Filming aerials with your drone/quad-copter can be a funny and truly enjoyable experience, however if you don’t have a solid skill set, enough practice and a strict plan knowing in advance what exactly you are going to shoot you might miss the whole point of flying and filming with such a device. As any other aspect of the creative process, getting high-quality professional shots with your quadcopter can be even more challenging than a conventional filming.
The things might get even more complicated and overwhelming when it comes to filming people rather than another series of shooting regular landscapes, for instance, so you should definitely be prepared and keep a few considerations in mind. The following video produced by Shutter Stock provides some useful tips and tricks on shooting talents with a drone.
In the first place, it’s important to pick a remote location where you will have a full control over the situation. It may sound obvious, but the worst idea would be to fly your drone over a highly crowded urban area. While shooting in such a remote location, the chances are that there won’t be any other people who might get in the frame, thus ruining your shot.
Make sure that you also have carefully planned your shooting before takeoff. As a director, you need to explain to your talent what is your main concept for every certain shot. This will ensure that you won’t waste any valuable battery life, plus your crew will be also aware what you are about to film and how exactly you are going to achieve your goal in the next take once the drone is up in the air.
When you start shooting you want to be totally concentrated on getting the best shot, rather than explaining what exactly you are aiming at while the drone is flying around. It’s also worth noting that pulling slowly away from your subject is always the safer option rather than flying towards him/her. You can always reverse the direction of the clip in post-production to achieve the desired effect afterwards.
Also, keep in mind that the higher the altitude you are shooting from, the more difficult for viewers will be to get the movements of your subject. If you are using some of the mid-range consumer drones the chances are that the camera that you are shooting with will have a wide-angle lens mounted on the front, so if you want to save some headaches in post, never place your subject in either corner of your frame. Otherwise, it will be impossible to get rid of this wide-angle distortion in post.
And finally, remember that the safety precautions on every set are a must and should be a top priority no matter what. Make sure that you take all measures and comply with all national and local regulations to make the shoot safe and legit, stay passionate and inspired and never stop having fun.
[source: Shutterstock]
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