PAN

The pan is when you simply rotate in position (Figure 5.7). This kind of shot is very common with a camera on a fluid-head tripod. On your aircraft, it’s accomplished by yawing slightly on the left joystick. If you have an aircraft like the Inspire, you can keep the aircraft stationary while rotating the camera. You can slowly pan across a scene to show the expanse of the vista or to reveal more of the scene. Pan is a term coined in the early 1920s and is an abbreviation of the word panorama. You are making a video panorama when you are doing this kind of shot.

A second type of pan is when you are following the action from a static position. Perhaps a car or boat passes by, and you track that object by panning, or rotating, your camera. This creates a different feel than a follow shot. When you are still and the object passes by, it puts you in the spectator’s seat, since you are watching something happen rather than being involved in the action. This is a great reaction-type shot.

TILT

The tilt is very similar to the pan. In fact, the tilt is identical to the pan, except you are panning up and down rather than horizontally. Psychologically, it has a bit more of an insecure, exciting, or dangerous feeling than the calm, horizontal pan. Generally, when things are moving vertically they are falling. The word tilt comes from the Middle English word tylten, which means to tumble.

A tilt is accomplished by tilting the gimbal. Most drones have a tilt wheel built into the controller that allows you to tilt the camera remotely. Sometimes, you will perform this movement by itself—if you are slowly revealing a tall structure, for example. Most commonly, you will be using the tilt in combination with other moves, such as the elevator shot.

DOLLY

A dolly is when you move the camera either side to side or in and out. On film sets, a set of rails is often constructed for this purpose. The camera is mounted on a set of casters resembling a big train set. When the camera is moved down the rails, you get a very smooth move.

Getting a side-slide type of shot can add visual interest to your videos. These work especially well when you begin behind an obstacle and slide out into the action. You could also slide behind an obstacle and use it as a powerful transition effect, sliding out again to a different shot.

To accomplish this kind of shot, you will need to fly sideways while keeping the camera facing forward. This can seem a bit awkward at first, and it may be difficult for you to fly in a straight line. As simple is it sounds, the challenge is in the orientation and your reflex to pull the stick the wrong way. With a few hours of practice, you can master this move. A dolly shot can also produce nice parallax with the background and add depth as the different planes will appear to be moving at different speeds.

ZOOM

Out of all the movements, most people are familiar with zoom. This is the same effect that you would get from zooming a lens on a camera. Most airborne cameras don’t have a dynamic zoom because they have fixed, or prime lenses, although some do have zooms (such as some of the Mavics). The rule that applies to a fixed, prime lens on the ground also applies in the air. How do you zoom a prime lens? With your feet. You walk forward or backward. In this situation, you would fly closer or farther away. The act of moving the camera is not quite the same as zooming in with a lens. As a lens becomes longer, it compresses the background. A compressed background has the effect of looking like it’s closer to the subject. The opposite is true of a wide lens, which expands the background and makes it appear as if there is more distance between the subject and background. This is classic in hotel room photos—they appear huge until you enter the room and can’t fit your suitcase in there.

If anyone doubts the difference between zooming and physically moving the camera, just look at the classic Hitchcock camera move in Vertigo. As the camera moves back, the lens zooms in at the same rate to keep the subject the same size, but the background seems to grow or shrink. This is known as a dolly zoom. DJI has even built this effect into some of their drones

Let me make a quick mention of digital zoom. Optical zoom is a true zoom, when the glass allows you to change the field of view. On the other hand, digital zoom only magnifies the pixels on the sensor. It doesn’t move closer to the subject. This causes the image to become soft and adds noise and artifacts. A digital zoom is the same as cropping the image in post-production and then enlarging it, but it’s less than ideal. My suggestion is to avoid digital zoom. As tempting as it might seem, you will gain nothing but a soft, lower-quality image. Computational photography is getting better and I suspect digital zoom will be good enough in the not-too-distant future.

ROLL (OR BANK)

The roll is when the camera tilts from side to side. You might think that this isn’t a shot that you could even do on a drone. It’s the kind of shot you will typically get on an FPV drone. It’s a rare shot on a stabilized gimbal drone, but it can come in handy from time to time. Without specialized equipment, there are two ways to accomplish a rolling shot:

• Set your gimbal to FPV. In the DJI Go app, there are two options for the gimbal: FPV and Follow. Follow provides leveled shots, which are generally preferred. When you change to FPV mode, the camera will tilt with the banking of the aircraft. This provides a shot that resembles a first-person video game or what you might see out the cockpit of an airplane. This gives a real sense of motion and speed. It brings attention to the camera and the movement, so it should be used only in appropriate situations.
• In post-production. You can roll your footage in software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro. In this case, you would be shooting a larger frame than you ideally need. For example, if you are delivering in 1080, you might shoot at 2.7K (see, there is a reason for 2.7K) or 5.1K for 4K videos. Then you have a lot of extra frame that you can play with. You might animate a rotation to create a banking or rolling effect with the video.

ESTABLISHING

The establishing shot is the classic. This is the shot that establishes a scene. It shows the audience the location and sets the mood for what’s to come. Usually these kinds of shots are wide and from a distance. Generally speaking, an establishing shot happens at the beginning of a scene. This is also a way to signify a change of location, if more than one location is used. These types of shots were expensive to create in the past and often needed a crane or helicopter. Because of this restriction, many filmmakers used stock footage for establishing shots. Now, with UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) drones, anyone can get a really good establishing shot without breaking the bank. This kind of shot could be stationary, panning, a reveal, or a flythrough.

REVEAL

Quite often, a reveal can be used as an establishing shot, but not always. I love a reveal shot; it’s so powerful. A reveal starts on an area, and as the camera moves it unfolds a larger location or something unexpected. It’s kind of like opening a gift for your viewers. These is a reason this is used so much in opening scenes of movies.

One famous reveal appears in the movie Independence Day. Will Smith’s character is at the mailbox getting his newspaper, and he sees his neighbors packing up their cars. A helicopter flies overhead. The camera slowly tilts up as it follows the movement of the helicopter until it reveals a giant spaceship hovering over Los Angeles.

A reveal can start with a view of an obstruction, such as a tree or hill. When the camera flies up slowly or slides sideways, it reveals the scene. You could start close on a subject and then pull out and up to reveal the location. Another type of reveal that is quite common is the dolly-and-tilt move: You fly forward with the camera tilted slightly down. Then, slowly tilt the camera up as you move forward to reveal the environment in a dynamic way while moving into the scene. Another variation is tracking a person from above, starting almost as a bird’s eye view; as the person walks away, the drone slowly descends while tracking, so the drone is very low by the time the location is revealed.

There are a number of ways you can film a reveal; the important thing is to take your time and do it smoothly. Also, have a good look around before you begin shooting. Plan your shot. Where are you going to start and end? When are you going to tilt your camera, if at all? Are there any obstacles in the way? Are there any leading lines you can use to fly with to make the shot stronger?

ORBIT

The orbit is when you fly around the target in a circle while keeping the camera on the target at all times. The orbit, or POI (point of interest), is one of my favorite shots. This is easy to accomplish with intelligent flight modes and smart shots in the latest drones. It can still be accomplished manually, which I do often because of the added flexibility.

To fly an orbit:

• Point the camera at the target and choose your desired distance and altitude. (Don’t forget to start recording.)
• Move your aircraft either to the left or right.
• Use the yaw (left stick) to steer around in a circle.

The right stick controls the speed, and the left stick controls rotation and direction. This can take a little practice to get the coordination right, but it will be easy once you get it. Also, be aware that you can do this automatically on many drones. Check your operations manual for particular instructions for your aircraft.

Here are some things to be aware of while flying orbits:

• Always be safety minded—don’t get too close to the target you are flying around. If you don’t feel confident that you have the required skills just yet, don’t try to make a difficult orbit around a subject or person. Practice flying around a ball, first. No shot is worth injury or the risk of crashing your expensive drone.
• If you are orbiting a large structure, make sure you are flying high enough to see your aircraft at all times. If you fly completely behind a structure, you can lose radio signal and control!
• Not all orbits have to complete a full circle. It’s very common to fly a semicircle and get exactly the shot you need. You will probably use a semicircle rather than a full circle if you are cutting together a segment that combines a number of shots.

FLYTHROUGH

I think the name of this move says it all. This is a fun and sometimes-tricky shot to execute. This is where you are going to fly right through the middle of your scene. Slow and steady is the best way to accomplish this move. If you need speed, many times you can speed it up a little bit in post-production. If you fly too fast, you will get propellers in your shot. Most of the time, the camera will be pointing directly forward; occasionally, it will point backward.

Before a flythrough, plan your flight path. Where will you lead in, where will you fly the shot, and how will you pull out? Try to find an interesting flight path that follows something on the ground. Maybe you can pass over a moving prop, such as a car or bicycle. Even better if the prop is moving in the same direction as the camera. Look for things like roads and paths as leading lines.

When you are more experienced, find some interesting objects you can fly through that can make the shot even better, such as between trees, close to a roofline, or through a large opening. These kinds of surroundings add a lot to a shot, and you really don’t have to get that close to them.

The flythrough involves the audience and gives them a sense of being present at the location, as if it’s the viewer who is traveling. You will often use FPV for navigating a flythrough. If you are looking through FPV goggles, make sure you have a visual spotter with you at all times.

FLYBY

A flyby is very similar to a flythrough, with one major difference. On a flythrough, the camera is usually pointing in the direction of travel and you are immersed in the scene. On a flyby, the camera will constantly rotate to stay on an object as the aircraft flies by in a straight line. The flyby is quite a tricky shot to get perfect and smooth, because it involves rotating your aircraft as you fly in a straight line. The exception to this is the Inspire, where you can rotate the camera independently from the aircraft. Using tracking and autonomous flight modes, it’s getting easier to perform great flyby shots.

ELEVATOR (OR PEDESTAL MOVE)

The elevator shot is when the camera moves straight up or down. There are two types of elevator shots. The first is when the camera is stationary and follows the movement of the drone up or down. It could be pointing straight ahead and scanning something like a building. This a little bit like a vertical dolly move and would otherwise need a crane or a jib to accomplish.

The other type of elevator shot is where the aircraft is changing altitude and the camera stays locked onto the target and tilts. The challenging part of executing a good elevator shot like this is tilting the camera smoothly as the altitude changes. When it’s executed correctly, you won’t even notice the camera tilting; you will just notice the change in the altitude, the angle, and relationship between the background and the subject. The subject should remain more or less in place.

To make this kind of shot, you need to practice your gimbal wheel movement. Practice tilting the gimbal slowly and smoothly while changing altitude and keeping the target in the center of the screen. There are settings in most flight apps that can help.

Choose the Gimbal settings and set the gimbal wheel speed to a sensitivity that works for you.

Another setting is in the DJI app is Smooth Track (it could also go by other names, as these names change often). Smooth Track will ease the gimbal movement. What is easing? Imagine if you closed a door at a constant speed—you would end up slamming every door. Take notice the next time you close a door: you slow down the movement just before it’s closed to smoothly close it without slamming. Likewise, a train doesn’t come to a complete stop instantly. This is easing—something slows down and speeds up to offer a smoother movement. Smooth Track does exactly that. It can feel as if the gimbal is on a big elastic band rather than a steel rod. Choose the settings that work best for you to make smooth gimbal moves.

Active Track on the Phantom 4 or APAS (Advanced Pilot Assistance System) on the Mavic, air and mini helps with these elevator shots.

CHASE

The chase cam is a shot utilized a lot in James Bond films and car commercials. These types of shots were accomplished by attaching stabilized cameras to large jibs on moving vehicles, sometimes trucks. The vehicle follows the action, which could be another car, a horse, a skateboarder, or even a person running down the road. Chase cams follow the action wherever it might go. These are very exciting shots to watch and also used to be some of the most difficult to execute. The use of sensors and tracking on drones has made it quite easy to do an autonomous or tracking-assisted chase shot.

Using your aircraft, you will follow your target and film it from above, behind, the side or, the front. When flying manually, it’s quite difficult to match the exact speed of a moving object, especially when you get in tight. It’s a bit easier if everything is choreographed beforehand. This isn’t always the case, such as filming a surfer or a sports event. The added challenge is anticipating sudden changes of direction.

Filming a good chase shot requires fast reflexes and a smooth hand. The temptation is to tightly track the target and constantly adjust to keep it in the center of the frame. A better approach is to anticipate the line of travel and smoothly match speed and direction without having to make too many adjustments. When you do make adjustments, try to avoid sudden, jerky movements.

There are times when the action happens so fast that you can’t avoid sudden movements. Here is my suggestion for this kind of shot: If possible, shoot a little larger than you need, in the highest resolution supported, and hang back a little bit. That way, you can keep more of the action in frame without having to constantly adjust the camera framing. Then in post, when you are cropping to a smaller window, use your software to smoothly animate some of the camera moves to keep the subject in frame.

BIRD’S-EYE (TOP DOWN)

The bird’s-eye, top down, or God’s-eye view is when the camera is pointing directly down in a Google Earth kind of way. This is a

very distinctive drone shot. The bird’s-eye is a unique shot that has a lot of impact; it’s the classic eye in the sky. Rather than looking down at objects from an angle, you are looking directly down on them. You could fly around at the same altitude and do a scanning type of shot. This is good for showing a neighborhood or following a car in a surveillance-style shot. The bird’s-eye is especially great when you are pulling away from your target—in effect, creating a type of reveal as a bonus.

When it’s late in the day and shadows are long, you can get some really interesting bird’s-eye shots by playing with shadows.

STEADICAM-STYLE FREE-FLYING

Since the 1970s, the Steadicam has complemented a lot of other equipment on set, such as dollies. The Steadicam is a counterweight-balanced camera platform that is attached to the wearer with a harness. A skilled Steadicam operator can move around a set and create handheld camera moves that are very smooth. It takes a lot of training and skill to operate a Steadicam successfully.

Lately, a lot of Steadicams are being replaced by gimbal systems such as the DJI Ronin, Zyjung Crane, and the Freefly Movi. These gimbal systems came directly from the gimbals that we fly on our drones.

When you are flying your aircraft, you have the ability to fly anywhere you like, even as erratically as a bumblebee, and still get smooth shots thanks to the onboard gimbal. You really need to have a gimbal to capture smooth and stable video. It’s fun to try some free flying, where you just fly around a scene and film. Don’t follow any rules or be constrained by tradition—just fly, shoot, and enjoy. Don’t make all your shots free flying, or you will disorient your viewers. A good mix of smooth, planned camera moves with some free-flying shots mixed in will produce stunning results.

Oh, by the way, there is one more camera move. Don’t forget you can hand carry your drone. Turn it on and start the camera, but don’t turn on the motors. Use your drone as a handheld gimbal and move the camera through some really tight spots by hand. People will wonder how you have such amazing flying skills. It will be our little secret.