Geekly Articles each Day
📜 ⬆️ ⬇️

What drones are used in world cinema



Amateur drones can shoot great shots, but their payloads are low, so they are not suitable for professional use. Drones for filming are often inferior to their light counterparts in flight duration (usually it is no more than 15-20 minutes), but the developers create models that can hold out in the air for up to half an hour.

Professional drones can buy anyone, the prices of them you will find in this post. But for large film projects, quadcopters do not buy or rent separately - there are special companies that provide shooting services along with the work of a team of operators. Each drone has its own specifics and requires the ability to handle it.
')
Learn more about the popular drones for filming below. Quadcopters are placed in a sequence from the most expensive to simpler models.

Aerigon MK II



Price: $ 42,000

The world's first 6-frame serial unmanned aerial vehicle designed for professional use in the movies. Designed to work with heavy industrial cameras and lenses. He participated in the filming of many Hollywood films , including “Spectrum”, “The Avengers: the Age of Ultron”, “The Farther Into the Forest”, “Mission Impossible: The Outcast Tribe”, “Hunter”.

Features hexakoptera:





Flying-Cam 3.0 SARAH



Price: $ 18,000

This drone in 2014 received the award “Science and Technology” from the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, after filming the tape “Skyfall”. He also participated in the filming of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, “Transformers”, “Mission Impossible” and other high-budget Hollywood films.

Drone Features:





Freefly ALTA 8



Price: $ 17,500

Convenient and reliable Freefly ALTA 8 is able to freely lift the camera weighing 8 kg. You can control the drone using the SYNAPSE flight controller, the drone is compatible with ARRI and RED cameras. Used in the films “Sphere”, “Lucy”, “Mad Max: Fury Road” and others.

Features of Octocopter:





AZ 4K UHD Camera Drone Green Bee 1200



Price: $ 8,990

There is little information about the 4K UHD Camera Drone Green Bee 1200 quadcopter, but it is known that this heavy drone can lift even the most weighty camera.

Features quadcopter:



DJI Matrice 600



Price: $ 6,740

The premiere of this hexacopter was held at the National Association of Broadcasters - the annual meeting of filmmakers. The novelty was presented together with a compatible stabilization suspension DJI Ronin-MX .

Features hexakoptera:





Vulcan UAV Black Widow Black Widow



Price: $ 3,600

Powerful, durable drone, his middle name - “Black Widow”. The drone's curved rays resemble paws of the praying mantis; the chassis can be spread apart so that they do not interfere with the suspension with the camera. Professional drone is used not only for filming, but also for the inspection of infrastructure.

Drone Features:





DJI Inspire 2



Price: $ 2,999

Despite the relatively low price and compact size, DJI Inspire 2 is used in the global film industry, including for filming Hollywood movies. In particular, the drone is used by the company Aerial Mob, which participated in the creation of films “La La Land”, “Kong: Skull Island”, “Sphere”.

Features quadcopter:





How does the industry of professional filming from the air


The use of drones brought the film industry to a new level. In essence, Hollywood itself can order the development and manufacture of new models of devices that they need for camera work, but this is not necessary: ​​there are already many companies that provide services without any problems. The cost of one day of renting a professional quadcopter with a team of operators is about $ 15,000, and given the fact that aerial surveying services are usually not needed for the entire shooting, the amount does not affect the total budget of the film - Vladimir Bely told this in an article for Forbes. .

Vladimir Bely is the owner of one of the Russian companies that build and rent professional drones. His company Alpha Smart Systems produces about 150 drones per year, the cost of each of them varies from 1-1.5 million rubles, and the cost is about 700,000 rubles. Individual development of the drone is more expensive, up to 30 million rubles. Such a drone is designed for about a month and takes another three days to assemble.

At the same time, the company does not receive the main revenue from the development of drones and related products, but from renting them out with pilot support. One shooting day in Russia costs 120,000 rubles.

Most Russian companies use ready-made drones for the film industry, and only a few develop their own professional drones.

Movies and scenes shot by drones


Skyfall (2012)

The motorcycle racing scene shot by the drone became so popular in Hollywood that after it, the FAA European Aviation Safety Agency granted permission to six film companies to commercially use unmanned drones.

Drone supplier
QNX Software Systems

Drone
Flying-Cam 3.0 SARAH



The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

From the bird's eye view, the American company Freefly Cinema helped the film crew to create the frames of the film “Wolf of Wall Street”. Shooting from the air party in the pool were shot by the drone using a Canon C500 camera with 4K quality attached to the drone Freefly.

Drone supplier
Freefly cinema

Drone
Freefly

Spectrum (2015)

One of the most dynamic scenes of the movie was James Bond running across the roof, mostly the scene was shot using rooftop drones near Trafalgar Square in London.

For filming the company needed a special permit from the Civil Aviation Authority, because the scene was filmed at night, and the use of UAVs in central London is limited for security purposes.

Drone supplier
Helicopter Film Services

Drone
Aerigon MK II

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

The company Helicopter Film Services filmed aerial scenes in Hendon (UK). A team of three people served a quadrocopter, on which the RED Dragon camera was installed.

The team shot the background scenes and action, acting in accordance with the instructions of the director Joss Whedon and the second director Ben Davis. The camera took pictures of individual parts of the city, and from the recruitment of these frames, special effects specialists made a common 3D model.

Drone supplier
Helicopter Film Services

Drone
Aerigon MK II

A robot named Chappi (2015)

In the film, one of the robots flies through a glass window at full speed. This scene was shot using a drone, and although the frame could not have been captured with a helicopter, it could have been done with a cable camera. Nevertheless, the choice fell on a quadrocopter, which made the scene more dynamic.

Drone supplier
Drone crew

Drone
Red scarlet

Jurassic World (2015)

Aerial scenes were captured with the RED Dragon camera and the SHOTOVER K1 system with a FUJINON 19-90mm Cabrio lens.

Drone supplier
Team 5 Aerial System Rentals

Drone
Unknown

The Expendables 3 (2014)

About 30 scenes of the film were shot on the drone, including the first one, which displays a shootout of a train and a helicopter.

Drone supplier
ZM Interactive

Drone
Unknown



Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

The scene with the flying machine was created with the help of computer graphics, but the basis for it was taken with the help of a drone.

Drone supplier
Unknown

Drone
Flying-Cam 3.0 SARAH



A drone on the set can replace the crane’s work for the camera crew and even a helicopter, and the quality of the shooting will be higher. The drone is much more mobile than these systems and allows you to take pictures from completely different angles, as well as quickly change the distance to the object - now it displays highlights in the actor’s eyes, and after a few seconds it shows the scene from a bird’s-eye view.

Since drones are much less expensive than a camera group, they are widely used in cinema. To create high-quality video content, you need a powerful drone that can lift a heavy video camera, work in all weather conditions, and provide an even picture with the help of a stabilization system.

Learn more about the use of drones for business at the conference on March 21 .

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/410973/

More articles:


All Articles