Bonus: Helicopter Videotape (Patreon)

Tyler Helicopter Footage

I recently acquired a Sony EVM-8010 which previously belonged to Tyler Camera Systems, a company that makes camera mounts for helicopters. It works great, and they left a tape in the deck which turns out to contain about 50 minutes of footage from a shoot. I'd like to find out what movie/show they were shooting. Based on the history of the registration number on the second chopper (N7036K, flown by Dennis, later known as N717NH) it seems that it was destroyed in 1991, so the movie must be older than that. The EVM-8010 was first sold in 87, so it's at least between 87-91; and the registration info on the chopper seems to suggest that it was delivered in 89, so I think 89-91 is our time range. Some other observations: - this is clearly being used as video assist on a *film* camera - when the picture flickers, that's because the camera shutter is running and interrupting the image at 24hz - when they stop the film camera, a light at the bottom illuminates for a half second - we can hear the camera operator (or second unit director?) in the helicopter, but we can't hear anyone responding to him. why? because we aren't supposed to be hearing him either. there was nothing plugged into the audio input on the recorder, but because they didn't think to shield the VCR, the high-power AM signal from the radio is being demodulated by every semiconductor in the whole VCR, including the audio input amplifier - it's also being demodulated by the video recorder, hence the wobbles - you can also hear a high pitched whine; I haven't put it to a spectrum analyzer but I would wager this is 400hz, from the avionics in the chopper. this signal is visible in the video frame when the radio is keyed up but the operator isn't talking. - it's unclear when this is from. the TV was made in 1987, but this tape looks to be from the 90s or later. while this could be a period piece, I think it's more likely that it was filmed in the early-mid 90s. all the vehicles are from the 90s or earlier and even the support trucks you can see here and there look to be from the 80s - this is clearly from an action film because the helicopter is filming a SECOND helicopter (think about the distances between each one; this is terrifying) and near the end of the video you can see that the second semi truck is in flames - for some reason a short segment was filmed in a chase car (?? how did this monitor get there?) driving in front of a ford sedan that's being tailed by a semi - except it's revealed that the ford is actually pulling the semi with a chain. this is definitely plot-relevant, because the camera shutter is running when they take this shot. so, we could identify what movie this is by finding a 90s film in which a sedan pulls a semi truck through the desert and causes a massive accident where another truck bursts into flames and blocks the freeway. - While several of the shapes on the screen are clearly framing guides, I have no idea what the two thick vertical lines are.