Helicopters — Multirotors — Drones

I still remember my first multi rotor flight with the Red Epic. The ability to position the camera smoothly and precisely in 3d space was incredible. Coming from the larger RC helicopters I was used to flying a multi rotor (Drone) seemed so elegant, stable, and precise.

As drones grew in size and capability, we started putting bigger cameras and lenses on them in search of another shot that the world had never seen.

Flying a phantom 4K was always an incredible aspiration, but they were big, heavy, and really limited the type of dynamic drone moves that you could pull off.

Brainfarm did some awesome work with one early, and we had experimented with the smaller Phantom Miro a bit but I still hoped Phantom would pack the 4K sensor into a smaller body.

They did! It’s called the Phantom Veo 4K and I love it. Read more about it here

Vision Research stuffed phantom 4K performance in to a tiny body that is just perfect for gimbal use. We recently took the VEO up to Vancouver BC to play with peacemaker film works for a few days to shoot the Alta X Launch Film.

Phantom Veo + Movi Pro Setup

Here is an overview for using Phantom Veo with Movi Pro. We will be releasing trigger cables for the Phantom soon in the Freefly store

Behind the scenes

Want to try it?

If you want to fly the Phantom on your drone feel free to reach out — we are happy to help you get airborne!

Alta X + Phantom VEO 4K was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Diego Contreras is a commercial and music video director based in Los Angeles and represented by RESET. He’s directed spots and branded content for clients such as Facebook, 23andMe, Reebok, GE, Lincoln Motors and Blue Moon, just to name a few. His most recent work involves Apple and its latest iPhone event.

You might’ve seen Diego holding a Movi during Apple’s iPhone 11 announcement earlier this month (September 2019). Everyone at Freefly sure did. Later the same day, Apple released a series of “Cinematic Tests” with the iPhone 11, which were also directed and shot by Diego.

We immediately reached out to him and he was willing to hop on a call with Tabb Firchau (CEO, Freefly Systems) to talk about his experience with Movi, Apple, and filmmaking.

TABB — Hey Diego! Sorry for the delay, I started having some technical difficulties earlier.

DIEGO — No worries, I was just finishing up a call for another project coming up. You called as I was hanging up

Good man! You got projects back to back.

Gosh, yeah, it’s been crazy.

Yeah, that’s great. I’m envious, I used to live the life of a single freelancer. And before I started Freefly, and you know, back then I was like, “Oh, it’d be so great to work with other people because I’m always alone.” And then after I started Freefly, it’s like, so busy and hectic. And I’m like, I wish I could work alone a little bit more. It’s a human condition to want what you don’t always have I guess.

Totally.

When did you start Freefly? It’s truly been amazing what you’ve done with the company.

Thank you. We started in 2011.

Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense. I remember first shooting with the MōVI around 2014 or 2015. Everyone was hearing about it and it was kind of the talk of the town, the “MōVI”…

Yeah, we launched the MōVI in 2013. And honestly, we’ve just been hanging on for dear life ever since then. I never set out to build products. I started off as an aerial cinematographer and I just love making films I love specifically making aerials. We never expected the MōVI to be nearly as popular as it turned out to be, it just blew our minds.

Yeah man, I can’t imagine. And now you’ve expanded into all kinds of different things, right?

Yeah, we did. We still do a lot of drone work. We do a lot of stabilizers, kind of big, small, all different sizes. For us, we always wanted to make a consumer product, but we were always a little scared to do it just because of how much money it was going to take and how hard we thought it was going to be and how impossible to succeed it would be.
We were actually launching a new drone the same day that all the Apple stuff came out. I was getting text messages from the team saying, “Holy shit! Movi was just in the Apple keynote!” And knowing where I come from, just to see your products being used and sold by Apple is just like…If you told me this would have happened 10 years ago, I would have fallen over dead.

Haha, Me too man! It was pretty wild to see myself up on their big screen at the Keynote, and then seeing my name on the credits. My family was in town visiting, and as parents do, they got very emotional when seeing it.

I kept thinking, whoa, they usually don’t credit people in these Apple conferences and for us, it really meant a lot.

I feel like they’re changing a little bit in that regard. Like they’re being a lot more kind of inclusive, and like giving more credit now, which is awesome.

Yeah, and I love that.

You’re seeing a lot of “Commissioned by Apple” and that's great because it honors the artists and creators.

My project, however, did work like every other commercial-style pitch, competing against a wider range of talented directors that were being considered for it.

Yeah, when they say “commission”, it makes it sound like they backed up a truck full of cash to your house and said, “You’ve been hand-selected, go have a fun time.”

Haha, like, “Here’s some money… go crazy! But no, this wasn’t like that.

I was still working off creative ideas coming from their team and also proposing some of my own. And of course, having to respond to and get approvals from the client, but honestly, they were so supportive and gave me tons of creative freedom for it. It was such a great experience.

That’s awesome.

And I was happy they let me use the Movi for it. They wanted to keep it as pure as possible. Shooting 100% natively on the iPhone without any third-party apps or lenses. But one of my questions was whether I’d be able to use any gear to move the camera. Things like techno cranes and the Movi.

By coincidence, I had been shooting with the Movi on my phone for about a year, doing it mostly just for fun on my little Instagram Stories. I was introduced to it on a scout by a DP. One of my good friends and collaborators…

Who was that?

Guillermo Garza.

He was the DP on this Apple project.

He showed up to a location scout and was using it to test Steadicam shots we’d be getting later with the Alexa. I went, “Oh my god, this is amazing” and ordered one immediately. But funny enough, I didn’t buy it for work, I just wanted to shoot some more cinematic looking Insta-Stories as I don’t remember anyone doing it at the time.

Those little stories started getting tons of love on my Instagram, even more than my photos. And I kept getting flooded with people asking, “How are you getting it so stable?”.

I don’t know if these stories had an influence on being invited by Apple to work on this iPhone 11 Pro film, but I hope they did!

I got their approval to use the Movi on the shoot as long as we kept the filming pure. No lenses, apps or any color grading.

Most people commenting on social media still believe we used lenses, apps like Filmic Pro, and touched up the footage but we didn’t.

It was 100% legitimately coming natively from the iPhone’s camera...

That’s so cool. The thing that I’ve been so excited about is to have a wider angle option on the phone that doesn’t have optical image stabilization. So when they came out with that I was like, oh man, I’m done. This is perfect. That’s so exciting.

Yeah, the Ultra-Wide angle is so great!

Except it is so wide you actually start seeing a chunk of the Movi in the frame. And things you normally don’t expect to see. But it’s something we fixed with the counterweights.

It’s funny because I actually ruined several of my favorite takes that we got at night because I failed to realize that I was seeing a corner of the Movi in the frame, or sometimes even crew members that I thought were off frame.

I was shocked to see how wide they went with the angle. It’s really cool, it was a bold move to go that wide with it.

I love it. I got a chance to go test the phone at the Apple HQ and that wide lens was the first thing that blew me away. Then the smooth stabilization on the 4k 60fps looks so much more cinematic.

I never thought you could shoot cinematic visuals on a phone; the cropping is to tight and the shakiness is kind of unbearable. But when I tried this phone (iPhone 11), I kept saying, “This changes everything”.

Yeah, and now your location scouting stories are looking pretty damn good.
I was thinking about this the other day while looking through my iCloud, asking myself, “When was the first time I ever made an image that I was proud of from a phone.”
When do you remember making an image on a phone that you loved? It could be a still or something with motion.

It’s hard to remember. But I do believe shooting photos on my phone has influenced how I shoot my film work. On the phone, I’d capture these photos of solitary, silhouetted people in a wide-open landscape. Often these were quick stolen moments or sometimes I would set them up. But it was basically what you see from the human eye, not from an exaggerated zoom lens or points of view like techno cranes that feel staged or unnatural. What you see in front of you is what you get, and that’s how I’ve always approached my work.

Looking back, phones didn’t really have a great dynamic range and in order to get photos to look good, you had to know how to manipulate light and contrast to work within those 6 or so stops that it had.

Yeah, that’s something that changed everything for me with the iPhone a couple of generations back. When they added that little exposure slider setting to adjust the exposure on the fly. I learned over time to underexpose photos and videos on the phone by a lot if you want a much cleaner, cinematic image.

On this Apple work, a lot of people wondered and asked, how did you guys get this phone footage to look so clean?

Of course, a lot comes down to great use of lighting and the amazing new camera sensors. But also, just from underexposing like crazy.

So much that, at times, the DP and I could barely see things on the screen as we were shooting mostly night but hoping the image details would hold.

It was risky, not knowing exactly how it would look, but after watching the footage on the 5K monitors I went like, “Whoa, I’ve never seen quality that good coming from a phone before.” Even the Apple team was blown away with the results. And seeing them so excited was a pretty cool experience.

Yeah, it looks beautiful. The gap is narrowing every single year between iPhone and high-end cameras. It’s pretty exciting.

It was actually kind of fun and unique because we didn’t have monitors on set, so no one could see the footage while myself or Guillermo were operating the phone.

When one of us was up on a techno crane, no one else could see what was being shot. And for me as a director, that felt very freeing.

I’ve gotten used to doing commercial shoots where you have 15 people from the client or agency watching your footage on monitors every second of the shoot and commenting or nitpicking on every shot.

It’s like having a chef cook a special meal with 20 people standing behind their back each trying to sprinkle some random spices!

It’s sadly something that is truly undervaluing the role of a director and DP on commercial sets.

But here on this iPhone shoot, for a good portion of the shoot, it was me and the iPhone and that was it… No live feeds or monitors or random comments. And that’s why I loved every second of it.

It brought back memories of why I first became a director and many others of my generation. It all started with just me, a DLSR camera and finding a meaningful story to capture and share with the world.

It’s so fun to be able to have that small of a package and actually do the exact move that you want to do with your own hands. With none of the support equipment or anything. It’s just really cool.

Yeah, it brought me back to doing film for the love and not worrying about all the bulky, cumbersome gear and wires that hold you down on the usual commercial shoot…

…Not worrying about craft services?

Haha! Honestly, it was just so liberating to just grab it and shoot.

That’s awesome.

Because I’ve been doing this long enough now where I just feel like you don’t have enough time because of the bulkiness of film productions.

Yeah, it is. It’s a huge production these days.

And of course, I love it. But this shoot got me thinking and hoping it could be this simple all the time. Just you, the camera, and being able to just move fast and free.

Well, I think the really amazing part is that the people are consuming the end content on their phone, which a lot of people do these days. There’s not that big a difference from what you can do with your Movi versus what you’re going to do with a Mini LF, you know. The impact (to the end customer) is not quite as big as it used to be, which is really a cool place to be.

Yeah.

So on that topic. I was wondering when you’re shooting on a normal production, what’s your regular kit look like? Is it mostly Alexa?

Yeah, I love the Alexa and it’s my go-to camera. I’ve been shooting on the Mini LF now and it's great.

In terms of motion, I always go for Steadicam. I just love a moving camera.

We also use the MōVI and get that up on cranes or drones for steady movement.

The choice of lens always varies depending on the production and what kind of feel I’m looking for the project. I get bored with the same look quickly so try to keep it varied.

Yeah, that’s cool. To contrast that, what does your kit look like when you’re shooting with phones?

Basically, just the phone and the Movi. I have lenses but get tired of carrying those around. So, it’s just what it is. You know, keep it basic.

Yeah, I really like the way the image looks with the Moment wide on my phone. But I get sick of it not fitting in my pocket. Then I break that thing a lot. So, the one thing that I’m really excited about is having a wide-angle option built into the phone, that’s going to be just a total game-changer for me.

Exactly.

I think you kind of touched on this with “underexposing”, but any other tips that you want to share for creating a cinematic image with a phone?

Yeah, definitely underexposing. But you also need to understand that you need lots of light if you’re doing that.

You can’t just take it out late at night and assume it will look naturally stunning. We were lighting it like you would on a proper film set.

So it’s all about finding the sweet spot and embracing as much natural light, or creating your own to make sure you get a nice, clean image.

Yeah, that makes sense.
What can you tell us about the new iPhone? That’s what I’m really curious about. What were the things that were most exciting for you?

For me, it all comes down to the ultra-wide lens for video. That’s 100% a gamechanger.

Then something else I noticed but haven’t seen advertised much was the smooth stabilization on the 4k at 60fps. You can now walk and shoot, and it stabilizes a lot of the handshake. That’s huge and something that will help filmmakers a ton.

That’s really cool. This morning I was just looking through your Instagram account and your stories from all these amazing locations you’ve been scouting. What’s the kit that you normally travel with? Like, what is the kit you always have in your backpack with you at all times?

I keep it light, I have a FUJI X100T that I use for all my scout photos, and then I bring my Movi for the phone. That’s pretty much it.

Some of the locations were like in Kiev, I think? As soon as I watched those stories, I was just like, oh my god, I want to go there. That looks so amazing.

Yeah, it’s such a stunning place. It’s almost painful because you see so many epic locations and just don’t have the time to film them all.

It’s pretty surreal to scout a city like that and gain access to places you’d normally never get access to on a normal day.

Super inspiring. I was like, I want to shoot in all these locations it looks amazing.

What’s funny is that sometimes I ask scouts to get me into some crazy locations even if knowing I’ll never be able to shoot them for the project we’re scouting for.

I managed to get myself into a massive ship-making warehouse at a military base in Kiev and I came out giggling knowing it was all for a 5-second Insta-story.

What are you most excited about in the future of filmmaking?

I didn’t come from a film school background and never got access to gear or film sets. I learned most of what I know by going out with a cheap camera and learning on the go. It was basic. Learning by pure trial and error.

I was filming little travel memories with my girlfriend who is now my wife. The process felt so personal and something I was doing for the pure love of it. Eventually, people watched these videos and they began to spread online through blogs and Vimeo staff picks. And that opened doors for me to quit my career in advertising and take the leap of faith into becoming a full-time director.

Now that I’ve been directing commercials for bigger brands the scale has gone way up. There are 100 to 200 people on set. Then the bulkiness of having to transport gear up and down every location. It’s the stuff that makes your footage look beautiful and what’s necessary for a higher caliber of work, but it’s also what can slow you the heck down!

I miss the simplicity and intimacy of just going out with a camera and an actor without the battalion. I yearn to gain back to that simplicity.

So yeah, it’s a long answer to your question…

But what I’m most excited for in the future of filmmaking is finding a way to further simplify the process and gain back the time to just focus on the emotion and the beauty of a scene… On the performance of an actor, and the ability to experiment, play and try new things on set.

I never expected it, but that’s exactly what I felt on this recent Apple project and the simplicity and immediacy of shooting on a phone.

It’s funny. In the beginning, that’s really what made us get excited about Movi. We thought like, holy shit, we have this thing that a human can carry that can create any type of shot you want. And you can go anywhere in the world. That was that aha moment. It will be so exciting to be making films with a tool like this.

Yeah, the first time I used the MōVI was on a shoot in the desert. We hired a 2nd Unit DP who owned one and sent him out for a full day on his own. He came back with some really beautiful stabilized footage. A lot was even better than what our main unit was getting.

And I was like, man, this was just one guy and a MōVI!

Yeah, there’s a lot of these, “ MōVI/Gimbal Assassin” type guys. They just go out and by the end of the day, they have just like crushed it. They come back with so much great footage just from one person. It’s amazing.
How did you get started with RESET?

Filmmaking was actually something that was never on my radar as a career I could have. My parents were full-on business entrepreneurs, so I went to school for a business degree. Somehow wound up working as an advertising Art Director for six years at great agencies like BBDO and Anomaly in NY.

While there I was shooting personal videos and a couple of music videos that eventually lead to quitting my career and joining the director roster at Bullitt, a production company founded by the Russo Brothers (Avengers Infinity War).

I had three really great years with them, and then I got an offer to join Reset.

This is kind of funny, you and I are on slightly similar paths. Like I went to school for economics and math and statistics. I thought I was going to do that. And I somehow ended up in the film industry also.

That’s awesome!

That’s pretty much how it was for me too. Partly through connections in the industry and also, I believe from having beaten some of their directors on a few big pitches! That put me on their radar and sparked their curiosity. At least that’s my version of the story hah!

When they called, I was excited as they were always one of my dream companies to work for and they had some of my favorite directors on their roster like David Fincher and Garth Davis. And as soon as we met, it felt like a perfect fit. It’s been two years now and a great ride so far.

Diego Links

Website:http://www.thisisdiego.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hidiegoc/

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/diegocontreras

Apple, Cinematic Tests : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7krzWNOXrFY

Apple, iPhone 11 Video (Diego and Movi at 1:59) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVEemOmHw9Y

RESET: http://www.resetcontent.com/diego-contreras

Check out Movi

Store: https://gomovi.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/movicinemarobot/

Freefly Systems: https://freeflysystems.com/

Diego Contreras — Movi, Apple, and Filmmaking was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Renan Ozturk, of the production group Camp4Collective, checked in with us to talk about his roots in art and climbing and how those two things eventually led him to become one of the most celebrated mountain filmmakers of our time. When we chatted, Renan was driving from his home in Utah to go check out what the winter in Wyoming had to offer.

What’re you up to in Wyoming?

We’re doing a little road trip, potentially thinking about moving here. We live in Park City right now, but thinking we want to be somewhere a little more remote — in the mountains.

For those who might not be familiar: Who are you? Where are you from? How did you end up on this path?

I was born in Germany but I grew up in Rhode Island, of all places. I went to school at Colby College in Maine for a little while but transferred to Colorado college. They [Colorado College] were on this block program where you only had to take one class at a time, so that gave me time to check out a lot of national parks. One of the guys who lived on my floor, his father climbed with Yvon Chouinard and they had a great relationship with climbing and the outdoors that was pretty deep and nuanced. I got my introduction to the world of climbing through them and it hooked me.

I gave away my belongings after school and hit the road hitchhiking around and climbing with my friends. I just had some friends drop me off in the desert and spent six or eight years doing that: living on the road in parks and rock caves, diving out of dumpsters for food. During that whole time, I was landscape painting and never had a camera or anything. I eventually got a climbing sponsorship from The North Face and started going on international expeditions. When I started going on those expeditions I would take little HD consumer cameras and just shoot stories on the trip, which later became documentary films like Meru. I got into filmmaking and cinematography through that and eventually founded a production company, Camp4Collective. We do all kinds of documentary and commercial work. I started shooting photos as well, and a lot of those expeditions were for National Geographic.

What do you miss most about those times when your buddies dropped you off in the desert?

Society now is hard to avoid. You get those screen time reports at the end of the day on your phone and it’s alarming. I think it was somewhere between 8–10 hours for me yesterday. It’s crazy now. Those were beautiful, simple times where we would go and dive out of Trader Joe’s dumpster. Maybe it was more of a selfish lifestyle, but it was also simpler.

Does Trader Joes have the best dumpsters?

They did for a long time! Until they started building these fortresses around them and now you can’t dive them anymore.

There’s this strong body of portrait work in your portfolio. Why is it so important for you to take these portraits of the people you encounter on your travels?

I’m just starting out in all of it but I definitely like to take the time to shoot portraits. Most of the stories I like to tell are focused on a deep connection to a certain character. That’s how you can really connect with an audience and tell them your story, and have them really invest in a character. I usually try and shoot all my portraits on a 35mm 1.4 lens that’s all manual. It’s hard to get a shot in focus, but when you get it and the person that you’re shooting isn’t annoyed with you, then it’s a good thing to share and hopefully, it honors their story.

What was your vision for Camp4Collective when it was founded? Has it changed over time?

We’re just three directors and hardly much of a big workforce. The vision was always just to create solid work and get involved in projects that we are passionate about — it all just happened out of that. It’s more about finding work that inspires us and collaborating with each other rather than something that was more brand minded.

What keeps you inspired to get up and keep doing this? Why not throw in the towel?

We did a trip to the Congo last year for National Geographic TV for a story following conflict gold. It’s a trip like that that gives a glimpse into the lives that people are living and the depth of the stories that could be told there, and those are the things that keep you going. The more you travel and explore the more you feel obligated to use the skills that you have and the spare time that you have to tell these stories before you don’t have the strength to hold a camera anymore.

On all your globetrotting adventures, what is the one piece of gear you never leave behind? Why?

It’s changed so much over the years. It used to be hand sewn sketchbooks before cameras or a canvas to bring back some art. These days it’s more focused on digital media assets; I’m a little bit of a gear glutton. My friends make fun of me because I’ll pack for what’s supposed to be a short vacation to the desert, but I’ll bring an ALTA and a MōVI Pro — the same production kit I’d bring on a big commercial shoot just in case there’s a story there. I want to be able to show it in the highest capacity.

Getting back to ALTA, you were one of the first people to get to use an ALTA on the Swing Arm City video. Can you talk a little bit about how that came about?

Finding Freefly was easy because you guys revolutionized the industry with gimbal technology, especially for the expedition-type shooting I do. Nobody makes gimbals that are as lightweight and easy to carry around. I’ve worked with a lot of companies now and it’s pretty amazing that I can still hit up Tabb begging for the latest creation and he’ll give me the time of day, plus send a customized video of him explaining the product. For Swing Arm City, I reached out to Tabb about the project, and he believed in it and sent us the ALTA, so it worked out!

Has Freefly changed the way you shoot at all?

All of the technology Freefly has created totally changed the way I and my peers have been shooting. I just got word that the film “Mountain” that we worked on won best cinematography at the Australian Academy, and a lot of that work is based on the gimbals and technology Freefly has created.

What’s something you believe is true that other people may not?

With social media, there’s a lot of negativity and a lot of people believe it is destroying us. A lot of the time I believe it is destroying me, too, but at the same time, I feel like it can be beneficial if you put more positive input into it.

So focus on sharing the positive?

It doesn’t always have to be positive. It can be something that’s really hard to look at, like a poached rhino, that’s seen by the 100 million+ NatGeo followers. That’s not a positive image, but it is the hard reality of things that are going on. So, I guess I guess social media can be used in a really positive way if you’re using it to tell stories for the right reason.

We’ve talked a lot about past achievements, tell me what you see yourself doing in five years from now and is that any different from what you’re doing today?

Besides going back to landscape paintings, I’m producing 4–5 different films — some of them features, some of them shorts — all at the same time right now. We also have multiple National Geographic expeditions that we’re trying to pull off. A lot of them relate back to my connection with Nepal and the Himalayas, so there’s a lot of stories there.

In The Mountains — Renan Ozturk was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week we are speaking with functional nutrition expert Mike Mutzel and discuss strategies that overworked filmmakers can use to optimize health and performance.

Mike has helped the Freefly team optimize their performance over the last few years and gives actionable strategies to help us kick ass. ⠀
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Learn how to optimize sleep, fasting/feeding, and movement to help you succeed in the film business. ⠀
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We touch on the strategies both Tabb and Mike use to stay sharp physically and mentally.

Also go listen to his amazing regular show on health — High Intensity Health Radio: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-intensity-health-radio-with-mike-mutzel-ms/id910048041

Ep. 009 — Mike Mutzel, Health Strategies for Filmmakers was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Check out whats new with everyones favorite film making robot!

Deniz, Banji, and Brent have been hard at work on the V1.5 Beta release of the Movi App. There are some killer new features that shown below in this short video overview.

Top things you will 🖤 about this update

1. Shutter Angle — sharp and crispy or smooth and creamy
2. Manual Focus Control — shallow DOF…..no problem
3. Auto exposure with exposure compensation — I love to run -.3 to -.7 to avoid hot highlights
4. Anamorphic Preview — up your mobile filmmaking game
5. Wide and Tele lens support — zoom in with the tele lens for a completely new feel
6. 25FPS — We live in Seattle, no idea what this is for?! ;)
7. Camera settings and details — real time feedback and quicker control!

Movi Cinema Robot V1.5 App was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Subscribe and listen on Soundcloud, Stitcher or Google Play Music

Drone nerds Tabb, and Nick Kolias discuss Remote Aerial Cinematography and the all-new ALTA Pro drone. Nick recounts some of the more hilarious stories from his times on set and gives insight into the daily operations of a professional drone pilot.

Nick got his start flying RC helicopters early on as he and his father would go to the local flying field and test their latest toys. Not long after that Nick became obsessed with the hobby of RC flying and quickly worked his way to becoming a skilled operator. Meanwhile, Tabb Firchau (Freefly’s Chief Experimenter) is making news in the Seattle area flying a Canon 5D on an early prototype of what would eventually become the Freefly Cinestar. It was only a matter of time before Nick and Tabb would collaborate on a nearly 7-year long escapade of aerial cinematography.

Ep. 008: ALTA Pro with Nick Kolias was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

1. You can upgrade!

For all the existing customers who have ALTA 6 and 8, you can upgrade to Pro if you want to take advantage of the new capabilities. You can find information on the upgrade here. We wanted to make sure your proven ALTA hardware can evolve and expand capabilities over time.

2. PX4 ecosystem = flexibility

The PX4 Ecosystem is incredibly well built and we are really enjoying working with the community. QGroundControl is an awesome mission planner that works on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC right out of the gate. Dronecode SDK allows users to control the drone in a multitude of ways, with high-level languages like python and swift. Mavlink allows developers to control the ALTA in just about any way they need. Overall, PX4 means that Freefly can spend time solving the difficult problems of tailoring ALTA for specific use cases instead of porting apps from iOS to Android! The PX4 modular ecosystem should allow us to develop new features faster than ever before.

3. GPS and height hold improved

The new GPS module is giving a much higher average satellite count and improved position/velocity control, which we are really loving. It makes precision shots when shooting at 240mm sooooo much easier for Hugh than my crazy flying.

4. Dronecode

Freefly has joined Dronecode — we are excited to help contribute and shape where this project might go…who knows maybe you will see an ALTA flying with a 1kW LED at your next light show. ;)

5. Same ALTA flight dynamics and reliability

Early in the project we set the bar high. ALTA Pro had to meet or exceed the flight capabilities of the original ALTA. It took some time for us to dial in the feel and beat the Synapse performance….but we got there. The ALTA I just flew today exceeds the original ALTA performance in just about every way.

Have a question ask us anything

ALTA Pro was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Intro

For big software updates to our products we love to come up with memorable names. The first big one was ‘Akira’, the second one, ‘Blackjack’ is launching soon! Blackjack adds some exciting new features, fixes quite a few bugs, and improves the user experience with MōVI Pro in subtle ways through refinement of the App and embedded screen. I want to dive into some detail in a few of the key areas that power firmware development at Freefly.

Freefly is small

Freefly is a very small company (~50 people) that is trying to do very big things. We are small for a few reasons. First, we are insanely picky about hiring. We hire people that show an ability to create order from chaos, that have built incredible things in their spare time, and approach each day with an optimistic attitude that says “awesome, I get to work on this problem” versus “shit, I have to work on that.” The net result is 50 people output what normally takes 5x the people.

The second reason we are small is that we want to grow organically. We view growth much like we view health in the human body. We want to methodically and steadily get stronger, smarter, and more effective. Just like the human body can put on 20lbs of fat very quickly with the right signals, so can a company. We decided in the early days that we did not want to take outside investment as it would pervert some of the things that we loved about Freefly. We want to build a company that substantially out-innovates the market place, and we want to do so over a very long time scale (100yrs).

How we pick new features

We pay attention! Seriously though, there are tens of thousands of people using our products and we pay attention to what they say. The user base often has incredible ideas that we simply missed and we aggressively add them into the backlog.

Additionally, we come up with quite a few features internally in a variety of ways. Some might come from our internal film team “Flight Squad” using the products and making feature requests. Some come from clever engineers dreaming up something awesome and just dropping it in your lap to test. We also monitor some key places for feedback:

• Support tickets
• Freefly public Slack
• Instagram comments
• Freefly forum

New feature ideas will go into a huge scoping spreadsheet where we will assign a severity or ROI (return on investment) metric for each bug/feature. The goal in assigning an L or R rating is to align the team as to the severity of the bug, or importance of the feature. Read more about the Freefly Rating System here if you are interested.

The software team will meet several times along the way to try and cut the scope down to something manageable. Individual developers will fight to keep some features in scope, while others will fight to remove them from scope and handle them at a later date. The goal of this process is to arrive at a scope that fixes the critical bugs and develops new features that make us proud to tell the world about the update. It’s a fine line to come up with a scope that satisfies both these requirements AND is something we can get done on time. Fast forward through 10 meetings and 100 healthy arguments and we have scope lock.This means we know what our target is and people can go after it!

How we track bugs

In the last year the software/firmware team has transitioned to JIRA for the majority of their work. We track bugs and open scope using Jira. Additionally, we have an automated slack channel where you can type in a bug report and it automatically opens a ticket — this is really cool for when you are short on time or on set filming and find a bug that you don’t want to forget about.

How we test

We tend to take a very practical view on testing. You usually shake out the most bugs when you are testing in the real world. Once we have a beta release candidate we will reach out to a small group of users that we think will really use the equipment a lot and help us find bugs and will send them the new firmware as well as testing instructions. If you are interested in being part of this group in the future please sign up here (please note we might not get back to you)!

In addition to the more practical user testing, the engineering team will develop an extensive ‘acceptance test’ which lists all the key factors the new firmware could impact and will try to prove that there are no outstanding issues that would impact the end user.

Testing is very time consuming as the number of potential permutations is huge! Imagine testing each new feature in each use case with each camera! Over time we build confidence that the features are good and then we start to work on the marketing that will help educate the users.

Enough background, let’s dig into the new stuff!

360° Roll

This one is exciting! We have developed a new mode for the MōVI Pro line that allows for 360° degree unrestricted roll moves. There are some nuances and restrictions with these modes that I will explain in the video below.

• 3D majestic: Majestic control of Pan/Tilt/Roll in 3D space. User controls camera frame of reference with no limitations!
• Roll with snap: Roll will snap to the nearest 90° degree plane when user input is stopped.
• Roll via pan: Rotate the MōVI back 90° degrees and turn pan into roll for unrestricted rate based roll moves.
• Portrait shooting: Need an 8K Instagram story? We got you covered.
• Axial roll: Use tilt snap to allow for axial roll moves.
• Roll offset: World frame of reference majestic control while rolling — your mind will melt!

Autotune V3 / Whip Pan

Autotune has always been a huge deal to Freefly. We don’t want users wasting their time messing around with settings, we want them shooting. Our first autotune took about 45 seconds to complete and only tunes the stiffness settings. The next version took the time down to about 10 seconds and added automatic tuning of filters. Autotune V3 does even more! In about 10 seconds it derives optimal settings for stiffness, filter, and derives camera inertia and applies an acceleration limit to keep the MōVI Pro from overshooting. The addition of acceleration to autotune V3 now allows us to run very high hold strengths (10x) versus previous builds which allows for very aggressive majestic/dual operator settings without the dreaded overshoot.

50% more power

We have increased the motor torque by 50% in this build when you enable Maniac Mode. Maniac Mode can result in shorter runtimes but sometimes it’s worth it for the increased performance.

Majestic methods

The GCU now features a Majestic methods screen where users can quickly choose from a variety of operating modes. Switch from whip to slow very quickly and you can also define your own mixture majestic settings as needed.

Whip Pan

Acceleration limits + 50% more power = awesome whip pans!

Dynamic Fixed Mount

MōVI Pro now knows when it is sitting still and it uses that information to mitigate any drift. End result for the user is more precise control with less drift.

Dynamic Acceleration Threshold

We almost killed Selim during testing, but we managed to make some drastic improvements in horizon holding in the latest build. MōVI Pro now does a better job at rejecting bad values from the accelerometer and maintaining level horizon.

Auto FIZ Calibration

We added an optional mode where you can have the MōVI Pro automatically calibrate the FIZ motors on power up. This can be super helpful if you are running a zoom lens for the day and don’t want to forget to calibrate. We originally designed this feature for MōVI Carbon and fell in love with it!

Zoom Rate Scaling

Another feature stolen from MōVI Carbon! When you zoom in the pan/tilt rates automatically slow down to help you with accurate framing. Users can adjust the amount of zoom rate scaling to find the perfect amount for their use case/lens. It’s really nice to not have to touch the pan/tilt speeds mid-shot!

Instant Boot

MōVI Pro boots in under 2 seconds and now boots just about anywhere. We removed the option for motion booting and replaced it with a newer design called ‘live boot’ that ensures the MōVI Pro will boot instantly no matter what you are doing.

The team at Freefly is super excited to see people using these new features to create shots that were once impossible. Be sure to tune into our facebook live where we will be teaching you how to use these new features for the next 6 weeks!

‘Blackjack’ update will be available to the public in early December!

Blackjack — MōVI 2.0 Update was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What was Sherpas like when it first started? How have you seen it grow into the mountain climbing, drone flying, world traveling company it is now?

Back in 2002, it was just a couple of friends, a computer and some cameras. A grassroots thing that came out of the three founders, Dave Mossop, Eric Crosland and Malcolm Sangster’s ski posse in high school. They all grew up in Calgary, Alberta and were totally addicted to skiing Lake Louise and being in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and they wanted to capture those stories. Over the years, we’ve been very lucky to work with some amazing companies, athletes and people. It’s progressed fairly naturally from our passion and commitment to the craft of filmmaking.

You’ve produced everything from feature films to short films to branded commercials. If you had to choose one single project you’re most proud of, which would it be and why?

Probably All.I.Can., our second feature. It just seemed to have a sort of alchemy to it. It showed us that people were ready for something different and that we could take our ideas and put them on the screen.

Will you tell us a little bit about your film “Imagination”? How did that idea come about, and how were you able to make it a reality?

It was originally JP Auclair’s idea, one that was strongly supported by Landon Bassett at The North Face. Sadly, both incredible men are not with us today. We were able to put it on screen thanks to their inspiration and support, but also the passion, commitment, and creativity of our team. We would be remiss to not mention the ninja-like talents of Tom Wallisch and the people of Nelson, British Columbia for letting us ski off of their rooftops.

What is the collaboration process like? Who specializes in what?

We communicate a lot. We have three different offices across Western Canada, and we’re on the road all the time, so communication is critical. We are fortunate to have a well-rounded team of cinematographers, editors, producers, directors, and writers. This allows us to tackle almost any project with our in-house staff. It’s a huge bonus to our company.

Can you talk a little about your contribution to the film “Mountain” that recently came out? Was there anything especially challenging or particularly meaningful for you on the shoot?

Most of the footage in Mountain that came from Sherpas was stock footage. We’ve worked with Jen Peedam in the past and have huge respect for her as a filmmaker. Having shot in some of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world for the better part of a decade, we’ve amassed a ton of imagery, so it was a no-brainer for us to contribute to this project. We’re very proud to have participated in this amazing piece.

What’s an unexpected piece of gear you bring when you’re shooting in remote mountain areas?

Lots and lots of heli-straps. They’re incredible tools for lashing gear together no matter where you are, what the conditions are like, etc. Of course, the MōVI Pro is a must have in all kits, but you guys already know that.

Do you have any rituals or routines before going on a shoot?

We are a huge fan of the group hug.

There seems to be a constant theme throughout your work where nature is the backdrop, no matter the subject. What is it about shooting in the outdoors that is so inspiring?

The infinite variability and beauty of this planet keeps us ever inspired. No snowflake is ever the same, no cloud pattern repeats itself, every sunset is different. That’s what keeps us coming back for more.

What does it take to be a part of the Sherpas Cinema group?

You need to be tough. Creative, hilarious, passionate, committed, all those things are crucial. But we’re called Sherpas for a reason, we haul big loads into crazy places, we take on ambitious projects, we push our guys to the limit to get next level shots, and to do all of that you need to be tough.

How has Freefly enabled or changed what’s been possible for you on a shoot? Can you give an example?

We shot almost everything for Imagination on a MōVI Pro. For such a complicated shoot, where we only had a few takes to get the shot, that piece of gear was crucial for ensuring we had a distinct smoothness for each sequence. It played a huge role in the success of that piece.

How do you stay creative and keep delivering the goods?

We really try to not rest on our laurels. We’re continually looking for new ways of capturing images. We respect and learn from our peers, and in general take a certain humility into what we do. We know we’re still learning, we still have a ton to learn, and that we’re always be pushing to take our game to the next level. Because in filmmaking, there is always a next level.

What’s the most exciting future you could imagine for Sherpas Cinema?

Getting the opportunity to make well-funded narrative feature film.

Can you offer some parting advice for an aspiring Sherpa?

If you think you’ve got a good idea, make sure you put everything you have into making a reality. Don’t be afraid to go all in.

Group Hugs — The Sherpas Cinema Crew was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tell us about yourself a little. Where did you grow up and what got you into film?

I’m originally from Seattle. I moved to LA for college but dropped out when I was offered a job playing music at a church back in Seattle. The church’s video team needed help making videos for weekend services, so I got involved, and quickly fell in love with filmmaking.

A year later I sold my guitars, bought a 5d, and left the church to work as a freelance filmmaker.

What were some of your first big jobs, and how did that impact your career?

One month after my 21st birthday I responded to an unbranded ad on Craigslist for a temporary motion graphics editor at an unnamed company. I sent through some examples of my After Effects work and was asked to come in for an in-person interview. The day of the interview I plugged the company’s address into my GPS, and after a 45-minute drive found myself sitting in the parking lot at Amazon headquarters.

The interview went well, and I was hired on a three-day job. When the job was over, I was asked to work on another project, which turned into another project, which eventually turned into almost two years of exclusively freelancing at Amazon.

During those two years, I saved enough money to buy a RED camera and eventually transitioned from an in-house editor at Amazon to freelance DP

What prompted your move from Seattle to NYC?

My wife and I moved to New York looking for a change. At the time we had only ever lived on the West Coast, and New York represented an exciting new challenge for us both. We didn’t know anyone in the city but decided that we’d try it out for a few years and see what happened.

What’s it like working as an independent filmmaker in NYC vs. Seattle?

It’s similar in some ways and different in others. You don’t need to live in a major market like New York or LA to tell make compelling films, but my work has definitely improved since the move. In New York, I am surrounded by so many other talented filmmakers and artists, which is simultaneously challenging and inspiring.

What are you working on right now?

This year I’ve made a conscious effort to invest in personal work. I purchased an Aaton XTR PROD 16mm film camera in January, and have used it on a personal project in Iraq as well as a personal project filmed in Alaska.

Since moving to New York I’ve been shooting less and directing more, and just wrapped a branded piece I directed for Stella Artois shot on 16mm.

Tell us about the most technical or difficult shot you have pulled off recently. What did you do to prepare physically and mentally?

I’m currently shooting a series of live one-take performance videos for VEVO using a techno-jib on a stage. I tend to be pretty hands-on with the camera on set, so directing camera movement from behind a monitor 50' from the camera has been a fun new challenge.

How has using Freefly gear changed the way you shoot, or what you shoot?

The MōVI eliminated the gap between many of the shots that I imagined in my head and the shots I was actually capable of pulling off.

My first MōVI was an M5, which I purchased at a time when I was primarily shooting low-budget documentary work in developing countries. Shooting with the M5 made a massive impact on my work, effectively allowing me to capture “big budget” looking shots while in remote locations by myself.

What are the specific skills or outlooks that have allowed you to stand out in such a competitive space?

I invest a lot of time into building relationships with other filmmakers. Nothing has had a more significant impact on my work than the artists that I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with.

Project 5 years into the future, what do you want to be doing?

Making films that inspire me with people that I enjoy!

Powers That Be was originally published in Every Axis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.