A couple days ago DJI introduced a pair of new drones with some very impressive specifications, especially when it comes to video. One could even argue that DJI just leapfrogged traditional camera manufacturers when it comes to video capabilities, and impressively so.
To highlight the potential of the new Inspire 2 drone, DJI worked with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC (Life of Pi) to produce a 13-minute short film called The Circle, shot entirely on the Inspire 2. It’s an impressive piece of work and gives you a sense of what the new drone and camera are capable of.
If you want to learn more, Dan Chung over at NewsShooter has published a short article exploring the implications of these new drones and cameras, including some behind-the-scenes videos from the filming of The Circle. There's also a video with the colorist who graded the film from Raw footage shot on the Inspire 2. If you’re interested in aerial photography, or even where video technology on small cameras is headed, it’s worth a look.
That was really good. Wow. I'm a little confused about something though. In some scenes the drone is flying very close to the characters, but we can't hear the drone. The characters can be heard, though. How was this possible?
Those drones are making helicopter stunt pilots jobless. It used to be so expensive and some time dangerous to film aero stuns but now a big budget movie can crash dozens of drones to get a shot.
this settles the argument of camera or operator. period. awesome film. done by professionals. not that you have to have a degree in film making, but lots of trial and error.
Most of the questions are answered in the Behind the Scene videos. Well worth watching!! I fly drones for living so to me some of the questions are amuzing but I understand the curiosity of people who have had no experience with any drone. This technology is fast evolving and the current drones such as these coming from DJI are trully amazing and packed with features. The stabilization is someting absolutely incredible when you realize that this new Inspire 2 can fly at up to 100kmh speed and the 5.2K video it can shoot is not even shaky. Anyway, The Circle short film demonstrates well what this drone and its camera is capable of in hands of creative, talented and dedicated professionals.
I wonder how they removed all the noise the drone makes in order to record audio. Or was the whole audio post-added in studio, which is quite a great amount of work for a small project.
Remember the drone wasn't on for many of the shots, it wasn't hovering and the blades were not on. They just held onto it with their hands and aimed the camera at the actors. But yes sound was dubbed in later.
watch the "behind the scenes" video, they don't hide anything. But, it would be rather difficult to make the indoor sequences, when passing through narrow doors with the drone flying... really no point. Also, with any camera/setup sequences like the one inside the car the audio would be recorder by a separate recorder inside the car. I am not into video much, but i am pretty sure than any serious and semi-serious film project would have the entire audio recorded separately so it can be tweaked and whatever, and only in the end synced with the video.
Most drone shots scream "Drone Shot!", in a way that invariably takes me out of the narrative. The opening shot of "Don't Breathe," for instance, was pretty cool, but I found myself thinking "that's really an effective way to use a drone!", which probably wasn't what I should have been thinking.
The problem is that you looked at the movie knowing it was "entirely" recorded with a drone. And keep thinking this and that... But if the sequences were mixed (and some more subtle) ... and the movie more about something that you are passionate about so you would not pay 99% attention to "filmography" and 1% to the content, things would be different.... however that's a tech demo, and if you were thinking "that's really an effective way to use a drone!" it means the project reached it's goal.
I was referring to the opening shot in "Don't Breathe."
What I'm getting at is that certain technologies, unless they're very carefully done, call attention to themselves and intrude on the narrative. I have the same issue with wobbly dolly shots in old Hitchcock films, rear-screen projection, crappy CGI, floaty drones, and those weirdly pendulous Steadicam shots.
Even if audiences don't understand the technology, I think it still registers on some level. DePalma riffs on Hitchcock by deliberately re-creating some of those crappy dolly / rear-screen effects; there's a visual aesthetic there that people understand.
That was neat. I'm confused how some of those shots could possibly have been done with a flying drone, but hey, it's a movie. I'll give it a pass. Neat.
Click through to the NewsShooter link and they have some behind the scenes videos. It looks like they just held the drone in their hands and let the gimbal stabilize things.
They did announce that a handheld mount for the camera would be coming as well.
Thank you Thematic - I assumed that it was flying for all of the shots, which would have made the shots in the paint can... interesting. So they just held it. Welp, it's a nice advertisement for the camera anyway.
Can you imagine all the rigging, dollies, cranes, tracks and operators you'd need to do all that motion work? It would cost more per day to rent than this whole drone set up does to own.
Drones enable some amazing shots, but they aren't the solution to all problems and clearly aren't capable yet of taking the place of some of the equipment you mentioned. The drone is never completely stable and continues to dance around, creating a really annoying shift in perspective.
Also consider that every shot with dialog will need ADR because none of the audio will be usable due to the drone's noise.
The Inspire and Phantom drones are wonderful, but too big and too expensive for the masses. However, before 2018, we will see a cross between pro-grade and toy drones that cost under $200, do much of what most people might ever need, and sell by the tens of millions. The image stabilization may have to be electronic, however, since no existing gimbal can survive the shock of a big fall or crash.
I was thinking, are they really flying that drone inside the car? That could get ugly lol. Amazing quality footage though. They cheated by hand holding the drone, I thought all footage was going to be flying stuff ;) What, actors don't like blades spinning really fast near their eyes or something?
In professional narrative film production it's fairly common to re-record dialogue after filming to replace audio that isn't captured clearly on set. It's usually referred to as ADR, or automated dialogue replacement. For example, in a scene with a buzzing drone near the actors. I think it's likely they did some ADR in this.
The director specifically said in the YouTube comment that they switched off the rotor and handhold it. The audio is original, though most likely not from the onboard mic.
Really impressive to fly a drone that steady inside a moving car...
That was a joke, the footage really is impressive. 4K/60p is about what perfect video/film should be. Now youtube, computers and monitors only have to be able to cope with it without jumping frames and compressing the **** out of it.
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