Aerial plates for this picture had to be consistent in quality with plates shot from a tripod-mounted ground camera to avoid quality-gap
Helicopter cinematography has traditionally become synonymous with vibration, movement and generally "compromised" quality in visual images. These deficiencies are especially noticeable when used as a background plate with a steady reference in the foreground, such as titles or studio-shot scenes inside the cockpit of a mock-up aircraft or spacecraft. Aerial plates on a picture such as The Empire Strikes Back must be commensurate in quality with plates shot from a camera on a tripod on the ground or a "quality gap" will be evident. It is therefore absolutely essential that the most stable and controllable camera mounting be used.
We had been involved for more than nine years with the Wesscam mount in Europe. When properly set up, this remotely controlled, gyro-stabilized system is capable of stabilizing an entire camera, magazine, lens and all, to within .5 milliradian (about .045 degree) in both elevation and azimuth (pan and tilt) under just about all helicopter maneuvers encountered in aerial filming and still provide precise control. (Its limits: 360 degrees continuous pan, +30 to -90 degrees tilt).
This stability immediately opens the door on a possibility that makes camera operators of "conventional" aerial camera mounts groan. Namely, camera speed "undercranking" in order to accelerate screen speeds. This practice will seemingly exaggerate any vibration and movement of the image, if they are present, so, generally, operators like to "overcrank" a little in order to "iron out" any problems. We had experimented with undercranking for many years and, in fact, had designed a control that interlocked the camera speed to the iris position so that camera speed may be varied during shooting with constant exposure maintained. This had been used effectively in a number of films that we had worked on such as The Cassandra Crossing, Escape to Athena and the New York flying sequence in Superman. The impression from the initial meeting for The Empire Strikes Back was that this undercranked ability would be valuable as a means to obtain the visual impact necessary for the aerial backgrounds.
The camera speeds suggested to us initially, were in the order of 16 fps with perhaps a minimum of 12 fps. We felt that a 6 fps speed would be desirable to give a four-times-speed acceleration on the screen to the "Speeder" fighter craft. With this in mind, a note was made to set this speed as a minimum requirement of the VistaVision camera installation that we were still to design and build. I might mention at the outset that the attitude and cooperation of the people involved with production, Gary Kurtz, Robert Watts and Jim Bloom, was one of confidence and trust, so we were working under ideal conditions that no doubt had a positive effect.
Before we started shooting it was necessary to install a useable camera system for the 8-perf horizontal VistaVision format into the Wesscam mount. It was equally important to confer with production on the logistical requirements for the operation of a helicopter in a somewhat remote area.
Finse, Norway, is a small village of 75 inhabitants nestled below a more or less circular glacier 5 miles in diameter, 300 kilometers WNW of Oslo. This glacier was to provide the "snow planet" setting called for in the script and certainly wasn't a disappointment in that respect. High winds, drifting snow and cold temperatures would be common during March and April, so special arrangements in equipment preparation would be necessary.
In an operation such as this, we had the camera equipment plus the helicopter to consider. Marc Wolff, an extraordinary free-lance film pilot with whom we had worked before, was contacted in London and it was agreed that he should handle the logistics with production, as well as performing the demanding flying assignment.
From the outset, it became evident that only one type of helicopter was truly suitable for this job given the glacier's altitude of 6,000 feet, plus the maneuvers involved allowing a margin for safety, and that was the Aerospatiale Lama 315B. This, in fact, has always been our preferred aircraft, as it has approximately 60% more power than a Jet Ranger in more or less the same size aircraft and can perform effortlessly at just about any altitude.
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