Before drones came along, aerial filming and photography was not an easy thing to get hold of.
Gone (well, nearly) are the days of hiring a helicopter or light aircraft and a pilot, waking up in the morning to heavy rain or thick fog, rearranging the flight for another day, waiting for availability again, only to find that you wake up once again to inclement weather… and start all over again.
The Age of the Drone means you don’t need vaults of cash to pay the day rate of a pilot. Quite the game-changer.
In the event of bad weather, we can just land our drone until the wind and rain eases off. Or – joy of joys – just take it out for an hour if there’s a small window of sunshine, and pack it away again when the clouds come back.
What we’re saying is, with the help of a drone license and a bit of camera savvy, it’s easier than ever to capture aerial video footage, and save the clients who need it a whole lot of precious time and money.
Drone video captures the true size, shape and layout of locations on the ground, whether it’s buildings, landscapes, events or sites. A drone can tell the same story that photos or traditional recorded footage can tell, but better.
Footage is well-documented in its ability to increase time spent on web pages, and drone video can help your video content stand out from the crowd in social media feeds. It’s a worthwhile investment.
Here are 5 ways to use drone footage for your video marketing needs, but this is by no means an extensive list. The potential is endless.
What you need to know
Whether you’re thinking of investing in your own drone equipment or hiring a company to produce your video footage for you, these are the things you need to know:
- You need a qualification for flying your drone.
- You need permission to fly from the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
- You need Public Liability Insurance.
- You need to check the credentials of anyone whose services you use to produce drone footage. For the record, ours are tip-top…
Sunrise and sunset
In terms of lighting there is a ‘magic hour’ just before sunrise and just before sunset, when the light is soft and mellow and even. With a low sun there’s no harsh glare and no awkward shadows – this is the time that drone footage comes into its own.
Quite apart from the lighting benefits of the ‘magic hour’, sunrises and sunsets are great to use in video footage – they can be used as a glorious backdrop to your message or product or as a metaphoric interpretation of light and dark, growth, life and death and so on to add symbolism to your messaging.
Behind the scenes in the office
We’ve explored before the ins and outs of filming in the office environment, and the drone is a fabulous way to get some great behind-the-scenes video of your working environment. It provides an overview which can be very interesting to the viewer, giving a sense of being a part of what’s going on.
Scenic locations
Scenic locations are put into a great perspective when filmed using a drone.
Whether you’re offering a sense of place, or your product is ‘the place’, drone footage is the way to go. Your office could be in the centre of a city or in the wilds of Scotland; there will be an amazing amount of interesting buildings, landscapes and features around you that will give your customers a sense of where you work and how your surroundings feed your creative soul.
If your workplace and product is a feature. like a vineyard or a brewery (how we would love to work in a vineyard or a brewery!), then your video will allow your product and the place it’s actually produced to shine.
Festivals and events
One-off events, festivals, fetes and fairs can deliver great footage for your promotional content. The colourful, carnival atmosphere can be hugely engaging for the viewer, and provide seasonal content that sets you apart from others (think christmas markets, sports competitions, etc).
If you regularly display your wares at events such as food and craft fairs, regattas (water-based events) or music festivals, you have a ready-made barrel of material just waiting for you to capture it!
Groups and awaydays
If you can safely say your office space is the most boring place on earth and your boss has all the camera appeal of a landfill site, the best thing that you can do is to decamp and get the team outside.
Organise a team awayday or bonding sessions (preferably not in the pub for this one) and order in your friendly video production agency to capture all the loveliness on some drone footage.
Even if all you can do is gather them for an aerial group shot, you have unique footage to incorporate into your marketing materials.
Go live
The great thing about drone video is the capacity for a real-time ground image feed – live footage, as it happens, being produced for instant streaming and viewing.
Following on from the dashcam and the GoPro, the drone is producing a bird’s eye view of life as it’s being lived. It’s incredible.
Tempted to jump into the world of drone video? We might be able to help you there.