Rowan Fae: Rigging with Vertigo Flying Effects in Istanbul

5 April 2014

Rigging with Vertigo Flying Effects in Istanbul

Yes, there is a Mini Cooper underneath this hot air balloon!

Over the winter of 2014 I have spent most my time in Istanbul. Here in this thriving cosmopolitan city, balanced precariously between Asia and Europe, I have spent the majority of my time doing wholesome activities like cooking, sleeping, eating and gentle exercise interspersed with occasional circus and dance training. I have also had some occasional work with Vertigo Flying Effects.

Vertigo are an Istanbul based rigging company that cater for special flying effects and stunt work in particular for the Turkish film and television industry, they also do some live work in collaboration with Theatres and Artists across Turkey. I have joined them on several jobs here over the winter ranging from television commercials and series, advertising campaign photo shoots, a pop video and more recently a t.v commercial where we were asked to suspend a Mini Cooper underneath a hot air balloon. This was a particularly exciting gig not least because I got to have a ride in a hot air balloon for the first time, but also because the shoot location was in the stunning Goreme national park in Kappadokia central Turkey.

It was altogether a short trip It took us around 12 hours to drive overnight in our small van from Istanbul to Goreme, We arrived just before sunrise and got to work straight away assembling the support frame for the hot air balloon. It was beautiful that morning. All the hot air balloon daily flights take off at around 6am with the sunrise, this is because there is much less likely to be any wind early in the morning and hot air balloons cannot really steer. Our flight however took place at sunset. It was officially the test run but in the end the camera crew got everything they needed in the first shoot so the second attempt planned for the following day was cancelled giving us plenty of free time to explore before we set off on the return drive. Here are some Images from the job and also a few snaps of our fun day out on some quadbikes in Goreme.