The rapidly growing popularity of UAS is taking the world by
storm. Although UAS are not yet ubiquitous, it is beginning to change the way
how movies and TV shows are produced today. The technology of UAS is forging a
new frontier in cinematography. The only reason why UAS are not widely used in
this industry is not because film makers are not aware of it, but that the
aviation authorities have not fully liberalized the use of UAS yet (Burgess,
2015). For many years, the making of movies is done with aerial shots from
manned aircraft or from cranes. These methods are both expensive and risky. According
to Verrier (2015), an UAS with a camera and crew costs as little as $5,000 a
day, compared with at least $25,000 for a manned helicopter shoot. The logistic
process involved in a manned flight to take aerial footage can be a laborious. In
addition, accident fatalities are not unknown on movie sets, and the use of UAS
can take away some of this risks. Verrier reported that in 2013, people were
killed when the helicopters crashed during filming of several shows (Verrier,
2015).
Several movie and TV film companies have already gotten
approval from FAA to use UAS for filming in the US through section 333
exemptions (FAA, 2014). In fact, movies have already been made using UAS in the
past, but mostly outside of US where there are less stringent regulations of such
usage. Many scenes in numerous movies such as “The Wolf of Wall Street”,
Mission Impossible”, etc. have been produced by UAS (Gamerman, 2015). In
Singapore, local film maker Jack Neo has used UAS for several of his movies as
well (Lee, 2015).
There are also limitations with using UAS for cinematography.
Image quality and stabilization is still not as good as ground setups, and UAS
flight endurance using vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft still
remain challenging for any requirement for long aerial shoots. Nevertheless, as
UAS assume a growing role in cinematography, movies will continue to be made to
provide new perspectives at a low cost.
Reference
Burgess, J. (2015). The five best movie scenes shot using
drones. Retrieved from http://www.techradar.com/sg/news/photography-video-capture/the-best-5-movie-scenes-shot-using-drones-1302565
FAA (2014). Six companies can now fly small UAS following
FAA approved safety procedures. Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?cid=TW251&newsId=17194
Gamerman, E. (2015, March 25). Drones invade Hollywood. The
Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/drones-invade-hollywood-1427410534
Lee, M.K. (2015, May 14). Singapore to introduce drone law:
5 things about these flying machines. Straits
Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-to-introduce-drone-law-5-things-about-these-flying-machines
Verrier, R. (2015). Drones are providing film and TV viewers
a new perspective on the action. Los
Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-drones-hollywood-20151008-story.html
Watercutter, A. (2015). Drones are about to change how
directors make movies. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2015/03/drone-filmmaking/
Dear Daniel,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. Directors are finding way to make better movie. I believe in-house shooting requires UAV too. Without GPS, autonomous UAV flying is a challenge.
A team of researchers presented a solution on GPS-denied environment. Small-scale Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) capable of performing inspection tasks in enclosed environments. Vehicles with such capabilities enable unique shots to be taken. The system uses lightweight, vision- aided inertial navigation system providing reliable state estimates under difficult environmental conditions. It relies solely on measurements from an on-board MEMS inertial measurement unit and a pair of cameras arranged in a classical stereo configuration (Burri, M. et al., 2012).
Reference:
Burri, M., Nikolic, J., Hurzeler, C., Caprari, G., & Siegwart, R. (2012). Aerial service robots for visual inspection of thermal power plant boiler systems, 70–75. doi:10.1109/CARPI.2012.6473374
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDaniel,
ReplyDeleteI agree that UAS are increasingly being creatively used for cinematography. While watching TV with my wife we often have a friendly competition to see who can spot UAS footage first.
In fact on Friday night we watched some dramatic footage filmed using a UAS on NBC Nightly News. The story was covering the ongoing drought in California. Some of the UAS footage was shot at this time last year with new footage from this year. There is one scene of particular interest where the reporter is at the very location shot last year with a side-by-side screen view of then and now. This shot would not have been possible with a manned helicopter because of the massive prop wash that would have occurred. However with the UAS, not only is the visual scene not disturbed, but the reporter is still able to use a microphone with no background noise from the UAS. You can find the video here:
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/dramatic-changes-have-come-to-california-s-long-depleted-reservoirs-672032835621
While many cite the cost differences between UAS and manned aircraft uses as a deciding factor of platform choice, I feel that the creative limitations are much fewer with UAS which bolsters their popularity in cinematography. Because UAS have a much smaller footprint they have a much smaller impact on the environment being filmed. As I mentioned above, this is evident in more intimate shots by UAS that are impossible with manned aircraft due to disturbances created by their larger size. All of this is possible while still retaining the capability of changing the vantage point to a much greater altitude like those of manned aircraft. With that said, I feel UAS will increasingly gain in popularity among cinematographers not just due to lower costs, but to increased and more flexible capabilities.