Friday 25th January 2013

Drone attacks

From have-a-go hero PHers to slick pro media at the WRC drones are opening up new filming possibilities

---

Let’s face it, drones have got a bit of a sinister reputation what with all that ‘targeted assassination’ stuff the Americans use them for. But there are more peaceful, PH-friendly possibilities for remote-controlled flying machines too. Like filming folk skidding about in the snow.

PHers have been getting in on the act too

Response to the first of our mucking about in the snow threads has been simply astounding with many PHers taking a pleasingly enthusiastic attitude to driving vehicles of wildly varying suitability in the slippery conditions. Among the many fantastic pictures, video clips and stories PHer ol’s little video of an R32 sliding about filmed from a drone ‘copter really stood out – that the technology to do this kind of thing is within reach of mere mortals (mere mortals with more than a bit of skill, it's worth pointing out) is simply breathtaking. A tip of the hat to co-conspirators Over And Above Photography  for demonstrating their talents here. Not so long ago this would have been out of the reach of all but big-budget film crews with real helicopters but this democratisation of aerial photography has huge potential.

Serious piece of kit but seriously cool footage

One realised on the Monte Carlo rally too. OK, this is a bit more involved than a couple of PHers mucking about in a car park and has been doing the rounds widely but if you haven’t seen it yet it’s well worth a look.

 

 

 

 

'ol' takes his R32 for a spin...
 

A drone's eye view of the Monte Carlo rally
Drone-Work at the Rallye Monte Carlo 2013 -- MAKING OF-- from FS Aviation on Vimeo. 

[Altrezia]

OK, need to buy a Hexacopter.

[herebebeasties]

Altrezia said:

OK, need to buy a Hexacopter.

I think you mean an octocopter, looking at it. ;-)

[Baryonyx]

WRC covered by UAV? It could be cheaper than putting out camera crews on the stages. Could this bring back better coverage of rall events? Great video!

The video of the Golf was pretty naff though. Who decided that camp music would be good?

[jon-]

The over and above was filmed with a quadcopter, should be a little bit cheaper than that WRC gear :Hehe:

[ikarl]

Can a drone be set to chase a car?

I suppose a bit like a missile, chasing the car to get some awesome camera shots....anyone know if that's possible?

[carsnapper]

Before anyone commits to a £20K purchase, you might want to try this kit out

http://quadcopters.co.uk/dji-phantom-ready-to-fly-...

Also, keep an eye out for the new Top Gear starting on Sunday with the new Africa Special, all the aerial footage was shot with a similar rig in the WRC video. Amazing bit of kit to have in the field, stunning results!

I have a quadcopter on order for use with the GoPro

[Baryonyx]

ikarl said:

Can a drone be set to chase a car?

I suppose a bit like a missile, chasing the car to get some awesome camera shots....anyone know if that's possible?

Military hardware, designed to fly much higher than these rigs, could chase a car. They could easily outrun a WRC car too, but they're designed to fly at much higher altitudes. I doubt they'd be able to maintain flight at 'chase' heights and speeds without stalling or falling from the sky. They could do some awesome strafing runs though!

The little UAV rigs we're looking at on these videos are probably too slow and too limited in range to really chase, unless it's across a tightly stacked bit of course like a few hairpins going up a course. I don't think the technology is quite good enough to properly chase a car yet.

[NotNormal]

These things are pretty cool indeed, we had a chap turn up to our colo data centre to take some high level shots for us and not only was the kit itself great from a "big kids and toys" perspective but the resulting images were also very impressive.

As the article highlights it certainly opens up the possibilities of some very interesting images.

[TheDeadPrussian]

If you are interested in this kind of thing, you should check out DoozeeAerial on Facebook. Some pretty amazing footage and photographs...

[OlberJ]

Rally stages tend to be squiggly, copters can fly as a crow, i imagine it would be quite good at covering large sections.

[sagarich]

This is very cool indeed, I need to get myself one of those to play with

[filski666]

I just need a cat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePNdcdNm9fY

[MiniMan64]

[quote=BaryonyxThe little UAV rigs we're looking at on these videos are probably too slow and too limited in range to really chase, unless it's across a tightly stacked bit of course like a few hairpins going up a course. I don't think the technology is quite good enough to properly chase a car yet.
[/quote]

When the technology does catch up the footage is going to be stunning

[Usget]

The music on that WRC one is epic! Fantastic footage especially the slidey hairpin shots.

[upsidedownmark]

There's a whole range from the (cheaper) quadcopters like the dji, through stuff they used in the WRC video, through to some pretty big 'conventional layout' helicopters that look like the real thing and can carry some quite large cameras. The main limitation from a chase point of view is that they're not really drone's, they're 'Remotely piloted' (read radio control). In endurance, and speed stakes, I'm fairly sure the bigger stuff could play chase. Bit hard to fly what you can't see however.

The other thing to be aware of is that you can pretty much do what you want for your own private use, but as soon as there's a commercial aspect, even if it's a 'toy sized' quadcopter, you come under CAA jurisdiction (in the UK) and require licensing. Problem being the CAA is rather aligned around big tin, airlines, public safety, and tends to be a bit one-size-fits-all, rather than pragmatic common sense. The red-tape and expense will/does probably make it non-viable for small concerns. This also applies for POV (point of view) flying these things, which might solve the chase problem above.

[Hellbound]

I'm just waiting for the software to catch up with the hardware.

[Elliott_3R]

We've worked on some pretty successful chase scenes. Only this week we were chasing an articulated lorry at around 40mph. If we were covering a section of track it could work pretty well.

We also helped with some filming at Silverstone recently. Once it's edited I'll get it posted.

Check out some of our early footage at our website www.doozeeaerial.com

The thing is though, there're are so many levels of kit. For the hobbyist there are loads of options, but for proper productions a Go Pro just doesn't cut it. We tend to carry anything from a decent DSLR to a RED Epic. We're also currently building a new rig to carry an Arri Alexa...

It would be awesome to get involved in more car focused work...

Hat's off to Over and Above for some awesome hoonage!


Elliott

[MiniMan64]

So what happens when someone flies one over a Premier League game and starts broadcasting their own coverage?

[Rumblestripe]

Those little drones explain a lot of the shots we see on telly. I was admiring something the other day and thinking how did they get permission to fly a chopper THAT low over/near a crowd and of course this is the answer!

I want one. I guess that you could rig one up pretty cheaply with a cheapy camcorder and just switch it on and away you go?

[Super Slo Mo]

Elliott_3R said:

We've worked on some pretty successful chase scenes. Only this week we were chasing an articulated lorry at around 40mph. If we were covering a section of track it could work pretty well.

We also helped with some filming at Silverstone recently. Once it's edited I'll get it posted.

Check out some of our early footage at our website www.doozeeaerial.com

The thing is though, there're are so many levels of kit. For the hobbyist there are loads of options, but for proper productions a Go Pro just doesn't cut it. We tend to carry anything from a decent DSLR to a RED Epic. We're also currently building a new rig to carry an Arri Alexa...

It would be awesome to get involved in more car focused work...

Hat's off to Over and Above for some awesome hoonage!


Elliott

Isn't an Alexa a bit heavy?

Are you downlinking the pictures live for the pilot/camera operator to use for positioning etc?

If so, what are you using?

We were looking to supply someone who's designed a tri-rotor machine with a radio downlink, so it could be used in live broadcasts etc., but had issues getting hold of the radio kit as the supplier's more interested in dealing with big Government contracts (in the States) than little TV companies.