Skyshot's 5 year journey to document Jewel Changi Airport (Jewel) from the start to its completion came to an end in April 2019.
Jewel is a $1.7 billion project designed by master architect, Moshe Safdie. Jointly developed by Changi Airport Group and CapitaLand, Jewel is a multi-dimensional lifestyle hub that comprises a wide range of lifestyle offerings such as gardens and attractions, over 280 retail and F&B options, a hotel and airport facilities.
Skyshot was commissioned at the start of the project in 2014 to install 5 units of time-lapse cameras at various angles to document the construction of this project. This project was the first major challenge for the first version of our Titan Time-lapse Camera System. The time-lapse cameras were placed at high levels in Changi Airport's terminals .
Accessing the cameras was a challenge due to security reasons, so we used the remote access function in the Titan Time-lapse System to monitor the image acquisition every day. The systems run on solar-powered 12V batteries. This project, along with many other projects subsequently, allowed our team to then develop the Titan2 Time-lapse Camera, which is more compact and robust.
Jewel also engaged Skyshot to film the final stages of the building process, which include the construction of the Canopy Park, Manulife Sky Nets and the HSBC Rain Vortex. The 6 months of engineering video production also included 2 days of drone filming for the key attractions like the Shiseido Forest Valley and the Canopy Bridge. Flying a drone indoors, and furthermore within airport premise was technically challenging as there are no GPS signals inside. Even though we had the temporary key from DJI to turn off the no-fly zone feature, there were occasions where our Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic Pro 2 refused to take off. However, getting the opportunity to film Jewel with a drone was an experience we didn’t want to miss. Fortunately, the Inspire 2 didn’t have an issue and we were able to capture some critical night shots of the Shiseido Forest Valley and the HSBC Rain Vortex Light & Sound Show.
The video was completed just before Jewel opened to public in April 2019. The Skyshot team is glad to be a part of this landmark project that helped us to cement our position as the leading time-lapse and aerial filming company in Singapore.