Helicopter Film Services launches Typhon 6 Array

Amid a burgeoning visual special effects industry that continues to contribute markedly to the UK’s key creative sector, Helicopter Filming Services (HFS) has launched a new camera array. The Typhon 6 Array incorporates six ARRI Alexa Mini cameras mounted in a Shotover K1 system to shoot plates that can then be stitched together in post production. The Typhon 6 Array can also be configured to incorporate other cameras, such as the latest RED Helium.

The new array is designed to enable both aerial and ground-based filming of sequences, where a particularly wide field of vision is required, enabling the kind of cutting-edge VFX sequences for which the UK is known.

Jeremy Braben, founder of HFS, explained, “We were tasked by visual effects departments to create this array, as we’re seeing an increased need for capturing a larger frame in one go. There’s a distinct artistic advantage to getting some shots with these arrays, but until now, they have just been part of the VFX wish list. We’re excited to be bringing the Typhon Array to major forthcoming feature productions.”

Dan DeLeeuw, VFX supervisor on Avengers: Infinity War, noted: “Arrays such as this are great for capturing as much image data as possible during a single pass of the camera, which helps relieve pressure on the filming schedule.”

Angela Barson, co-founder of London-based VFX facility Blue Bolt, said, “Once stitched together, the high-resolution plates give us great flexibility, in that decisions can be made in post about which parts of the images are used. These benefits were proved to me clearly when we shot Entebbe, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone filming VFX plates.”

Tim Wellspring, unit production manager on Paddington 2, commented “We’ve had a first use with the Typhon 6 Mini Array on the Shotover K1, and it works beautifully. The shoots we have done on Paddington 2 were loved by the VFX team and everyone else involved. Eric Wilson, the DP, was thrilled to learn there’s now an ARRI Alexa solution to shooting with a stabilised Array.”

Glen Pratt at Framestore, the VFX supervisor on Paddington 2, noted, “Obviously, the more pixels we have, the better. The Typhon Array gives us a huge field of view, and its vertical field-of-view is particularly big. Having a larger field-of-view gives us a better sense of the environment you’re moving through, and also means that within the frame, there are a lot of areas of interest that can act as a background for areas you’ve shot before. The Typhon Array can also be used for a photogrammetry aspect, so you can run at a slower frame rate with a hard shutter (i.e. no motion), to build this large field-of-view in order to create a successful piece of tracking geometry. Only a super-stable system can allow the use of this frame rate/shutter.

“Having this array also brings plenty of benefits when creating any CG fields on top of what we’ve already shot. When creating a wholly-graphic environment, it gives you a very thorough starting point, which means you can reduce the number of CG builds, so there’s less work required in post production. This, in turn, means less pressure on budgets and schedules, and more time to finesse the work.”