Transcripts
1. Introduction: A drone is more than
just the camera. It's an entire movie said, it can create breathtaking, symmetric shots on its own. It degrade violent behind. Hi, I'm Alex appointing them. If you make a wreath
over six years of experience in this
domain, throat, all of my projects,
drinking from films, documentaries and commercials
to travel themes. I haven't counted or
thousands of drone shots. They meet their, their
own story, NBC myth. In this class we are
going to discuss the basics of normal feeling and slowly getting more advanced and becoming a pro at
operating the literal. We are going to start with
the preparation of the drug. The next steps will
be understanding the manual settings of the
camera like shutter speed, ISO, and white bed in creating some basic patch cinematic
shots and movements. After this is done,
we are going to enter the modern advanced
part of this class by creating more
complex shots and choosing the right position,
height, and speed. Lastly, we are also
going to discuss the lighting
environment a little bit and choose the best
time of the day to shoot with a drop
in different names. After this class,
you are going to be administered at operating the drone in creating the most gorgeous and
estimate the shot. So join me and let's bring
some orthography into the sky.
2. Preparation & takeoff: You have adjusted, arrive into
a new beautiful location, are ready to take out your drone to film the most amazing shots. She did do that. Well, actually not. The first thing you should do is to look around the place. You must find, first of all, a safe place to take off and
land aware of any obstacles. After this is done, you should also look around
for any obstacles which are dangerous
for the boardroom like threes or power cables. Lastly, before you
take out your issue, think about the shots
you're going to film so that you don't
waste time meet air, thinking about what to film, but about different
shots and move once we are going to talk
later in this class, now you can take out your
drone and start flying. Well, not so fast. There's one more thing
to do before taking off. You should check for drone is in a good condition
for flying if it doesn't have any
broken propellers or it shows any warnings. In these preflight check email, you must also look over the
GPS strength and home point. It is recommended to have
at least six GPS satellites connected and that
your home point is said before takeoff. This is to make sure
that your drone comes back safely if it loses signal, and now it's time to take off.
3. Camera settings: Now let's talk about the
camera settings of your drone. To get the most out
of your camera, usually switch to
manual settings. This is because the auto
settings will change during recording and you don't want to have a white balance shift, want to expose a
change midi recording. The menu Cameras say
things sound complicated, but there are, Let's
go over them and learn how to get the
best photos and videos. We are going to start
with the white balance. With these settings. Ua determines how
much the color shift from yellow to blue. For example, filming a science and may record the white balance more towards the yellow
side to show those colors. A rule for the
white balance is to point the camera at
the white surface, then adjust the settings so
that the white looks wide. The shutter speed determines how much this thing is
already six posts to light. High shutter speed will
make your shot dark because it doesn't
expose the sensor March. While a low TSH, others pay the, we'll do the opposite. The shutter speed
has a little twist. If you decrease it too much, you will get a lot
of motion blur. And doing the opposite, you will add lethal
to know the rule for the shutter speed is to keep it at double the
frames per seconds. If you're filming 30 FPS, then you should put the
shutter speed as 60 words, almost the same as
the shutter speed. But if you increase it, you will make the shot
that bright there and the opposite darker there, so doesn't influence
the motion blur. A higher ISO will bring a
lot of noise to your shot, so keep it as low as possible. Your drone has also won more
settings for the camera, the gimbal setting,
first of all, the gimbal has two
modes following in POV. The only difference is that the following mode will keep
the horizon length while the POV with tilt along
with the movements of the drone creating
the creating, as the name says,
a point of view. If you go deeper into
the advanced settings, you can also choose
the responsive speed, the in the smoothness
of the game, but, but I suggest
leaving them as they are. Lastly, I have one more
for the camera settings. Some drones have the option
to Overlay grid lines. I suggest that you will have
always the center point activated enforce some
shots also the rule of thirds to help you create
beautiful compositions. By the way, I have an
entire class focusing just on composition and
cinematography to learn more.
4. Position & speed: Drone is now in the air and you're
ready to start filming. But there are still
some things that matter before hitting
the record button. In this lesson, we are going to talk about the
height of the drone, distance from the
subject in speed. Therefore, heights of drone can be ortho your drone flies. These are the methods that they should be higher up in the air. The first height of the
drone is a low angle. The low angle means
that the drones, he's below the eye level of
the subject looking up port. If the subject is an
object, the low angle, that means that
the drone hovered below half of its height. The height is the eye level, their own seats
at the same level as the eyes of the person, or lower than half of
the height of an object. Both of these highest
don't require a drone, but they don't have
the advantage of flying smoothly like a dolly. Or you can start
from a longer angle, low angle in dries up. The third height is over the
eye level of the subject. And this is the
most commonly used because these are the
colonized as aerial shots. Lastly, the fourth height
is the bird's-eye view. This hype is not meant just for a subject
but an entire lens. Keep the bird's-eye view
shows like the name says. While the boards can
see from up in the sky, the shot can be a top-down shot. The audit can point straight. The distance to your subject is really important for the story. If you're doing is far away from the subject that will
make you sign it with. Lead the viewer focus
more on the environment. Doing the opposite, we will draw the attention
to the subject. Now we came to the most
important part of this lesson, the speed of the drone. We are talking only now
about it because it depends on the height
and the distance. The simple rule
for the speed is, the speed is directly proportional to the
distance from the subject. If your faraway, then the
speed ofs be increased. But this role has a
lot of exceptions. If you want to have a comb seen and let the viewer
focus on the landscape. For example, a slow
speed must be used. If you're using debt
shots with a first-mover, you can face cutscene, the speed must be increased. The speed also
depends on whether the shot focuses on the
subject or on the background. If the subject must be in
the center of attention, they let the drunk move
faster following the subject. Focusing on the
background should move slow in the subject
should go faster. The speed also depends on
the size of the subject. The subject is a personal
or something small. The speed shouldn't be faced so that the
viewer can focus on it. If the subject is
really big amount and the space should
be increased, usually have three speed modes, the GI drones there are seen
as smooth position in sport. I usually keep the speed
on scene is smooth and only use the position
for bigger object. I only use sport
if I'm following a false object like a car or I'm really high
up in the sky.
5. Basic shots: Now let's talk about some
basic types of shots which you should take an indie
projects which are drawn. The first one is then
f-stop dishes shot. The shot is meant
to start your film. This shot can be a
basic assay pushing. For example, you're
doing a thrill video. A good establishing shot is showing the place you visited. The little bit of extra
movement to this shot, you can strive with the gimbal slightly tilted down
and slowly bring it up. This will review the place you visited and we transform
this shot entire reviewed, the reveal is just a shot. This sheath focus or reveal
could be, for example, a shot where the drone starts
by looking at an object and then the arising or moving sideways to
reveal another one. Common use sharp, these
are the turkey shot. Like the name says, These shot is meant to trick a subject. Many drones have active
trick this automatically, but you must also know how
to do this manually because the autonomous
systems centers on the subject and only
focuses onto that. But for some shots
also the background is important and needs
to be focused on the trucking can be as
simple as just moving in such a way that the
subject is only in, is always in the frame. But to make these
two professionally, you should add more complex
movements and nice tracking. Shot could also be
a little bit of orbit or maybe looking at
the subject at an angle. But about movements
we are going to talk about in the next lesson.
6. Movements: Now, after your
drone is in the air and ready to capture
some gorgeous slots, Let's talk about some
cinematic movements. I have prepared some examples of cinematic drone
movements that you can use in any of your projects. Let's start things off. Width, the first movement, this side movement,
normal side movement, also called the dolly shot, is pretty easy to create just by moving the
left joystick, joystick up or down,
or left or right. But it doesn't look
really professional. So the side is when the left joystick leans
to the coordinate, this will make the drone
move towards forwards, but look from a straight
angle at the subject. A dolly shot is the base, also for the second movement. But now we move the
right joystick, left or right, while wrote the
thing that drone slightly. This gives some depth because it reveals a little
bit more of the background. Both of these movements I showed you and feeling now look better with a
subject in them. But the next one requires
a moving subject. We are talking about
a push-up when the subject comes in front
of the bottom of the frame. These movements is really basic, but you need to just move
the left joystick up. But what makes these shots so special is the movement
of the subject. This shot is good for telling
us toward it because it shows firstly the subject, then the big world it
is surrounded with. As I said, the dolly shot
doesn't look so professional, but if we add something to it, it will look much better. The next shot is a
normal dolly shots to the left or right. But here it plays the
subject and important role. It must go into the
direction of movement, and this will transform the
shot into a tracking shot. Now we're getting to some
more advanced movements. So the next move is a pull back with a
little bit of curvature, but also following the subject. The principle in is the same as in the dollar shall
tweet and the orbit. But now you need to
change the position of the joysticks so that the drone almost turns
around the subject. Another shot is the orbit. It doesn't sound to be too complicated because some drones can do this automatically. But the problem with
these quick shots is that it centers
on the subject. This is good if you
want to focus on it. But in films often, not just the subject
is important, but also the landscape. So in these shots, you need to place
the subject that at the bottom of
the frame and post, post the joystick in
opposite directions. Our next shots adds a little bit more to the side
while making a side. You showed also slightly
overbuilt with a drone. This will add some
depth separating closer objects to the camera
from domes farther away. The next shot is an easy one. The top down the rotation. You need to tear down the Gemba and simply rotate your drone. This type of shot is often
used in dramatic scenes, but also it is
good for revealing a subject or letting get
to walk through the frame. The next shot is good for
revealing or landscape by pushing in or out
and moving upwards. You can start from a subject or a small port of landscape and slowly do this
movement until you can see an entire view
of the dead place. The last movement
is a moving for a combinator you do with
a poll up of the chemo. This is also good for a reveal, and I usually use this type of shot as an intro for
my travel videos.
7. Lighting conditions: If you don't know what
to film with your drone, you should also consider lighting an important
part of your shots. Drunk and create gorgeous shots
with wonderful movements. But the downside of its camera, more precisely the camera
sensor is the size, because it's pretty small. It has a low dynamic range. The dynamic range is
a value that defines how much data at the sensor can capture from bright
and dark spots. A low dynamic range
means that bright spots will be overexposed
and dark underexposed. But how can we fix it? The only way to get perfect shots with
the drone is to film at times of the day when the sky has the same
brightness as the ground, one hour after the sunrise and one hour before the sunset. I recommend filming at
sunset at goes there and our fuming at these
times of the day, we'll make sure that your shots will be
our evenly exposed. But there's a tool
that can help you not overexposed or
underexposed your shot. And it's called the histogram. Histogram is a graph
that shows how the light in your
shot is balanced. You don't need to
worry about fully understanding how to read the histogram as the basic rule, you just make sure that the histogram seats
in the middle of the graph and even the
stretch to the side. To change the position
of the histogram, you need to adjust
the camera settings, we talked about a
few lessons ago. This will make the perfect
exposure for your shot.
8. Editing: You learned it, your
drone safely came back home and now it's time to
create a gorgeous video. Let's talk about some tips
for the editing room. The first and the
most important tip is to shoot for it yet, this means that before
you even take off, you should think about
the shots you'll need, but also how they
will make sense together even before
you know the shots, you can already
searched for music. And depending on that, you can imagine the shots. For example, when I was filming my trailer video in torsos, I have chosen the music
one week before the three. And in that week I
already thought about some shows like the
intro and outro, some cool places after
looking on Google Maps. My second tip is also about
how to film for dead. Useful show the 30
frames per second. In post-production. You can slow it down to 20. For this, you'll create some much more
smoother shots and will correct some small
imperfections in movements. Usually drone shots may
be a little bit TLD name, and this can easily be fixed. In post-production,
I usually create a white line or an object that is parallel to the border and align the horizon to it. In this way, you
can be sure that your drone shots will
always be a right. Lastly, color grading is really
important in film-making, and this applies
also to drone shots. Many filmmakers applied the
same lot to an entire film, but isn't the right way to color grade your
order footage. Some shots may be filmed
that sun sets and my son may be filmed in
the middle of the day. Some don't have a good exposure. You need to try to make every shot look
almost the same way. There should be a
difference in shots made at different times of day, but it shouldn't
be so big that it could be noticed as a mistake. If there are two
shots, one female, golden hour and one in
the middle of the day, you can immediately identify
some sort of mistake. You can try making the second shot
more yellow weave so that it matches
with the other one. But also don't overdo it because it will not
look good anymore.
9. Conclusion: And now we came to the end of our class for the
class project create some cinematic drone shots with the techniques I
showed you optionally. You can also create an editor of them with some music
and sound effects. If you have any
further questions, don't hesitate to contact me. Have a great day.
Alex Sofonea, Filmmaker & Full-Stack Developer
