Using Drones for Video Production, Getting Absolutely Incredible Shots

This video is simply breathtaking. Gorgeous scenery combined with soaring, silky-smooth video shots give viewers an exhilarating experience usually reserved for eagles.

The secret is using a drone to carry the camera to places a person with a tripod could never reach in a million years.

Making spectacular videos gets easier and easier as technology improves by leaps and bounds. The technology I speak of goes way beyond improvements in resolution or signal-to-noise ratios. That’s all well and good, but giving viewers a vantage point from the clouds is a feat sure to impress even the most demanding audience.

Before drones, getting aerial shots meant you had to use either a helicopter or an airplane. Both are expensive. Both are very difficult to shoot from unless they have been engineered to contain a steady-camera mount. That of course is an extra expense.

Without such a mount, your shots are guaranteed to be shaky. Shaky video looks tacky and turns viewers off.

Drones are also superior to helicopters and airplanes for video because being smaller, they can go places a larger vehicle can’t.

Here is another example of drone videography made by a local business.  This video above was created by Dale Parrish, a retired firefighter living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dale is married to my childhood friend, Lee Ann. Dale has expanded what started as a hobby into a new business venture called Hover Visions.

Dale uses a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus drone.

That model comes with an attached camera that shoots full HD video at 1080p 30p/60i. It also takes 14 megapixel stills. Other models don’t come with a camera, but you can attach one. The Go Pro is a popular choice for drone video.

With the Phantom 2 Vision Plus, you control it from the ground using the control box you see pictured with the drone. It has two levers, one for throttle and one for rotation.

You can view the camera shot on the monitor attached to the control box.

The drone has GPS and Gimbal image stabilization features, which allows it to get silky smooth shots.

Now if that doesn’t qualify as amazing, I don’t know what does! However, drone videography does raise many issues. Certainly, safety issues come to mind first. Privacy issues are a close second.

As the trend of drone video production grew, problems cropped up that brought government regulations.   After all, no one wants their neighbor sending a drone video camera over to spy into their window. Regulations have followed issues with drone safety, especially around airports. Here is another article from Videomaker magazine that goes into detail on the legal issues surrounding drone videography, which are indeed substantial.

MOVE OVER TRADITIONAL METHODS

Aerial photography has long relied strictly on airplanes or helicopters. That, of course, is expensive. Airplanes and helicopters are also quite large and can not go into all the nifty places a 3-pound drone can. Obviously, drones would have the disadvantage of not being able to go as high or as far as an airplane or chopper, but not every aerial photography assignment calls for those abilities.

Drones now give anyone the ability to get dramatic aerial video shots that are silky smooth. As Dale’s video demonstrates, “aerial” might actually mean just a few inches off the ground. The small size of the drone creates new possibilities. I do not think the nice folks at Post Oak Lodge would have wanted an airplane or helicopter flying so close by, no matter how awesome the resulting video.

VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS FOR DRONE VIDEO

The video Dale made on the resort is meant to showcase the beautiful facility. Any fairly large operation would do well to use similar footage in their promotional videos. The unique and unusual angles the drone gives you make for fascinating shots that give a far more dramatic perspective than any static wide shot taken off a tripod.

Dales is a retired fire chief, so spent years working at the scene of fires. He is convinced drone videography would be a great aid to firefighters. With the drone’s ability to get a bird’s eye view, commanders on the ground would be able to make more informed decisions about where to send people and equipment.

Dale is also working with agricultural experts to use drone videography to show farmers where their crops are having drought or disease issues. I can see using drone video cameras in a similar way to inspect bridges and buildings.

The real estate industry has latched onto drone videos to showcase larger properties and even entire subdivisions.

There are dozens of applications for the style of video you can shoot using a drone. This absolutely spectacular fireworks video shot using a Go Pro attached to a drone has gotten over 8 million views on You Tube. A word of caution however. This video got so much attention that many people are raising safety concerns and saying using drones in this fashion should be illegal.

The possibilities of drone video are both exciting and frightening. As a video geek, I get all giddy over new ways to make building shots look awesome. On the other hand, it is easy to see how drone video could be every peeping Tom’s dream come true. Let’s vote today for the positive uses and hope all the scary James Bond type scenarios do not come to pass.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips
Lorraine Grula, Internet Video Gal

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• What is the benefit of using a drone for capturing video?
• Name 3 specific reasons a professional videographer might use drone photography.
• Before drones were common, how would a photography get aerial pictures?