- The DJI Mavic mini is tiny,
but it can get some really awesome footage,
and I'm gonna go through some tactics
on how you can get better looking B roll
out of this drone (upbeat music plays).
There's been a ton of requests
on doing a review around this drone,
and I'm working on it, however,
I wanted to do a video about how you can get
better looking footage out of this camera.
So it shoots 2.7 K which is more than enough resolution
for most of us, however, this drone
is hindered by the fact that it's auto exposure.
You don't have the ability to dial in your settings.
But what you can do, is you can lock your exposure.
So over Thanksgiving I was out in Joshua Tree
with my family, and I was able to shoot
some pretty awesome footage using this drone.
And it just goes to show that it doesn't matter
the camera that you shoot on,
it's how you shoot it, you could make any camera
look good if you come at with a specific mindset.
Now before we get into the tips,
guys if you're new here to this channel
my name is Jeven Dovey, I do a lot of filmmaking tutorials.
I also do a lot of YouTube training on this channel,
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so you don't miss one of these videos.
And for those of you who have been a subscriber for a while,
I'm sure you're wondering what's going on
with the background, so this is my new studio
and it's a work in progress, so this is kind of
the first iteration of what I'm planning to do here.
I've built a geo-dome, and I've been kind of working
on the background but like I said,
it's a work in progress, so you're gonna see this
evolve and change but this is the home of my new studio.
There's some pretty cool stuff on the horizon.
So let's go through some ways on how you can get
better looking footage out of this tiny little drone.
Now the first thing is when it comes to the DJI Mavic Mini,
there is no manual controls when it comes to exposure.
There's two ways that you can go about
changing your exposure with the Mavic Mini.
You can use your exposure compensation
and you can lock your exposure.
And so what you want to do is put
your exposure compensation at like a negative .7.
I found that when you shoot with this drone at zero,
it's a little bit too bright.
And so when you want to get
better looking footage I'd drop it down a tad,
and then also I use the exposure lock.
So what you want to do is look at
what you're about to shoot, plan it out,
and point your drone in the direction
of what it is that you want to shoot.
Now if it's too bright or too dark,
point it to a different part of the screen
or use your exposure compensation
and then lock in the exposure.
And this is super important because you don't want
your exposure bouncing around, so you want to lock it in.
Now a huge tip is plan out your shoot
at a specific time of day, so you don't want
to have the sun directly overhead.
When I was out shooting this footage,
it was early in the morning, so use time of day
to your advantage, so shoot early in the morning
or late in the evening when the sun's lower in the sky
because that's gonna give you prettier looking footage.
Now with this you also want to shoot away from the sun.
So you don't want your DJI Mavic Mini
pointed towards the sun because what's gonna happen
is you're gonna get this crazy contrast.
I mean look what happens when I point the drone
in that direction, I have black and white basically.
So what you want to do is find different shot perspectives
that aren't including the sun in the shot,
and that's a huge tip, is avoid the sun,
have it behind you, have it off to the side,
but don't actually include it in the frame
'cause you want to fill your frame
with exposures that you can see
within the camera's sensors, so you don't want to have
major parts of your frame over-exposing
and the same, you don't want to have
major parts of your frame under-exposing.
So you're gonna want to find the angles
that are gonna best suit the scene that you're shooting
so that you have a decent dynamic range
because you're not shooting log out of this thing
you're just shooting a baked in profile,
so you wanna get the best possible image
when you're out shooting.
You're not gonna be doing a ton of color grading
in post with this footage, you can push it a little bit,
however, just right out of camera,
this is what it looks like, so you can get
good looking footage just straight from camera.
Now you also want to think about using the sun
to your advantage, so if you just have a flat image,
say it's just gray clouds, and it's just
a very flat looking image, that's just as bad
as a super over-contrasted image.
So the idea is finding enough contrast
where you can see a range in your shot
and use that to your advantage.
So this shot was taken with the sun
peaking through the clouds, and what
I was really focused on was finding the moments
where you see this band of light
coming through the houses, and it makes
it a much more interesting shot
then if it was all flat lighting.
So think about weather, think about using
the sun to your advantage and find a way
to create contrast in your frame
but you just don't want to push it
to the extreme, like I was saying,
where it's super over-exposed or super under-exposed.
Now you don't want to fly your drone
super high in the air, like you don't want to
just take off and be looking down.
But at the same time you don't want to be
so low to the ground that all your shots
are looking like you just used
a gimbal and you're walking with it.
So the idea is create shot variety.
So to create cinematic sequences
you need to have a variety of shots.
So grab some close ups, grab some wides,
grab some extreme wides, and use those together
to build out a series of shots
that really cuts together so that you can create
more of this sequencing of footage rather than just
all shots from the same perspective.
So use perspective to your advantage
and vary your shot size.
Now also with flying you want to do cinematic movements,
so slow dolly in, slow dolly out, to the side,
like, you want to vary up how you're moving the drone.
But you also don't want your drone
spinning and jerking around, so avoid
all jerky shots, you don't wanna just (grunts)
that doesn't look good, so what you wanna do
is do longer takes and have a beginning to end
of your shots, so you're starting here
and you're moving forward in a single direction,
you're gonna end over there, so think through
what it is that you're gonna shoot
and plan out shots that have a beginning and an end.
Now you can use some of the features
that come with the Mavic Mini.
They have some pretty awesome automated moves
that will get you some really good looking footage.
But outside of those automation moves,
you want to think about how you would move a cinema camera,
so how would you move a movie camera.
It wouldn't be like spinning all over the place
and like jerky and this and that.
No, what you see in cinema are thought out shots
with intention, so I have a few other videos
that really break down flying techniques
to get these cinematic shots,
and I'll put links to all of those videos
down in the description, but the last tip
I want to give you, is have a story
to everything that you're shooting.
And this is important, it doesn't matter
if you're just out flying for the day.
Try to create some sort of story,
some sort of sequencing, because when you have a story
behind everything that you're shooting
and you create a narrative with the shots
that's when you'll start coming up with a sequence.
You're like, I need to get a close up of the Jeep,
then I need to find a medium shot
where I see the Jeep in the frame, some Joshua trees,
and then I need to show the wide shot
of the rainbow in the distance and the Jeep driving,
or I need to get a shot without the Jeep
and just the rainbow with the Joshua trees.
And so you start thinking of, okay so how do I
tell this story of the Jeep driving through the desert
with the rainbow, it's not just
put the drone up in the air, fly it around
and then you have pretty footage.
When there's more thought put in to the story
and the narrative of everything that you're shooting,
even if it's just sexy B roll shots,
it's going to make everything look that much better
because there is some intent behind
everything that you're creating.
And even with this little Mavic Mini
you can get some awesome shots.
So guys, click right here for another video
that goes more step by step on flying techniques
on how to get cinematic footage.
All right guys that's it, this is an awesome drone.
I'm gonna keep flying with this thing.
I'll see you on the next one.