A BUZZ IN THE AIR
BELOW: Adept at shooting both underwater
and above water, Chris Crumley captured this
visually stunning aerial shot of a “mermaid
circle” during his Mermaid Portfolio Workshop.
DRONE DEVOTEES
We spoke with three videographers/
photographers who are using quadcopters
to capture aerial footage; all three
expressed similar reasons for purchasing
drones. Ray Roman, CEO/Creative Director
of Ray Roman Films ( www.rayroman.com),
who specializes in wedding videography,
picked up his first quadcopter—the DJI
Phantom—last summer, and currently owns
the DJI Phantom 2 (GoPro version) and the
DJI S1000 (which he equipped with the
Canon 5D Mark III and 24mm lens). “I mainly
wanted to enhance our films with some epic
aerial establishing shots,” Roman explains.
Similarly, San Francisco-based wedding
videographer Sigmund Reboquio of
REB6studios ( www.reb6studios.com) added
aerial footage in 2014, because “I think
that it adds a little bit of flair to my films,”
he says. “I have shot so many weddings,
and it gets boring at times, so I took the
plunge to invest in one and it actually paid
off. My clients love it!” Reboquio’s current
quadcopter gear includes the DJI Phantom
2 with the GoPro HERO4, along with the
Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal, first person view
(FPV) monitor and Futaba controller.
Chris Crumley, of Chris Crumley
Productions, Inc. ( www.chriscrumley.com)—a
well-established underwater photographer
whose expertise extends above water as
well—purchased his first quadcopter in
mid-2013, to “have another perspective for
photography,” he says, “to give me another
point of view.” Crumley currently shoots
aerial video and stills with a DJI Inspire 1
and its onboard camera.
ESTABLISHING THE SCENE
Filmmakers have long used establishing
shots to to communicate information to
the audience—location, time of day or
simply setting the mood for what comes
next. Likewise, with the proliferation
of quadcopters, videographers and
photographers have the ability to establish
a setting with aerial shots of beautiful
scenery surrounding a venue or of the
venue itself.
Roman currently uses aerial footage to
“enhance the films” that he produces for his
wedding clients. Visually, he prefers “using
the drone around coastal areas—beaches that
have rocks and mountains in the background
look great,” he says. “Once legislation is
released [see sidebar at right] and we
acquire the proper licenses, we will definitely
“Drone shots
shouldn’t be
overused. If I can
use one or two
in a film to raise
the production
value, that’s usually
perfect.”
—Ray Roman