Three Alternative Drone Shots to Add a New Dimension to Your Aerial Videos

Anyone who has flown a drone for aerial video capture has likely done one of the few shots that are pretty much the standard of any aerial video. In these two videos from Mark Richardson, he is going to explain techniques for three different kinds of shots you may not have thought of before.

Lateral flights, tracking shots, and orbit moves are some of the more compelling and interesting shots you can achieve with a drone, more so than your average flyover or satellite POV (looking straight down). With the video above, Mark took the front and back end of a hyper-lapse and combined it with a lateral drone flight, with a slight pan of the image as well. Using the latest apps from DJI or third party developers, programming a move isn't too difficult.

In this next video, Mark shows how he is able to create a "dolly-zoom" effect, and also demonstrates a barrel-roll. Each of these shots create a different feeling, and would have different uses in a video, but are great types of shots to keep in mind when out filming your next aerial video project.

While Mark is using a Mavic Pro for his aerials, keep in mind you can pull off rotational camera moves with other drones as well. The dolly-zoom trick can be done with any 4K capable video camera too.

Mike Wilkinson's picture

Mike Wilkinson is an award-winning video director with his company Wilkinson Visual, currently based out of Lexington, Kentucky. Mike has been working in production for over 10 years as a shooter, editor, and producer. His passion lies in outdoor adventures, documentary filmmaking, photography, and locally-sourced food and beer.

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2 Comments

I love the idea, but the execution and post production of this example have poor continuity. The start and ends points are too far off. I'd say it's rather difficult to mix ground shots with air shots.

That's a valid criticism. This was a proof of concept first go that could definitely be improved upon.