Global Mapper Helps Aerial Filmworks, Win Pulitzer Prize

Hallowell, Maine – May 22, 2018 - Blue Marble Geographics is pleased to congratulate Aerial Filmworks, a California-based aerial film and survey company and long-time Blue Marble partner, for their recent recognition by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Working in collaboration with a team from USA Today, Aerial Filmworks were jointly awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for their work on the “The Wall”, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the proposed wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Blue Marble's GIS software is used by hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers throughout the world who need affordable, user-friendly, yet powerful GIS solutions. Users come from a wide range of industries including software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying, and technology companies, as well as government departments and academic institutions.

For years, Aerial Filmworks has incorporated Global Mapper into their aerial data acquisition and processing operations. The company’s expertise in airborne video and data capture has ensured that their services are constantly in demand both in the film and entertainment business as well as for utility corridor surveying.

The Wall project uses virtual reality, aerial video, 360-degree video, documentary video, photos, podcasts and interactive maps as well as more than a dozen individual stories to help shed some light on the effects of the proposed border wall spanning almost 2,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. For their part, Aerial Filmworks delivered real-time augmented reality overlays on aerial video, visually depicting the border location. Viewers can see the perspective from any point along the border by simply clicking on a map.

Aerial Filmworks, in partnership with Blue Marble Geographics, built a custom extension for Global Mapper to manage and locate the geo-referenced video. Called GEOLook, this multi-faceted platform allows the operator to view the flight path and video frame view within Global Mapper’s map display. This significantly improves efficiency both in the aircraft as well as during the post-production phase.

“Global Mapper has been an essential part of our data acquisition process has contributed to the success of our business for many years”, stated Ron Chapple, Aerial Filmworks founder and CEO. “The nature and scale of the Wall project brought with it some major logistical challenges but Global Mapper was able handle the large volume of data efficiently and effectively. We couldn’t have completed the project without it.”

On June 8th, Aerial Filmworks will be offering a behind-the-scenes look at data collection and geo-referencing technologies that were used in the making of The Wall as part of the Blue Marble User Conference in Los Angeles.