# Drone video question



## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

I've seen videos where someone is mowing, and the shot is from a drone, but there is no way they could be controlling the drone at the same time unless it's thought-controlled! @ryanknorr probably has the best repeated current execution of this type of shot in the lawncare community in his recent videos. So, let's spill the beans. For those of you who do drone video, how is this type of shot done? Do you simply have your delegated cinematographer/drone pilot control the camera and drone for you? Seems to me that would give up a lot of creative control, unless all the shots were storyboarded out ahead of time and rehearsed until perfection was achieved...with the person in control being well-versed in the art of drone piloting, camera control, and use of composition and light.

In otherwords, "how'd they do that?"


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## kaptain_zero (Jun 2, 2018)

Some quadcopters (drones are those things flown by the US military) can be *parked* in the air, hovering by themselves until commanded to do something else. I'm going to guess that @ryanknorr takes advantage of that feature.

I don't fly quadcopters myself, but an old friend who does, was showing me one of his controllers that can be programmed to fly to a series of gps way points and altitudes, and then return to where it started, all by itself. I think I heard the latest controllers from one company are now starting to include electronic fences, so they cannot be flown close to airports etc.

One fun thing about these programmable controllers, if you don't program your current "home" coordinates, it will head for the default coordinates in the software if it detects the battery is getting low or something is wrong. The only thing is, apparently the default home location is somewhere in the atlantic ocean near Africa or some such?!?!

But yeah.... parking at a given altitude and orientation and then have it record video allows the operator to put down the controller and be "in the picture". Is it legal?!?! I have no idea....


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Features like DJI's Intelligent Flight Modes can make recording yourself pretty easy. :thumbsup:


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

You can see some dude standing on Ryan's porch with the drone controller in one of his recent videos. He was mowing the back yard in the shot. Can't remember which video it was.

Sort of a sleight of hand trick, right? Hiding in plain sight.


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## MoodSwingProductions (Jun 28, 2018)

There are GPS driven models which connect to a device (phone, wristband) You can edit the view in the controller settings.


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## ShaneNC (Jun 11, 2018)

I rigged up a "bomb hatch" on my drone so I can fly around the neighborhood dropping crabgrass seeds on the competition.


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## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

ShaneNC said:


> I rigged up a "bomb hatch" on my drone so I can fly around the neighborhood dropping crabgrass seeds on the competition.


lol


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