ASK COREY: What Aerial Rig Did You Use to Shoot Climbing in Lebanon?

 Corey, 

What kind of aerial rig and camera was used for this video? 

—Don Dowling

Hey Don! Thanks for checking out our latest film featuring David Lama putting up a stunning first ascent in the Baatara Gorge of Lebanon.

This trip all started with a photo that my good friend David sent me a year ago. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. This sinkhole in the mountains of Lebanon looked just spectacular, and I could see why David was inspired to travel here to climb.

Based on that photo and conversations with other friends who had been to this location before, we knew that we wanted to show off the grandeur and uniqueness of the Baatara Gorge by really making the camera move through the air. We brought several really important tools to capture this footage.

First, we brought a 30-foot modified jib arm, which we originally picked up in China for a cheap price, but have since spent a lot more money in modifications to lighten the jib arm, and make it light enough and packable enough to travel with.

We mounted the jib arm on the rim of the gorge, opposite from David’s climb. At the head of the jib arm we attached a Freefly MōVI M10 and the Freefly Wedge, which allowed us to frame up our shots, start and stop record on the camera, as well as zoom and focus the lens. Most of the footage in the video was shot using this jib arm.

Some of the more stunning footage, however, we captured from the air using a FreeFly Heavy Lifter RC helicopter with yet another MōVI M10 and Freefly Wedge attached to the bottom of the drone so that we could actually frame the shot while flying.

As a side note, today we’re using the FreeFly Alta, which is a HUGE step forward in the drone world (stay tuned for a post on my thoughts on this piece of gear soon!). However, the Alta just wasn’t available yet when we went to Lebanon in June.

We also captured a lot of nice footage using a Kessler Second Shooter, which we’d just leave running while operating other cameras, whether that was flying the drone or using the jib arm.

Of course, equally important, was our small arsenal of Manfrotto tripods and fluid heads.

All the footage was captured on either the Nikon D4s, the Nikon D810 or a RED Dragon.

The equipment is one thing. But it would all be just a bunch of expensive, useless junk without the right creative team working together to accomplish the same shared vision. Fortunately, I had that team of guys, which included Dane Henry, Bligh Gillies and Sean Haverstock.

Hope that answers the question! Thanks for checking out the video and stay tuned for more written and visual stories from our Lebanon adventure. Click here to read the most recent post about this adventure.