RedCam Central :: View topic - 1st EPIC-M Aerial 3D Shoot

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Posted online by CJ Roy:

"Hey everyone,

I'm very pleased to announce that the first aerial 3D shoot with Epics took place yesterday in Los Angeles, on the SpaceCam. SpaceCam has a long history of industry firsts, with their custom IMAX cameras, the first RED ONE flight in February of '08 in Las Vegas, to the first RED ONE 3D flights and rigs to be used on Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Final Destination 5 & Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Journey to the Center of the Earth sequel).

The Crew: In attendance was SpaceCam inventor and Academy Award winner Ron Goodman and his team from SpaceCam, Andrew Sych, Phil Rothwell & Café Cibilis. From RED we had the pleasure of Mr. Ted Schilowitz, Travis Sims & Justin Jones. Local 600 DIT's myself & Tony Kwan and 1st AC extraordinaire Richard Avalon. Piloting our helicopter was President of the MPPA (Motion Picture Pilots Association) Rick Shuster flying with an A-star provided by Southcoast Helicopters. Inside the R22 was pilot Dave Childs & photographer Merlinda Salas.

This flight was done for the purpose of testing the unit and for showing several upcoming films what 3D aerials can do, instead of a single camera converted in post. Unfortunately there wasn't enough prep time to use the new dome that SpaceCam is working on, in order to make the 3D rigs more compact. Instead we used the same dome used for the IMAX & 3D on previous films. The size of the EPICs is ideal for this type of work and increases the lens options. SpaceCam had only about 10hrs of prep time to pull this off. It was pretty impressive of them.

We shot at 48fps baserate at 6:1 compression ratio, which gave us about 13.5 minutes per 128mag.

Ted flew with us, so hopefully he can chime in here on his experience and post some of his videos, but the flight went perfectly without a hitch. Below are some of shots directly from the EPICS used, from the Robinson & from the rigging.

I haven't had time to convert any video, as all my Red gear is in Korea and I leave tomorrow to join it to film the Korean Top Gun movie.

In the photos below, you can see Ted in the back, pilot's side. We can achieve 70-75kts in forward flight with this rig. 120kts with the new one. Ted can attest to it, as the photos don't do it justice... but we were extremely close to the other helicopter. Very, very close.

The LCD's are added to let any last minute changes as it was our only control panel. Once the RedMotes are working, we shouldn't have to have the LCD's onboard anymore. Having all the data onscreen, inside the helicopter is extremely helpful.

SpaceCam inventor and Academy Award winner Ron Goodman.

From left to right, Rick Shuster (stepping out of the helicopter, Justin Jones, Ted Schilowitz, Ron Goodman & CJ Roy

Ted brought his own Epic to shoot BTS in the helicopter. There's some pretty cool shots... and a very funny one. He can explain.

This kind of flying made both of us a bit green."

1080p Video: http://vimeo.com/24040757