Helios: iPhone App for Filmmakers
Recently I was at CineGear 2009, which is an expo for filmmakers, with an emphasis on the real-world gear in cinematography and other production tasks. In the crowd were three Brits in black kilts (Simon Reeves, Toby Evetts and Nic Sadler)–a stunt for drawing attention to a pretty fabulous iPhone app aimed at cinematographers, location scouts and anybody else in filmmaking.
Helios, the first iPhone/iTouch app from the trio, who form Chemical Wedding, graphically predicts the path of the sun from dusk to dawn, on any given day, in any given place. That’s not only useful to cinematographers and still photographers but also to grips, gaffers, production designers, 1st assistant directors–as well as architects, artists, landscape designers, surveyors and anyone else who needs to know exactly where the sun will be at specific times. Since the app is based on algorithms created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and The National Geophysical Data Center to predict the sun’s movement, it’s accurate “to a tiny fraction of a degree.”
The app featuers an internal database of over 30,000 locations around the world, providing longitude, latitude, timezone and daylight savings information. The user can save favorite locations and add the current location from GPS data (where a signal is available). Core functionality is not reliant on cellphone reception.
Helios operates in three modes:
HelioMeter is a graphical representation of the sun’s position on a compass dial (azimuth) for any time of day, showing
Heliometer
the sun’s elevation and proportional length of shadow an object would cast.
SkyView (below) is an overall view of the sun’s path in the sky through the day.
Sky View
Inclinometer View predicts the sun’s height at any given time in the day. It’s essentially an electronic inclinometer that reads in both time and angle. This would allow a cinematographer to plot exactly when the sun would set below or rise above a building, for example. (see view below)
Inclinometer
Tags: Chemical Wedding, cinematographers, filmmakers, Helios, iPhone app, iTouch app, making money on mobile
This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Content, Devices, Home Feature.
A briliant app, but they are not going to seel many copies at USD30…..
Surely a little common sense will prevail - Google earth covers a lot of the functionality for free
Helios is a replacement for a desktop application costing $100 and (with the compass functionality of the 3Gs) an accurate compass/inclinometer like the Suunto Tandem at $150.
For a film professional $30 is bit of a bargain and Helios has been selling like hot cakes. It’s not a toy or a gimmick, it’s a professional application for people who have a professional use for it. If you think $30 is too much, you clearly have no use for it.
Here is a pretty good list of iphone apps for filmmakers
Hi Derrick - Thanks for this great list. Stay tuned for another great filmmakers iPhone app in tomorrow’s MobilizedTV.
any word of this app coming out for the android OS? I would have and iPhone now and this app, but I won’t have ATT so I’m waiting for Apple and Verizon to become friends and exploring the android platform in the meantime. The Motorola Droid has many iphone qualities, including the mediocre reception. I’d love to have Helios on it. SunPath (the $100) app has been stellar when I have access to my computer and David has been great for support and updates. I’ve asked him about a mobile version, but no word yet.