Our range of services

Location, time and date:

The most important thing we need to consider is how likely are we to interact or cross paths with members of the public, especially during take off and landing.

Typically, a remote location can be done with just the remote pilot and the drone, but for complex locations, especially in towns and cities, it is always safest to have at least two trained crew on site to help control the take off and landing area.

In very public locations, especially near crowds and events, it may also be necessary to use security staff and crowd control measures.

The date, and even the time of day, can play a part in how busy an area might be. For example, roads at rush hour compared to a typical Sunday morning, or schools during term compared to the middle of the summer holidays.

Weather is another significant influencer on the work we can do safely and to a good standard, so we always advise customers to consider a reserve date that can be moved to it needed.

The location can also affect how many flights can safely be achieved in one day, especially if more than one location per day is required and we need to move.

Shot complexity:

The type of drone used for a shoot can have a huge impact on the type of shots that can be captured, as well as how precisely and smoothly.

Basic: Many of the smaller drones used have fixed cameras that don't offer the ability to pan, this means the remote pilot must turn the drone itself to point the camera.

This is best used only for simpler shots that don't require much camera movement. For example, vertical lift wide angle reveals, or straight tracks and sideways panning.

Complex: Using bigger drones allows for dual control, where the remote pilot concentrates solely on flying, while a remote camera operator can focus on pointing the camera at the action.

This is best when the item you want to shoot is moving, or you want to add movement to the shot. For example, following a moving vehicle or actor, or moving around a static object to create parallax movement, or any combination of both

Dynamic: If you want to get in to the heart of the action, you may want to use the drone equivalent of the action camera, which is FPV or First Person View drones.

This is best when you want speed, dynamic movement, or shooting through small gaps. For example, compared to tracking a moving vehicle like in a complex shot, FPV lets you get right down to the driver's window as they drift around a corner, or under the car as it flips in an explosion.

Control: Some of our drones also support additional controls, such as focus pulling, for when the ultimate control of the images is required.

This is best when you want to shift focus from the foreground to the background in a shot or ensure that auto focus doesn't move to the wrong part of the action. For example, if dropping down from a wide shot to a close up of an actor, manual control of the focus can ensure that the actor and not their surroundings is the core of the shot.