Shooting a drone shot that will hold up in the edit

Five movements cover the bulk of what we film, each with its own specific purpose.

The reveal: the subject appears from behind a ridge, a roof or a row of trees. It reveals information rather than giving it away straight away, and serves as an opening.

The push: we enter the scene; something begins. It requires a clear point of arrival, otherwise the shot feels unfocused.

The pull-back: we move away from the subject; the setting opens up. It is a closing movement which, when placed at the beginning, brings the film to a close before it has even begun.

The orbit: the camera circles a stationary subject to isolate it. It works well on a building or a machine, but becomes gratuitous when used on a group of people.

The 90° vertical俯拍: it eliminates depth and scale, making it suitable for visual transitions but unsuitable for establishing a location.

In a corporate film, an aerial shot rarely lasts longer than four to six seconds; any longer than that and the editing loses its rhythm. Each flight path must therefore be able to be cut cleanly.

In practice, you need three seconds of steady movement before the key moment and three seconds afterwards, as a drone that accelerates or decelerates within the shot will not cut cleanly.

Each flight path is filmed twice – once slowly and once quickly – so that the speed can be chosen during editing, once the ground shots have been finalised.

The direction of movement should follow on from the previous shot: if the subject is walking to the right, the drone moves off to the right. An aerial shot that contradicts the direction of the previous shot breaks the continuity, even if the image is beautiful.

A drone does not provide any usable audio, so dialogue and interviews are filmed on the ground, whilst aerial footage is used for music, atmosphere or voice-over.

Lighting is the first thing to throw off the continuity: with a forty-minute gap between the ground shots and the drone footage, the colour balance no longer matches, regardless of the colour grading. We therefore schedule the drone flights within the same time slot as the ground footage, rather than at the end of the day when there’s time left over.

The drone’s wide-angle lens distorts and flattens the image, whereas on a close-up shot of the subject, a long focal length blends in better with the rest of the footage. The on-board telephoto lenses are mainly used for this purpose: to maintain the same optical style as the main camera.

As for the balance, aim for no more than one aerial shot for every five to six shots. Any more than that, and you’re simply showing off the equipment.

At eighty metres, nothing seems to be moving at all, as there is nothing nearby to serve as a point of reference. The same journey ten metres above the ground, skimming past a tree or a roof, seems three times faster.

Flying low and fast yields more than flying high and slow, though it requires thorough reconnaissance and takes time to prepare.

The human scale disappears beyond about fifty metres, and aerial footage that reduces people to mere dots conveys nothing: if the film is meant to identify a person or capture an activity, you have to descend and zoom in.

We shoot in 10-bit D-Log or HLG, using ND filters to maintain a shutter speed of 1/50. Without a filter, the movement becomes sharp and jerky, and colour grading cannot compensate for this.

The sky dictates the exposure. The sensor has a decent dynamic range, but we expose for the highlights: a blown-out sky cannot be recovered, whilst a blocked-up shadow can be partially salvaged.

Shooting in 6K to deliver in 4K leaves room for cropping, which can be used to correct an imperfect flight path or to produce a vertical format without a second flight.

Most of the colour grading work focuses on matching the footage to the main camera: the sensor is smaller, the optics and internal processing differ, and without a conversion LUT or manual adjustment, the aerial footage has to be matched by eye.

We fly as a registered operator, with the relevant remote pilot certificate and active remote identification. Third-party liability insurance, which is compulsory for drones weighing 250 grams or more, provides cover of at least CHF 1 million.

In the open category, three limits govern the flight plan: a maximum altitude of 120 metres, flight within visual line of sight at all times, and a ban on flying over gatherings of people. In sub-category A2, you must maintain a distance of 30 metres from bystanders, or 5 metres in low-speed mode, with the 1:1 rule applying as soon as you ascend.

The remainder falls under the specific category and requires authorisation from the FOCA: flying over crowds, flying above 120 metres, and flying beyond visual line of sight. Allow several weeks for the necessary procedures before filming.

First-person view (FPV) flight is still permitted in the open category provided there is an observer who tracks the drone with the naked eye and communicates with the remote pilot. Without this observer, the flight falls into the specific category, so you’ll need to factor the cost of this person into your budget.

1. What does this shot show that a ground-level shot would not?

2. Where does it cut, and which shot does it lead into?

3. Is the movement in the same direction as the previous shot?

4. Which element in the foreground will convey a sense of speed?

Without these four answers, the shot will end up with the outtakes that we watch through once before archiving them.

FOCA, flight rules for drones: bazl.admin.ch/fr/regles-vol-drones

FOCA, specific category and operating authorisations: bazl.admin.ch/fr/categorie-specifique

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, applicable in Switzerland since 1 January 2023

Allianz Suisse and AXA: third-party liability insurance requirement for drones weighing 250 g or more, CHF 1 million