Drone Videography: Techniques to Elevate Your Storytelling

1. Introduction: Drones are very popular today. Even if the public has got a user to see drone full version videos, the biggest challenge is to use drone and still amaze the viewers. It's not the drone that elevates your ability to great storytelling. Is the way that you use drones to tell your story that makes your content successful. My name is Oliver Astrologo, and this is my Skillshare class about how to elevate your storytelling on your drone videos. By watching this class, you will be able to adjust your drone settings for aerial videography, plan your perfect drone shots using my essential tips. We will literally fly the drone together in order to understand how we can create some category for the shot. Finally, editing your idea footage and creating a compelling video for your viewers. Whether you are a novice enthusiast or a regular user of drones, you can take advantage of this class. You just need a drug and a computer with the right programs to edit the footage. Please feel free to ask any question, leaving a comment below. I definitely look forward to see your finished piece of work here in this Skillshare class. 2. Basics of Good Drone Shots: Drone shots are beautiful. Drone shots are useful. The reality is different. Drone shots are totally overused. That's why if you are considering creating a drone only filming you need to find a way to make its use to stand out. Try to think of something that has never been done before and find a way to make it happen. Even if you can 100 percent do what you've strived for, trying something new is definitely the right direction. This is just the beginning of a long way to make your work stand out from everyone else. But first, we need to capture the right images. These are the elements that you will need to consider where to lay out the foundation for a great drone video. The first tip that you need to keep in consideration is the lights. If a TV lighting can capture our attention, tell a good story, and create a mode. My favorite moment for flying the drone is the sunrise. The sunrise is the moment where I get to right light, and also the places are less crowded. Then we need to find the right shooting angle. Let's try to be open to new angles. Don't be afraid to play with them. For example, I like this top-down shot. My suggestion is always try to capture more angles and point-of-view as much as they can. They will appear during the editing phase to create a sequence of complete meaning. Once you've found your right angle, it's time to move. Do some nice slow movements and take some good shots to start. In most cases, the simplest movements like dolly shots or maybe a simple movement of the drone forward and backward could be the more effective one. Now accelerate. Let's give a bit of dynamics to our footage, with faster and more complex movement. For example, by combining the movement of the camera with the one of your drone. Then we can also try to experiment with the FPV, first-person view in drones. This is something that I recently learned about. This is a method used to control the drone from a first-person perspective using the FPV Goggles. By using FPV, you will be able to pull out some of the crazy stuff that you can do with a drone. For example, you can fly through a narrow passage or simple swerving around your subjects. We will talk about FPV drones later in this class. If we get more into the detail apart from the drone technical aspects such as movements, camera settings, a great location, what makes a drone video interesting is something more related to the way we perceive the images. In my view, what makes the perfect drone videos is when the old images are edited to create an arc story, with moments that are varying in terms of speed and dynamism together in a harmonious way. I call this in jargon, flow. If also the images are in terms of composition photography, almost perfect with fluid and dynamic duo movements, the video become almost perfect. Finally, we also add the right soundtracks and apply the proper color correction, then we will have the great drone video. This is just the start guys. Now that we got an idea what are the elements to learn to get some good material, it is time to dive into the practice. The next time you are going to watch a drone video, ask yourself this question. Why do I like this video? What are the drone videos that you like the most? Write it in the comments and tell me why they [inaudible]. 3. Getting Your Drone Ready: Before you start, you need to have a drone. If you haven't yet piloted a quad-copter, I'd recommend a camera drone that's under $400, so you first master the basics of flying. Speaking about cheap drones, probably the DJI MINI 2 is the best option. This is not considered a professional drone, but with the right and the proper [inaudible] , it's capable to provide something that is really surprising. I will suggest you to buy along with the drone some extra batteries. They will be useful, especially if you need to shoot for an entire day in different location and also it helps you to extend the range of your drone. Most importantly, you need to buy some ND filters. The ND filters used in the lens of the camera, allows you to slow down the shutter speed, reducing the [inaudible] in effect and also if they are PL, like this one that I bought on Amazon, they will also increase the contrast of your footage. Now that we got the right drone, it's time to move to the setup process. This is really important to set up the drone in order to capture and also to improve the quality of our results. There are some tips that you need to keep in mind. This should be done before taking any flight. Let's check if the battery is charged. Now, we can switch the drone on. The first thing that you need to do is to activate the grid-lines. I'm currently using the DJI FLY application. Just keep in mind that if you are using, for example, another brand or another drone, their menu and the things could be in a different way. But all modern drones, they are offering these functionalities. For example, if we're looking for the grid-lines, you just need to search through the different menu of the mobile application of your drone camera. The grid-lines will instantly improve your result. One thing that you need to keep in mind when you're flying your drone is to keep the subject in the crossing point of your grid-line. This is very simple but easy-to-follow rule that will instantly improve your result. The next thing that we need to activate is the overexposure warning. In jargon, it's called zebra. We just need to go back to the Menu, switch to the Camera tab, and untouch the overexposure warning toggle. Can you see the stripes behind me? This is a visual aid that is informing you that you are overexposing. In fact, you are losing some important information. It's really important when you are shooting that you set the exposure just below that zebra. For example, this is overexposed. If we change the exposure, now, it's correctly exposed because I don't see that zebra warning. The next thing that we need to control is the white balance. The first time that you are going to use the DJI, the white balance will be set to auto, so you need to switch to manual. Unless you're shooting in the night on a very specific weather condition or you're shooting indoor, my suggestion is to keep the white balance locked, otherwise, when you are using your drone and maybe the light is be the white balance also will change accordingly, maybe ruining your footage. After the white balance, we need to set the video resolution. When the drones comes out of the box, the standard resolution is HD. I will suggest you to choose and to pick the maximum resolution your drone is capable of. For cage, footage is sharper and more detailed, either when scaled to HD in post-production. Also, you need to keep in mind that in the future, probably when the 4K will become a standard in television, you will have some archival, some footage that you could use, for example, for re-edit or maybe you can sell it. The final step, you need to switch the exposure to manual. I recommend you to first choose the auto mode, check the image, and then switch back to manual mode and change the settings in order to get similar settings. If your drone is capable also to providing different picture profiles, I will suggest you to switch to DLOG. DLOG is the DJI color profile that allows you to get to the more dynamic range. Unfortunately, on the DJI mini 2, I'm not able to change the picture profile, so I need to use the standard one. That means that you are still able to collect some good footage, but you need to pay more attention, especially when you are shooting in situation where there is a lot of contrast, especially at the sunset. You need to control the exposure and avoid that you overexpose your footage. Otherwise, it will be not usable. As a rule of thumb, you want to change the shutter speed to be approximately the double of the number of frames per second that you are recording. In other words, if you are recording at 30 frame per second, you might want to change the shutter speed to 160. If the environment is too bright, that's why you need to add an ND filter to find the right match. Another thing that you need to change is the advanced gimbal settings. I'm going to set the Pitch Speed to 15, the Pitch Smoothness to 16, and the Yaw Speed to 60, Yaw Smoothness to four. Some drones are also [inaudible] mode where they automatically lower the response of the gimbal, allowing the speed of the camera gimbal allows you also to capture smoother footage, especially when you need to combine different movements, for example, if you need to control the camera when you're flying your drone. Check also the ISO. The suggestion is to keep the ISO lower as much as you can. So if you are able to get 100 ISO, you'll probably get sharper footage and also footage with less noise and better in terms of result. We are almost ready guys. There are some safety tips that you need to keep always in mind before taking off your drone. The first thing that you need to check are the propellers. Check if they are ruined or damaged. Damaged propellers can completely ruin your footage because they are making vibrations. Check to see if the firmware is up-to-date in order to avoid maybe any issue with the drone. Make sure you got an empty micro SD card in your drone with a proper rating, of course. Check also if the batteries, remote controller, and your device, iPhone tablet, iPhone, iPod are fully charged and there are no status sever. Check specifically if the compass it's okay and there is no compass calibration warning. Finally, check to see if the location you plan to fly is a no-flight zone. Check the height of the tallest mountain, if there are trees, wires, and make sure the maximum flight altitude is properly set for the environment in which you want to fly in and you got enough GPS coverage. Every country is different and there are different rules in every place. So whether you are a new drone pilot or you have years experience, rule and safety tips are existing to help you fly safely in the right space. To get started, be sure to understand which type of drone user you are and find out what rules and regulations apply in your specific location. Now that we are ready, everything is set up, it's time to dive in, in the most interesting part of this class, the creative process. 4. Shooting With Your Drone: An important figure that we need to know that usually a drone can fly for an average of 20-30 minutes. I tend to fly long enough only to get the shot that I want, and immediately land and power off the drone after. I then do the legwork and carry it to the next shooting location to save the flight time. It is really important to plan your flight prior to taking off. You need to know what you want to shoot and from what angle. You will figure this out into theory and quite quickly, but it is good to get into the habit from the very beginning. Each part that can be used to help to tell a different part of your story and connect with a river in a different way. If they are visually impressive maneuvers, they will make your footage stand out. There are some basic rules to follow to get a good result. When you're shooting landscape, it is important to make sure the horizon is not in the center of your video. Because it makes your video boring. Using the rule of grid on the horizon will instantly improve your result. The grid line will help also to achieve a perfect results. The same rules should be applied when you are shooting a subjects or maybe architectural element. Try to put your elements maybe in the crossing lines or the grid line. This will definitely help to achieve a perfect result. Don't fly it too high, unless you are flying fairly close an object or subject, it can be really difficult to get a sense of scale for what's happening. If the frame in the field is a really wide, nothing is better than flying low and fast close to the object in order to heighten the drama. This is definitely the easiest way to create a dramatic look and feel your shot. Since everything is moving so fast in the frame, you can also use this technique to track a fast moving object, staying very narrow and very close to it. Try to mix with your angles. You can do a reveal shot and even rotate around your subject. Just mix it up with different angles so that you have different perspective to work with. You can, for example, move your drone up and backward, or simpler fly sideways while trying also to go forward and backwards. If you want to change the way that your viewer perceive your shots, you just need to fly in backward. Everything that looks an established shots becomes a reveal. When your drone goes in reverse, it reveals little space like trees, hills, buildings, and anything else, rather than focusing on specific details. If flying backwards is too difficult for you, you can always reverse your footage post-production by using the speed duration tool. Tilts, binds, and orbit shots can all be used for reveals, but important part is to make sure that your timing is right. You go too slow, a speed ramps may be required, creating a jerking footage. Too fast, and the reveal doesn't have too much strength as you want to achieve in your footage. Always make sure to be gentle in the remote sticks, making slow and steady movements make your footage more cinematic. Unless there is any safety reason, don't make any sudden adjustment. Any unnecessary push of the remote controller sticks may ruin a good shot. Practice is a fundamental task when you need to learn to fly your drones. At the beginning, you will have to try several times, and it's definitely not certain that your shots will be the perfect at the first time. In my case, I took months of experience before obtaining satisfactory results. I invite all of you to dedicate at least five hours a week to practice with your drone so that when you are in the right place, you will not miss the opportunity of getting the perfect shots for your video. Now that we have perfected our drone skills, it's time to figure out how we can now add the storytelling factor to our videos. 5. Storytelling With Your Drone: The first part of this class, we try to understand the fundamental elements to make a good drone video. Now, it's time to understand how we can add the storytelling factor, in particular, to images that are shot with a drone. This is the real value that can help to create content that stands out. When I find myself in a new location, an important thing that I plan before starting filming is not only what angles, movements I'm going to make, but also the way in which they will be connecting during the editing part. Here, I apply the same rule that I use within the traditional camera. I always try to shoot at least three different angles that once you have assembled together, they have a logical sequence. Let's go with a practical example. This is the list of shots that I tried to cover on every shooting. The first shot will be an high altitude one flight. This is the simplest one also the most obvious. Could be used for creating my subdivision shot. The next one will be a reveal shot. The reveal shot consist in using a natural element. That could be a hill, a tree, or anything else that is between you and the subject. You start your shooting by aiming at this natural element, and then you move the drone or the camera and reveal what is behind it. The revere shot could be used for building the climax, what is going to happen next, and also to show the viewer that something very dramatic is going to happen. To keep the drama up, I usually fly at the low altitude and very close up to the objects. Finally, a reverse shot could be the perfect one because there it's the kind of movement that works, especially when you need to close and give the feeling that you are going away from a specific place or location. Very often, you will also have to combine shots from different location together. In this case, try to find a common element that could help to combine the shots in a seamless way. For example, we can combine together all the dolly shots, or eventually you can start experimenting with more complex combinations such as orbits or specific position the camera, for example, we can put all together shots where the camera is pointing the top-down. I definitely love the way that drones are shooting our world. But they have a very wide focal length, and sometimes if you are too distant, the footage captured with a drone is lacking from a human perspective. That's why it is really useful to add an element, such as people or vehicles, to your frame in order to alter the viewer to have a greater feeling of the space. If there is a specific action taking place in the scene, for example, a person going with a motorbike or a vehicle going through a road, that's a great way to provide a storytelling factor. Whether you are hoping to shoot on a factory floor or in the middle or across the streets, drones allows you to get access to places that usually are impossible to reach with a traditional camera. Try to think about other blocks and take advantage of the drone's ability to reach normally inaccessible place to get completely unusual angles. Try to get benefits of all the techniques, like aerial, dolly zoom, aerial hyper-lapses, aerial time lapses. They could help to increase the drama just like they would if they were regular shots. But typically, they require also more planning and can feel [inaudible] if they are overused. Practice practice and plan to get them right. That was just an overview of the creative way that you can connect different drone shots together in order to create a strong storytelling factor. I would like to see your opinion about that. Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what are your creative ideas that you could use to connect different drone shots together. For example, try to think about different skylines, or maybe about colors, or maybe drawn movements. There is no limits for the creative. Leave comment with your ideas below. Now, it's time to make some practice. Let's take our drone out and film an outdoor scene. 6. Live Drone Session: Today we are in Bali. We got this beach and this is definitely the perfect place to fly with the drones. We have a lot of space to fly safely and also the lighting conditions are ideal because we are approaching the sunset. Before flying with the drone, let's study the natural environment around us. There are some natural elements that could be used as another backdrops for our shots. For example, there is this hill and also there is an interesting tree that could be used also for the [inaudible]. All right, we are ready to go. Let's begin with something very simple. For example, by flying at an higher altitude, this will help us to get more confident with the location, and understand that what are the boundaries on which we can move it. Now we make a comparison between flying high and low. When we flying high we have the opportunity to capture a good establishing shot. This could be useful during the editing phase for this creating the beginning of our video. However, this type of shot is also particularly boring because it doesn't offer the right dynamic field. Let's try to fly lower as much as we can. So I'm going to fly the drone at a lower altitude now. Can you see guys, when you fly at a lower altitude, you are able to provide a more dramatic and more dynamic effect on your footage. Everything looks much faster, much closer. Now, the footage looks definitely more dramatic. We also get a real feeling of speed. Despite this location is great, it's lacking for something. So let's try to give a sense of space by adding a human element. I asked my friend Paul to be my actor. I'm using his motorbike, we will try to create a short story. So Paul, I just need you to make a very simple movement. It is better to starting with something very simple and easy to carry out. I need you to go forward and back with your motorbike on this side of the beach. Can you see the rock over there? Yeah. You just need to reach that rock and then you need to come back. I need the movement three times in order to understand how much fast you go and then maybe to adjust the speed of my drone accordingly and to follow you. Okay. As soon you are done with the movement, you just need to go back forward to me and I give you the next instruction. Okay. Since our drone flight time is limited and we don't have much time, the sunset is going to end very soon. So instead of shooting randomly with the actors, I'm asking Paul to do one single moment. This will be very simple. He just need to go back and forward with his motorbike from one point to another. I asked him to repeat the movement at least four, five times. For every time that he's going back and forward, I try to achieve a different drone shot in order to capture many angles and many point of view of this same scene that is happening. This will be very important because everything when it will be put together, we create a story that makes sense to the viewers. Now, I would like to try one of my favorite shots, I call it the chase shot. I literally chasing the subject by following with my drone. So this will give a more dramatic effect to my footage. You guys, what is your favorite drone shot? Let me know by leaving a comment below. I really look forward to see what you create with your drones. In the next lesson, we are going to add a bit of drama by make our shots more dynamic. We are going to use the FPV drones. 7. Using FPV Drones: At the beginning, FPV drones were something only for a niche of people, passionate people about tourism. Today, FPV drones are also an incredible powerful tool for creating stunning cinematic footage. Usually, traditional drones they produce fantastic, stable footage, and they are the perfect choice if you want to create wide and stable [inaudible] shots. FPV, in the other hand is the perfect choice if you want to add a bit of drama to your footage. When you are watching an FPV footage and you get literally the feeling that you are strapped to the front of small acrobatic plane. The rise and tilts or you can dive at dive speed over something or fly to objects in your frame. When you are filming in FPV, everything is moving very fast. At a very dynamic speed and usually that is between 50 and 60 miles per hours. FPV are different from traditional drones. There will be different learning curve. In a nutshell, you are going to crash it at some point. I'm not an expert FPV drone pilot, but I found a lot of potential in FPV drones. That's why I'm starting to move in with them and also to make content with them. In the past, FPV drones were something very difficult to approach. Fortunately, EGI has launched a drone that allows you to progressively approach the world of FPV. The new DJI Flash allows you to switch between three different flight mode in order to become more familiar with it, and learn progressively the way of flying FPV that is completely different to traditional drones. You just need to choose the way you feel more confident at the beginning. I will suggest to try FPV flight by using the simulators that are available online. However, in this class we cannot deal with in detail with the whole process from the A to Z to learn how to use FPV drones. Rather, we will explain how to get benefits of FPV drones in order to capture the necessary scene toward the right climates to your videos. In my experience, you don't need to perform crazy stance to create the content that is engaging. But rather you need to find a constant speed that accompanies your spectators through the entire location that you are flying through. If you fly between obstacle in a safe way, you will definitely capture the essence of the space and the subjects that are involved on. Make sure you're shots have some story. Don't just orbit or spin around the fields. Like all the technologies do not abuse it with FPV. Instead, think about mixing dynamic images with [inaudible] shots that usually we get with traditional drones. Since this kind of film is pretty new, you can get away with more mistakes that you think that you can. Just make sure you fill up your frame with something interesting and just have fun. If you are passionate about drones, you cannot ignore the FPV. This is something that probably will evolve in the next few years, so you need to keep an eye on them. Beyond FPV there is also a strong community of people that are innovators, [inaudible] , and advocate. They are keeping the FPV drone safe and alive. Why not you interact with them by joining the many group that are on Facebook and other social media. Who are your favorite drone pilots? Leave a comment and write the links to their channel. That will be useful to get some inspiration. The last step in the working with the [inaudible] is finally to bring everything at home and using the post-production make it pop. 8. Editing Your Drone Footage: A part of the job that is often underestimated is the post-production. Drone videos are not an exception. Let's see together what are the necessary steps to ensure that your video stands out. If you want to learn more about the post-production I will suggest to have a look on my Skillshare class. The leak is here in the video description. The first thing that I usually do before starting my editing is to choose the right music. Choosing a suitable music is the best thing that you can do for a successful video. Think about something original. Avoid the mistake maybe to choose the classic epic in general, but try to experiment with maybe something different. It could be an ambient song or something on a different key. Let's see three different music example. Let's see how the music will change the result we can get with the folders. A common approach when people are editing the drone videos is to take all the best drone shots and put everything together in a timeline according to the music. Instead, we need to think about building a story arc. A very simple example is maybe to begin the video with his low movements. For example, by choosing all these lowest drone movements or maybe all the eclipse where you are flying high. I call this part introduction and this service to transmit the right feeling to the audience. Then we need to find the rising action, something that is introducing the viewers to the next step of the video. This will be a clip with a reveal movements that takes us into the full action that in jargon is called climax. The climax is the more dramatic parts of the video. This should be most legally the most dynamic part and all the drone images that we are going to use here, they should be the fastest of the case where we are flying close range to the objects. Even better if you are using, for example, IPV footage. Finally after we reach the climax, we need to go back and find the falling action of resolution for our media. I suggested we need to use as maybe some clips that are as low as in terms of speed. One logistical work very well for the resolution are all the cliffs where we have the drone that is flying in reverse. This footage is something that is conveying to the viewers the feeling that we are coming away from a location. When the viewers are watching our videos until the end, the lattice cleats are the ones that usually the people remember the most. What happens if you have a shooting multiple location or you end it up with footage coming from different places? Nothing prevents you from mixing different clips together. But instead of editing everything following the typical order of different location one after the other, try to combine them in a more creative way by building the story arc. Try to choose the eclipse and put them in an order that is following the drone movement and the drone shots instead. You will definitely get surprised by the results you can achieve. When the editing is done, let's apply some sound effects. This will definitely enhance your footage and immerse your audience more fully in the experience. Like the traditional cameras, usually drones are not able to capture the sound. My suggestion is after we are finished with your drone is to stop and capture with a microphone or mobile phones all the sounds that we can arrow on rounds. We can also use and include some foley effects like it's washes in order to amplify the sense of movement and space. Let's watch together this video where I added some sound effects in post-production. There are some post-production techniques that will help to improve the editing. A common thing that is done on drone footage is the speed ramping. I will recommend speeding up the footage in post-production and add more movement to the frame. But try ramping it up, not over 300 person. Don't abuse with this technique because in the long run, it becomes repetitive and monotonous, especially avoid speed ramping on footage, on material where you see human people or vehicles that are moving because it looks fake. Sometimes for safety reasons, you could not play backwards. Doing that in phase, you can reverse the footage. But be careful if you show the right people or moving elements that could make it clear that the clip has been reversed. Once your video is ready, it's time to apply some color grading. Drone cameras are limited dynamic range, and this is really important in post-production to make some adjustment in order to recover the lights and the shadows. Again, I will suggest you to watch my class about the post-production. There is a specific lesson on which I'm talking about post-production and also the color correction to drone footage. I know that the color grading is a very complicated process and many of you could struggle with it. That's why I recruited a lot that is available within the class materials that will help you to grade the color footage. Feel free to download it and play with it. We are at the end of this class. Now is your time. Take your drone, make some practice, do some editing. You want to see how you are approaching and also how you're using my techniques in order to create something that is compelling and also is providing some storytelling to your viewers. Guys, as soon your work is ready, please feel free to post them here in the work session of the class because I want to see them. Let me know what you think. I'm really curious to see your pieces of work. 9. Final Thoughts: We have reached the end of this class. It's time to take your drones, practice, do some editing, do more experimenting. Imagine this like a gym. The first time probably the result would be not satisfactory, but more exercise you do and more you improving yourself. Also, don't forget to observe and study the work of the other graduates. This could be always inspiring, helping you also to improve yourself. Be open to criticism and suggestion. Remember that technology is making big step ahead and probably in the future, there will be drones that would be more efficient, more easier to use. But despite that the technology that you're going to use in the future, what is making your content to stand out is the creative, is the way that you're approaching your content. Don't forget that you need to improve yourself and make some progress. Thank you for watching guys. If you liked this class, please do follow me on my social media, links are below in the video description.