Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/663382
www.postmagazine.com 35 POST APRIL 2016 ast summer we spoke with Holger Voss, VFX supervisor at Cinesite, about the visual effects work his studio completed for the opening sequence of the then soon-to-be-released disaster film San Andreas. The scene called for the Cinesite team to create a cliff, which didn't actually exist, alongside a road where a car and driver would tumble over the edge as the first tremors of an earthquake began. According to Voss, the production team used a crane to capture footage of a real cliff on which Cinesite based the CG version, but he commented that a drone, equipped with a camera, would have been "very beneficial," as it would have been able to reach areas the crane just couldn't, giving the VFX team more comprehensive data to work with to complete the scene. The use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in film, TV, com- mercials, and all other areas of media is hard to miss and growing at a steady pace — in front of the camera as well as behind it. For instance, CBS recently aired an episode of its series Scorpion that featured a storyline around wea- ponized, drug-delivering drones. But behind the scenes, they are infiltrating production and post projects at increasing levels. Director Gil Green is using drones, recently capturing footage for Pitbull's Fun music video with a UAV from manufacturer Freefly, while CBS's The Amazing Race, along with a number of other reality TV shows, relies on drones to offer aerial or other unique views of its cast. ABC's Good Morning America sent DJI drones on a mission to capture rare and hard-to-get footage of an Icelandic sinkhole and into an erupting volcano for several live broad- casts. And major studio film productions, such as Disney's Into the Woods, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and, more recently, the James Bond block- buster Spectre, all relied on Intuitive Aerial's UAVs. Sam Nicholson, ASC, CEO and founder of VFX house Stargate Studios, says, "We're working with [camera manufacturers] Sony, Arri, and Canon, and with [UAV manufacturer] DJI, to use drones as a matter-of-fact tool for shooting and mapping." For an early episode of last season's Heroes Reborn series captured in Iceland, production crews relied on drones for dramatic, overhead shots. "We used DJI's Inspire 1 professional drone, which was impressive," says Elan Dassani, owner and president of Stargate Studios. "It's powerful enough to fly in very high winds atop a glacier and be stable. It has its own 4K camera with a three-axis gimbal, so it's rock steady for butter-smooth shots. And it fits in one piece of checked luggage. We captured huge, epic aerials, which are so crazy looking that viewers will think they are VFX." "What really brought [drones] to everyone's attention, even on the cin- ematic side of things — the professional use — unfortunately, has been the hobbyists and the misuse of the technology," says Robert C. Rodriguez, founder of the Society of Aerial Cinematography (www.thesoac.com). "It's been over the past year and a half when everyone else started hearing about them — with the FAA involvement and everything. But, for years, drones have been on-set. And they've been used and self-regulated successfully, but because the technology is there and the affordability of the drones is there, A CONTINUING SERIES ON HOW THIS ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY IS REVOLUTIONIZING THE POST PRODUCTION INDUSTRY BY LINDA ROMANELLO Freefly's Alta has been used on such high-profile films as Mad Max: Fury Road and The Wolf of Wall Street. L