Video aerobatics: mini copters let videographers create unique camera moves. (viewpoint DV).

To create compelling images--whether for a music video, a television ad, or a corporate presentation--videographers will go to great lengths to come up with creative camera angles for the shots. Rather than simply shooting a subject straight on, they will shoot up at it or down at it, or from some cockeyed perspective that gives the subject a surreal appearance. They'll place cameras on dollies and cranes to get innovative tracking shots. They'll even mount them onto the head of dog, a horse, or a person to capture a unique point-of-view.

One tool of the trade that's particularly good at capturing unusual shots is the remote-controlled helicopter. Capable of flying at speeds up to 70 miles an hour, these feisty little machines can be fitted with cameras and can go places and get shots that would be otherwise impossible. They can mimic the point of view of a golf ball zooming down a fairway, they can swoop through doors and windows, and they can skim the ground before suddenly soaring into the air for a revealing aerial shot.

Remote-controlled helicopters are fairly familiar tools in the feature film world, where they're used frequently to capture dazzling sequences in some of the biggest blockbuster films.

This year, for example, choppers from Flying Cam (www.flyingcam.com) were used to capture some dramatic shots in Die Another Day, in which James Bond and the bad guys chase each other down forested roads on hovercrafts. Flying Cam choppers were also used in the latest Harry Potter movie to create shots of the flying car that Harry and his pal Ron used to fly to Hogwarts after missing their ride on the train.

Directors of car commercials also make frequent use of remote-controlled copters because they're the perfect tool for following a ear along a windy mountain road or across an open desert. Compared to a big helicopter, the tiny choppers offer several advantages for such shots. They can fit above narrow roads. They can shoot up at a car from ground level and then swoop and dance all around it in one continuous shot. And their small blades don't create enough of a breeze to disturb the natural elements around the car--be it desert sand or mountain snow.

But for all their popularity in feature film and car commercials, these small flyers are still considered a novelty in the video world. Part of the reason might simply be that there are only a few places that offer this particular video service. It takes a highly skilled pilot to operate one of these flying cameras, which means it's not something that you can just pick up from your local video equipment rental shop. In the US, the three primary providers of miniature video choppers are Flying Cam, Coptervision (www.coptervision.com), and ChopperCam (www.choppercam.com). The cost of renting a chopper and a two or three-person shooting crew ranges from $4000 to $10,000 a day. Understandably, that price tag might be too high for some video projects, but for those that can afford it, the benefits can be well worth it.

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