38
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ISSUE 2 2014
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THE CHANNEL
circumstances; say you cover an
environmental story or something
of that nature where you can
control the environment. Or it’s in
the middle of nowhere and not in a
built-up area. For us, the copter is
more like an extension of
something like a jib or a steady-
cam. It’s a piece of filming
equipment that allows you to get
some amazing cinematic shots
which are planned rather than
respond to quick unfolding events.
I think the technology needs to
come on a long way, and legislation
needs to develop with those
changes in technology for it to truly
become a quick-response
newsgathering tool.
Do the regulations change from
country to country?
[TH] The rules do vary from
country to country, but we follow
the UK rules when we’re flying
abroad.
How difficult is the handling?
[TH] It’s quite difficult to learn and
takes a lot of practice: the pilot is
using two joy sticks simultaneously
with both thumbs at the same time.
Your left thumb controls the
throttle and the sort of rotation of
the craft in one axis, and your right
thumb controls the rotation into
other axes.
And then we have a second
person who controls the angle of
the camera. So one person is
moving the copter through the
space and the second person is
controlling where the camera is
looking. And it’s through the
combination of both of them you
get these really lovely aerial shots.
What are the advantages of the
copter?
[TH] The great thing is that you can
position this camera anywhere in
the sky. For example, we were able
to get shots of the Christ the
Redeemer statue in Brazil which we
wouldn’t have been able to get in
any other way. We could pan
around the statue which has no real
vantage point. A real copter would
have got a very different shot
because it can’t get close to the
statue. They need to zoom in on a
big lens, which gives you a very
different feeling and an impressive
shot. But the shots we were able to
get were quite unique.
As film makers we are very
excited by these new types of shots.
And the copters extend our ability
to offer the audience a perspective
they haven’t seen before. That
drives us as camera people. With
this equipment, we’re always
thinking of new ways of being
creative.
Thank you, Tom Hannen and Owain
Rich.
To get some practice myself, I went
to Ukraine and Turkey to try our
copter out. It’s so much easier to
gather footage. You don’t have to
run to get a good spot from where
to take pictures, like a balcony on a
house near the event. It is usually a
lot of work to find a suitable room,
get access to it, and perhaps later
find yet another place which offers
a different angle of the events.
The video quality of our
quadrocopters is not the best but
it’s good enough for newsgathering.
You just check if the weather is ok,
if all the conditions are right, and
then you take off. And if you know
what to shoot, you have the
material in the bag within five to
ten minutes.
Another advantage that comes
with the use of copters is the
comparative security it gives you in
places where violent protests are
going on. It is much easier for a
journalist to stand behind a
barricade about 200 metres away
from the event and fly this thing 30
or 40 metres above the ground.
International Video News Agency
RUPTLY provides visual news
content to all media.
Cameraman, Senior Technology
Officer and staff trainer Ahmet
Cakan has been using
multicopters in the field - how
have these devices been
changing the way he works?
The BBC team
filming near
Brasilia
The copter
is only a
newsgath-
ering tool
in very
specific
circum-
stances
“
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www.bbc.co.uk
THE CHANNEL
|
TECHNOLOGY
