UAS Film Napa Valley Vineyards

Two Napa Valley filmmakers are using emerging and somewhat controversial technology to capture spectacular aerial footage of vineyards, wineries and other wine country locations. Adam Krolfifer and Bret Lyman teamed up last year to purchase a custom-made, remote-controlled helicopter and create their aerial cinematography company, ActionChopper.

“We call it an aerial cinema rig,” Krolfifer said. “It’s such an awesome tool for us to have as filmmakers and video production specialists because it gives you that great aspect, that awesome view that you want to see in something epic.”

The spiderlike aircraft has eight arms radiating from a central body housing the battery and control system. At the end of each arm is an electric motor fitted with a propeller. Attached to the craft’s underbelly is a pivoted support called a gimbal that holds a camera.

“The gimbal is fully automated,” Krolfifer said. “It has servos so that if you’re flying at five miles per hour or so and tilted a little bit the gimbal stays level.”

Made mostly of carbon fibre material, the lightweight helicopter can be carried by one person and fly a payload of about 22 pounds. During flight, the whole contraption is controlled through consoles operated on the ground by Krolfifer and Lyman.

“We have eight minutes of battery time on each flight so we have to bring it back down and put another battery on to go and get the next shot,” Krolfifer said. “We can’t go very far … the furthest we take it is maybe 200 feet away.”

Working as a team, the two filmmakers use the UAS to gather aerial footage used in promotional videos for area wineries and other businesses. The remote-controlled craft and its high-definition video camera provide a bird’s-eye perspective as it floats over vines and hillsides. On the ground Krolfifer controls the drone’s flight path while Lyman, as director of photography, operates the on-board camera. The camera beams its image to a monitor, allowing Lyman and Krolfifer a real-time preview of the footage.

Krolfifer said their UAS, which cost about $16,000 not including cameras, is a welcome alternative to far more expensive means of aerial photography. Helicopters fitted with sophisticated camera mounts, he said, have typically been the go-to technology for high-end aerial footage.

“I used to be camera operator on large helicopters for TV news,” he said, “and those helicopters are $3,000 an hour. By the time you get them up here in the valley or wherever you’re probably looking at about $8,000 minimum.”

Besides the high cost, Krolfifer said that helicopters have certain limitations for film and video production, particularly at low flight levels. The powerful downdrafts produced by helicopters are disruptive below a certain altitude.

“You’d be blowing the vines and everything,” he said of helicopters. “This is very gentle on the vines, especially during harvest season when you don’t want to cause any damage to the grapes. You can fly just feet away from the vines.”

Krolfifer and Lyman, both Napa natives, partnered in 2013 to buy the UAS and create ActionChopper Cinema to complement their individual production companies. Lyman is a well-known local filmmaker whose company B. Napa Studios specializes in creating promotional and educational films and videos for wineries in the area. Krolfifer’s production company 360Kreative does similar work for the wine industry and other businesses and clients.

While Krolfifer and Lyman tout their camera-toting UAS as a valuable production tool, they say that filmmaking is only one of countless applications of the emerging technology. Krolfifer said similar remote-controlled craft are now being made by nature and wildlife photographers, who can easily carry them into remote regions. Closer to home, unmanned aircraft are used in agriculture to monitor vineyards and other crops.

“Wineries and vineyard managers love these things because they can go anywhere,” he said. “You can get up to a higher level and see right down on the rows, whether they are thicker or thinner and you can tell if they (the vines) are diseased or whatever. Some of the terrain that these vineyards are on is pretty rough.”

Krolfifer said that the low cost of today’s off-the-shelf unmanned aircraft encourages experimentation with the technology.

“You can buy a four-bladed helicopter right now for $479 and attach a little GoPro (video camera) to it, which is $200 or $300,” he said. “People are doing that, hobbyists or people who just want to have fun.”

Krolfifer believes that current FAA regulations regarding UAS fall into a legal gray area, the result of regulators’ inability to keep pace with rapidly emerging technologies.

“We’re on private property,” he said of ActionChopper’s operations. “We don’t do anything above 30 or 40 feet, we go on property with permission and we don’t fly close to people or over people. We don’t fly anywhere where we’re going to hit a real airplane going over.”

Still, Krolfifer sees the need for some control over the use of unmanned aircraft. He said that there have been instances where small UAS being operated over crowds have crashed and injured people.

“People like that who operate these things in dangerous situations put us in a bad light,” he said. “We’re totally different than them. We won’t do anything unless it’s safe. Period.”

“I believe there’s got to be some regulation,” Krolfifer said, “but it’s got to say that amateurs can do this or professionals who are using it to help their business can do this. But there’s always going to be somebody doing something stupid with them. Like any normal person I don’t agree with that kind of stuff. This whole spying stuff is not what we’re in the business for. We just love showing off vineyards and grapes from the air.”

Source: Napa Valley Register

3 comments

  1. Nice video and I’d agree that the FAA regs should permit this sort of work. And the regs will be changed within the next year or two to allow this. But at present, sadly, this sort of commercial use of UAVs is blatantly illegal. There is no gray area. The FAA controls the airspace all the way to the ground. I’d agree that the video shown here illustrates what I feel is a safe and reasonable use (but come on, you are clearly flying at more than the 30-40′ claimed in the story!). And if this is done as a hobby, the current regs permit this sort of activity. But if it is done commercially, it’s clearly illegal. Dumb rules, I’d agree, but these are the rules. Go review FAA Notice N8900.227, released in July 2013. At present, hobbyists can use UAVs (see FAA Advisory Circular 91-57) and “public” agencies (local, state, federal) can use UAVs. There have also been a handful of permitted commercial applications (Special Airworthiness Certificates) issued to UAV manufacturers for R&D and two commercial applications that have been permitted; both for UAV flights in northern Alaska to support oil exploration. No other commercial UAV uses have been permitted.

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