Im right in the middle of a really big project with Dinamo&NRK, doing the intros for this years National Eurovision finals. One of the VTs will be an introduction to each city. I cant say to much about the content yet, but its turning out to be a modern and exciting little piece from each area.  A work still in progress, just returned from Orlandet (near Trondheim) yesterday, so two more cities to go. Will post when allowed!

In each city, were doing an aerial tour over the biggest sight, and for this Im using the trusty 1dMRKIV (which we used on “Dag”, a episodic feature on Norways TV2) and the Tyler Mini Gyro. Im renting the Gyro from a company called Nord Helikopter (who I learned about through my good collegue Pål Haagenrud at Moviebird.no). The guys at Nord sent in down to me when I arrived on the shoot in Florø, insisting that it was a plug and play device. The only catch was that it needed 20 minutes spin-up-time. Pretty nervous, and with the entire crew of a Sea King Rescue Helicopter looking over my shoulder, anxious to go, I assembled the two parts together, connected the battery and flicked the little on button. During its 20 minutes spin up time it went from a low hum to a pretty loud noise, but compared to the helicopter it was silent. We went for a 5 hour run through some of Norways most scenic terrain, truly my best day at work yet!

Tips for handling the gyro:

– Handheld as much as you can. At least on the DSLRs you really need to have as little vibration as possible (rolling shutter..). Its rough for your back over time, but lift the gyro so the shock absorber doesnt touch the floor.

– The IS on your lens will help you. I used the 24-105 F4 IS alot. That zoom range and IS is really what you need, and the IS will add to the gyro effects in most cases. You can pull off a pan on an object when zoomed all the way in, but it requires a turbulence free strip of air 🙂

– Dont hang out of the aircraft. The air outside the fuselage will vibrate your camera and gyro to much. Stay inside the fuselage, with an open door.

– Get a great pilot. The pilot is really the cameraman. You need a intercom to talk to the guy/girl, but then its all up to him how to execute the manouvers. A 360 spin around an object can be done with our without tilting the rotors down into your frame. If you want to follow a house on the ground, you can to it by panning, keeping it mid frame. But the best “heli-look” is in my opinion when the pilot makes the frame, ie doing a 360 around a boat, mountain, lighthouse.