When I started flying our drone almost a year ago, I was initially most focused on learning how to fly it and not crash. With the superb P4P+, it didn’t take long. I watched several good YouTube videos for both getting started and specifics such as “point of interest”.
I already knew a lot about stills photography, which helped with basics such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, and composition (rule of thirds etc). I’d also made several documentary films back in the days before digital, including occasionally working from a light aircraft or helicopter. But there were nevertheless things to work out regarding settings.
Everyone goes through more or less the same learning curve as above, getting to grips with all of the settings and controls. It has to be done. But there are more important considerations that frequently get ignored to a greater or lesser degree.
One year on, having looked at many YouTube drone videos and ones posted on forums like this, two areas stand out to me as needing major improvement or progress.
The first one is content. Coming up with great lyrics or music for a song isn’t easy, even for the very best singer-songwriters. The same with a plot or on-going storyline for a film or TV series. It takes a huge amount of effort to get it right. Anyone who liked the groundbreaking TV series “24” will likely know a bit of what went on behind the scenes before anyone called “action”. Most people will have heard the expression “Content is king” - which is true. If you’re flying to race a drone, great. But if you’re flying to use the onboard camera, first work out a great idea to put it to best use.
Getting a good quality drone and learning to fly it is the easy part. Thinking how to put it to work - whether for pleasure or professional work - is harder. Figuring out the right questions to ask yourself is often more difficult than working out the answers. Many just don’t bother, out of mental laziness or mediocrity.
The second thing is editing your footage. This crucial exercise is mostly done on a professional level by someone who is detached from the already-obtained footage (or stills, words, other content). Editing yourself requires being tough on yourself. Select only the very best footage - and if it isn’t good enough then get out and re-shoot. Don’t repeat, or overly repeat, the same thing over and over again. Independent viewers, who weren’t there at the time and don’t have the same investment in the project as yourself, will likely just switch off. Remember that “less is more”. Leave almost all of your footage on the proverbial cutting room floor. It won’t be good enough or it will be merely repetitive takes from slightly different angles. Be ruthless. Use short edits of approximately five seconds to keep your film flowing.
Watch mainstream films and TV programmes to see how it’s done. Learn from the best. Aim high. Don’t join the club of yet another boring holiday video made by a friend that must be watched/endured with gritted teeth and stifled yawns.
A few hours ago, Elon Musk (SpaceX) introduced the first private commercial passenger to hopefully fly around the Moon in 2023 or soon after in the BFR/BFS. The Japanese entrepreneur will be taking six to eight “artists” with him - a musician, film director, painter, and so on - in the hope that they’ll return to Earth inspired by what they’ve witnessed/seen on the flight. Technologically speaking, we’ve got our own mini space ships in the form of a Phantom or Mavic drone. But we need to be better at unleashing the inspiration and execution of this current here-and-now potential that not long ago was beyond our grasp.
I already knew a lot about stills photography, which helped with basics such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, and composition (rule of thirds etc). I’d also made several documentary films back in the days before digital, including occasionally working from a light aircraft or helicopter. But there were nevertheless things to work out regarding settings.
Everyone goes through more or less the same learning curve as above, getting to grips with all of the settings and controls. It has to be done. But there are more important considerations that frequently get ignored to a greater or lesser degree.
One year on, having looked at many YouTube drone videos and ones posted on forums like this, two areas stand out to me as needing major improvement or progress.
The first one is content. Coming up with great lyrics or music for a song isn’t easy, even for the very best singer-songwriters. The same with a plot or on-going storyline for a film or TV series. It takes a huge amount of effort to get it right. Anyone who liked the groundbreaking TV series “24” will likely know a bit of what went on behind the scenes before anyone called “action”. Most people will have heard the expression “Content is king” - which is true. If you’re flying to race a drone, great. But if you’re flying to use the onboard camera, first work out a great idea to put it to best use.
Getting a good quality drone and learning to fly it is the easy part. Thinking how to put it to work - whether for pleasure or professional work - is harder. Figuring out the right questions to ask yourself is often more difficult than working out the answers. Many just don’t bother, out of mental laziness or mediocrity.
The second thing is editing your footage. This crucial exercise is mostly done on a professional level by someone who is detached from the already-obtained footage (or stills, words, other content). Editing yourself requires being tough on yourself. Select only the very best footage - and if it isn’t good enough then get out and re-shoot. Don’t repeat, or overly repeat, the same thing over and over again. Independent viewers, who weren’t there at the time and don’t have the same investment in the project as yourself, will likely just switch off. Remember that “less is more”. Leave almost all of your footage on the proverbial cutting room floor. It won’t be good enough or it will be merely repetitive takes from slightly different angles. Be ruthless. Use short edits of approximately five seconds to keep your film flowing.
Watch mainstream films and TV programmes to see how it’s done. Learn from the best. Aim high. Don’t join the club of yet another boring holiday video made by a friend that must be watched/endured with gritted teeth and stifled yawns.
A few hours ago, Elon Musk (SpaceX) introduced the first private commercial passenger to hopefully fly around the Moon in 2023 or soon after in the BFR/BFS. The Japanese entrepreneur will be taking six to eight “artists” with him - a musician, film director, painter, and so on - in the hope that they’ll return to Earth inspired by what they’ve witnessed/seen on the flight. Technologically speaking, we’ve got our own mini space ships in the form of a Phantom or Mavic drone. But we need to be better at unleashing the inspiration and execution of this current here-and-now potential that not long ago was beyond our grasp.
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