As you may know, I started a YouTube channel 2 years ago, where I uploaded some video footage shot with my (now crashed) quadcopter. Images from an unusual perspective always surprise us. Although drones aren’t really new, people’s fascination about aerial footage can have a huge impact on communicational content.
Drones – Endless possibilities
If you want to increase your social media visibility or just produce a great corporate video, drones make aerial footage more accessible than ever. Quad, hexa and octacopters get cheaper every day and make the prices for such services level out rapidly.
Even amateur quadcopters like the DJI Phantom 4 Pro (costs: around 1500$) or the more expensive DJI Inspire 2 (costs: around 3000$) can already produce incredibly high-quality images. These flying camera tools make it possible to shoot images that could only be done with helicopters 10 years ago and where a 10-minute video shoot cost a hundred times as much. And before anyone asks, no I am not sponsored by DJI for recommending their products, they are just simply the market leader. Other manufacturers like Yuneec also produce great and even less expensive drones.
A review of the DJI Inspire 2 – The best semi-professional quadcopter you can buy for less than 5000$
Useful in almost every sector
Whether you want to take pictures of real estate, shoot videos on festivals or promote your region for tourists, drone are useful almost everywhere from a communicational standpoint. Even banks or insurance companies can use them, f.ex. in their corporate videos, to show off their headquarters from the outside.
A mining company could include this footage in their corporate film.
A challenging task?
So isn’t flying a drone a process that takes time and lots of practice to learn? Actually, it isn’t. Even a 6 year old could do so almost right from the start. Drones are very stable in the air and don’t need skills like model planes or model helicopters do. Somehow I still managed to crash my drone, but that was due to my own mistake. Actually I was flying too close to an antenna which disturbed the radio signal.
The thing you need to worry more about if you want to use a quadcopter for professional purposes are the licenses. Depending on where you live there may be several legal authorizations you’ll need before you can take off. In many countries it is also forbidden to fly higher than 100 meters as this could endanger civil aviation aircrafts. For the same reason, it is also prohibited to fly too close to airstrips.
5 tips on how to shoot the best aerial footage
So if you are not using drones yet, you or your creative staff should seriously begin to consider it. As this is a subject that I really appreciate, I may cover it more in detail in the future. Don’t hesitate to tell me in the comments if you like it or not.
