By now, I’m sure you’ve seen or heard something about drones and how they might be used.  Yes,  they look cool and they are a new exciting tool for all sorts of industries. For video, we use them to get amazing and unique shots.  Shots that we could only dream about in the past.

So you might be thinking, what can a drone do for you and your organization? What value would it bring to your next video project?

 

Here are some of the ways we are utilizing aerial video production for our clients:

 

Impact

Aerial video provides a significant increase in production value to your program.  This increases viewership and holds your audience’s attention longer – both important metrics for successful business videos. With the new technology of drones, we are able to provide footage that you simply could not get any other way. And since these are new tools, not many companies are providing this service yet. So you have a rare opportunity to stand out from the competition by capturing exciting aerial shots.

Always on the forefront of what’s new and cool, our client New Belgium recently contracted us for a history/culture program (keep an eye out for that next year!). As part of this project, they wanted to show their headquarters (aka. Mothership) from a perspective that no one had seen before.  Not only is the footage just flat out kick-ass, it really makes a strong impact on the viewer of, “Wow, look how much they’ve grown!”

 

Context

Recently, we used aerial filming as an import story-telling tool for our client Way to Grow. The video’s overall subject was Urban Farming, so we wanted to show an urban farm (on Denver Public School property, no less) in context of the surrounding homes. We knew we were going to film plenty of nice green vegetables and hands planting or harvesting for our story about farming, but this piece really needed to show this farm in the heart of urban Denver. There was no way we could have captured this shot without our Drone.  And the icing on the cake, we also got some fantastic shots of flying over volunteers working the farm.   The image shows our client glued to the monitor repeating “That’s amazing… that’s &#$@ amazing…”

 

Scale

Our client Laser Technology, Inc, had developed a new product to quickly measure the volume of large material stockpiles. LTI needed to show their customers the scale of what it could measure. Without the use of our drone system the only way we could accomplish this would be to charter a commercial helicopter or airplane – both very expensive options.

Our client also wanted to get shots with large equipment working the stockpile (like the Loader seen below) – and with the camera as close as possible to the Loader.  That would have been a nightmare if we were using a large commercial helicopter.  Fortunately with our drone we could take our time and wait for the Loader to get to the top of the stockpile.  Then to the delight of our client, we put him in the pilot’s seat by allowing him to view the real-time video from our drone camera.  We  captured amazing shots of our craft flying right over the top of the Loader and showing the entire scale of what their new laser device can measure.    Our client couldn’t have been more excited and pleased with the results of the shoot.

 

Flyovers

This is a bit of a niche market, but ski resorts and golf courses are uniquely positioned to take advantage of aerial video. Golfers aren’t just worried about the ground layout of the course, and snow sports enthusiasts want to see how the run fits into the bigger picture of the mountain.  Fly right down the fairway and give your members a real view of how this hole plays. Is there a shortcut through those trees and moguls to the lower part of the run?  What’s the elevation profile really like?

 

Location

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a real estate agent or developer. You’ve got a great piece of property that you need to showcase. Wouldn’t it be helpful for your audience to see that property from a variety of angles? With aerial footage, we can locate that property in relation to other properties or buildings adjacent to it, giving your viewers a real sense of what they might see from their front porch or 5th story corner office window.