Aerials - tips/advice?

[Adrian Levander]

Hi,

 

About to shoot a project where I'm also will serve as aerial cinematographer. It contains 3 days of aerials with drones straight so I want to be as prepared as possible, only have experience with simple drone shots before. Having experienced pilot with us of course, but,

 

looking for some general advice really but also have som more specific questions:

 

- Exposure? How to set properly. Shooting film so video-ass won't help.. Use spot meter? Study Ansel Adams? What do the pro-aerial guys do, especially back in the days when everybody shot film. Easy on the ground but feels harder up in the air.

 

- Exposure? Only set it once when leaving ground, roll and then change if needed for next shot after landing? Or is it common to remotly ride the aperture when in the air? Or even ride it in shot? Is this normal?

 

- Focus? Just set on infinity or like 100m? Hard to answer maybe without knowing more about the specific shots. Or do you ride focus with remote? Is this common in proper helicopter/drone shooting? Is focus pulling for helicopter/drone a special skill?

 

- Aperture? For nighttime cityscape shots, will just setting lens at 1.3 at 500T stock be the best? Or should you stay away from 1.3 with aerials and be at like 2.0-2.8 for night (can the drop-off in focus become distracting and noticeable for wide shots in the air?) It's UP16 lenses so they're are pretty sharp at 1.3 otherwise

 

- Exposure daytime? What stop should I aim for? 5.6-8? Even more?

 

- Undercranking/Overcranking? If I shoot everything at 33fps and just speed up in post to normal if needed, would this create ugly artifacts for aerials? Is overcranking common practice as well and something that can be experimented with?

 

- Filters? Any filter recommendations worth considering, for example might shoot mountains with snow (UV-problems?) Other than the standard ND/grads of course.

 

thanks!

 

/Adrian