I have been flying UAV’s (or drones) commercially for a few years; the technology is evolving at a rate of knots and the market is becoming far more competitive. To produce the most beautiful videos you typically needed two operators, one to fly the drone and the other to operate the camera gimbal to keep the subject in shot.
I came across a drone control app that reckoned it could keep subjects in shot whilst you flew the drone, quite some promise. It was quite pricey for an app but I am one for gadgets so I went for it. Spent an hour actually reading the manual, because if you screw up a £2k drone doesn’t crash nicely.
Went out to my favourite grass strip near home and had a go; the software is a bit complex but I managed to teach it to focus on me and my car, then went off flying around me, over the top, back and forth, the results speak for themselves.
Now why am I writing this on a business forum? Well two man operations cost money as you have to employ a second operator, this adds to your costs and you need to charge it back to the client. So if you can get software to do most of the work the 2nd operator would do then immediately you half your costs and become price competitive. Isn’t that what good software is supposed to do?
I have got a drone shot in early May focussed on a piece of land where a second World War aircraft was shot down; the shot I had planned with the director using a single man pilot was going to be pretty mundane , this new software allows me to track the memorial as I fly past it, and we can stay within budget.
The software does lots of other things like “follow me”, so expect more videos of motorsports and mountain bikers. In the meantime enjoy the rough video I shot today.