In Broadcast - November 2017 - 42

42

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 11 | November 2017

InStudio

Atomos Sumo19M
Flies Into Action
Atomos Sumo19M takes to the skies with DP Phil Arntz to
capture the lifesaving work of the London Air Ambulance...

L

ondon's most famous landmarks,
two helicopters and Atomos
recorders were the keys to a new film
to raise awareness for London Air
Ambulance, a charity organisation
which swoops in to rescue around ten
critically injured people each day.
Phil Arntz is a DP who specialises
in aerials and is perhaps best known
for his work on the Emirates Hello
Jetman promo film. He works together
with Helicopter Film Services (HFS)
on feature films, commercials and
high-end dramas. Shot air-to-air, the
30-second film captures the work
of the organisation, which relies on
donations, as they fly past some of the
capital's best-known landmarks.
"Anyone who spends a lot of time
in the air above London is aware of
the great work that the London Air
Ambulance do. I've always wanted to
do something more to help them out
and together with HFS we decided to
do this as a charitable project," Arntz
explained. "When we were filming
them, they were constantly ready to
go with a pilot, paramedic and co-pilot
always on-board. As we finished, they
dashed out on a mission."
Arntz took to the air in the HFS
Twin Squirrel helicopter with a nosemounted RED Helium 8K camera and
Angenieux 25-250mm Cine zoom inside
a top-of-the-line Shotover F1 gimbal
system. This allowed for super-stable,
high resolution imagery that few others
could match. Sitting in the back of the
chopper, Arntz remotely controlled the

camera setup using a control panel,
checking all the critical settings and
framing on the new Atomos Sumo19M
HDR high brightness production
monitor.
"It's essential to rig a large
production monitor in the back of the
helicopter so I can really see what
I'm doing. At this level, critical focus
and exposure is everything. The hard
part is that once in the air you find
yourself in a bright environment where
the lighting conditions can change
instantly. Previously I didn't have a
monitor with the brightness of the
Sumo19M - the extra brightness and
easy-to-use tools make it the perfect
choice for this kind of work," he said.
A new trend in cinematography
is the need to create HDR versions
of the work, alongside regular SDR
ones. As more and more features and
commercials are shot this way proper
monitoring has become vital. The
AtomHDR on the Sumo19M does just
this. Arntz explains: "The AtomHDR
function also proved especially useful
on this shoot because we needed both
SDR and HDR grades done. Being able
to see and expose the HDR image
correctly while shooting gave me the
assurance that I needed."
The DP isn't the only person on-board
who needs to see the image during
the shoot: the pilot having a clear
overview of what's being filmed is just
as important. In this case, the pilot had
an Atomos Shogun Flame connected to
the Sumo19M.
Pilot's eye view fed from
the Atomos Sumo 19M

Atomos Sumo19M
takes to the skies

"Atomos
recorders
have
the
capability to route signals to other
devices via SDI or HDMI, and even
apply LUTs to send other monitors,"
Arntz noted.
"It's great to have high brightness on
the Shogun Flame as well. We use these
all the time for pilots and directors. We
also use them to record proxy files for
instant playback - it's great to be able
to show clients what was shot straight
after a shoot, without having to have
our whole helicopter system powered
on."
Of course, great features are not the
only thing that matters in professional
production. Reliability and durability
are key. The Sumo19M has a rigid metal
chassis, flexible mount options and
the ability to continuously power from
three separate sources. "When you
are up in the air you need equipment
that you can rely on. Every minute of

flight time costs a lot of money and
a lot of the shots we do can never be
repeated," said Arntz. "I've come to
trust Atomos in these mission-critical
situations - they've never let us down.
The Sumo19M is super solid and looks
like it will stand up to everything that I
throw at it."
Even though the Sumo19M is high
brightness, there are times when a
sunhood is very useful. It cuts glare and
reflections to a minimum - especially
useful when shooting Log and/or HDR.
"I love the new Atomos sunhood, it's
so quick and easy to attach. Some
sunhoods just flop around, but the
Atomos one is rigid and just the right
size," Arntz said. He added: "The
combination of image tools on the
Atomos Sumo19M, combined with the
really high brightness of the panel,
make it a really good monitor for our
line of work. It's a keeper."
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