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Tyler Ginter and Greg Wheeler talk about the Brain Farm team motion timelapse work in the Aspen segment of The Art of Flight

What was the mission of the project?

The Aspen section of The Art of Flight was all about filming the athletes take on the incredible jumps and half pipe that was being constructed. We spent a week in the field setting up several motion timelapse setups each day. Each shot took between 2-3 hours to setup and 6-8 hours to film. We mostly worked the graveyard shift as a lot of the work was done from when the sun went down to when it came up.

A little background on Tyler Ginter.

I am a passionate Timelapse Photographer, Filmmaker and Producer. I have always enjoyed the creative and technical challenges of filming in remote locations around the world and Art of Flight was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. I spent the past four years on active duty as a Captain assigned to 55th Combat Camera, the only active duty Combat Camera Company in the United States Army. I served as a Platoon Leader in Operation Iraqi Freedom for nine months in charge of a team of 22 filmmakers and photographers who documented the war in support of combatant commanders’ tactical, operational, and strategic objectives.

What equipment was used? And why is this gear the gear of choice?

We used the Kessler Crane ShuttlePod and PocketJib to pull off the shots in the Aspen section of Art of Flight. We would construct 20 feet of track on the ShuttlePod to do the shoot, then move, then shoot dolly shots. We also setup the PocketJib to slowly dolly up or down over a 6-8 hour period. For a few of the shots, we attached the PocketJib to the ShuttlePod so we could extend the reach of the camera over a half pipe ledge.  I have used Kessler systems for all my timelapse work and they work flawlessly in a variety of harsh weather conditions including the extreme heat and cold. It was also important for the gear to be portable enough for us to transport the rigs up and down the mountain each day.

Tell us about some of the challenges of this shoot?

The biggest challenge was the inconsistant weather conditions on the mountain. We would spend hours setting up a timelapse shot and the clouds and weather would be perfect. Then, after only a few hours into a 6 hour timelapse move, it would start dumping snow and the entire shot would be ruined. Moreover, wind played a huge factor in getting stable timelapse moves. We had to use shoot, move, shoot on the Kessler Motion Control system so each frame would have time to settle from the wind before an exposure was taken.

What were the shots that you got? Were you happy with the results?

Tyler: I setup a 20 foot astro timelapse dolly shot in the half pipe with the milky way in the background. Unfortunately, this shot was ruined on my first attempt due to my fill light malfunctioning from the extreme cold. Curt understood the situation and told me that I needed to try it one more time. So, I stayed out again until 2am the next night making sure every last variable of the shot was perfected and working properly. As a result, I pulled off the shot successfully the second time thanks to Curt and his leadership as a Director to keep pushing me.

Curt Morgan and Jared Slater of Brain Farm were both awarded Emmy’s for their cinematography for Nat Geos show Great Migrations. They were working with the Cineflex and Phantom HD to capture the migration of Wyoming’s Pronghorn. You can see the footage in the Race to Survive Episode. Read more below about the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.

National Geographic Channel, PBS and Discovery Channel emerged as multiple winners at the 32nd annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards held last night in New York City.

Discovery Channel’s First Life with David Attenborough from Atlantic Productions claimed the award for outstanding nature programming, as well as nods for writing and graphic design and art direction.

PBS strands ‘POV’ and ‘Independent Lens’ brought in several honors for the public broadcaster, with Robert Kenner’s Food Inc. named best documentary and also getting the prize for outstanding informational programming – long form.

Presumed Guilty from filmmakers Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith, also airing on ‘POV,’ received the award for outstanding investigative journalism – long form, while another ‘POV’ doc, Landon von Soest’s Good Fortune, was honored for outstanding business and economic reporting – long form.

National Geographic Channel’s Restrepo: Afghan Outpost, directed by Sebastian Junger and the late Tim Hetherington, took awards for outstanding continuing coverage of a news story – long form, and a craft award for editing. NGC’s epic natural history series Great Migrations (pictured) took the honors in cinematography for a nature program….

Read more: http://realscreen.com/2011/09/27/nat-geo-pbs-discovery-channel-take-multiple-news-documentary-emmys/#ixzz1bKiVguwe

Download “The Art of FLIGHT” Music from iTunes

Check out the music from “The Art of FLIGHT” and download songs from Apple iTunes using the widget or by clicking on the note icon below.

“The Art of FLIGHT” movie was released September 2011 and premiered to enthusiastic audiences around the US and is on a world tour throughout the fall. Didn’t get a chance to see it? Download the flick from iTunes HERE.

Want to learn more behind the scenes info about the music? Director/cinematographer Curt Morgan talks about the soundtrack for the film in this VIDEO.

The M83 tracks in the soundtrack are from their new album “Hurry Up We’re Dreaming,” which was released Oct 18, 2011.

Segment	Artist	Song	iTunes
Intro 1	Defrag	Element l1
Intro 2	M83	Outro
So Far Gone 1	Hendrickson/Dick/Harry	Before the Storm
So Far Gone 2	Deadmau5	Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff (feat. Rob Swire)
Down Days	Oswin Macintosh	Passion Victim
Wizard	The Naked and Famous	No Way
No Bueno	Apparat	Ash/Black Veil
Darwin 1	Klaus Badelt	Nowhere to Run
Darwin 2	Blockhead	Sunday Seance (Loka Remix)
Home 1	The Album Leaf	Another Day
Home 2	The Naked and Famous	Young Blood
Home 3	Mel Wesson	Motional Rescue Pulse
Avalanche 1	Mel Wesson	Stark Light
Avalanche 2	Sigur Ros	Track 6
Where the Water Flows like Wine	M83	Intro
Revelstoked	Hum	Iron Clad Lou
More stoked	The Black Angels	Young Men Dead
Even more stoked	M83	My Tears Are Becoming A Sea
Credits 1	Okkervil River	Westfall
Credits 2	We Are Augustines	Chapel Song
Teaser	The Three Corners Of The Earth	Fire Shall Devour Them

Brain Farm recently worked with Jimmy Chin and the crew at Camp Four Collective on the latest The North Face Fall 2011 commercial spot. The North Face athletes, Jimmy and Hilaree O’Neill along with the Camp Four team planned an ascent/descent of one of the main peaks in the Teton Range for the 30 second TV spot. Brain Farm was a 2nd Unit on the crew and shot all the aerial coverage with the Cineflex V14. The spot will release sometime in Fall 2011.

For more on the story and photos at Buoloco.com

Brain Farm worked on the latest World of Red Bull commercial spot earlier this year thats now airing in the US and globally. Red Bull commissioned Curt Morgan to direct and Brain Farm to produce a 3D commercial spot to air in 3D theaters and on TV this spring. The subject; the talented Ashley Fiolek, a young motocross phenom who rallies through the Zaca Station MotoX track, then signs to the camera Welcome to my world, the world of Red Bull. Ashley is completely lacking her hearing but is one of the best female moto riders in the world.

We shot the spot with Paradise FX 3D rigs using RED One cameras. The POV was shot using IndieCam’s POV system. Brain Farm took it a step further and contracted Mark Chapman and crew from CableCam to run the RED stereo rig on a 2000 foot cable across the track to get the intimate follow shots through jump and berm features. For the chase shots we used the Ultimate Arm on the Mercedes camera chase car. All the aerials were shot with Brain Farm’s Cineflex V14 system. Brain Farm did all post production on the spot and worked with E3D Creative for all the 3D conversions and conform. The spot is now airing in 2D on ESPN, TBS, TNT, MTV and other networks. It will begin airing in 3D cinema this May in front of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Thor, and The Priest.

By Aaron Orlando – Revelstoke Times Review
In Revelstoke, a winter’s day doesn’t go by without at least some filming for some kind of ski or snowboard production. Maybe it’s helmet cam shots of your glade line, some pocket HD of jumps off a booter or even something with a director and a budget.

But when they are dropping tens of thousands to fly specialists in from California to wrap your helicopter with Red Bull graphics, you know it’s in a different league.

Scott Newsome of Revelstoke’s Eagle Pass Heli-Skiing invited the Times Review up to Selkirk Mountain Helicopters’ facility on Mar. 16. We witnessed the unveiling of an A-Star helicopter newly-decorated with a full Red Bull logo package, and a helicopter safety briefing for the upcoming snowboard production The Art of Flight.

The Art of Flight follows snowboarders Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Muller, Gigi Ruf, DCP and Pat Moore as they travel the globe and push the limits of the sport.

Travis Rice was on hand for the safety briefing. He’s been in town for about 10 days and has done some filming in the snowcat terrain at Revelstoke Mountain Resort and some sled-accessed riding. It’s his first time to Revelstoke. “It’s everything I’ve always heard it would be,” Rice told the Times Review. “A little more actually. I always heard good things ever since the resort opened.”

For those who follow snowboarding, Rice needs no introduction. Rice is firmly amongst the biggest names in the sport. He’s been Transworld Snowboarding rider of the year, won many big air and halfpipe competitions over the past decade, amongst many other awards, wins and video parts.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people how insane it is,” Rice said of the snow and terrain around Revelstoke. “It was great getting up here finally to see for myself.”

The above-average snow season looks like it will keep the production in Revelstoke longer than planned. “We were going to be going to [Alaska], but you guys are having the best season since the late ’70s and AK is having one of the worst seasons of all time, so we’re thinking of maybe just hanging out and finishing off … the project,” Rice said.

So, is it all work and no play? “I like to think that our business is spiked with pleasure,” Rice said, saying the riders and crew will be out and about town in the next few weeks.

The Art of Flight is being produced by Brain Farm Digital Cinema. Company president Curt Morgan, who was behind the 2008 snowboard epic That’s It, That’s All was also on hand at the heli-pad.

“It’s the story of Travis Rice and friends basically going out in search of the best terrain in the world, and this is going to be one of the spots in the movie,” said Morgan.

Morgan and Brain Farm are also producing an eight-part TV series that focuses on the production of The Art of Flight. It’ll follow the crew through locations including Patagonia, Jackson Hole, Alaska and here in Revelstoke. One of the one-hour episodes will feature their stay here.

Morgan said he worked with Scott Newsome on a production near Nelson, B.C., and he convinced Morgan to bring the production up here.

In addition to filming with Eagle Pass Heli-Skiing, they were also filming up at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Morgan said they’ve had a great few days at RMR. “Everyone up at RMR have been awesome, super helpful.” They did some pioneering use of a specialized stabilized camera mounted atop a cat, he said.

Brain Farm is known for their pioneering digital filming techniques and innovating new camera mounting techniques for action sports genres. “It’s just the next level of cinematography and just an epic adventure story of travelling the world and dealing with all of the variables that come into play while trying to make a film about snowboarding,” Morgan said of the production and the TV series.

He says Red Bull is one of the sponsors of the TV episodes, and he’s currently shopping the series, saying he’s got interest from “really, really large” networks bidding on it.

He said Revelstoke has been a great host so far. “The people are so welcoming to us, and so friendly,” he said. “On top of that, of course you’re sitting on some of the best terrain in the world and some of the best snow.”

Morgan adds: “It’s shaping up to be a real good film shoot for us – if we ever see the sun.”

For Eagle Pass Heli-Skiing’s Scott Newsome, the production is a big boost for the company.

“For us, it’s a real big deal,” Newsome told the Times Review. “For Eagle Pass, it’s awesome. It’s amazing.”

Ownership of the Eagle Pass changed in December of 2010. It is now operated by Scott Newsome, Matt Pinto, Michael Wood and Andy Freeland. Freeland was with the company since before the ownership change.

Newsome notes the talent in the film and the production company behind it. “Nothing really compares to this film,” Newsome said. “It’s a real production.”

“It’s really stunning that we can showcase our terrain here and the town of Revelstoke,” he said. “It’s a real big thing for the community, as well as us at Eagle Pass.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS AND FULL STORY

Just when you thought the producers of “That’s It, That’s All” couldn’t top themselves comes a new breed of snowboarding entertainment. “The Art of FLIGHT” follows Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Muller, Gigi Ruf, DCP and Pat Moore as they dream up new global adventures and progress the sport to unimaginable levels. Brain Farm has gathered an arsenal of the most advanced and progressive filmmaking technology to bring the masses a snowboarding adventure of epic proportions. Filmed on location in Jackson Hole, Alaska, Chile, Aspen, Patagonia, British Columbia and more, FLIGHT brings the viewer along for the perfect blend of adventure/travel drama and high-energy snowboarding action. “The Art of FLIGHT” releases September 2011. www.theartofflightmovie.com