Navy Swimmer: Mountain Rescue & Sea Rescue Sequences
Listed below are the breakdowns for what Shane Hurlbut, ASC deployed on the Navy Swimmer project.
The breakdown for the Mountain Rescue portion of Navy Swimmer.
- 1-camera in deep water housing which captures underwater and split level shots
- 1-camera mounted on the Navy Swimmers helmet to capture him exiting the helicopter and being lowered down in between the rocks, and then lifting back off of the rocks and back into the helicopter
- 1- camera mounted on a Cine flex gyro mount on an A-star helicopter giving us helicopter-to-helicopter shots; our scope. The Navy swimmer helicopter leaving the tarmac, heading to mountain rescue location, hovering at a scene, and then heading back to base. Mission accomplished
- 1- camera in the Navy Swimmer helicopter capturing pilots communications, Navy Swimmer & Corpsman getting ready, jumping out of helicopter and retrieving climber
- 4- cameras on the mountain terrain with 4 different focal lengths lensing the action from a distance. 1-300mm Canon, 1-600mm Canon, 1-70-200mm Canon Zoom, and 1-100-400mm Canon Zoom
- 3-cameras handheld underneath the choppers prop washing getting more intimate coverage, seeing the Corpsman lower down, then Navy Swimmer comes down with the backboard, handheld as they help climber, and then document him getting pulled up to the helicopter
- 1-camera on tarmac in a mini-van as Navy Swimmers get the call
- 1- camera handheld following the swimmers to the helicopter and preparing before lift-off
- 1-camera on wide shot as helicopter lifts off
The breakdown for the Sea Rescue portion of Navy Swimmer.
- 1-camera in deep water housing which captures underwater and split level shots
- 1-camera mounted on the Navy Swimmers helmet in a surf housing so that it can take on water
- 1- camera mounted on a Cine flex gyro mount on an A-star helicopter giving us helicopter-to-helicopter shots, our scope
- 1- camera in the Navy Swimmer helicopter capturing pilots communications, Navy Swimmer & Corpsman getting ready, jumping out of Helicopter and retrieving pilot
- 4- cameras on a boat back away from the prop wash and with 4 different focal lengths. 1-300mm Canon, 1-600mm Canon, 1-70-200mm Canon Zoom, and 1-100-400mm Canon Zoom
- 1-camera on the tarmac in a mini-van as Navy Swimmers get the call
- 1- camera handheld following the swimmers to the helicopter and preparing before lift-off
- 1-camera on a wide shot as the helicopter lifts off
My Elite Team makes me shine every day and the visuals that you see are a collaborative effort!
Hey Shane, great stuff as ever. Bought a 5D myself the other day with the intention of using it for stills and found myself shooting a promo for Honda on it a week later with the “proper” video camera left in the van.
Question – surely not all of the cameras listed in this post can all have been 5D/7Ds? I’m thinking particuarly of the air-to-air shots in which I’d have thought the rolling shutter would cause the picture chopper’s blades to go all wobbly and horrid…
Ed Moore, no not all of it was the 5D, but the chopper blade issue was not a problem with the 5D. I am getting a ton of feedback on the propellors of planes bending and chopper blades doing the same. I have not come across that. If this is something that is frequent in your video, then I think your compact flash card has a low processing rate and is not UDMA. Your card has to process at 45/mb sec.
I have a question, just so that I am clear, all of that was shot using canon 5d mk2? Its awesome work you did a fantastic job.
Christian, the slow-mo shot running towards the Helicopter was 35mm, aerial photography Sony F23 with a gyro stabilized head, the interviews were Sony F900, and all the action shots were 5D.
what was shot on 35, 5d, etc?
seems too good to be all 5d or 7d.
if so, amazing.
please do tell.
Branson, the slow-mo shot running towards the Helicopter was 35mm, aerial photography was Sony F23 with a gyro stabilized head, all the interviews were the Sony F 900, and the action shots were 5D.
Shane first time to the blog and I cant get enough. I am use to shooting on ex3 style cameras and am about to purchase a 7d. Just curious to get your opinion on lens selection. If you could only use one zoom lens for the rest of your career hahha between what focal lengths would you choose? I obviously will only be purchasing one to start off with.
Kyle, with the 7D I would go with something in the 24-70, or 24-80. Nikon has some nice zooms that are around a 2.8 in that range. If you want Canon, they have a 28-70mm 2.8 that is nice, or the 24-105 with IS. I have that lens and it is a decent lens but it is very slow, 4.0-5.6. Happy shopping
Beautiful work, Shane! Just exquisite! And getting to hang with the soldiers must have been great too!
Kenn Bell, it was awesome. Thank you so much. More to come
Shane how does the footage from the cineflex cut with the 5D,7D and 35 footage? The finished product looks seamless but I never know what goes on in post. I have a couple of cineflex systems and I am always wondering if there is anything more I should do with settings (like hyper gamma ) to help make things go smoothly in post.
Patrick longman, I am coming down to Miami to use one of your Cineflex systems. First off I love the design and how it works. I have had great results with the Sony F-950 with a HDSR 4:4:4 Deck. I shot the whole opening sequence of “We are Marshall” with it and loved the freedom and ability to capture light qualities that never were possible before. The High Gamma look I find is difficult to gauge when you are exposing in the helicopter. I feel a neutral LUT, is best. One that extends your range but gives you some sense of contrast. Now a question back at you. We are slated to use your rig when we shoot the Nuclear Sub breaching portion of the Navy SEAL movie, how does the 1500 stack up against the Sony F-950?
Hey Shane – Great blog! What housing are you using with the 5D for the underwater shots? Do you have a housing you use with the 7D as well?
I’m a ‘still’ action/sports photographer: http://www.kevinwinzeler.com and will be jumping in with both feet in 2010 to shooting some some short films along with my stills.
Do you ever shoo the 7D at 60fps, or does that create too many problems for keeping the continuity of 1080p? For example, in your opening shot you mention 35mm for the slo-mo. I’m wondering how you would create a similar scene if you only had access to Canon 5D, 7D.
Thanks again for taking your time to post and answer questions!
Kevin
Kevin Winzeler, thank you so much for your kind words. You all rock!!!! My underwater photographer was Pete Zuccarini, http://www.underwatermovies.com. He did “Into the Blue” with me and “Terminator,” along with countless commercials. He used the deep water Seacam housing for the 5D on Navy Swimmer. We also use the Aquatech surf housing for all the pool work which they just made a 7D back for me that you can get for any slow-mo. I have used the 7D for slow-mo and have been impressed with it even though it is 720. I have used it for short moments. You should check out Twixtor http://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor, they have a slow-mo for your 5D so that you can keep your 1080 for specific shots. Check out there website, it is pretty impressive. I feel I would deal with slow-motion in this way. If I did not have a film camera I would go for a Twixtored 5D image for the right application, and then embrace the 720 with the 7D for the slow-mo moments that would not work with Twixtor.
Shane, I am glad to hear you guys are coming down to Florida and that you are going to use one of my systems. Hopefully I can get out there with you guys one of these days to shoot some aerials for you.
I feel the 1500 has some definite improvements over the 950. The new sensor and its signal to noise ratio seem to be the most notable. When I work on jobs that provide a dit that is always the first question “is it a 950 or 1500?” They are both great cameras.
The other improvements to the newer 3rd generation gimbals are a much bigger deal. Most notably for me is to be able to interchange lenses in the field which you could not do with a lot of the original systems that had 950’s.
Patrick longman, that sounds great, you have sold me on the 1500. I cannot wait to shoot this Submarine breaching from the air, with a little zodiac racing across the Atlantic. Hope to see you down there.
Shane, Let me know how it went on Friday with the Cineflex shots. I am very jealous of David getting to shoot that job but he is one of the best guys out there. Sounds like a really cool shoot.
patrick longman, it went very well. Thank you so much for your guidance on the 1500. David Knoll did Terminator with me and he is amazing.
Shane, thanks for sharing these. Nice work.
I can vouch for Patrick’s work and his rig. I worked with him back in October here in Chicago on some aerials with a really good pilot. The Cineflex has absolutely amazing quality and stability for its size. Of course, you need a good operator, too.
Martin Baumgaertner, Thank you for your kind words, I love Pat, I am bringing him down to the Dominican Republic to rock out a Tourism job.
Hi Shane, great movies! Really fantastic work. I was just wondering if the helicopter shots where we see rotating blades are taken with a dslr. I’m almost sure it isn’t because there’s no jello effect that would have been there with a cmos dslr like the 5D, 7D, or 1D.
Hans, Some of the shots are a Sony F-950 when you see chopper to chopper but the shots in the water looking up at the helicopter are all 5D, as well as on the water looking at the Chopper as the Navy Swimmer jumps out and also retrieves the downed pilot, as well as in the crevasse. I have never had a jello issue with helicopter blades.
I just found this website a while back when a buddy suggested it to me. I have been an avid reader ever since.
Londa Boleware, I am glad you enjoyed it.