Pastuhov Keeps Pictorvision Eclipse Flying

Aerial cinematographer Phil Pastuhov is one of the busiestshooters in the business. He's always charged withinteresting jobs andusually halfway around the world. It is, after all, a global production communitythese days.And, wherever he goes it's usually Pictorvision's Eclipse aerialcamera stabilizing system that takes him throughthe challenges with ease.

One of my most interesting jobs this year was a final shotfor a major feature shot in the Philippines, Pastuhovsays. You can't tell itis an aerial until we pull away. At the start, you think it's a dolly shot,then maybe a crane, thenyou realize it is a full blown aerial. It's anincredibly nuanced shot. The most critical part was getting the boatheading inthe exact direction we needed so that the wind blew the helicopter downwash outof the shot. Once wehad the boat sorted out, the Eclipse allowed us to do thiswith absolute stability and incredible subtlety. It really soldthe sequencewith its rock solid performance. Both the director and first unit DP came upto me later and praisedthe shot.

Another challenge took place on location here in the UnitedStates. The big thing was capturing plates in both IMAXand with the Sony F-65.The open architecture of the Eclipse really helped me here, says Pastuhov.It was the onlysystem that could support our needs. We only had a couple ofdays to get the footage so the change over from IMAXto the F-65 had to bequick and I needed to know positively that each camera system and my lensoptions would notbe limited by the aerial mount.

We ended up making the change over more than once and eachtime it was quick and went without a hitch. We hada big zoom and primes on theF-65 and used primes for the IMAX shots. I was very happy that the F-65 workedwiththe Eclipse, with a full array of lenses, and that the time spent changinglenses did not endanger our shooting time.

Pastuhov also had a challenging ARRI Alexa shot with anOptimo 12-1 lens. It seems like this is becoming thestandard on a lot ofshoots, he says. This set up gives reliable performance and the maximumflexibility ofEclipse's open architecture can handle anything.

Three films, four different cameras, multiple lenses somany options in camera all easily handled by Eclipse. Itsimply allows me togive production a variety of options for the best way to accomplish thedirector's vision.

It isn't just the equipment that keeps Pastuhov coming backto Eclipse. It's also the people. It's their can do'attitude, he says. Ifthey don't know what to do to help us, they will find out. If they haven'ttried a systemcombination, they'll check it out and make sure it is 100% rightbefore it leaves the shop. They are very consciousand committed to getting andkeeping your business.

In the past several years aerial DP Phil Pastuhov has shot aerials for Bourne Legacy, This Means War, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and the upcoming films The Internship, Star Trek into Darkness, GI Joe Retaliation and Jobs.

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