She belts out, “Nobody, no, nobody…is gonna…rain on my…paaaaaaaaaaaa…,” as the camera pulls back into the air and circles the tugboat from above, and Barbra holds that note for just about ever to end Act One of Funny Girl.
A mountaintop. The music builds as the camera moves closer. We see a figure walking towards us. We glide closer. She begins to turn. Cut to: Close-up. “The hills are alive,” Julie Andrews sings. Such a thrilling opening; you almost don’t notice the cut and wonder how the helicopter landed in front of her. (Rumor has it the wind from the helicopter practically blew her over.
The aerial shot was once one of the most thrilling camera techniques. It elicited wonder, even awe. How did they get that shot? It was miraculous that it could even be done.
Enter the drone. It seems that every film or TV series has an aerial shot from a drone…or several shots.
Car driving along a winding road in a pine forest.
Close-up to medium shot to the air to a shot of the city.
Tracking a speeding car with the hero in the driver’s seat.
It can all be done now with relative ease. Toss a drone in the air.
That’s not to say there aren’t benefits. The shots are smoother. The cost is much, much lower. And you can wind through tunnels and around corners with incredible precision.
And, of course, with the continued advancement of CGI, pretty much anything is possible.
But I do miss the time when an aerial shot was a thing of wonder.
Featured image: AI-generated watercolor interpretation of an image originally from Funny Girl, created using ChatGPT. For non-commercial, illustrative purposes only.
