
Shooting the sky for AppleTV epic Masters of the Air
Adrian Pennington April 14, 2024
0 Comments
Producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks required historical accuracy for their definitive account of the American aerial combat against Nazi Germany. With so much of the factual story taking place in the skies over Europe a primary goal was to recreate the missions of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with authenticity down to recreating the weather conditions and topography the crews would have encountered in 1943.
We started by studying all the diaries of the pilots flying the B-17s in Europe at the time, said Phil Arntz the series' Aerial Director of Photography. We then went through the script and picked the moments that required identifiable scenery in Europe. The brief was to capture high resolution plates that would fit the geographical area of the actual missions and in a way that production could use across the series.
Masters of the Air is Spielberg and Hanks' third World War II based epic TV series after 2001's Band of Brothers and 2010's The Pacific and the first to be produced by Apple Studios, in cooperation with Playtone, and Amblin Television. Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, and Ncuti Gatwa are among those portraying members of the 100th Bombardment Group, a US Air Force squadron stationed in England and tasked with bombing Nazi-occupied territory.
In virtual production you would normally shoot background plates only after the foreground action is in the can. But the show's tight shooting schedule meant reversing convention. Arntz was tasked with gathering enough material that could be manipulated in post to fit director and DP compositions that would be shot later.
Typically, what you want when shooting background plates is to know what the foreground action is going to be first so you can compose it accordingly, explains VFX Supervisor, Stephen Rosenbaum. For scheduling reasons, we didn't have that benefit so we did previz in advance. We blocked out the action with the director's guidance and I handed that to Phil and his team to try and adhere to the composition in the previz.
As it turned out, the majority of plates Arntz shot were a departure from the previz which is typically the case in something as organic as a live aerial shoot.
Photo Credit: Phil Arntz, Aerial DP
The previz was just a guide for what I was looking for and I encouraged Phil with the freedom to roam to deliver magnificent shots if he saw better ones - which he certainly did.
Aerial plates of this calibre required extreme high-resolution plates. RED has always been camera for that, said Arntz. With 8K resolution and 17 stops of dynamic range per body, RED was the perfect choice to generate as much information as possible for VFX.
Instead of shooting with a six camera array the Masters of the Air team rigged three RED V-RAPTOR cameras in a vertical orientation.
Arntz explained the idea; We used the V-RAPTOR in portrait configuration which enabled production to use the fully stitched output from the array in a 2:1 aspect ratio. This also opened the door for VFX to select different sections of the plate thanks to the high resolution.
Each episode required specific shots and this dictated planning of Arntz's own airborne mission. An episode depicting a bombing raid on U-boat pens in Trondheim, Norway was identified as the furthest location the aerial crew would need to travel to. From that end point they built their own flight plan across Europe.
The team flew by Eurocopter AS350 B3 cureuil across the English Channel to France, continued across to Belgium, and The Netherlands including shooting windmills around Amsterdam and then made their way over Germany, up to Denmark, Sweden and finally to Norway.
Also on board with Arntz and the pilot was DIT Chris Belcher. He devised a workflow to back up the media during transit and stream a version to Rosenbaum in LA.
For example, we would fly from England to France shooting on route, Arntz related. We'd land, take out the cards, reload the cameras. We'd get a suck of gas for the helicopter and get back up in the air due to our tight schedule. Meanwhile, Chris would back-up media to a mobile station whilst we were already shooting the next required plates. This means we were able to turnaround a shoot across eight countries with virtually no downtime.
Onboard, a 1080p proxy file was recorded which would be sent to Rosenbaum on landing for review. This was a full HD preview, not stitched, but it provided a good idea of the elements we'd captured such as Norwegian mountains, inlets and submarine pens. Doing this was really helpful for us to get feedback as we were going. For example, one task was to film approaches into a fjord that is supposed to be of Greenland. We shot it over Norway and VFX would see straight away what we'd captured.
Photo Credit: Phil Arntz, Aerial DP
They shot for a month between May and July 2022, including the six-day Europe trip and a couple of weeks in the skies over England, capturing generic cloudscapes as well as the coastlines of Wales and Norfolk- that could also double as the coastline of Normandy. They were also trying to match plates as closely as possible to historical weather conditions.
We want to do a really good job of making the show historically accurate so we tried to structure the day to nail the time of day we needed, passing through and above cloud layers, and to extend the day to shoot sunrises and sunsets.
They captured to 2TB RED Cfast cards at a compression ratio that give them 90 minutes shooting time. The RED RAW R3D is so efficient that you can shoot at much higher resolution without burning through media. It's a lot more efficient than, say, ARRIRAW. We never got to point where we filled up the cards.
The great thi
Most recent headlines
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...