A couple of St. Albert mavericks hit the jackpot. With virtually no movie making experience, they were hired to shoot footage for X-Men Apocalypse.
Brothers Eric and Hayden Wilson, co-owners of SmartDrones, normally provide drone aerial photography to law firms, land developers and engineering firms.
In a modern version of the often-repeated story of a star’s discovery at a soda shop, Academy Award-winning visual effects designer John Dykstra hired the Wilson brothers to shoot stunning Rocky Mountain scenes for X-Men Apocalypse.
Dykstra was a pioneer in using computers for filmmaking and was one of the original founders of Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects and computer graphics division of Lucasfilm.
The special effects legend led the Star Wars team of designers. For Eric Wilson, a huge fan of the lightsabre series, working under Dykstra was a dream come true.
“I didn’t believe it was real until I saw it on the screen. It was very powerful. Seeing the footage gave me a true sense of accomplishment. It symbolizes the obstacles we’ve overcome and achieved a high level of product,” says Eric Wilson, chief pilot.
Recently released in Edmonton starring Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender, the X-Men film is the ninth in the Marvel Comics series, and is well on its way to generating $200 million.
SmartDrone’s role took three months of pre-planning and nine treks to Mount Robson Provincial Park to capture stunning birds-eye view cinematography. Yet in the movie, the scene lasts about 30 seconds long.
“In the movie, the characters fly in a helicopter to a secret location. They fly through different mountain scenery to a dam around the lake,” he explains.
The Wilson brothers’ interest in drone filming started by accident four years ago. It was prompted by their father, Keith Wilson, a lawyer dealing with environmental and land use cases.
In a troubling case over the land value of an abandoned oil well, Wilson senior decided to use a drone to capture images for an upcoming trial. He purchased a Phantom drone.
“He tried to fly it and immediately crashed it within moments,” Eric said.
It was still operable and Wilson senior asked Eric to take the controls and shoot film footage. “All those years of playing video games paid off,” laughed Eric.
The footage was powerful and the case was successful.
“It cut through their lies like a knife through butter.”
Word spread of their success and the brothers created SmartDrones to handle all the business. Eric, 22, is chief pilot and Hayden, 20, handles the business end. On shoots, Hayden also works as spotter gearing up the drone and keeping an eye out for obstructions.
Spurred on by the success of their constantly evolving panoramic footage, the brothers posted a promotional video on YouTube. A friend shared it on his website and within a short while a viral aggregator contacted them about licensing the video for a percentage of ad revenue.
The aggregator was associated with the Rupert Murdoch founded global media company News Corp. Within days, the promotional video was on Reuters and the Washington Post. It also spread internationally to Australia, China and India.
“And it was in different languages,” Hayden said. “The universal comment we had was ‘I want to see Alberta.’”
But that was just the beginning of their rollercoaster odyssey. A week later a visual effects assistant editor from 20th Century Fox emailed them praising their work and asking to speak with them.
“At first we thought it was spam or a joke,” Eric said.
But the phone call was quite real. The editor pitched their work to higher-level management on the chain of command until it reached John Dykstra.
“It was so cool talking to him. He (Dykstra) described the environment he wanted – desolate and precipitous Rocky Mountains. He wanted snow on the mountain tops but an open lake close by with unfrozen water so he could later fill it in with a dam.”
Hayden added that locating a site with free flowing water and snowcaps was their first big challenge. But after several search expeditions, they settled on Kinney Lake, in British Columbia adjacent to Mt. Robson. The nearest village is Valemount, population 1,000.
In keeping with Hollywood film standards of clarity, stability and general excellence, Eric piloted an Inspire 1 drone capable of filming in 4k quality, the same high definition standard needed for movie screens more than two storeys high.
The lightweight, professional piece of recording technology, that looks like a spider or an alien, carries a camera with a full 360-degree unobstructed view. It gives the pilot the freedom to capture a shot even if the drone is flying in the opposite direction.
The drone is equipped with a dual positioning GPS system that allows for quick satellite hookup. And it calculates advanced algorithms from its starting point to its estimated time of return.
“If you get a low battery, the controller beeps and you never run out. The technology is so smart, it can fly back and drop to a slow descent. It will look at the amount of power, do the math and say, ‘Sorry Eric. I’m coming home.’ ”
But the physically arduous part was about to start. Hauling 200 lbs. of equipment, survival gear and food in a dogsled style pack, the Wilsons and several friends trekked 14 kilometres to their location nine times. Hollywood changed its requirements repeatedly and the team returned numerous times to accommodate filmmakers’ requests.
“We started above the lake at about 80 metres and descended to about 10 metres. We did it a million ways – in overcast conditions, in hard light, whatever we could think of. We sent a large amount of different footage,” said Eric.
They worked from the end of October to the end of November facing numerous obstacles including temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees.
As chief pilot, Eric, handled the drone’s two joysticks. When cold temperatures numbed his fingers, a propane heater was placed under the controller for added heat.
Perhaps their most harrowing experience was when the viewfinder malfunctioned. They spent several hours fixing it and hiked back to Valemount in the eerie darkness following a snow-covered trail.
The days of gruelling hikes and frostbitten hands are over – maybe. The duo is in talks with a company from across the pond, a project they are not yet at liberty to discuss.
As Hayden describes it, “It’s definitely been a big adventure we never expected. People have given us a lot of praise, but we couldn’t have done it without our friends.”
