(Loraine, Ill) A piece of tri-state equipment has gone Hollywood, and beyond.
Air Foil Aviation out of Loraine Illinois makes a remote controlled helicopter with a camera mount on the bottom.
That technology was recently used to film a movie in Japan.
The movie is controversial, and the content of it may be upsetting to some, especially children.
"If you didn't know what was going on over here, you'd think this is a town that loves dolphins and whales."
That's the beginning of the trailer for the movie called The Cove. It exposes the slaughtering of dolphins off the coast of Japan. The trailer goes on to say the film crew tried to do this movie legally, but was denied. So the crew had to sneak equipment into the country.
"He told me how he got his equipment in. They broke it down and had to hide it. They did it legally as far as getting it in the country. They went in 14 times. Seven times in, seven times out with the equipment," says John Ohnemus.
And every time the crew went in or out, they had a great chance of getting arrested. John Ohnemus is the owner of Airfoil Aviation and designed two remote controlled helicopters that the film makers bought.
"The end of the movie, I won't give away, but it shot all the aerial stuff. You could see the dolphins being slaughtered on big ships. It's used a total of 12 minutes in the movie," says Ohnemus.
One of the helicopters was used for surveillance purposes while the crews got other shots they needed.
"We've been in movies before and we've done a lot of surveillance, but I've never seen a movie that's went so far. This movie's so controversial, these people have warrants out for them. They have to go back to Japan in September and they are all going to be arrested," says Ohnemus.
The Cove has already won 14 awards at film festivals all over the world, including Sundance. It's currently in a limited release in theaters. The closest one here is in Chicago.
John Ohnemus also just recently sold some of this equipment to a film maker in Mexico and one in Indiana.
For more information about the movie 'The Cove,' click here: www.thecovemovie.com
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKHQA