Red bull Drone Filming
March 14
The Redbull Heavy Metal event was on a very large scale. Specialists were everywhere, running left and right to their assignments. There were wires everywhere, but nicely organized.
Helsinki Cathedral is a no-fly zone, but with the right permissions we were able to set up a tiny sub-250g FPV drone and do a few test runs the day before the event. Timing and synchronization were critical for quick and safe battery swaps, since the event was going to be broadcasted.
I heard the event was expected to have over 15,000 guests, but the final number ended up being more than double. I wasn’t working during the live event itself, but I’m really glad it was a success. The FPV footage looks amazing.
https://www.redbull.com/fi-fi/videos/heavy-metal-helsinki-aftermovie
Three days later, we headed to Hyvinkää to climb a melting ski hill and capture snowboard footage. The cable cam setup is big and heavy, especially with all the meters of wire, batteries, bolts, and hooks. Luckily, we had a snowmobile and an ATV to help transport all the heavy equipment.
We attached the wire between two snow cannons, each weighing around 600 kg, and ran a few tests. Even with quite loose tension, the cannons shifted slightly due to the melting snow. We didn’t worry too much and called it a day.
Day two was a different story. The camera of choice was a RED Komodo, prepped the day before and mounted on a DJI Ronin 2 to keep the cable shots smooth. It’s a relatively lightweight setup, but the cable cam started struggling because of the steep uphill angle. After about 20 minutes, smoke started pouring out of the motor, and we had to shut down the system. Dave from Koptercam quickly declared the motor dead, so as an emergency solution we switched to a DJI Inspire 3 until we could figure out what went wrong.
Day three was cold, rainy, and windy—but morale stayed high, and the crew kept joking over comms with bad humor. My Finnish isn’t great, but maybe it’s better that way.
Days four, five, and six were a bit different. Some of the Koptercam crew left for another production, taking the Inspire 3 with them.
I teamed up with a drone pilot named Ali, and we operated an older DJI Inspire 2 together. I always find duo setups interesting since you can learn a lot from each other. Ali handled the flying while I operated the camera. It didn’t take long before we dialed in the right height, speed, and framing.
At one point, the client asked for delivery in 25fps. We had been shooting in 30fps, with no obvious option to change it. After filming most of the day, we realized the system was set to NTSC instead of PAL by default. Once we switched settings and changed the SD card, the 25fps option became available. A simple fix but a valuable lesson, and definitely not something they teach you in film schools in Finland.
On the final day, we did some improvised flying to capture the moment. It was a bit windy, but the golden hour light was perfect. I really enjoyed operating the camera. Flying itself can be immersive and influence the shot. Ali had a great instinct and could anticipate the paths I wanted and match them with his flying. We ended up working really well together. I wish the rest of the crew all the very best. It’s been one hell of a ride.
