AERIAL FILMMAKER
DRONE FEATURE
“We’re a longway off saturation point when it comes to drone footage”
shot, so in post we used a masking layer to hide it.” One further technical issue concerned the freezing temperatures the teamwas working in. Batteries to power the drones can lose up to 25% of their power in the cold, impacting on already finite flight times, and so they ended up being kept in an insulated box surrounded by hot water bottles until the moment they were required. Another striking sequence enabled through the use of a drone was a daylight shot looking directly down on the cyclist, and this is where the Phantom 2 came into its own. With CAA regulations imposing a height restriction, the Skyjib and GH4 combination wasn’t really revealing enough of the road. The solution was to send up the Phantom and GoPro, which was set to a medium angle to eliminate most of the trademark fisheye-style curvature. It performed beautifully, and the shot was in the bag, neatly making the point that sometimes you need to keep an open mind on technology. “I’m a qualified drone pilot myself,” says Richard, “and I’m very mindful of the potential dangers they pose in inexperienced hands. This is why I always work with CAA certified UAV operators, and Yodo Creative have supplied my drone crews since 2014. I really
rate them: ultimately they had the experience to come up with the solutions we needed to get the idea over the line.” With a couple of filmmaking courses under his belt, and the input of graduate cinematographer Jack Webber who has been part of the team since 2013, Richard is now building up a portfolio of striking commercially-orientated films that are helping to take his business in a fresh direction. “Drones are an interesting extra tool to use,” he says, “and I’ve worked with them several times, most notably on a Porsche driver experience film and several productions for an aerospace client of mine. I think we’re a long way off reaching saturation point when it comes to aerial drone footage in commercial videos, and I’m already looking ahead to a couple of personal projects later this year where they will be integral to the final production. I’m particularly interested in producing some extreme shots moving out from a scene and also the ability we now have to accurately plot flight paths and follow action at set distances over extended distances. “Ultimately I’m thinking that it’s time for less talk and taking the opportunity to get out there with my newMavic Pro drone to see what it can do for me. These are indeed exciting times!”
ABOVE While the main drone shots came from a high-end Skyjib 8, a consumer level DJI Phantom 2 and GoPro provided the directly overhead footage.
More information www.richardseymourphotographer.com Dawn till Dusk: www.richardseymourphotographer.com/project http://yodocreative.com/aerial-drone-cameras/
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SPRING 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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