FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

From Movies to Media, Drones Have Changed the Picture

Cinematographers say the drone is giving them a whole new field of vision.
Drone camera and videocameras can save lots of money, as long as they don't crash. Image: Don McCullogh/Flickr

There's a scene in The Shawshank Redemption shot from a helicopter. It starts with Morgan Freeman doing a voiceover. Then the scene transitions from filming down on the prison yard to up above, looking down as a van approaches, carrying a new batch of prisoners.

It's memorable and iconic, but scene would be very different today.

Here in Shenzhen, China, hundreds of drone manufacturers, distributors, and buyers attended the recent China Commercial UAV Summit to discuss the future of drones. For both amateurs and professionals, drones have already changed how media and entertainment images are captured across the world. At times, they shave thousands of dollars off the original cost of shooting aerial scenes.

Advertisement

But until drone regulation catches up with the technology, no one is quite sure how much power they can have.

Dean Head, a cinematographer, explained the work that used to go into shooting a scene like the one in Shawshank, which was taken back in 1994. According to Head, who worked on Rush Hour 2, Tomb Raider II, and Transformers 4, scenes used to be captured from cameras on modified helicopters. Most of the equipment came from earlier war efforts, with cameras replacing machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

If budgets were low, things got a little riskier. "I had a body harness on and I as outside the helicopter on the skis," he said. "Today, all of that is gone because we now have drones."

Historically, shooting scenes from above such as buildings, cities, islands, and ships were extremely expensive, prohibitively so in most cases. These scenes required a helicopter, pilot, fuel, camera equipment, and numerous site surveys, regulatory approvals, and safety checks. Now, even small budget projects can obtain these shots.

"A shot like that would have probably taken a whole day to do once. They could have maybe reset everything and done two takes just to get that shot. But with the drone, you can do three or four takes now," said Nick Foxall, founder and director of dronesurvey.hk. He said drones are particularly efficient when they follow GPS programmed flight routes.

Head also talked about a recent Hong Kong shoot that captured the chasing of a steamboat through the islands over the ocean, which he said, "looks like a Chinese Bond movie." It took two hours and cost HKD $20K (USD $2,580), a fraction of the time and costs historically.

Advertisement

And it is not just movie producers benefiting; less expensive, better quality drone technologies are making it possible to film from new angles for various purposes such as media, sports, wildlife, commercials, corporate events, visual arts, performances, and promotional tourism.

They aren't foolproof. Head talked about one time when he had a drone go off on its own, proving uncontrollable. "My concerns are breakdown of frequency and the safety. And second to that is proper professional controlled cameras that come with the drones, not manipulating ISO or shutter speeds, but proper iris control."

Wu Qiang, Vice Chief Engineer at the Aviation Industry Development Research Center of China, also expressed concerns about electronic interference, as well as meteorological threats, emphasizing the need to stress test drones in various conditions. He talked about the possibility of crashes in high risk areas such as school campuses, and said, "that would be a calamity."

At the conference, Lance Fung, Product Development and Design Manager at Yuneec APV, said there is a 10 to 15 percent chance that drones will crash. Consequently, given the current industry structure, when one part breaks the entire drone needs to be replaced. This can take months for repair as opposed to just minutes or hours if there were more parts suppliers. Thus, he cited a need to "create an ecosystem so that you have parts available for the user to fix it themselves instead of sending it back to the manufacturer."

Advertisement

Another problem is the noise. Documentary, lifestyle, and live television programs, have to dub over the buzzing from the drone. "And that just takes time," Foxall said, "and time in television is one thing you don't have."

Meanwhile, drone regulation hasn't caught up to the technology. In mainland China, according to UAV Systems International: all recreational drones under 7Kg are permitted; drones between 7-116 Kg require a license from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC); those heavier than 116 Kg require a pilots license and UAV certification; all commercial flights need CAAC approval; and drones in controlled areas require pre-approval.

Jin Liang, Chairman of Shenzhen Smart Drone UAV, is calling for more regulations and government guidance. "We need clear regulations for air traffic control…And these regulations should be more pragmatic," he said. He also called for "certain principles, such as large exceeds small, and manned exceeds unmanned."

Although the fledgling industry is still working through various technological and regulatory issues, owing to their efficiency, low cost, and flexibility, UAVs will continue disrupting how media and entertainment is made.

According to data from iResearch Consulting Group, China's aerial photography market alone is forecast to generate RMB 30 billion (USD $4.49 billion) in revenue by 2025. And globally, the market for drone powered solutions in media and entertainment is USD $8.8 billion, according to PwC estimates.

Patrice Gaucher, CEO of Aerial Entertainment Studios, summarized the view of many panel experts. "Even though the technology has evolved tremendously over the last 10 years, it's still the tip of the iceberg. And still a lot of opportunities to make it better," he remarked.

Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.