Aerial shots, NYC

GeorgeSelinsky · March 6, 2004

Hi all,

I got a dilemma. I would love to get a birdseye view of a few NYC streets at night at a fairly low altitude (about 200 feet or so), but of course I have no money to rent a chopper (nor do I think they can fly above NYC nowadays).

I remember once seeing someone on a TV program take a remote controlled airplane and attach a Bolex to it. He flew it around and got some interesting footage. It was mounted in some styrofoam shock mount.

I was wondering if anyone has any idea for this sort of thing - I have an Eyemo with a 12V motor that I can try to use for this. The shot does not have to be steadicam stable. I don't know if flying these babies over NYC streets is legal or not, but that's a different ball game.

Thanks in advance,

- G.

Bill Totolo · March 6, 2004

George,

When we needed aerials for a doc. I worked on we made friends with the local news copter crew. For the price of gas we got amazing footage. Conveniently their cameras are already mounted. Of course we settled for Beta but after telecine it looks amazing.

Michael Nash · March 7, 2004

Sounds like a perfect use of a "Copter Vision" rig (remote controlled helicopter with attached camera). I'd bet that if you contacted them they'd know about the legalities, or could at least check for you. I've never used them, just passing along the info. I think there are competitors as well:

http://coptervision.com/

I've been fortunate enough to fly a few times with different law enforcement agencies -- they can pretty much do whatever they want! And their craft are usually the best maintained.

Michael Nash · March 7, 2004

Another thought: Check out stock footage companies. The perfect shot may already exist. I love the straight-down night shots they use in the TV show "Without A Trace." http://www.cbs.com/primetime/fall_preview_...without_01.html

Mitch Gross · March 8, 2004

It is illegal to fly little remote planes or anything else in NYC without special permits. Stock footage can get very expensive and they charge by the second--they'll even charge for you to check the archives for footage you might want. It's likely cheaper to take a tourist flight that you pay hourly or as suggested make friends with a local news chopper.