Shotover Tech Wizards Score Early Oscar for Aerials

Queenstown design engineers John Coyle, Brad Hurndell, Vikas Sathaye and Shane Buckham have scored a jump on Margot Robbie, Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep a month before the Oscars. The group has just been honoured with 30 other leaders in movie production technology at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards.

The four created the Shotover K1 Camera System, which has given Hollywood’s top directors and cinematographers stunning new aerial shots for major films including Dunkirk, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kong: Skull Island and the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

“It’s the latest and greatest camera system for aerial photography for the movies,” Aerial Camera’s founder and main gimbal designer Coyle told AAP.

Shotover’s gyro-stabilised camera platforms can be attached to helicopters and configured for Hollywood’s most advanced cameras.

The Scientific and Technical Awards were held at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel with other winners including tech wizards from film industry giants Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic.

Original article by Peter Mitchel, Blue Mountains Gazette, February 11, 2018.