Living in Thailand allows me to enjoy tropical weather year round, but it also means I miss the snow storms back home. Deserts and snowy landscapes are 2 environments I have yet been able to fly my drone in and film. I came up with the next best thing. Guided filming from a far!
A friend who lives back in the UK purchased a Mavic Pro drone a few months ago after upgrading from the Phantom 3. I asked him if he could film the aftermath of the recent snow storm that swept the UK and send me the files so I could edit my own video.
In exchange for the 12gb of footage he shared with me, we agreed I would share 12gb of drone footage from around Thailand that I filmed- mountains in the north and beaches in the south. We came to the conclusion that any shared files would be camera-original allowing us total 'edit' control.
Working out how to share 12gb/24gb of video footage online was time consuming to say the least! But it worked.
We both have different styles of filming and flying so I asked if he could meet the following criteria:
Film/fly the drone along one straight path for each scene(no turns, no angles).
Scenes that show the full landscape/environment with the horizon level (although this can be correct in post editing).
Slow/minimal pans.
And any ground footage to be filmed as steady as possible.
Bridge of overpass views.
What came back, was a lot more than I was expecting- all of which, very usually.
There were a few issues regarding camera stabilization filmed from a second hand held camera but I corrected this in Divinci Resolve and slowed down the playback to around 30-40%. This helped disguise any shakes or wobbles.
Colour correction aimed to bring out a colder, wintery feel- no doubt the snow, ice and winter jackets played a more important role!
My friend told me that the only way to film within the city, among people, streets and buildings was to use that second hand held camera and at times, the Mavic Pro in carry-mode (propellers and arms folded, carried in the hand) due to the strict UK laws.
The only place he could fly was in the city park. The law states the following:
Do not fly you drone within 50 meters of another person.
Do not fly your drone within 50 meters of someone else's vehicle, vessel or structure.
Do not fly above 400 feet.
Do not fly within 150 meters of a built up area.
To name just a few.
The final outcome I was able to edit and produce actually only saw a few drone scenes, but as a change some great slow motion city shots of blocked streets and snow cover.
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