Professional Pilot, October 2016
Detailed preparation prior to shooting A great deal of preparation goes into the shooting of a scene Franck first meets with the unit production manager who is the person ultimately in charge of the production and also with the safety ground coordinator city officials and any other persons such as the director who know better what type of shots they need for their scene Then Franck will survey the exact places where the shooting will take place sometimes driving and or walking the route of the vehicles such as for a chase scene prior to filming After all the planning takes place Franck goes to the FAA Flight Standards District Office to submit a plan of activities describing exactly what he is proposing FAA then issues a Low Level Flight Waiver I tell the FAA what I will do and how it will be done safely and I am then able to do so without worrying about the FARs I can even cover the N numbers if required for the scene explains Franck It is worth noting that while some of this flying is of the eye in the sky type routinely done by tv traffic and news helicopters much is completely 100 PROFESSIONAL PILOT October 2016 Helimotion uses its Airbus AS365 N2 Dauphin primarily for executive transport different as the desired shots dictate the flight The camera operator gets the shots but its the pilot who gets that camera into position Consider for example a Superman film when Superman flies around a city the audience will need to see what Superman would be seeing A weather day is built in As every pilot knows weather can interfere with the best made plans For an outdoor scene that will be shot from the air hundreds of people may be involved both on and off camera In addition a great deal of coordination with the Chicago Film Office must be made in order to close off streets and to have the bridges opened and closed at the right times After all that however weather can keep Helimotion on the ground Franck explains A weather day is built in In other words 2 days are usually scheduled for the shot If we cant fly on the 1st day they at least try to get in as much of the shooting as possible that does not involve the helicopter Hopefully we will be able to fly the following day This Director of Operations Michael Franck in front of Airbus AS350 B3e AStar at Vertiport prior to shooting Office Christmas Party scenes Airbus AS350 B3e AStar equipped with a Shotover F1 camera from Vancal Cine and a Spectrolab Nightsun searchlight is ready to film a car commercial in Chicago Photo by Larry Nazimek
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