Articles

Filming Competitive FS

Qualiication:
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BPA regulation 6.1. Cameras may only be used by FAI ‘C' Certificate (Red) parachutists after inspection and approval of a CCI.

There are a number of arguments for this limitation but the addition of a camera to your helmet increases the potential for a malfunction during deployment so the skills required to keep you alive during a malfunction have to be reviewed and in some cases modified.

Emergency Procedures:
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Side, front and top mounted cameras with the addition of lenses and sights are all potential snags hazards for lines, risers and even sliders on deployment so common sense would dictate that if you are jumping a helmet equipped with a camera it should be fitted with a single point cutaway.

Camera flying will require you to reconsider your emergency procedures. What would you do if in the event of an entanglement with your camera on deployment? Would you cutaway the canopy before your helmet? If you normally jump with an RSL attached would you disconnect this before jumping camera?

Deployment:
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On deployment look towards the horizon so that you keep your shoulders level with the horizon and maintain body symmetry. This will ensure that during the deployment your harness is evenly loaded and if you have packed your canopy properly it should maintain a consistent and on heading opening during deployment. To reduce the possibility of sprain or injury during deployment I would advise that you DO NOT watch the canopy deployment but maintain visual reference with the horizon.

The average weight of the human head is 20lbs and this is without any additional weight of a camera system. If you are looking up during deployment and have a rapid deployment (hard opening) your head has further to travel and the extra momentum generated will increase the forces on the neck and spine increasing the potential for sprain or injury to your neck or spine.

Some would argue that by watching the deployment they can control and correct any potential off heading openings but if you are looking at the canopy how can you maintain a heading if you have no visual reference? Looking at the canopy during deployment is one of the main causes other than packing for an off heading opening. At the experience level required to jump a camera you should already have the spatial awareness to know whether you have a malfunction or a normal deployment before you look up to confirm that you have a perfect flying canopy above your head.

Visualistation:
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A top tip is visualisation, walk through the skydive with the team so that you know the sequence of blocks and random's. When using the mock up visualise where the centre of the launch should be in the door and where it will be on exit. By doing this you will be able to frame the team properly during the exit and the skydive.

By knowing the skydive you can anticipate the fall rates of the formations and adjust your position accordingly, open formations like a star have the tendency to fall faster when compared with a closed formation such as a meeker. The sequence of a skydive is important because you need to anticipate where the centre point is going to be for each formation built so that you can reposition if necessary either vertically or horizontally, this will ensure that each formation is in frame.

Exits:
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The majority of aircraft used in the United Kingdom are side door exits with the Dornier G 92 being the main Nationals aircraft for a number of years. There are two types of exits, leading or trailing.

During a lead exit the camera person is positioned lower that the tail of the formation on exit and leaves the aircraft with the team filming from below during the exit gaining height on the formation as it transitions on the hill.

With a trailing exit the camera person is higher than the tail of the formation and peels with the team filming from above.

There are disadvantages with both styles of exit and the aircraft together with the size of formation being launched will also influence the style of exit you use. A PAC 750 for example has a high camera step therefore, it is very difficult to place yourself lower than the tail of the formation on exit and because of the powerful prop wash on the PAC it can be difficult to hang low using your arms unless you have powerful arm muscles!

The drawback with the trailing exit occasionally referred to as peeling is that with a fast team you can occasionally because of the camera angle miss some of the grips when the first point is launched. This is exaggerated with camera steps that are positioned close to the door.

A lead exit captures the formation immediately it leaves the door and if you are taking still images the aircraft in the background adds another dimension to the image. If performed correctly you shouldn't miss a point with a lead exit but you must be confident that you can anticipate the teams exit count and that the team DO NOT hesitate once they commence their exit count.

Whichever exit you use it's a matter of timing. If you get that wrong on a lead exit you'll either leave too early, miss capturing the exit and any points transitioned on the hill or you'll leave too late and find yourself joining the team on exit! With the trailing exit if you get the timing wrong you leave too late and have to play catch up so some people consider this to be a safer exit to use especially if filming an un familiar team or a low experience team who don't launch the first point.

I have no preference which exit I use and will base my judgment on my knowledge of the team, aircraft type and the goals of the skydive, i.e. is it competition, do I want a still image if the team on exit etc.

Flying with the formation:
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There are two types of camera people out there, those who have hit a formation and those who are going to hit the formation. At some stage during your filming career you will make contact with the team. This may be because you've got the timing wrong on exit or you've hit the burble and fallen on the team during the skydive. Once you've hit the team you then know your limitations and therefore, you have a range guide.

You need to know your range and this will depend on your skill level and to a degree your camera equipment, whether you use a wide angle lens or not. The hardest skill to master is the art of flying steep and being consistent. If you can master this skill it will make the formations easier to score for both the teams and judges.

The skydive can be classified into two categories, training and competition;

Training:
You obviously need to capture all aspects of the training from exit to break off so that the team are able to debrief. As a point of reference for the team I will hold line of flight so that they can see any heading changes during the skydive and I will normally fly steep and closer to the team than I would in competition.

At some point you may be asked to get some horizontal footage looking through the formation. I usually fly down to the formation once they have completed a couple of pages and fly slightly lower than the team so the footage shows an image looking through the formation. Make sure that your team knows that you are going to be there so that it doesn't spook anyone and also brief them if you intend to be on the level at break off.

Training Distance
0.3 lens at a distance of about 8 feet



























Competition:
To score a team the judges must see ALL the grips are complete to score a point and it is the teams responsibility to show the points the judges.

When viewing a screen the eye is naturally drawn to the centre of the screen so a formation filling the screen looks impressive and you can see detail but to see all the grips the eye has to scan around the screen to view any grips on the periphery of the image. If you compare the training image above with the competition image below at a glance you can see the grips in the competition image are complete however, in the training image above you have to scan the image to confirm that the outer grips on the formation are complete, remember these images are frozen, its magnified with a moving image.

During competition I fly steep but back off a little because as I have explained it makes it easier to judge the team on screen and this also provides me with a little insurance. If the team start to drift during a block transition the extra height provides a reactionary gap and enables me to keep the team in frame gaining more height if required, if the block drifts out of frame then the point will not be scored. Holding heading is not important during competition flying, showing all the completed points is the goal.

Competition Distance
0.3 lens at a distance of about 12 feet



























Keep it steep:
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You need to fly steep so that as you view the image on the screen you are looking straight down through the formation and by flying steep this will put you in the wake turbulence caused by the formation often referred to as the burble. Initially you may find flying in the burble unnerving but to provide quality footage you must learn to ride the burble and eventually as you master the technique you'll enjoy being there. Practice with the team during training to see how close you can get but as you reach the point where you feel the burble is drawing you in use your wings to stop.

Downloading footage for judging:
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A simple task you might think but you would be surprised how many people struggle with such a straight forward task.

The judges need to know which team tape they are judging whilst viewing the tape so put a title board with the round number at the beginning of the skydive you are downloading, some of the arty camera staff can be quiet competitive with their elaborate intros but all you need to show is the team number, team name and round number. Obviously the next step is down load the skydive, provide a short lead in of the team in the door so that the tape can be cued up for judging, a few seconds is sufficient. Once you have down loaded the skydive check that you have downloaded it then rewind it to the beginning of the round to be judged ready for the judges to review.

Mark off the round that you have down loaded on the tape front, in the UK this is normally done by circling the round number and the judges will strike through the round number when it's been judged.

Don't put arty ground shots of the team on the judging tape or amusing scenes from inside the aircraft because you'll only annoy the judges leave this type of footage for the bar tapes.

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To be continued

Created May 2005 updated July 2006