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About London Helicam
London helicam specialises in high end aerial imaging and footage. We use a custom designed gyro-stabilised 8 rotor drone, capable of shooting steadicam like footage from the air.
We shoot primarily with the RED Epic for the best possible quality, but also have a range of other cameras.
Our drone pilots have been flying all their lives and won several awards - we do not recommend trying to fly an octocopter with a heavy payload without sufficient experience - it can prove to be a costly excercise at best, and dangerous for bypassers at worst.
Using London Helicam can be very cost effective compared to traditional aerial shoots, and allows for previously unimaginable shots that would have required costly and slow CGI.
Our crew has years of experience spanning engineering, electronics, cinematography, editing and post-production and we have flown our drones in feature films, commercials and television productions. We deliver a full package including pre-planning, insurance, permissions, all the necessary equipment, remote control gyro stabilized camera head, camera with Zeiss lenses, wireless video assist and crew of two people with years of remote flying experience. All the equipment fits in flight cases and is ready to shoot in 15 minutes of arrival.
Helicopter
We are currently flying many different copters for different tasks. Two modified German electric Minicopter Maxi Joker III and II, Flying weight about 13kg with camera and 3 customised octocopters with custom electronics, gyro stabilisation and patented quick release mechanism for fast assembly and disassembly.
- Top speed of 70/kmh
- Custom gyro stabilisation for extremely stable footage
- Maximum control range of over a mile, but we fly within line of sight (around 300m) from the pilot to be able to control the drone better, as well as for safety reasons.
- 5-10minutes of continuous flight time depending on the load and weather, after which we replace the batteries and start flying again.
- Able to fly nearly anywhere - inside, outside, over water, near to buildings, close to the action
- Camera has a separate remote control with tilt, pan and roll controls, being able to control it independently of the drone.
- We have a wireless video link to the RED camera allowing us and our clients to see what the aerial camera sees, in real time. This way we are able to direct the shots from the ground
- We always put safety first, and strict safety procedures and checklists to ensure maximum safety on set. In wrong hands a large RC drone can be very dangerous. That's why we fly only in a controlled environment. If we feel it's unsafe to fly, we don't.
- We never fly on top of audience or crowd who are not well briefed and trained for emergency procedures. However, as you can see from our showreel video, it is usually rather easy to arrange a clear path of flight even in events with large audiences to create the feeling of being close - or on top of the crowd.
Cameras
We offer several cameras and lenses - Canon 5Dmk III, RED Epic, Scarlet, Ikonoskop a-cam DII, Panasonic AF100, Canon C300 etc. Our camera of choice is always the RED Epic.
The lenses included in our RED Epic package are Tokina 11-16 f2.8, Zeiss 21mm f2.8, Canon L24mm f1.2. You can however specify your own lenses if necessary.
RED Epic specs:
- Up to 5k Footage
- 16bit RAW video with 13 stops of dynamic range in normal mode, 18 stops in HDRx mode, giving superb latitude
- Up to 300 frames per second
- Used in films such as The Hobbit, Total Recall, The Amazing Spider-Man, Prometheus and many more Hollywood films coming out in 2013.
Post-production
We also have extensive experience in post-production, particularily with RED Epic workflow, and have developed custom algorithms for turning the RAW video footage into beautiful images. The high dynamic range of the sensor is unprecedented in video, and to be able to take full advantage of it requires novel methods of image processing.
- Bad Piggies at BatterseaSep272012
- India from AirSep142012
Bad Piggies at Battersea
27 Sep 2012
Rovio was launching a sequel to their well known game Angry Birds, called Bad Piggies, and had a brilliant launch campaign in mind. To re-enact the famous Pink Floyd album Cover for their LP "Animals", Rovio commissioned a huge inflatable green pig to be floated in the exact same location in Battersea Power Station, along with a light and projector show to promote the new Bad Piggies game.
Rovio wanted to capture the magnificent views of the green pig floating against a London skyline from air, and we were there to make that happen. We shot a 3 minute clip of the show with our RED Epic equipped helicam, and edited it together for the following day to be used in a global PR launch of the game.
Bad Piggies is currently #1 on the App Store and it's great fun to play - go check it out!
India from Air
14 Sep 2012
From beach side Kerala to untouched jungle to high altitudes of the Himalayas, we covered an amazing array of Indian terrain in a 2 week shoot for an Indian SUV manufacturer for an upcoming range of TV commercials directed by one of India's top directors, using a 100 man crew. We can't share the footage publicly before the car models have officially launched, but trust us, there are some breathtaking scenes from air from this stunningly diverse country.
Contact
We will be happy to chat about your project, give advice and recommendations - just give us a call or drop us an email.
We can also organise a face to face meeting or a demo session in the London area.
- Phone: +44 (0)75 4044 5723
- Email: info@londonhelicam.co.uk
For Northern Europe bookings, please contact our sister company.
