 #3 May 1, 2002 A lot of this is explained on the good stuff DVD.I think its basically a very long lens with a depth of field that 'flattens' the image, making the subjects appear much closer to the ground than they actually are. I think the setup is called a 'Gyron' or somthing similar, I think there are stabilising gyroscopes etc in the mount, and its fixed in a chopper door. But I may be wrong, have been before, will be again......I think the effect is stunning by the way.CyaD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nacmacfeegle 0 #4 May 1, 2002 http://www.gyron.com/Has the details......CyaD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 3 #5 May 1, 2002 Those shots were made from a helicopter with a type of camera mount known generically as a Wescam.I don't know the specifics of the mount used in the actual shoot of those particular pieces of footage, but it would have been a variation of THISIf you want to shoot stuff like that, be aware it's very expensive. We're talking in the $800 to $1000 dollar per hour range. That doesn't include the ferry and stand-by fees either so bring buckets of cash and plan your shots well in advance.When I need to shoot helicopter aerials, I tend to use Helinet out of Van Nuys, California. Helinet has some of the best helicopter motion picture pilots available.quadehttp://futurecam.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skydivinmartin 0 #6 May 8, 2002 Hi guys,Thanks to Quade and others for the replies to my post - the Gyron and Wescam websites were cool. I asked Joe Jennings about the footage, and yup, it was mostly shot from a helicopter-mounted Gyron system. As for the depth of field, Joe said that they can dive the helicopter to chase the subject, but "most of the work is done through the lens". He was not more specific than that; the masters don't give up their trade secrets easily, I guess. Martin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
