How to Produce Professional Aerial Video, Part 2: Choosing a Gimbal and Capturing Stable, Usable Shots

Two Aerial Video Scenarios, Part 2

You may recall our two aspiring aerial video operators, Carl and Steve, from Part 1 of this series. After honing their flying skills and familiarizing themselves with their sUAS equipment, we find that Carl and Steve have both obtained a brushless gimbal and have set out in search of ways to enhance production values thru the use of aerial footage.

Carl

As you’ll recall, Carl was operating a “Phantom,” a popular quadcopter, and had experienced a slew of mishaps related to his lack of respect and understanding of the skill set required and technology that he was employing. Now, after parting with some additional cash for repairs, Carl has learned to take things a bit slower with a more procedurally oriented approach.

He uses a preflight checklist to ensure that he doesn’t forget to do and check certain vital parameters prior to flight. Some of those checklist items include things like checking the battery charge level prior to flight, making certain that he has loaded a card into his camera as well as making certain that his pre-flight control initialization and compass calibration are all complete.

Carl has completed a site survey of the area he intends to fly around, noting that there are no power lines, crowds of people, airports, and radio/cell towers nearby. Additionally, he has identified an alternate landing area, clear of people and property that he can use in the case of an emergency landing. Carl’s flying skills have progressed to the point where he feels fairly comfortable flying in a little wind although he doesn’t quite understand that today the wind will be a contributing factor to reducing his available time on station.

Today, the winds are blowing fairly strong around 20mph, and Carl launches his quadcopter and flies downwind towards the object he is wanting to film and photograph. He’s used to having from 15-20 minutes of flight time and settles into his routine of capturing images from different angles and approaches. After about 18 minutes of flight time, Carl decides to return to his point of launch, and this is when it happens. Carl notices that the copter isn’t moving very fast--in fact, he has commanded full speed and is surprised to see such slow progress back home. While the copter is capable of, say, 30mph flight, what Carl didn’t think about was that he is now flying upwind against a 20mph breeze that is effectively resulting in a copter moving only 10mph. Slow progress home and using maximum power after depleting 80% of his battery life while on station has left Carl in a position where he does not have enough battery power to get his copter back home.

When the battery level depletes to a point where there is not enough power to keep the copter airborne, it will come down. Depending on how Carl had set his power management parameters, this may be a rather uncontrollable falling-from-the-sky maneuver rather than a benign landing. If Carl had been flying over a body of water or a crowd of people, this experience may have proved devastating with at best just a loss of his copter, camera, and gimbal and at worst, personal injury to a bystander. Fortunately for Carl, his copter settled to the earth about 100 yards away from him in a field where he was able to recover it with no damage, and he learned a valuable lesson about situational awareness and the potential impact of the wind. Next time Carl has to fly upwind to return home, he’ll be certain to not stay on station quite as long thus providing more battery power for his flight home.

Steve

Steve is able to fly his larger octocopter and brushless gimbal with a large DSLR attached roughly 4 days a week, and has become very proficient in its operation. Just as Carl is doing, Steve utilizes a pre-flight checklist to assure that he isn’t distracted at the last minute and makes a vital mistake by taking off unprepared.

Steve is on a golf course shoot for a local production company and is accompanied by his camera gimbal operator, Allen, and his technical support advisor, Mark. Mark is a visual observer who is there to keep an eye out for any factors that might threaten the integrity and safety of the flight operation. He is a pilot himself and understands the technology being used. He doubles as a security person, keeping an eye on the equipment and assuring the public is a safe distance away during flight. Mark is tasked with overseeing more than a dozen batteries on set, a couple of chargers, and a small electric generator that is used to assure there are always charged batteries available to Steve and Allen.

Steve makes it a practice to have a preflight meeting with his crew prior to each flight operation to ensure that each crewmember understands their particular duty during flight as well as to assess any threats and address possible solutions before becoming airborne. Only after careful consideration of the weather, Steve and his crew launch for their first shoot. The DP is standing near Allen with a monitor where he can also see what Allen is seeing from the camera and offer direction.

Steve has an OSD (On-Screen Display) as well as an earpiece where he can see and hear operational parameters of his octocopter. He has a small camera mounted to boom 1 (the front of his copter) that only he, the pilot, can see on his monitor while the OSD is superimposed over the top of this image. Steve has information available to him such as altitude, speed, heading information, distance away from the takeoff point, the number of GPS satellites, battery voltage, and much more. In his ear a soothing female voice lets him know what flight mode he has selected and warns of voltage issues or motor failures, etc.

Receiving real-time flight data via the DJI iOSD Mark II

Steve knows he has about 6 minutes of usable flight time with the weight he is carrying because he tested this setup before left home. Expectations are a vital contributing factor to a successful outcome, and both Steve and Allen have spent some time prior to the flight discussing the shoot and what they need and expect from each other once airborne. They have developed a shorthand language of sorts that enables them to communicate efficiently. The crew is fast at work gathering footage from each tee box and green when the weather starts to deteriorate. The DP and producer are pushing to continue because it hasn’t started to rain yet, but Steve decides that the wind has picked up to the point where it’s too challenging to fly within his comfort level and ensure that the footage will be stable.

Despite the producer’s escalating frustration, Steve calls a halt to all flight operations until the weather improves. It’s not easy to make that decision and requires a great deal of maturity that is only developed with experience and exposure. Before Steve accepted this job, he made it clear to the producer that he, as the pilot in command, was the sole determining individual that made the decisions to fly or not to fly based on his assessment of the operational environment and the safe outcome of the flight.

Conclusion

As we conclude Part 2 of this series, I would like to reiterate that there are a multitude of airframes and gimbals available on the open market. Some lend themselves more to the DIY approach while others are turnkey solutions. I have detailed some of my favorite choices for the turnkey solution so that you have a place from which to start your research.

I will conclude this 3-part series on aerial cinema and photography with a look into some considerations you and your business need to be mindful of, as well as a closer look at the FAA’s policy with regard to commercial operations of sUAS in National Air Space (NAS), and how the future regulations appear to be shaping up.

Remember: “You don’t know what it is you don’t know.”

Let’s be safe and set good examples for those following our lead!