Traditional Drone Filming

Traditional drone filming refers to getting many of the traditional drone shots that you see used on film and TV. These kind of shots are generally slow (and sometimes static), smooth, and are used to give an elevated perspective of a scene that is generally impossible or very difficult to achieve using traditional ground-based videography. At its simplest, it offers a different perspective to other camera angles, but then allows for much more creative scope by offering all the kinds of shots used at ground level – in the air – but then adds a lot of other creative options on top including movement.

Examples of shots include:

• Static, raised perspective shots (e.g. tripod in the air shots)
• Panning and following (from behind, in front, and sideways to a subject)
• Reveal shots (with the drone flying upwards)
• Tracking shots (e.g. moving with a car)
• Point of view shots (where the subject to be filmed remains at the centre of the shot)
• Hyperlapses (condensed time-based shots where the footage appears sped up to show time passing)
• Night-time shots
• Other special shots (like orbiting etc.)

Traditional drone shots can look amazing. They can be combined with clever editing to further enhance their appeal (for example, using speed ramps to speed up and emphasise certain aspects of the footage).

Combining excellent piloting skills, a cinematic eye for getting great footage and perspectives, and knowledge of filming in a wide variety of settings helps us get the best possible footage for your project.

We use a couple of different options for traditional drone filming from ‘mini’ drones that allow us to film almost anywhere to larger drones that provide many more features. It is a staple of the filming we do here at Cinematic FPV.