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Reflex Films said..Flying Dutchman said..Here's the latest instalment of the Primbee Speedsailing sessions I've been filming. This was the culmination of 2 days of sailing footage with the second day almost being too strong for the Phantom 4 with winds gusting to 40 knots + most of the day. It softened to 30 -35 knots gusts late in the arvo and I was keen to get footage so launched the drone to see how it would handle the wind.
The biggest issue with flying in those winds is the wobbly camera gimbal & not being able to keep up with the sailors. For every minute I got of relatively stable footage I must have 5 of wobbly stuff that I couldn't use. I would film someone for 30 seconds and there would be 4 - 5 seconds in there of stable footage to weed out. Makes it a test of patience when filming there were heaps of times I was following someone at 40 knots getting close in on the action and then the camera has a hissy fit and I'm flying the thing a few metres away from someone flying almost blind....that's when I hit the ejector button and head for the clouds!
Filming the speed stuff is harder than wavesailing because you fly the drone at full throttle the whole time so it's hard to set up for a shot. It's like trying to drive a car with finesse with foot planted on the gas pedal the whole time. The acceleration of the sailors going downwind is too much for the drone....there were a few times I would set up behind a sailor on a broad reach and then a gust would hit, the sailor would bear off and BAM they were gone the drone just didn't have the acceleration to keep up and I'd be left behind flooring it trying to catch up but not being able to as the sailor is hitting 41 - 42 knots with drone maxing at 40. Therefore a tip for speedsailors for the future if you have a drone following you on a broad reach and you get a gust try to bear off with less aggression so drone has chance of staying with you.
There's some good shots in the video and there are some that I'm not stoked with however I was impatient and wanted to get a video out so I just edited with what I had. I came home last night at 9pm and sat at the computer till 7am because I was loving the editing process and some of the footage looked awesome on my 5K 27" computer screen. Try to watch the video in 4K, it won't let you in Safari but the other browsers I think should work.
Anyway hope you enjoy the vid,
Cheers,
Paul.
That sounds super challenging.i wonder if an inspire 2 could make shooting in those conditions a lot less emotional.
Some really great shots in there- shooting in sports mode on the p4 is incredibly difficult and twitchy- (do you dial or your gains back and max out expo?) so you did well- interesting to get some insight into the shoot to edit ratio.
I reckon just a little bit of ground footage and some audio / story/ - like the background of the weather chase, a few sound grabs from the local characters- sprinkled in (the opposite of my ratio where i sprinkle in drone footage to lots of ground shots and audio) could add some layers and help it to go next level
But it looks like you are getting tons of eyeballs already so i could very well be wrong!
Hey Matt,
Cheers for the message.
The Inspire might handle the wind better but they are so much more expensive and I am prepared to lose a P4 drone I bought second hand for $1000 versus $5000 for the Inspire 2. The P4 would do less damage if I were to hit something versus the Inspire. Also the Inspire is harder to travel with so that was another consideration.
I have all the gains maxed out. I like the 'twitchyness', I basically just try to focus 100% on the controls and kind of get into a zone. I like the concentration aspect of the drone flying.
As for your ideas of mixing up the editing with other shots and ground stuff I completely agree with you.... the truth is I often film and then go out sailing so I don't spend any time on other aspects of production. I don't have any other equipment other than the drone. Having said that the videos often get a good number of views so I guess I've been resting on my laurels and continuing down this path for now. I'll watch really well put together videos with all the elements you mentioned and sometimes they only have 2k views where is I'll make a drone only one and sometimes get 10, 50, 100 or 200 thousand views so it's a bit of a mystery.
I've watched most of your stuff and you are way more technically proficient than I am, I'm basically lacking in the technical aspects but have an eye for a shot and some basic editing skills. Would love to get over to WA and get some good footage!
Cheers mate!
Flying Dutchman
> 9 months ago, 1 Jul 2018
. And not to forget the stray from down south Kaptain Killer Keef 
