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How fast do you fly for video shots?

vsasolutions

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I am curious on what speed other fly when doing various shots for commercial real estate video. What gives editors the best footage to work with. I know one of the biggest mistakes is flying too fast. I typically fly between 5-8 mph on dolly/forward/backward shots and a little faster on orbits depending on size of orbit.
 
I don't have a "Set Speed" I just do what looks pleasing to the eye at the time. If its not noticbly to fast or slow and it's buttery smooth you should be golden. You want the subject of the shot to be the focus of attention not anything you're doing with the drone. Erratic , Jerky, Awkward movements that make the viewer notice your work rather than the subject matter will not make it through editing. Smooth & Natural wins the race :)
 
I did a commercial shoot yesterday and determined my pans/dolly shots 8-10 is perfect. Flyovers I did at 10-13. It was a calm day so my orbits were at 15. My client got back to me and loved the quality. I always know speed kills but I was curious from an editor’s viewpoint. I suspect if I were focusing more on a closer single point of reference I would do tripod speeds, but for wider landscapes and city observation a little faster is better.

Oh, and to top it off I had some type of bird try to attack my drone. I figured out my drone bites. Got lucky that it recovered at 350’agl.
 
I am curious on what speed other fly when doing various shots for commercial real estate video. What gives editors the best footage to work with. I know one of the biggest mistakes is flying too fast. I typically fly between 5-8 mph on dolly/forward/backward shots and a little faster on orbits depending on size of orbit.

Just picture the shot in your head and make it happen. I don't think you should ever be looking at your speed in the middle of a shot. You'll get a feel for how much stick input it'll take to realize your intended movement, and with time it'll be as easy as walking.

But to answer your question, some shots call for a seriously slow movement over a long time (maybe 1-3 mph, but I think there's some deadband that can cause pans to start and stop repeatedly with tiny stick inputs), and others call for full stick input in Sport mode (30-70 mph depending on wind direction).
 
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This is a very good question. The weekly video I do for my client some of you have seen, if I were to fly slow it would take forever and my client wants the video to be in the three min range and I struggle to get it all in in that time frame. Sure I could change the speed in post and maybe that's what I should do, just no sure.
 
This is a very good question. The weekly video I do for my client some of you have seen, if I were to fly slow it would take forever and my client wants the video to be in the three min range and I struggle to get it all in in that time frame. Sure I could change the speed in post and maybe that's what I should do, just no sure.
As Al said , we are just raising the bar , being self critical usually ends with better results.
For that job, your speed seems fine. Smooth movement is MUCH more important.
On st8 movement the speed won't affect the image much.In fact the artifacts on forward/backward movements at speed can be used for an effective look. It's the turns. If turning too fast you will likely get lots of artifacts.
So the difficulty can become transitioning from fast straight to slow turns without the jerky motion.
Better to fly a little wider or tighter than you planned and keep the turn smooth. or as I normally do, redo the shot.
As far as changing speed in post, I find a multiple of the frame rate looks better.
 
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Jack, I do appreciate the critiquing and advice, that's how we learn. I heard a comment some time back that I really liked. "Each day when I get up I want to strive to be a little better than I was the day before." I don't remember who made the comment, but it has stuck with me.
 
Another thing to consider is that just because you can "fly" the subject, it doesn't mean you have to. You can reveal much about it by maintaining a position (and possibly including a very slow and subtle movement) and changing the angles and perspectives and editing those shots together than to fly all around it.

I don't know how many times I've seen the beautiful bridge in the background, then let's fly all the way to it and see a close up of it. What about the long shot including the bridge and then cut to a medium shot of it and then cut to a close up and we be spared all the "flying."
 
Another thing to consider is that just because you can "fly" the subject, it doesn't mean you have to. You can reveal much about it by maintaining a position (and possibly including a very slow and subtle movement) and changing the angles and perspectives and editing those shots together than to fly all around it.

I don't know how many times I've seen the beautiful bridge in the background, then let's fly all the way to it and see a close up of it. What about the long shot including the bridge and then cut to a medium shot of it and then cut to a close up and we be spared all the "flying."

Very good point, @aerialimagery.

Save the "fly all the way" for our own personal late night fix. "Keep it simple, concise, and easy on the eyes" for client viewing.

Here's a test: put a video project in front of the kids, the spouse, friends, on the "big screen". Break away from being enamored with your own work, meaning... look around. If you see others looking at their phones instead of your project, either you have very inconsiderate friends and family, or your project needs some tweaking.

Yes, I have experienced this first hand. By accident the first time. On purpose subsequently.

Jeff
 
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Two things, I have had my wife view the videos, I get "Ho Hum, that's nice, and walks away." I get it, it is boring, even to me, same flight path every time. I wanted to change the flight path, client wants it the way it is. I have watched the Superintendent, and a few of the engineers watch the video, but I quickly realized they were only looking at the construction progress, the video quality good or bad didn't mean much to them. For me, i want any video I do to get better each time I create one, I know, good luck.

As for the bridge, I filmed the bridge being constructed, including the setting of the steal beams, I'll see if I can dig it up out of the archives.

Question, if I slow the flight down while filming, then speed it up during editing shouldn't I get a little smoother video?
 
Two things, I have had my wife view the videos, I get "Ho Hum, that's nice, and walks away." I get it, it is boring, even to me, same flight path every time. I wanted to change the flight path, client wants it the way it is. I have watched the Superintendent, and a few of the engineers watch the video, but I quickly realized they were only looking at the construction progress, the video quality good or bad didn't mean much to them. For me, i want any video I do to get better each time I create one, I know, good luck.

As for the bridge, I filmed the bridge being constructed, including the setting of the steal beams, I'll see if I can dig it up out of the archives.

Question, if I slow the flight down while filming, then speed it up during editing shouldn't I get a little smoother video?
Mostly yes. Some factors may include the edit software, codec and how it's setup, the shot.
So on turns or static yaws mostlikely you will see the difference.
On straight flights you may not.
Try a little test. Try both st8 and turns.Fly a specific distance with objects both on the sides and in front.Fly 1 fast and 1 about 1/2 speed
then in post double the speed of the slow clip. You may find it best to use exact speed changes such as 2x, 3x .you want the speed change to be divisible by the frame rate.
If you shoot 30FPS 2x speed would be 60 frames.This is divisible by 30
 
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Lots of good tips in this thread.

Couple things I've noticed shooting video for clients.

Often editors will overlay graphics on top of my drone footage, so a long smooth shot that's a little longer is good.

I fly a little slower, 5-8 mph, for a low shot (under 100ft AGL) and faster, 15 mph or more, for shots that show more property at a higher altitude (200-400ft AGL) to get the same smooth effect.

It's true, you can easily speed up video in post but be careful. I've found that if there are vehicles or people moving in the shot, or trees swaying, etc, when you speed the video up those things will look like they are moving really fast. Trees will look like it's a hurricane and cars will look like they are attempting a land speed record. People walking or running are especially odd. This could make your shot unusable to the editor. I often make a couple passes of a scene at different speeds to give the editor some options in post. Just like I would do If I was shooting a regular video camera on the ground.
 
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Lots of good tips in this thread.

Couple things I've noticed shooting video for clients.

Often editors will overlay graphics on top of my drone footage, so a long smooth shot that's a little longer is good.

I fly a little slower, 5-8 mph, for a low shot (under 100ft AGL) and faster, 15 mph or more, for shots that show more property at a higher altitude (200-400ft AGL) to get the same smooth effect.

It's true, you can easily speed up video in post but be careful. I've found that if there are vehicles or people moving in the shot, or trees swaying, etc, when you speed the video up those things will look like they are moving really fast. Trees will look like it's a hurricane and cars will look like they are attempting a land speed record. People walking or running are especially odd. This could make your shot unusable to the editor. I often make a couple passes of a scene at different speeds to give the editor some options in post. Just like I would do If I was shooting a regular video camera on the ground.

Good points, I do my own editing, again another learning process. I flew my last video at 200 feet and 10 mph, Frame rate was 30fps, Camera is the X5S with 15mm lens, doubled the speed in edit, and as you said people and vehicle speed was distorted, but the client loved it. He only wish he could get his people to work that fast. I think I'm going back to shooting in 4K at 60fps, and then switch to HD in post. When I gave the client the video in 4k he didn't like it because of the file size.
 

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