A few months ago, the LA-based filmmaker Raphael Rogers had the chance to travel to the arctic circle area of the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Just with a DJI Phantom 3 drone and a few batteries in his backpack the filmmaker managed to capture over six and a half hours of real-time 4K footage of one of the most spectacular places on earth.
Lofoten is known for a distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world’s largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude. Here’s the breathtaking beauty of this unique landscape captured from a bird’s-eye perspective in 4K.
Norway: Into the Arctic 4K from Raphael Rogers on Vimeo.
The only add-on Raphael Rogers utilised when filming was a set of ND filters to lower the shutter speed while shooting in high light. He found the best way to get the shot with the Phantom 3 is to film backwards. This way the props didn’t get in front of the camera while Rogers was filming with the drone. The filmmaker also says that there were moments when the weather was so cold in Norway that the battery wouldn’t even let the drone launch.
The post-production workflow of “Norway: Into the Arctic” was done entirely in Premiere Pro CC. Raphael had to watch every second of the six and half hours of footage to cut it down and get the short to three minutes. Regarding color grading, the short film was graded inside Premiere with the Lumetri color tools.
Raphael used the Alexa DCI Lut and the Alexa SL Lut and then tweaked the settings, taking the highlights down and sometimes lifting the blacks. As the LA-based filmmaker points out, the Phantom’s footage is a little tricky to color but as we can see the final look of the piece turned out fairly well.
If you want to learn more about the work of Raphael Rogers, visit his official website or subscribe to his Vimeo channel here.
[source: Raphael Rogers]
B&H Order Links:
DJI Phantom 3 Standard with 2.7K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal
DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter with 4K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal
Amazon US Order Links:
DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter with 4K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate partner and participant in B&H and Adorama Affiliate programmes, we earn a small comission from each purchase made through the affiliate links listed above at no additional cost to you.
Claim your copy of DAVINCI RESOLVE - SIMPLIFIED COURSE. Get Instant Access!
