Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/860302
www.postmagazine.com 8 POST AUGUST 2017 BITS & PIECES HELICOPTER FILM SERVICES LAUNCHES THE TYPHON 6 CAMERA ARRAY LONDON — Amid a burgeoning visual special effects industry that continues to contrib- ute markedly to the UK's key creative sector, in a post Brexit economy, Helicopter Filming Services (HFS) (www.helicopterfilm.tv ), a European-based aerial filming business having worked on such projects as Wonder Woman, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre and Ex Machina, launches a new camera array. The Typhon 6 Array incorporates 6 Arri Alexa Mini cameras mounted in a Shotover K1 system to shoot plates that can then be stitched togeth- er in post production. The Typhon 6 Array is designed to enable both aerial and ground-based filming of sequences where a particularly wide field of vision is required. According to the company, VFX teams have had arrays, but the Typhon 6 offers a high level of sophistication in terms of stabilization and flexibility. "The Typhon has been designed to meet the needs of visual effects with maximum stabil- ity and minimal set up," says Jeremy Braben, Aerial DP and founder, Helicopter Film Services. "Testing has proven its popularity with VFX supervisors who want the large area coverage." Already having taken out the Typhon 6 on a first run for the upcoming, Paddington 2, Tim Wellspring, unit production manager on the film says, "We've had a first use with the Typhon 6 Mini Array on the Shotover K1, and it works beautifully. The shoots we have done on Paddington 2 were loved by the VFX team and everyone else involved. Eric Wilson, the DP, was thrilled to learn there's now an Arri Alexa solution to shooting with a stabilized array." Framestore's Glen Pratt, the visual effects supervisor on the film, adds, "Obviously, the more pixels we have, the better. The Typhon Array gives us a huge field of view - its vertical field of view is particularly big. Having a larger field of view gives us a better sense of the environment you're moving through, and also means that within the frame, there are a lot of areas of inter- est that can act as a background for areas you've shot before. The Typhon array can also be used for a photogrammetry aspect, so you can run at a slower frame rate with a hard shutter (i.e. no motion), to build this large field of view in order to create a successful piece of tracking geometry. Only a super-stable system can allow the use of this frame rate/shutter." The Typhon 6 Array can also be configured to incorporate other cameras, such as the latest Red Helium. HFS' founder Jeremy Braben (left) and CTO Oliver Ward. Typhon 6 can accommodate Arri, as well as Red cameras.