Getting the Shot

In this lecture I’m going to talk to you about two things.

Firstly I’m going to give you some more details about this new flying framework for producing outstanding productions that I’ve developed.

Then I’m going to talk to you about a key part of that framework namely how to generate strong emotions through your video footage.

In other words how to create video dramatics.

I’ve spent thousands of hours analyzing video footage and flying to collect video footage.

And I’ve been thinking about that carefully to work out what can we do to maximize the amount of good footage that we bring back from our flying expeditions so that we’ve got the biggest chance of making an outstanding video and I’ve come up with this framework.

The first thing that you need to be good at is your basic flying skills.

Radio control knowledge and planning and we cover those topics.

In other parts of this training.

The last thing you need to do once you’ve collected the footage is to be a master editing that footage so that you can make something that really wowed the audience.

And we also cover that and another part of the training.

The thing I’m really excited to talk to you about right now is the middle part of the framework.

Once you’ve mastered the basics you need to then plan how you’re going to do your flying what the particular flight patterns are that you’re going to use.

Once you’ve decided on those and you start execute those you’re going to end up with some footage that’s going to have a strong emotional impact for the viewer namely the video dramatics.

As stated before to achieve the Dravidian dramatics you will be executing the flight patterns you choose a flight pattern.

Fly it.

And this will result in footage that will have some drama to it and cause emotions in your viewers.

I’m going to give a very brief summary of what those flight patterns are because I’ll be referring to them in some detail.

When I talk about the dramatics there’s a whole different section of this training on the flight patterns so you get more information there.

But for now we start off with the line.

This is where you fly down a particular line of geographical interest then you’ve got the crab.

This is where you were flying sideways collecting footage say along the top of a ridge.

Then you’ve got the 360.

This is where you hover in a spot you spin round 360 degrees or so and collect a great panoramic view.

Then you’ve got the elevator.

This is just where you fly straight up the gamebook be pointed straight out.

All that symbol be pointed straight down to the ground.

Then you’ve got the arc.

This is where you keep something in the centre of your frame and you fly around it.

This one’s a little trickier to do.

Then you got the moving object flight pattern and this is where you’re trying to get something that’s moving as you were flying along.

Might be birds flying across your path which might be where you’re tracking a moving object such as say a surfer friend or something.

Finally you got the close call.

This is proximity flying.

We are trying to fly as close to the surface as possible.

You should think about each flight in terms of these flight patterns and for each flight you should plan to put together a series of these flight patterns to make up the overall flight.

If you concentrate on flying individual flight patterns at any one time you end up with the most dramatics in your videos.

And in the footage that you take home so that you can then edit them into your awesome production that would be producing at the end.

If you think about it what makes for a really good footage.

Well it’s the footage where the viewer has a very strong emotional response to what they’re seeing.

The big wow.

And so on.

And that’s what you’re trying to get in almost every clip that you get to show them.

And after having analyzed clips I’ve concluded that these dramatics come from two major sources.

You’ve got your geographical dramatics and then your flight dramatics.

You’re geographical dramatics or where the viewer is getting an emotional response to what they’re seeing out of the eye of the camera breaks down to four different things.

So you’ve got your beauty dramatic You’re getting a real sense of beauty from the whole landscape that you’re seeing.

You then got your cover reveal this is where you’re flying up close to something and then you pan around or fly over the top of it and you have a big reveal of something dramatic beyond it.

You then got something I’m calling your discovery reveal.

And this is where viewers come across details in the landscape that they had no idea were going to be there when you started off on your flight.

Finally you’ve got your movement reveal and this is where you have moving things in your scenery that viewers find particularly interesting when they’re watching.

The other sense of dramatics that people get I’m calling the flight dramatics.

This is where the viewer gets a sense of being like a bird as if they are actually inside the drone as they’re flying along.

You’ve got a sense of speed but a sense of distance how far you can go.

You get a sense of height all things that you would like to better do if perhaps you could fly yourself or you were a bird and then there are three more chromatics.

One is the crash and unfortunately we don’t want to be doing that too much.

But if you do end up doing it the least you can do is make good use of your footage as people love watching crash footage.

You then got something I’m calling the spy high flight dramatic and this is where you’re showing details really high up people couldn’t see any other way.

Unless of course they were actually a bird say at the top of a cliff or something like that.

And then finally you’ve got the squeeze flight dramatic and this is where you are flying along a really narrow area.

And it’s giving people a sense that you can almost go anywhere with your recopy or multi rotor.

How am I going to teach you about these dramatics.

Well for each of the dramatics you have some mini lectures were going to give you some more details.

These will include I’ll talk about the flight patterns that most lend themselves towards achieving each of the different dramatics.

I’ll give you some tips and tricks on how to actually achieve them from a flying point of view.

I’ll also give you some gotcha’s to look out for from both a flying point of view from what you can do to dilute the dramatics themselves.

I’ll give you some specific guidance on how to make sure that you can get the strongish dramatic you can while you’re trying to achieve the individual thing.

I will also talk a little bit about what you’ve got those dramatics in some clips.

What can you do from an editing point of view to further emphasize the dramatic.

What is the kind of clip size that you will end up with.

Where are you likely to place the clips.

What kind of effects can you apply to help with the strength of the dramatic from a learning point of view to make sure these things go over and sink into your heads appropriately as well as these mini leches you’re going to have to exercise videos one for geographical dramatics one for flight dramatics and these exercise videos will further illustrate the dramatics from Flight footage.

There will also be a demonstration for how you can edit videos together.

Plus they will have an exercise for you to do whilst you watch those dramatics.

Some things to think about and some questions to answer as you actually complete watching these videos.

For we start all of that.

I have an exercise for you to do right now.

I’d like you to find a favourite flight video of yours if you haven’t got any ideas.

Then refer to the notes section of this course where I’ve provided some possible links for you to use when you watch those videos.

Each clip in that video I want you to note down the feeling that it’s generating.

And what do you think the source of that feeling is.

Is it something to do the geographical impact of what you’re seeing.

Is it something to do with a flight like feeling that you’re getting when you’re watching it.

Or is it something to do with the editing which is the only other real way that you can generate emotions from your footage.