Please tell me why someone would need to use a helicopter to get shots of something which isn't real travelling through something else which isn't real.
By that I mean, Hovercraft in the Real World Tunnels. Why would they need a camera to do that - they use a thing called computer generation 🙂
Now if they were filming something in the real world (our world) then that would make some sense. That way they keep all the buildings they have captured. Otherwise they will have to remove errrr everything for a trip through the "real world".
From Premiere Magazine:
“Revolutions spills into the real world and becomes very epic,” says visual-effects supervisor John Gaeta. “People who like dark creature films, like Ridley Scott used to make, will really get off on this.” The climax alone will cost a reported $40 million–plus.
My guess is that many shots were made of the city, local scenery, landscapes and various other things like that. These were then used in a variety of ways including Neo flying through the city to save Trinity at the end of Reloaded. If the fight goes into the real world, it may just be easier to take footage of the real world and add decay to it, rather than create a whole new world from scratch.