- Joined
- Jun 28, 2016
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Hey doods!
Working in the film industry for a while in many capacities, including drone camera op, I generally bug the crap out of my girlfriend with production notes as we're watching a given film. Sometimes I actually find production decisions more interesting than the film itself...LOL.... My GF is pretty patient and actually displays some modicum of interest in some of the production predictions and/or explanations I regale her with.
So last night we were watching the film "Wander." I took interest in it because it was produced here in N.M. (can usually find friends in the credits). The opening shot looks like it's *supposed* to be a car driving down the road, but clearly it's a low-flying drone - and not a very good one. The thing was yaw-seeking back and forth throughout the entire flight. I immediately spotted it as low-flying drone footage (a couple feet off the deck by my estimate). Anyone who has attempted this kind of shot knows it is NOT easy. You have to turn off Obstacle Avoidance and Vision Positioning, as these sensors will not only produce unwanted flight anomalies, but will usually force the drone too high off the deck. When the director/DP is yelling "lower, lower, lower," you better fly lower. Anyone who has been there knows what I'm talking about. But I digress...
I paused the movie and told my GF, "I bet this is a drone shot. I'm going to guess that they're not using an insert truck because they plan on craning up at the end of the shot."
Sure enough, the drone does its low fly up to a burning vehicle. At this point the drone clearly becomes hand-held as it leads a girl who is running toward the camera. The girl appears to get shot, at which point the drone goes into a crane shot (NAILED IT!). The thing that stood out like a sore thumb for me was that the crane shot was ALSO "yaw seeking." It honestly didn't look good. I imagine the DP and the editor probably opined, "It's good enough." Or maybe justified the yaw-seek as more "actiony" with a "hand held" feel - at 50' AGL.
Based on the way the shot looked, I'm going to guess they used an Inspire 1 with an X5 or X5R (which dollars to doughnuts was their spare drone) that maybe had either IMU or compass issues or more than likely camera issues. I've been using an Inspire 1 for years and never experienced that kind of yaw-seek problem in any of my Inspire 1 shots using the X3 or the X5. In fact, I haven't experience yaw-seek in any of my drones since my Phantom 1 days.
I think I'm going to do some inquiries to see who the drone company was. There are no specific drone operator credits, which usually means the cameraman has a drone in his gear truck "just in case" - which explains the marginal drone camera work (always blame the gear). We'll see.
Thoughts?
D
Working in the film industry for a while in many capacities, including drone camera op, I generally bug the crap out of my girlfriend with production notes as we're watching a given film. Sometimes I actually find production decisions more interesting than the film itself...LOL.... My GF is pretty patient and actually displays some modicum of interest in some of the production predictions and/or explanations I regale her with.
So last night we were watching the film "Wander." I took interest in it because it was produced here in N.M. (can usually find friends in the credits). The opening shot looks like it's *supposed* to be a car driving down the road, but clearly it's a low-flying drone - and not a very good one. The thing was yaw-seeking back and forth throughout the entire flight. I immediately spotted it as low-flying drone footage (a couple feet off the deck by my estimate). Anyone who has attempted this kind of shot knows it is NOT easy. You have to turn off Obstacle Avoidance and Vision Positioning, as these sensors will not only produce unwanted flight anomalies, but will usually force the drone too high off the deck. When the director/DP is yelling "lower, lower, lower," you better fly lower. Anyone who has been there knows what I'm talking about. But I digress...
I paused the movie and told my GF, "I bet this is a drone shot. I'm going to guess that they're not using an insert truck because they plan on craning up at the end of the shot."
Sure enough, the drone does its low fly up to a burning vehicle. At this point the drone clearly becomes hand-held as it leads a girl who is running toward the camera. The girl appears to get shot, at which point the drone goes into a crane shot (NAILED IT!). The thing that stood out like a sore thumb for me was that the crane shot was ALSO "yaw seeking." It honestly didn't look good. I imagine the DP and the editor probably opined, "It's good enough." Or maybe justified the yaw-seek as more "actiony" with a "hand held" feel - at 50' AGL.
Based on the way the shot looked, I'm going to guess they used an Inspire 1 with an X5 or X5R (which dollars to doughnuts was their spare drone) that maybe had either IMU or compass issues or more than likely camera issues. I've been using an Inspire 1 for years and never experienced that kind of yaw-seek problem in any of my Inspire 1 shots using the X3 or the X5. In fact, I haven't experience yaw-seek in any of my drones since my Phantom 1 days.
I think I'm going to do some inquiries to see who the drone company was. There are no specific drone operator credits, which usually means the cameraman has a drone in his gear truck "just in case" - which explains the marginal drone camera work (always blame the gear). We'll see.
Thoughts?
D
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