Pilot_notes

Crash zoom this is where the zoom is rapidly moved from one focal length to another.

Strobing is a visually disturbing flicker affect that occurs when a pan or pitch rate exceeds the information carried on the individual frames.

Magic hour is typically the one hour after dawn and prior to sunset. It is the absolute best time for filming items such as cars and even has a term much used in advertising agencies "liquid metal ", as the soft shine line moves over the curves of a car

Checking the gate normally is the verbal signal that the Director has concluded shooting the shot. Film in its manufacture carries dust, hairs and other manufacturing debris. When passed through a film camera, small hairs etc can lodge in the gate and cause large visual problems. Whilst these can be taken out using modern post-production computers, it is incredibly expensive, therefore if this is determined at the time, it is safer to shoot an additional shot to cover the situation. Thus do not assume that you will not go again until the "gate's clear" or similar has been called by the camera department.

"86" means get rid of / loose . It is film slang , its origins are not well known but it refers to Rule 86 of New York's Central Park where under rule 86 you can be removed without any reason! So if you hear something odd like "86 the woman with the dog" all should now be clear.

These filming notes have been made to assist Pilots to understand the general terminology and technology that is being used in film and TV programme making now. It is a large and very complex subject.

First of all contrary to most pilots' beliefs, film units are not all headless chickens, there is a great deal of technical expertise that has to go into making quality films.

Accept that most ( by no means all ) film and TV people are a complete pain, however, the helicopter is only part of the days filming and there may be many other considerations; artist availability, camera aspects, which will take precedence over any pressing aspects that you may put forward.

Discipline

It is vitally important that you quietly apply your authority early to maintain safety. Film and TV people are used to working with various dangerous machines from F1 cars to combine harvesters. This tends to lead to an air of complacency with dangerous machines. Few have any concept of the speed and effects of a tail rotor failure.

Legality is one thing, dangerous is quite another i.e what might be legal might be dangerous and vice versa. Never, ever push safety. It's very hard to be the only one saying "No" to a group of 10 knowalls (whatever you are saying no to, some mouthy individual, who at worse has nearly completed a PPL, will have "shot this many times before"). If it means being unpopular, tough.

If you are working flying the camera, remembering the following will greatly improve your perceived performance.

Basic Camera Terminology

Pitch is the camera view movement up and down.

Pan is the camera view movement from side to side.

Dutch is when the camera view is on a slant to the natural horizon.

Subjective camera is when the camera is taking the view through the eyes of someone else or something else i.e birds eye view. etc.

Under cranked (stems from the early days when cameras were literally powered by hand with a "crank" handle . Standard film rate is at 24 or 25 frames per sec. therefore turning the handle at less than this rate when projected on normal speed, the image covered will appear speeded up.

Over cranked is obviously the opposite and slows the image down. It is quite common to shoot at 30 fps thus slowing the action down by 25% and giving a smoother visual image.

A fairly interesting aside is that the original "standard" frame rate was 18fps. Running a frame rate of 18fps on TV is complex requiring random frame duplication. Therefore most of the Keystone Cops, Keaton, Chaplin movies as you have seen them are at 24fps, one third faster than they should be. The high speed walks etc were never intended !

Ramping is where the speed is changing from one speed to another, therefore helicopters may approach with the camera running at 6 fps, thus at 100 knots appearing to be travelling at 400 knots, then coming to the intended scene the lens aperture is adjusted in sync with the film speed of the camera is increased up to the normal 24 fps, allowing normal action to take place.

There is a downside of shooting at low frame speeds, as whilst the helicopter appears to be going four times its speed, so does every other car on the road. Thus you could have an 80 mph horse and cart.

Talking to the ground is vital when undertaking anything where traffic or co-ordination is required. Generally it is best to count in "3.2.1 Action" when the order to start is being given from the helicopter.

It seems the more important the shot the worse radios behave and to filter out the word Action so with calls from the ground you hear "OK here we go" and (next received call) "Helicopter, where the f*** are you!" On single calls always insist on a short count down.

Avoid having hand held radios that take you out of the communication loop, you may be very busy on 2 frequencies but there may be safety aspects that you should be aware of.

Cameras

There are many different types of camera although comparatively few are utilised on helicopters. The key to remember is "Is the camera film or video?". Film will need to be frequently reloaded, whilst video can run for 30 - 60mins (reloading often on board) this will modify your fuel and landing planning.

Running lengths typical film loads are 400ft and 1000 ft.

At 24 frames per second with 35mm format, the film runs at 90 ft per minute. Thus 400ft roll will last approximately 4 minutes allowing for some spare at the head (front) and tail (end). However, 400 ft of 16mm format runs at the same frame rate of 24 fps but due to its smaller frame size it only passes through the gate at 36 ft per minute. Thus a 400 ft rolls lasts 10 minutes.

It must be remembered if you are under or over cranking these rates will change by the appropriate percentage.

Screen Direction

Screen Direction affects the situation where you are filming a car and if all other shots are of a car going from left to right in frame, if you shoot the car going right to left, visually it is quite confusing to the viewer. Additionally, depending on the language, to do a pan cross lettering in English, traditionally we pan as we read, from left to right, and obviously the reverse for Arabic. Chinese is too difficult to even contemplate as it is vertical!

Per Diems

Per Diems are per day and are monies to cover normally all meals and other hotel expenses. When

its issued check what it covers and for how many nights.

British crews sometimes nickname it WAM, Walking About Money!

Catering

You are not normally expected to pay for any catering on location. So if you want to blend in keep your money in your pocket and act shocked if you have to pay!

Camera Calls

From time to time you will get calls from the ground telling the camera operators from the cameraman what to set the lens aperture at. They are incredibly pedantic and will use phrases such as "a line under or over 8"; refering to an engraved line on the lens that is only half a millimeter wide, which may refer to a tenth of a stop. (Good luck to them. If I could do it I would!) They may refer to stops either as a f-stop or more commonly, a t-stop. If when relaying a call to the on-board operator, having done so, confirm back to the ground that this has been passed on. Without this call it causes a great deal of agitation to the cameraman.