8/20/2021 Traditional Camera Moves Made Easy with DJI Drones

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Traditional
Camera
Moves Made
Easy With DJI
Drones
BY MICHAEL MAHER

OCTOBER 20, 2016

Cinematography Filmmaking Video Gear

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Video Production

Get more out of your DJI drone

footage with these optimal
settings and tricks for shooting
with intelligent flight modes.
The following tips come from my experience
shooting with a Phantom 4. These techniques also
work for other DJI drones with intelligent
flight modes like the Phantom 3, the new Mavic,
and (to an extent) the Inspire 1.

1. Smoother Dolly Shots and

Tracking Shots Using Course Lock

Traditional Camera Moves Made Easy with DJI

Drones - Smoother Dolly Shots

Using DJI’s Course Lock intelligent flight mode is

the easiest way to capture some
exceptional tracking shots and dolly shots.
This mode, well, locks your drone’s course. The best
way to describe this is to compare it to dolly
tracks. Setting the Course Lock is the same as

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putting a dolly on a set of straight tracks. The

camera can now only move along the tracks. If you
are moving straight forward on the course, you
are dollying in on your subject. If you turn the
camera to the left or right, the drone still moves
along the same path allowing you to capture a
tracking shot.

Once you lock on a direction, the drone will only

move horizontally along the same path. This allows
you to just push forward or backward with the
right control stick to move the drone. Since it’s
locked to the course, you can then move the left
control stick left or right to adjust the yaw (the
direction the drone’s camera faces).

Pro Tip: To help keep your subject in frame, turn on

the grid view in the DJI app and keep your subject
in the same general area while the drone moves.

How to Set Up Course Lock on the

DJI Phantom series

Step One: In the Camera mode of the DJI Go app,

tap on the Flight Mode button. (Note: The drone
must be in the air to access this button.)

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Step Two: Swipe to the second page, then select

Course Lock.

Step Three: Rotate the Phantom and face the

camera in the direction you want to course lock
onto. Tap Apply and then tap Hide.

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Step Four: Use the right control stick to move

the drone along the course path — pushing the
stick up moves it forward along the course lock, no
matter which direction the drone faces. Use the left
control stick to adjust the yaw and the camera’s
position.

2. Realistic P.O.V. Without Even

Flying

Drones are having an increased presence in major

Hollywood pictures. In the 2015 film Chappie,
drones were used to capture POV shots for the
robotic main character, even during action

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sequences in which Chappie jumped through a

window.

“
We did some POV flying, the POV of
one of the robot characters. It looked
like a thermal night vision, and
reminds me of the Predator. He’s
chasing one of the characters and
goes flying through the window at full
speed. You can’t do that on a
helicopter. You could do that on a
cable cam — but it goes straight, and
it takes time to set up and it doesn’t
have that feel or movement and
speed. – John Gore, Chappie Drone
Pilot

You can easily capture a POV with a drone at an

extremely low altitude, one that matches the
height of your subject. If you main character is a six-
foot-tall person, you would want to hover at slightly
under six feet and maintain the same altitude during
the entire shot.

The trick to capturing a realistic POV is to make

sure the camera isn’t too perfectly smooth, a
slight jolt or movement up and down helps sell the
shot. That’s why I just walk with the drone in my
hands. It also allows you to easily maneuver
through areas that may be a little tricky to fly
through.

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Pro Tip: Remove the propellors, just to give the

camera operator the ease of mind of not cutting up
your face.

Just because you have a drone doesn’t mean it has

to be in flight to shoot. This is particularly easy
with the Phantom series, as you can just grab
onto the drone’s legs. For more of a bounce, use only
one hand to hold the drone.

The best results come from positioning the camera

right in front of your eyes.

3. Slower Jib Shots

You may experience your drone taking off at

tremendous speeds, preventing you from getting a
nice slow jib shot. You can easily adjust the
aircraft’s settings to help get a slower crane shot.
Here’s how.

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Step One: In the DJI app, tap on the icon in the

top right corner.

Step Two: Under the drone’s MC Settings, click on

Advanced Settings.

Step Three: Tap on EXP.

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Step Four: Under EXP, you will see the Throttle

speed (in both Normal and Sport Modes). To take off
slower, lower the speed by either typing in the
number box or drag on the S-curve graph. Find the
best speed for your shot.

For this example, we will drop it all the way to .20.

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You have now adjusted the overall throttle speed.

Now when you lightly press up on the left control
stick, the drone will move up at a slower speed.
You can also adjust the Rudder and directional
speeds if you need additional camera movement in
your shot.

This also works in the opposite manner. Just crank

up the Throttle speed for faster movements.

4. Aerial Surveillance and Free

Drone Overlay

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This is certainly the easiest move to capture with a

drone, but with some editing you can really sell your
footage. Grab a few seconds of footage with
the camera pointing straight down. Try not to
move too fast, as a slower shot will register better for
the audience.

Step One: Pull the footage into you NLE and then
place our free drone camera overlay on top of
your clip. (Link below)

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Step Two: Scale the overlay to the size of your

sequence.

Step Three: Change the Blend Mode. In this

example I used the Screen mode in Premiere Pro.

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Step Four: Color grade the footage to your liking.

In this example, I lowered the Saturation and
added a green Tint — all while adjusting the
shadows, exposure, and highlights.

You can download our free drone overlay (and

four other camera overlays) by following the link
below.

PREMIUMBEAT FREE CAMERA OVERLAYS

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