JETPACK! Rocketeer in REAL LIFE!

When we first showed up to film this JetPack we had no idea what we were in for. We heard about it and watched a few YouTube clips about it but seeing it in person is a whole other experience. It is as loud as a jet airplane and super fast. We knew this was going to be huge because it's something that has never been done before. As far as filming a JetPack professionally. There are phone video's but this is the first professionally produced video of a JetPack and we are super proud of it. 

Our biggest dilemma was how do we shoot this and make it look cool because he was literally flying back and forth over the same lake over and over. So we knew we needed to bring out all the cameras to add as many different angles to the JetPack as possible. We brought the RED Weapon, the Phantom Miro, the DJI Phantom 4, the Inspire 1, Canon 5D Mark 4, and GoPro Hero 4's. We had two days to shoot this so we decided to make the first day our trial and error day (which is how we typically approach this kind of video) and use every camera then at the end of the day we would review our footage and decide we like best and do as much as that as possible on the second day. We found that obviously getting as close to David (the JetPack pilot) as possible while he's flying looked by far the best, but we were basically dealing with a Jet, which can be dangerous. So the best answer to that was using the drones. We would map out a course for David to fly so there was no way of him getting confused with us and crashing into the drone. We would then fly that course and David would get as close as possible to us without hitting the drone.

Another dilemma we had to work around was the flight time and the amount of flights the JetPack could do in those two days. The JetPack can only fly about 4 minutes before it runs out of gas and then we had enough gas to give us about 15 total flights (7 to 8 per day). So we had to know exactly what shots we wanted for each flight so we could make the best of them. How we did that is we would tell David what we were shooting for each flight then we would tell him what we wanted him to do for that flight. 

For Example: I would have the boat drop me off on one of the islands with the RED and Glidecam then Carter would be on the Phantom. So I would tell David I want you to fly to the island, fly around it twice then fly to Carter and fly by him for his shot. We would then tell him to do something different each time he passed whether that was fly high or fly low, fly fast or fly slow. It was all mapped out before he went up so there was no confusion while he was in air.

As far as the Intro for the video goes it is just a little different then most of our intros. Other than it was shot during golden hour. I didn't want camera moves to distract from how amazing this JetPack is. So my thought was I just want a static shot with the JetPack centered and then it just takes off without any camera moves. I wanted the JetPack to be everything it is visually and let that be the show. I think it turned out really cool and everything I was imagining and then just to top that shot off I added a subtle digital zoom as he is taking off. Which added a cool feel without taking anything from the JetPack taking off.

Me and Carter are super proud of this video because like I said at the beginning we weren't sure how we were going to make this video cool when all he is doing is flying back and forth over the same lake for two days. Plus only having a total of 16 flights. We got every shot we wanted and even more. It was so much fun also working with the JetPack Aviation crew. They were so helpful and so willing to do whatever it took to help us make the best video possible. Super excited to see what the future holds for this thing as they make more and more advances. Maybe one day we will all have our very own JetPack that we can strap on and fly to work.

Check out the Main Video here:

 

Check out the Behind the Scenes Here: