First 4K shoot very successful.

[CraigCam]

Greetings all. Yesterday I did two hours of watch me and follow me overhead establishing shots for a short independent film. I spent four days preparing and practicing to learn to trust my own skills and protocol. The shots were following a nice car in a not so nice neighborhood and a not so nice car through a swank neighborhood. The nice car was a white BMW with black hard top and the other a black repurposed ford ex police cruiser ala Blues Brothers.
Everything went as planned for location one and we were in and out with no trouble and got some great motion shots with palm tree shadows as we looked down on the car and then a roll up to reveal downtown Phoenix skyline.
At our second location, which we had scouted and was on the edge of the sky harbor flight zone and was flyable previously, was now giving me an NFZ due to the baseball game that was beginning to let in fans. So exactly at 11:00 am a new NFZ zone appeared on my maps and I could not start the motors. It’s a blinking pinkish light and you cannot start at all.
We opted to move away from this zone and changed our script and got new footage in a different location then we has planned for which in the end was better for plot and editing.
The TH was perfect and shot amazingly well and the DP used to fly a P3 and could not believe that the H was an off the shelf product. My countless hours of flying and self criticism paid off as I knew what to do for the most effective and compelling looks with some nice ascents and descents I ran while following the subject car. My spotter had a second ST16 bound to the camera so he could watch the shot as well. This helped knowing what we had captured and be able to decide when we were done relative to passes needed.
It was as simple as being a passenger and engaging smart mode once we had the shot lined up and start driving. Our spotters followed behind keeping me informed of any downstream obstacles or people and no one even noticed us and if they did, it was a passing glance and not a fixation. Maybe not seeing the operator helped but all I know is that my fleet is ready to make some return on my investment.
In conclusion, the TH at 4K with the CGO3+ is a very good semi pro package that I knew was feature packed and now so do a whole new crop of young independent film makers. The hard lessons learned through failure has made me a very calm and knowledgeable pilot and the H gives me the confidence to fly and shoot safely and effectively. I look forward to posting a link to final product soon. For those who’d like to know more of what we did and how, PM me and I’ll be happy to exchange ideas.

 

[gwhuntoon]

Sounds awesome. I am curious though about what the H's behavior is if a new NFZ pops up while you're already flying. I would assume it would perform as usual until you land and stop the motors, then it wouldn't start back up but you know what they say about assuming.

 

[CraigCam]

Me too and I’m glad I didn’t find out because the NFZ was in place later and who knows what it would do if it came on while in flight. It’s time specific. They show on my app when they occur and I’d imagine this is common for all public events especially one like Dbacks field that’s is Sky harbor flight path.
I’m adding a “not responsible for NFZ restrictions that could occur and inhibit flight planning and shoot. It’s the clients responsibility to select a safe and legal location for proper photo and data gathering.”