Seraph recently completed production of a series of promotional films for scenic flight operator, Seawings. “Seawings is a dynamic, growing company and it was a pleasure for us to be able to team up with them.” says Seraph partner, Sandy Chestnut.

Initially the brief was to produce one 2 minute and one 1 minute film for general promotional use, as well as a separate version for airing at the Dubai Cruise Terminal.  Later a 30 second television commercial was commissioned for use at the Dubai Film Festival.

Seawings recently expanded its operations to include flights to Ras Al Khaimah and the East Coast.  The films were to include aerial footage of these locations as well as Dubai’s main landmarks.

While the scripting and storyboard creation were relatively straightforward, filming posed some challenges. Seawings wanted the film to be as authentic as possible to the real “experience,” so aerial shots were taken through the windows of its Cessna 208 seaplanes, exactly as a passenger would see them.

Director of Photography, Kevin Broad, needed to work around this as best he could.

“Shooting through perspex windows in a 9 seater plane is never going to be ideal,” explains Kevin.  “To make enough space for me to work in we took out some of the seats, but kneeling and moving around on the carpet was tough!  When we finally landed at the Dubai Creek after our 3 hour tour of the UAE my knees were very sore!”

The other challenge was shooting handheld without a stabilising camera mount, which would normally be used when filming aerials from a helicopter.  Success was largely dependant on the flying conditions.

“One of the flights was a bit bumpy due to turbulance, making it tricky to capture steady shots”, says Kevin. “Even on a good flight we needed to do multiple takes for each landmark to ensure we had one perfectly steady take”.

With a little persistence though the team captured some good aerial footage from across the UAE, including air to air shots of a Seawings plane flying in front of each landmark.

“I was really happy with the end result”, says Kevin.  “The combination of the Sony EX3 HD camera and the Canon HJ11 HD lens was an excellent choice for this shoot.  The EX3 is heavy enough to provide stability without requiring a large crew (which there was no space for) and of course the lens is one of the best ENG style HD lenses on the market”.

As well as the aerial filming the team shot ground sequences at the Jebel Ali Hotel, the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and the Amara Spa at the Park Hyatt Dubai Hotel, where Seawings offer optional add-on experiences.

There are some distinct advantages to working with a client like Seawings.  The team had just one hour allocated for their shoot at Amara Spa, located next to the Creek, and this was in the middle of a busy day when they were filming in Jebel Ali, so not ideal.  To save on time and avoid the traffic driving from Jebel Ali to the Creek they jokingly asked the client if they could fly there instead.  The response was immediately, “Yes, why not”.

Check out the long version of the film here: