(upbeat music)
- In this video, we're going through
10 different drone movements that I use all the time.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been flying a ton.
I'm just getting a lot of different footage,
and few days ago I got lay sick,
so now I'm just sitting in my office,
can't really go out and do anything for a little while.
I gotta keep my eyes safe while they're recovering,
but as I'm going through all my footage,
what I found is that I do the same thing over and over
when I'm in a new scene,
I capture the same type of movements.
So in this video, I wanted to go through
what some of those movements are,
and some of the things that I always do
when I take off and start flying
so that I can get a range of shots
that I can use in the edit.
So the first one is the orbit.
Now, this shot is like my default go-to.
I'll take the drone up and I'll always go for an orbit.
Whether I'm using the active track that's built
into some of the DJI drones, or I'm doing it manually,
this is a shot that I feel like I always grab first.
Now, to do this manually, you're gonna either push left
or right on the right joystick.
And then you're gonna use your left joystick
and point it the opposite direction
so that you arc around your subject.
And basically, the orbit is just circling a full circle
around whatever it is that you're filming,
whether it's a subject or a place,
you're basically creating the arcing motion,
so it's a full circle, an orbit.
Now, I default to this because it just looks really good
from a drone's perspective,
you get a ton of parallax with the front elements
moving at a different pace than the back elements.
And it just has this really dynamic look.
I'll either shoot this super slow
and I'll put it into cine mode,
or I'll put it into sport mode and go as fast as possible,
so you really see that movement in the background.
The second shot is the top-down shot.
This is all about getting above
whatever it is that you're filming
and looking straight down.
There's really no specific movement
that looks best with the shot,
you're just gonna have to play around with it,
but essentially you fly the drone up high
and you point the gimbal straight down.
And when your gimbal's pointed straight down,
I like to add motion into the shot.
So either it's a push forward, pull back,
left to right movement.
Or I also like to just spin.
And when I do this movement, I put it into cine motor.
So I'll put it in the slower setting,
so you get a more subtle cinematic looking shot
rather than a super fast top-down.
Now, with this shot, I would play around
with how the camera moves with your subject,
whether your subject's entering frame
or you're following your subject and keeping them centered,
play around with that top-down shot because really,
drones are the only camera that can get that shot.
And it always gives you that unique perspective,
so I always like to add that in when I'm out shooting.
Now, the third shot is simple.
Raise up, drop down, like a crane.
You're just going straight up or straight down.
Now, I love that shot because you go from ground elements
to the sky or from the sky down to ground elements.
And you see a lot of movement in that action
because of all the foregrounded elements.
A lot of times this is a great way
to reveal the place that you're in.
So you're starting small, and then you go up into the sky
and all of a sudden you see all of the surrounding elements.
Now, to do this movement use the left joystick,
and you just point straight up or straight down.
And now you shoot this one
in either the cine or the normal setting
so that it's a little bit slower.
Now, the next one is a dolly left or dolly right.
So this is just a moving to the side,
like you're just pointing straight out
at your scene, your subject, whatever it is,
and you're just moving left or right.
Now, to do this on the controller,
you're just gonna use the right joystick<
and you're just gonna pull it left or right.
With this one, I like to put it in cine mode
so it's slow, subtle action.
And if I have subjects that I'm filming,
I like to have them interacting
at a different pace than what I'm moving,
whether it's the opposite direction or it is going
in the same direction, but the subjects are moving
at a different pace than my drone is moving.
A lot of times, I default to these slow subtle movements
because I think they just look good when you're editing.
Now, there's definitely a time and place
for super fast motion.
And I'll talk about that
with some of the other movements in this series.
Now, number five is a dolly shot with a pan.
So this is kind of a cross
between the last shot we just talked about and the orbit.
But I don't wanna do a full orbit,
I wanna be able to move left or right with a slight pan.
And I use the shot a lot of times just to reveal the scene
and make it a little bit more dynamic
than just moving in one direction.
So it's the same movement pattern as the orbit.
However, I'm not centering around something specific,
I'm not centering around a single point.
Rather, I just wanna show the landscape
with this double action motion.
Now, you could shoot this in cine, normal or sport mode,
it really just depends on how you want this to look.
Having two motions working in unison
gives the drone movement a more dynamic feel
on the landscape.
Number six is another simple movement.
It's a push forward or a pullback.
This is like one of the simplest movements
that you can do with a drone.
But I think it looks really good
and it's something I use every time I fly.
Now, you can put this in cine, normal or sport mode,
and on the right joystick, you're just gonna push forward
or you're gonna pull it back.
And if you put it in sport mode
and put it low to the ground,
you're gonna get this really fast motion
across whatever landscape that you're filming in.
And when it comes to using indie filters,
you're really gonna see the purpose of using
an indie filter on a shot like this
because when you're flying low to the ground
and you're moving fast,
you're actually gonna be able to see the motion blur.
Whereas if you're flying low to the ground
and you don't use an indie filter,
and you're flying in mid day,
you're gonna have to boost your shutter speed
which is gonna force you to have
really crisp and clear images,
and the landscape will feel very jittery.
Whereas if you're filming with an indie filter
and you're using the proper shutter speed,
double that or your frame rate,
you're actually gonna see the motion blur
in the landscape, and it's gonna just
feel a lot more seamless rather than really jittery.
Number seven takes this a step further,
and it is the forward push with a lift.
And this is the same type of movement pattern.
You can do this in sport, normal, cine.
I think it looks good in all of them,
but with this movement,
you're either moving forward or backwards
and then also lifting up.
So on the right joystick,
you're gonna be pushing forward or backwards,
on the left joystick, you're gonna be pressing upwards.
Now, what I like to use this action for
is being close to the ground
and then taking off like a plane.
Number eight is using a direction with a gimbal move.
So, a lot of these moves,
they're just using the drone flying in the sky.
But if you add gimbal movement to any action,
it makes it look a little bit more dynamic.
So something like a push in or pull out
with a gimbal rotation up or down,
gonna give you a completely different look.
This shot, for example, pulling back and tilting up,
you get this reveal of the entire landscape
that started really close up on the action of the scene.
Another way to use this is potentially raise up
and then have your gimbal go down, or vice versa.
So you're staying on some subject
and then you're either getting up and above it,
or you're going down and revealing the scene behind.
Now, to do these movements,
you basically go any direction on your joysticks.
And then you just need to pair that with a finger pull
of the roll wheel on the top of the controller.
So for this shot, I'm pointing up on the left joystick
while I'm tilting the camera down with the roll wheel.
Number nine is pairing three directions together.
So this would either be two movements and a gimbal move,
or it will be just three actions.
So for example, this shot, I'm raising up
while I'm moving forward and also rotating to the left.
So on my controller on my right side,
I'd be pushing forward.
My left side, I'd be pushing to the upper left diagonal.
And I would be feathering these motions
depending on how I want the shot to feel,
whether I want more rotation or less rotation.
Here's another example where I'm moving left,
panning right while also raising up.
And I like to put it in sport mode
for these types of shots to really show some fast motion
while I'm doing these big arching sweeps
and the drone's raising up or lowering.
Now, you can take this a step further
and also add in a gimbal move.
Now, it starts getting really tough
when you're adding multiple motions with a gimbal,
and it just takes practice.
And here's a sample of a shot where I am moving right,
panning left, while also raising up
and bringing the gimbal down.
So the way that I approached this shot
is how can I combine different movements
to create a more dynamic look in the background
versus the foreground?
Whether that's adding gimbal motion
or adding multiple shots together
to create bigger sweeping movements
rather than just one directionality left or right,
up or down, forward or back, rotate.
Now, number 10 is one that you can only do
if you have a drone that has active track.
Because number 10 is all about using active track
and then putting it into sport mode
while pushing your drone faster than your subject.
So this might be something that you would use
with a car scene or someone running,
someone mountain biking,
where there's some action happening through the scene
and you're tracking a subject.
And when you're tracking a subject,
rather than just doing an orbit around them
or following them, you're pushing the drone past them
and around them in these different directionalities,
which causes the drone to move in these ways
that's really hard to pull off manually.
So, this is how I like to think about it.
If I have my subject moving through the scene,
I wanna lock onto them
and push past the subject in a diagonal.
So I wanna cut across the front of the subject
or the back of the subject.
And what happens is instead of creating a straight arc,
because the drone is moving faster than the subject,
you're gonna create this multi-directional movement
where we'll come up and over your subject,
and then spin around facing the other direction
seeing the horizon, the complete opposite direction.
The cool thing about using active track on a DJI drone,
like the air too,
is that once you're locked onto your subject,
you can control the drone in any direction,
but the camera is always gonna be centered on your subject.
You can just push in a directionality,
and then raise up on the left joystick or bring it down.
And then you'll be creating these multi-directional
movements that you just can't do manually very easily,
and especially with a moving subject.
So I'll put this in sport mode, go as fast as possible,
and really take advantage of the active track
to be able to get these shots
that you just don't normally see,
and that are just really hard to be able to pull off.
And I'd love to hear from you, out of these 10 shots,
which one is your favorite?
Let me know down in the comments.
And is there any shot that I missed
that you use all the time when you're out flying?
Next, I highly suggest you check out this video right here.
It's more drone movements to give you some different ideas
on how to fly your drone and get better looking footage.
All right, I will see you over there.