Breaking Down Stunts with Kennedy Remotes

Michael Kennedy, who runs Kennedy Remotes and All Axis USA was an early adopter of the Inertia Wheels and a longtime friend of NODO. He and his team recently “emptied the toy box” creating some incredible shots for Warner Bros.’ Reminiscence, starring Hugh Jackman (Paul Cameron, Director of Photography).

We caught up with Kennedy briefly to hear more about one of the stunts they worked on and what it’s like to show up for the biggest shots of every movie.

“My career is—I don’t want to say all the best shots, but it’s all the shots that make the trailer,” Kennedy admitted. “The drone opener of the neighborhood, the explosions, the car shooting through the tunnel. That stuff is my every day.”

Kennedy Remotes and All Axis USA are based out of New Orleans, Louisiana, and are the largest drone company and most complete full-service specialty camera shop in the area. They’ve grown from a small crew with a jib or two and a single stabilized head to working on some of the biggest productions in the market, including Jurassic World, Maze Runner, True Detective (season 1), and a lot more. They’re experts in almost any remote camera equipment you can think of, and their experience helps operators pull off some of their most difficult shots.

“I’ve spent so much time next to some of the best guys in the business—just super heavy hitters. I’ve sat next to them for more than a decade on set, and it’s like you’re the operator’s shrink,” Kennedy explained about his role on set helping with specialty setups. “You’re listening to them talk about what’s happening and the issues they’re having… Even though they’ve done hours and hours of operating, I’ve been there for this kind of situation.

“When you have a Pursuit 360 and the back pan is killing you. Or they’re jumping off a building, and I can say, ‘Turn it down, not up at the end,’” he told us. “It’s these little things that they may not understand, but that’s what I do. I’ve been there for those specialty situations with all the toys, the explosions, the car stuff… I have more experience doing that, and they have more experience shooting Denzel Washington.”

Kennedy and his team brought all that experience to the set of Reminiscence to help execute some incredible shots, including this stunt where the camera follows the hero off the edge of a building.

“It was a really hard shot,” Kennedy recalled how they setup the dual-operated shot. “The stuntman was the one holding the Ronin 2 and doing the jump. The logistics of getting over the lip of the platform, him grabbing it, getting off the quick release… that was big pain in the ass. He’s also roped up on a descender, and there’s not a lot of slack because he has to jump off the thing and not get whipped around.”

Outside of the logistics of the stunt, the shot had further complexities in having to navigate a huge dynamic range. “The guy is going from literally 32 feet per second square—he’s falling—to stopping. Imagine that tilt,” Kennedy explained. “You’re looking down at that POV of the balcony, and you’ve got a crazy tilt, but then you have an abrupt stop. That’s when the operator has to make a decision. A lot of people go, ‘Alright, I’m missing it. Let me go faster, faster, faster,’ but the part they’re missing isn’t the fast part. It’s the slow part—that huge decrescendo to stop. That’s when you need the [Inertia Wheels] to be on a lower setting.”

We’re thrilled to have the Inertia Wheels be a small part of Kennedy’s rig for shots like this. “Inertia Wheels were integral to our production because we needed rock-solid RF and low latency. This was a stunt unit where sometimes one take is all you get. It’s a low profile, bulletproof wireless, cross-platform piece of gear.”

“The word is out,” Kennedy said when commenting on the future of remote heads on set. “It’s a growing part of the film industry. It’s becoming a necessity. Not just for cranes or specialty shots, but also for the dolly—for commercials and low budget and reality… People are looking to do remotely operated brushless gimbals for all kinds of things. That’s why the Inertia Wheels are great.”