Cincinnati Drone Aerial Photography

 FIRST IN CINCINNATI DRONE FLIGHT

Did you know that Perfect Perspectives was the first commercial drone service company to operate in Cincinnati Ohio? Beginning in 2005, Perfect Perspectives began capturing aerial photos and video from custom built radio controlled helicopters. As a matter of fact, Perfect Perspectives is accredited by the BBB as "Ohio's Most Experienced Drone Service Company". Today there are over 100,000 FAA Part 107 certificated pilots but when we began offering drone aerial imaging 14 years ago in Cincinnati there were none.

To learn more, please contact Perfect Perspectives at -

https://perfectperspectivesaerial.com/

Drones Prove Versatile Tools For Aerial Cinematography/Video Production

Once drone technology entered the scene, it came with endless predictions and hype regarding it’s potential for virtually every conceivable purpose one could imagine. As you probably know, much of this drone hype has not panned out as “game changing” as advertised.

There is one area where drones have had an enormous impact however – Aerial Cinematography. This was foretold several decades ago when a little company from Belgium called Flying Cam started flying film cameras on custom built radio controlled helicopters. Getting low altitude shots from a manned helicopter is both expensive and often risky. Drones provided a welcome alternative. Slowly Flying Cam’s dynamic, close-range aerial shots began making their way into the biggest Hollywood films and due to their pioneering efforts, they enjoyed a bit of a monopoly for quite some time.

Today this has all changed. Later this summer there will be over 100,000 FAA certified commercial drone pilots in the U.S. Drones really are making a difference in many business sectors, but none more prevalent than in aerial cinematography and video production. There are several reasons why drones are showing up more and more on movie and even video production sets, even those with modest budgets.

Drones Are A Time Saver

If you have ever been on a movie or large video production set you know that much of the time spent is in set up. Camera kits need built, set’s need dressing, costume/make-up/props all need time to get sorted out. The beauty of drones in this setting is they can be unpacked and in the air in just minutes which is huge.

Drones Can Replace Other Tools

Drones are being used to replace everything from jibs, cranes, man-lifts, dollies and sliders. Avoiding the rental costs and set up time for a large Technocrane is a huge savings for a production. There is one caveat here however, an excellent drone/camera operator team is needed to safely replicate the super smooth shots they need to replace with these other production tools. This is particularly true when flying inside a large building where the drone can’t obtain a good GPS lock. This is where the experience of seasoned drone crew is well worth the extra day rate. Quite often as a time saver, we even use our drones with follow-focus for a quick and dirty hand-held shot in place of pulling out our MOVI stabilizer which adds value on set.

Recently Perfect Perspectives was hire to fly a small drone equipped with a custom built grappling hook underneath for a local casino TV commercial. Later day and night exterior drone shots where also captured. This is one of many examples of how the versatility of drones adds value to video productions.

If you pay attention you will notice that drone shots are making there way into all forms of multimedia these days and we predict this trend will only continue to grow as more and more creative uses are found in cinematography, video production and advertising.

To learn more please visit - 

http://perfectperspectivesaerial.com/services/aerial-cinematography/

5 Valuable Business Lessons From The World Of Drones

Drones are disruptive technology

Small commercial drones fall into the category of a "disruptive technology". To a lesser degree a bit like transportation, where the automobile disrupted the horseless carriage industry or how the airplane disrupted the bus and ocean liner industries. To a larger degree however, drones are more akin to being disruptive on the scale of how the personal computer and internet have disrupted countless facets of human life.

Drones are already making early changes in how farmers monitor crops, how bridges, roads, power plants, refineries and large structures are inspected/constructed and much, much more. Drones are even saving lives by helping prevent shark attacks and preventing drownings through the rapid delivery of flotation devices. In the coming years, drones will impact daily lives in ways that are impossible to imagine right now.

What can other businesses learn from the drone revolution?

As one of the early pioneers offering drone services, Perfect Perspectives and Drones That Work have had the unique opportunity to have a front row seat to the birth and early first steps of the commercial drone industry. This got me thinking that there are so many incredibly valuable lessons learned working through the process of starting and growing our business. Lessons that apply to almost any other business that are worth sharing.

Lesson 1 - Be Early

Being early is one of the hardest things to do in business. It requires you to boldly go where no one has ever gone before. Even worse, the human brain is historically very poor at predicting the future. The best we can do is learn from the past or from others with similar interests to help recognize future opportunities. Twelve years ago we knew that there were opportunities to use unmanned aircraft (drones) in business applications but our imaginations seriously lacked the foresight to see the true potential as we know it today. We were certainly not alone. Insurance companies were not comfortable covering a new risk with so little claims history. But that's perfectly okay. What mattered was we stuck with my gut feeling that drones were something with true commercial potential. As the technology evolved, we were ready to extract maximum value quickly, almost always before our competition could.

Being early is often very expensive in fields of cutting edge technology. Careful thought must be put into business equipment purchases that can quickly become obsolete. There is always an optimum jumping in and jumping out point. A good rule of thumb is - try not to be the first to adopt new technology nor be the last to abandon old technology.

Lesson 2 - Be Ready

A good friend would always say "the only thing harder than getting ahead of your competition is staying ahead". We are seeing thousands of drone entrepreneurs making most of the same mistakes we made. The big difference is we made those mistakes many years ago and have moved on to making fresh new ones. Being a leader is not easy or painless. We are constantly trying new things and often fail spectacularly. The best way to improve/grow is to push beyond your comfort zone. The key is to learn quickly from your mistakes and don't repeat them. This mindset continues to allow us to do things few others can do.

Lesson 3 - Be Nimble

The pace that the drone industry is evolving is both exciting and scary as hell for those wanting to make a living from it. It's much like launching satellites - there only two outcomes - a good geosynchronous orbit or a fiery crash. To compete in today's drone industry requires waking each morning and hitting the ground at a full sprint - keeping close tabs on changing regulations, public opinion, customer wants/needs, rapidly depreciating equipment purchases and a landscape of overnight competition.

Lesson 4 - Be Versatile

Starting early in the drone business has allowed us to explore many different markets and applications. Many that we thought would end up being viable proved to be far less than expected. Conversely, others that we would have never thought of came about when a client called asking if we could do something new. Our response was usually "I don't really know but we're certainly willing to give it a try!".

Listening to customers is always a powerful business opportunity because if they need something, odds are there are others just like them that do too. Most important is listening to customers when you fail. It is human nature to want to quietly exit the stage upon disappointing a client but that's the worst possible thing to do. Take the failure as an opportunity to learn and move forward.

One of the reasons we have been able to make drones a full time business ahead of most others is our versatility, hard won by always trying something new. This versatility allows us to stay busy year around in a wide variety of markets and business sectors. When one sector slumps, the others pick up the slack.

Lesson 5 - Be Different

Being different is a very powerful asset in a competitive industry. When there are thousands of other businesses out there doing similar things, simply saying you are better means very little. If however, you have capabilities and experience few others have, well that's a whole different story! As mentioned before, in this age of global information sharing, being different for very long is very difficult. The best you can do is have a new idea in the oven, so that when your competition copies your previous concept, you have already moved on, forever expanding your comfort zone.

Close Range Aerial Filming - Own or Rent?

There are many valuable lessons that one learns over the years; don't tug on Superman's cape, don't spit into the wind, don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger and you don't ever want to try and discourage anyone from doing something they are truly passionate about.

So what does the last lesson on the list have to do with aerial filming? As mentioned previously here, few things are more unforgiving of human error that flying. Human factors studies commissioned by the FAA estimate that up to 80% of full sized aircraft accidents can be traced back to human error. It is safe to say that for operating a complex RC aircraft, this estimate would be even higher. To say that the learning curve to become a safe, efficient and effective RC aerial cinematographer is steep is truly an understatement. Provided the person (or team) already has the required mental discipline to meet the challenge (many will not), humans learn best by doing and making mistakes, and in this area, mistakes are almost always very costly. Experience is something you don't realize you need until you need it. So what is the point here? If a person has a relentless, burning desire to become an RC aerial cinematographer, and has the raw core skills to do so, nothing anyone does or says will deter them.

Recent developments in multicopter flight control technology makes it easier to control an aerial filming platform compared to manually flying a more traditional single rotor rig. Many production companies think that in order to stay competitive, they need to add this skill set to their list of offerings. But there are many, many things to weigh in order to determine if this course makes sense from a business perspective. Below is a list of just a few key considerations -

1. Core Competencies, Time Management and Continuity of Skills

If you are a production company, you are already adept at multi-tasking. So what is the big deal about adding just one more task? At issue here is the fact that this particular task is not only very time consuming to master (read years), it is also very time consuming to maintain. This is due to the complex nature of the equipment and process for using it, as well as the fact that the technology is evolving at a very, very rapid rate currently. The time commitment is much more than most would ever think, and if not performed often, the skills needed will quickly deteriorate, leading to greater risk of accidents. So the question that needs to be answered is, do I really have the time to commit to this effort, or does it make more sense to focus on what I am already good at and simply hire an expert to do my aerial filming?

2. Insurance

Due to the exponential increase of incidents, obtaining insurance to perform RC aerial cinematography is becoming more difficult every day. It is possible to obtain a policy, but, upon close examination of the fine print and exclusions, it will become evident that the policy has almost endless avenues to deny a claim, and insurance companies are very adept at denying claims. Many companies may be in a position to absorb the repair costs for equipment damaged in a crash, but most would not be able to cover the liability of a personal injury case. There are only a couple of options for insurance that will truly cover third party liability in a meaningful manner and they are very selective when it comes to taking on new customers. An extensive review of equipment, qualifications and procedures is required in order to qualify for these policies.

3. Pending Regulatory Landscape

Currently there are no specific federal aviation regulations for performing RC aerial cinematography. The agencies policy for this activity is currently being contested in court. This is going to change. While the exact regulatory timeframe is currently not well defined, the event is as certain as death and taxes. Why is this an important consideration? For one thing, the investment made into expensive equipment could result in significant stranded costs should the regulations not permit use of some designs. Should the regulatory agency follow the lead of other, more expedient countries in this area, items such as airworthiness, licensing, safe operating procedures, emergency procedures, maintenance procedures, management of change procedures, flight logs, risk assessments, collision avoidance systems and more may become requirements. Government oversight and red tape have always been synonymous.

So in summary, the purpose of this information is neither to encourage or discourage a production company from pursuing their own aerial cinematography capability, but rather to provide some hopefully insightful considerations before jumping into the deep end.

Aerial Cinematography Demo Reel 2013

Below is the last aerial demo reel by Perfect Perspectives using servo driven camera stabilizaton. Recent advances in brushless gimbals provide a level of speed and accuracy that cannot be achieved using servos.

Perfect Perspectives has recently incorporated the amazing Freefly MOVI camera stabilizer to a true super heavy lift airframe with astounding results. This rig, known as "BRUTUS", offers performance capabilities few others can match, such as 15 minute flight times with 30 lb. payloads, useable footage in up to 25 mph winds with no post stabilization, 80+ mph top forward speed and full HD wireless monitoring with minimal latency.  Why are these impressive specs important? Because when the density altitude conditions are far less than ideal, such as in very hot, humid or high altitude areas, this rig can still deliver dynamic, high performance shots without making excuses.

Perhaps most important is that this platform was designed from the beginning with the goal to be both reliable and inexpensive to operate relative to other designs capable of carrying ultra high definition digital cinema cameras. As a result, this rig can be provided at a day rate that is significantly less than the competition.

This one-of-a-kind rig can run much higher MOVI stiffness settings than an octocopter, allowing for higher speed, dynamic filming for vehicle tracking and action sports shots.

The MOVI stabilizer can quickly and easily be coverted from aerial to handheld use, providing for maximum versatility and on-set production value.