Make A Shot List Before Putting Your Drone In The Sky
When you're filming with a drone, you never want to review your footage at home afterward and realize you failed to get a critical still image or video clip. Often, returning to the area and putting your drone back in the sky won't work, as the lighting will be different and any additional footage that you get won't match what you shot earlier. It's important for your pre-flight routine to include taking a few minutes to put together and review a shot list. Doing so — and referencing the list during flight — will ensure that you get all of the shots that you want. Here are some shot list tips.
The Shots That You Want
Don't ever assume that you'll remember exactly what shots you want to get. Once you have the drone airborne, you'll be concentrating on piloting it, rather than starting to brainstorm how you want to position it for footage. Take some time to think about each of the shots that you want to get, and whether they'll be still images or video clips. Compile the shots in the order in which you expect to get them based off your initial takeoff point, the position of the sun, and other factors.
Description Of Each Shot
The essence of a shot list is to write down each of the shots that you want, but you should plan to do so meticulously. For example, if you want to film a clip of a church from the sky for a promotional video, don't just write "Church" on your shot list. Seeing a random keyword can distract you as you attempt to figure out what you want to get for the shot. Instead, you might wish to write "Church — VC," which stands for "video clip." This means that you'll be using the drone's video setting, rather than its still image setting. Provide some additional details in brief, such as "from above with forest in background" to help you know how to proceed.
Timing Details
In addition to listing the shot that you want to get and a few brief details about it, you should also list a time guideline. Generally, it's a good idea to capture video clips that are longer than you anticipate needing so that you can edit them down, but you should still be cognizant of the fact that you can fill up your camera's memory card if you shoot too much video. A quick notation of timing details, based on the above example, can look like "Church — VC — from above with forest in background — 20 seconds."
To learn more, contact a business such as UAVantage LLC.