Motion picture flying!

[Gooper]

For all you guys and gals that have flown for the motion picture industry...out of all the camera mounts available ie: Tyler, Wescam, Spacecam, Stab C...there''s probably more!

 

Which are your favs'' and which one''s are not so great?

 

Any good stories to tell about flying the "movie types" around?

[407 Driver]

Movie/film jobs are the worst there are. The hours may be good on some jobs, but the risks are high, the credit is always poor, the people are A$$es to deal with, they are extremely disorganized, basically...it''s like breeding Elephants (everything done at a high level, and a lot of bellowing and screaming happens!!)

If you ever get involved, be careful, they''re all mental, they probably won''t pay, and each and every one is out to kill you!

 

 

[Heli Ops]

I remember watching the making of the Mission Impossible in Sydney, Australia and they closed off a number of streets and had an AS350 (I think) flying through the streets between the buildings. Looked cool and would have been a great time for the pilot.

 

Couldnt really miss the 30 story buildings as you scoot along just above traffic lights height.

 

Heli Ops

[Rotorhead]

407 hit the target on the nose.

 

The times I''ve done filming for productions, it has involved hours and hours of sitting, with moments of panic flying. Lots of pressure for very little reward. Directors are like spoiled children, if you kiss their behind, you''ll be "super-pilot", question one dangerous situation and they''ll boot you off the job faster than you can imagine.

 

RH

[4961]

Movie flying, I think my eye twitch has started again, yup there it goes.

[Charles W.]

It depends a lot on who you are flying for.

 

The last movie I flew in was by Mirimax about a submarine in WW2. The movie opens with a PBY finding a raft on the ocean. Mirimax was superb to work for, the money was really good and paid on time. The people we worked with treated us ( A PBY crew and the Helicopter crew. ) great. At no time were we under pressure to fly and safety was paramount.

 

You can get the movie at the video rental stores it is called "Below" and is worth renting just to see the PBY shots, the movie is actually quite good also.

 

Oh, the credits are at the end of the movie, but I did it for the money..

 

Chas W.. The Right Reverend...

[Dan]

You can check out one flyby with guns a blazzing on Four Seasons web site. I can still feel the compressions on my chest.

[Biggles]

Hey Dan, he''s still smiling about it.  Just spoke to the big guy today and as a matter of fact a couple other movies are coming for the summer. I remember well the conversation that day last year, started something like "Hey, guess what we did today ........"

[DGP]

Everyting that 407 said and more...movie flying sucks...I did a shoot for cbc...a made for tv movie...don''t think it even made it on tv...the wet tee shirt contest part was interesting though as was when they put the scantily clade young ladies in the machine for a ground shot...all 10 of them in the back seat of a long ranger...the windows steamed up so bad you couldn''t see a thing inside...the view from in there was great...one young thing asked me my name...she didn''t clue in when I said my name was Dirk Diggler...they weren''t hired for having large iq''s...

[412driver]

flying for the movies???? man, that sucked...all those guys walking around with those big egos that needed massaging all the time......

 

then the movie people always bugging us to go flying right when we were in the middle of a breakfast burrito.......

 

scantily clad chicks??? HEY, we didn''t get no scantily clad chicks....*&$# where the heck is my agent????

 

Ramone?? RAMONE!!! get over here!!!!!!!!!