Aerialshots

ARE DRONE CAMERAS AS GOOD AS CINEMA CAMERAS?

Cinema cameras are large machines while drone cameras are small and light in order to fly.  It begs the question then, can drone cameras be as good as cinema cameras?  Without going into the technical aspect, let’s look at what we do know.

Facts about drones:

  • Drones are far less expensive to use than cinema cameras
  • Drones can capture dangerous shots from a safe distance
  • Shooting with a drone is more flexible than shooting from a helicopter
  • Drone cameras can shoot in Ultra High Definition or 4K Raw
  • The battery life of drones is very short

Besides the battery life, when comparing to the practicalities of filming, drones win out against cinema cameras.

Movies and TV series known to have used drones to shoot certain scenes:

  • Skyfall
  • Wolf of Wall Street
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Val Helsing
  • The November Man
  • Pompeii
  • Smurfs 2
  • The Expendables 3
  • Transformers
  • Game of Thrones
  • Spectre
  • Jurassic World
  • Captain America: The Civil War
  • Narcos
  • Criminal Minds

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These are not low-budget productions. If the directors of these movies and series chose to utilise drones when they could afford aerial shots from a cinema camera on a helicopter, then there must be an advantage to it.

Production companies changing to drones:

More than 200 companies in the USA have applied for drone licences to be specifically used in film productions and in 2014, when the FAA put a blanket ban on drones, it was 7 major Hollywood studios who were exempt.

Our conclusion:

None of this would have happened if drones weren’t a technology that could rival cinema cameras.

And now for some drone movie trivia:

Back to the Future 2, when they travelled forward from the 80’s to 2015, may not have accurately predicted flying cars and hover boards, but they were right about drones.  A technology that was considered science fiction and futuristic in the day, has now become a major part of modern-day existence.

Other movies that featured drones:

  • X-Men: Days of Future Past
  • The Divergent Series: Allegiant
  • Elysium
  • The Interview
  • Oblivion
  • Rotor DR1
  • This Means War
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction

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AerialShots have the same drones that are used in the movie business.  To find out more about using drones for your filming needs, contact info@aerialshots.co.za or visit www.aerialshots.co.za