(upbeat music)
- In this video,
we're going through 10 different drone moves
that you can use when you are filming yourself
when you're out as a solo creator.
So whether you have something like a DJI Mini 2
or something like a Autel EVO Lite,
well, you can do these drone moves with any drone.
(upbeat music)
Now, recently I was out in Joshua Tree.
I was outside the park, so don't worry,
I wasn't flying inside the national park.
But I was filming a video
where I was hiking to the top of a mountain
and I used my drone to film the entire intro sequence.
Now, when I did that, there was a lot of different shots
that I used to capture the entire hike
from different perspectives,
and all of these techniques
and different drone moves are super useful
when you're out by yourself.
But let's not waste any more time,
let's just get right into the first drone move,
and that is the tripod.
So the easiest way to use your drone
is put it way up in the sky
and use it as a floating tripod.
So all you have to do is fly to the position
of where you want to see the scene
and then take your hand off the controller
and interact with the scene.
So for this shot, I'm just walking up the mountain.
I put the camera in a spot
where I can see this epic landscape.
And you'll want the drone to sit
up there for a little bit longer
so once you get it into that location,
try to get yourself out of frame, walk into frame,
and then walk out so you have a lot of footage to work with
when you're using this kind of a shot.
Now move number two is one of the essentials
that you wanna get when you're out filming by yourself
and that is the follow behind.
Now, this is where you position the drone
directly behind you
and you follow yourself through the scene.
Now, when you're using the controller,
the easiest way to do this is to walk in a straight line
and you just push forward on the right joystick.
This is gonna move the drone forward through space
and it's gonna follow you.
You wanna try to maintain the exact distance
from you and the drone
so that you have this kind of third person video game feel
as you're interacting with the scene.
Now this gets right into my first tip
which is if you have active track on your drone,
use it to your advantage.
So with my DJI Mavic 3, I can follow in any direction.
So when I'm doing the follow behind or the follow in front,
I'll just drag a box on the screen to grab myself,
put the drone in either backwards or forwards,
and the drone will maintain the distance between us.
And so I can have the controller down by my side,
I can set it down on the ground
and just get a quick shot of me walking.
You can get these shots where it looks more natural
and you're not actually having to control the drone
because it's all doing it through the automation.
However, one downside when you're using automation
is that it's not gonna be as clean.
So on DJI drones, you actually see a lot of bumping
when you're walking or moving,
especially here when I'm spinning around myself
using the active track.
And so one solution that I use
is adding a little bit of stabilization in post
and it ends up cleaning up the shot
so that it looks much more smooth.
Now, before we get into the next move,
I wanna talk about our sponsor which is Wirestock.
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Now, one of the cool things about Wirestock
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Now, as a bonus, you can actually share your portfolio
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So move number three is a fun one,
but it's done with editing, and it's called the dolly zoom.
So what you wanna do is center yourself
up in the frame and then fly backwards away from you.
And then in your editing software, you're gonna key frame
a steady zoom in as the drone is flying backwards
and you wanna make sure
that you're matching the zoom to the actual drone movement.
You're gonna create this effect
where the background is growing
and it creates this really dynamic-looking shot.
And with this, you wanna shoot
at the highest resolution possible
because you are zooming in on the footage
in your editing software.
Now move number four is one of my personal favorites
and that is the reverse to the reveal.
So what you wanna do is just fly your drone backwards
in one direction, and you're gonna start with a landscape.
So it's a pretty view,
you don't really see what's going on.
And as you fly backwards,
you're gonna go up and over an object
or a ridge line or something in the foreground
and you personally are gonna be walking through that scene.
So it's a bunch of different motions working together,
but it makes this really epic shot
and it really is not that hard to achieve.
So you just pull back on the right joystick
which is gonna fly the drone backwards,
and you just wanna time yourself perfectly
so that as the drone flies over the ridge line,
you're in a good spot where you're somewhat
in the frame and you're walking through and interacting.
So this is a great shot
when you have these big, open landscapes.
It just adds this level of dynamic movement
as you're interacting in with the scene
and moving through the scene.
Now you don't have to be on a ridge line to do this,
it could be just a big, open field,
but you're still flying backwards.
And as it comes to you,
you're somewhere in the middle of that frame
walking in one direction.
So it's the reverse with the reveal.
Now move number five is essential for drones
and that is the top down.
So you just wanna put the drone right above you
and then look straight down.
So you wanna make sure that the gimbal is at 90 degrees
pointed straight down.
Now, you could do different movements with this.
Right here is a spin.
Now I'm pushing right on the left joystick
and the drone is gonna rotate in a circle.
Now, I like to put it in the super slow mode
and then rotate very slowly and then move through the scene.
Another way you can use this move is just be a tripod,
just be a camera up in the air looking straight down
and don't do anything with the drone.
And then you could also move in a direction,
so you can move forwards or backwards, left to right,
using the right joystick and then have the drone move slowly
across the landscape as you interact with it.
All right, so the second tip
that I wanna talk about is slow motion.
So if your drone has the capabilities to shoot
in slow motion, use it to your advantage.
Now, a lot of these moves when I was out filming
on this mountain, I was shooting in 4K60.
I'm using my DJI Mavic 3 which does shoot in 5.1K.
But I don't need 5.1K, I would rather use the 4K60
so that I can slow down my footage in post.
So when I'm shooting at 4K60,
I do my videos in 29.97, I can slow it down two times
so I can go at 1/2 speed.
And when you're working with people,
when you're working with yourself
and you use 60 frames per second, it's slowed down
in a way that makes it look much more cinematic.
And so, when you're flying your drone
and you're doing these different movements,
you could slow it down even more.
And yeah, it's gonna smooth out your shot,
but also you're gonna be moving in 1/2 speed
which is gonna make the scene just feel much more dramatic.
So here's an example of three of these shots
cut back-to-back in real time,
so in 30 frames per second.
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Now here's these same three shots
slowed down at 1/2 speed cut together.
(upbeat music)
And you could see there's such a difference in feeling
and emotion when you're slowing down your footage.
So if you have the ability to shoot in 60 frames per second
or even 120 frames per second, use it to your advantage
and play around with slow motion in your videos.
Now move number six is the low orbit.
Now this one's unique because you need to have the ability
to fly the drone lower than yourself
and have the camera point up.
Now, a lot of drones have the ability
to tilt the camera up slightly,
so at 90 degrees, the camera's pointed straight out,
but a lot of times, you can go on your menu
and actually allow the camera
to point up an extra 30 degrees.
So for this move, you're gonna wanna find somewhere
where you can stand above the drone
and the drone has a little bit of space
to go down below you.
So for this example, I'm standing out on this point
and the mountain kind of falls off in every direction,
and that allows me to circle the drone
around myself while pointing up.
And when you point a camera up at your subject,
it gives you that hero pose, it feels powerful.
And so this is a great move to do
if you have that opportunity
because it's kind of an epic shot.
So how you perform this move is you're gonna do an orbit.
So it's either gonna be left on the left joystick
and right on the right joystick
or right on the left joystick
and left on the right joystick.
And what you're gonna do is circle around yourself.
Now, one thing to consider when doing this move
is make sure that you have a full-360
that you can spin around.
And if you don't, make sure that you
not gonna fly sideways into something.
Now move number seven is the walk into frame.
I like to have the drone moving just slightly,
so either forwards or backwards or to the side.
So for this shot specifically,
I'm pushing forward on the right joystick
which is moving the drone forward in space.
And as the drone's moving forward,
it feels like I'm just getting a shot of the landscape
while then I enter into frame.
And so use this to your advantage
and find different framings that look nice
and just have your drone moving slightly
so it feels like a cinematic shot,
and then have yourself enter into frame
which changes the whole dynamic of this.
A lot of times, when I'm doing drone shots of myself
when I'm by myself, I try to create
these different, dynamic shots
where there's multiple things moving
so that it feels a lot more cinematic
than just one motion happening.
So move number eight is the dropdown and tilt up.
This one's harder to achieve, but it looks pretty awesome.
So when you get yourself to a cool location,
have the drone descend into space
and have the camera tilt up at the same time,
keeping yourself centered in the frame
throughout the entirety of the motion.
So to do this, you're gonna pull down on the left joystick
and then you're gonna tilt up on the gimbal.
And as you do these two motions,
you'll create a lot of dynamic movement
where you're seeing basically the ground
and yourself in that space.
But then as the drone comes down and the gimbal tilts up,
you're gonna reveal the landscape out in front of you,
and if you keep going and go past 90,
well, then you'll start pointing up at the sky.
So it's just another one
of these epic hero shots that also does a reveal
of the landscape behind wherever you're at.
Now, the third tip when you're filming yourself
is use an ND filter.
And when you use an ND filter,
you wanna shoot at double that of your frame rate
so you get motion blur happening behind you.
A lot of these motions that we've been talking about,
there's gonna be two different things happening.
The drone's gonna be focused on you
and the background is gonna be moving
at a different pace than you.
And when you do this
and add an ND filter and shoot at double
that of your frame rate for your shutter speed,
well, then the background is gonna have blur to it.
So when you do one of these movements
where there is motion happening in the frame,
well, you yourself are gonna be sharp.
It's gonna be clear.
But then your background's gonna have motion blur
so you're gonna create even more separation
and even more focus on you.
Now move number nine is one of the ones
that I get every time I'm out filming,
and that is the orbit.
And this is basically the same move as the low orbit,
but I wanna put the drone either
at eye level or just a little bit above eye level.
And when you do the spin around yourself,
you're gonna get a whole view
of the landscape everywhere in 360,
but you're also placing yourself in that landscape.
So when you're doing the shot, think of distance.
Now, tip number four is use parallax.
All of this has been combining together,
but when you have an ND filter
and you're spinning around your subject
in these different ways and you're moving faster,
you're creating what's called parallax.
And so parallax is two different parts of your frame
moving at different speeds.
A lot of times, this is achieved
by using a long lens and moving around the subject.
However, with a drone, you typically just have a wide lens.
So to achieve parallax,
which is these two different planes of motion happening,
you wanna get close to your subject
and then spin fast around your subject.
Now, something like the DJI Mavic 3
does have zoom capabilities,
the Autel EVO Lite has zoom capabilities,
a lot of the newer drones have zooms,
and you could use that to your advantage
by punching in on your subject, spinning around them,
adding the ND filter to create motion blur.
Now you have these two different planes of motion happening
and you're gonna create a lot of parallax
which is that motion where it feels
like the person in front is moving slower
than the background, which is moving much faster.
And this gets right into move number 10, which is the helix.
Now this move is available on some drones as a quick shot.
However, when you use quick shot settings,
typically, you don't have full control over your image.
So to do this shot manually, you're gonna be doing an orbit
while also pulling backwards and moving up.
So this is a big combination, and this is one of those moves
where you get to a cool location,
you're gonna have both hands
on the drone to be able to do this move
and to be able to get this epic shot.
So you're gonna be calling down into the right
on the right joystick
and then you're gonna be pushing forwards
and left on the left joystick.
And that's gonna circle around you
and also move up and away.
So it basically starts on you filling the frame
to you as a small person in this giant landscape.
And play around with this one,
if you have the ability to do this as a quick shot,
works super well,
but if you want more control,
you can master these moves and get these really cool shots.
And then you could also change up
how fast you move up and away.
So you could make the move happen faster
or you could be more dramatic,
move much slower around yourself, and then pull up and away.
You just have a lot more control
when you're flying manually.
Now, if you're new to this channel, make sure you subscribe,
and next, check out this video right here
which is gonna help you craft better videos
when you're out as a solo creator.
I'll see you on the next video.