Nice aviation video

[cheeseczar]

[Media Boy]

I'd like to see a video that shows how they get these shots.

[Sea Fury]

I'd like to see a video that shows how they get these shots.

http://www.wolfeair.com/wa_templates/wa-vectorvision.html

I imagine for some shots they use a variation of the techniques pioneered by Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz (in a B-25, which last I heard is still in use as a camera plane) and Clay Lacy (in a Learjet). The customer would want a shot of an airplane flying up to the camera and stopping just in time. That was dangerous and hard to do with consistency, though, so what they would do was form up in the final position the customer wanted, and then either the camera plane would throttle up and accelerate away, or the subject plane would throttle down and decelerate away, or both; a similar process was used when the customer wanted a shot of the subject airplane rolling into position in the camera frame-start in the final position, then the subject airplane simply banks away and breaks formation-and in post-production, they would just run the film backwards, so that rather than the subject plane receding in the distance as it really did in the maneuvers, it looked like the subject was flying up to the camera and stopping just in time...it works well unless the subject airplane happens to be pulling vapor trails, which, when the film was run backward, would appear to be going back into the engines. Which is why a lot of those commercials are shot at lower altitudes than usual (to minimise the chances of vapor trails forming) and at very specific sun angles (to make sure the sunlight didn't catch the vapor trails if they did form). Early jets with their smoke-belching engines presented similar problems.

[cheeseczar]

These shots were filmed in close formation with the Vectorvision camera system installed in the highly modified Wolfe Air LearJet 25. Cameras used are the Red Epic and Arriflex Alexa.
Wolfe Air Project Coordinator: Beth Miles
Wolfe Air Pilots: Craig Hosking, Ace Beall, Kevin LaRosa, Kevin LaRosa Jr, Jeff Senior
Camera: Doug Holgate, Roger Tonry, Scott Smith
Edited by: Zak Marx / 3DF
Colorist: Arnold Ramm / 3DF