Your guide to Cameras and Camera Equipment - page 8-9

and easy to deploy - in most cases 15
and 30 minutes after arriving on set - and
can operate from a height of up to 400
ft (120m). But for most people it is the
difference in cost that accounts for the
increasing popularity of camera drones.
Put simply you might deduce from this
that aerial filmmaking via helicopter is very
expensive, but aerial filmmaking via drone
is cheap.
“Not so,” considers David McKay, “they
are not a cheap and easy way of achieving
aerial footage that will replace helicopters,
they are another way of achieving aerial
footage.” One that has perks, as well as
limitations. And unmanned drones do
pose some, often overlooked, limitations.
For a start, a drone camera is severely
limited in terms of wind and turbulence.
They are not able to lift very heavy camera
equipment and flying over or near people
is still a big no-no due to safety concerns.
Furthermore, production crews wishing to
use drones face airspace restrictions and
must operate within the line of sight, below
certain heights. Pilots in the UK must also
be certified by the Civil Aviation Authority
in order to be legal and insured.
Legal challenges
UAV videography is a legal grey area
in both Europe and the US. While
governments wrestle with the legality
and desirability of commercial drones,
UAV technology is advancing too quickly
for bureaucrats to handle. The resulting
legislation is complex and obfuscated
given that it has to take into account
technology that is being developed. Until
recently in the US, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) had effectively
banned commercial drone operation and
in urban areas, such as New York and LA,
local authorities have actively shut down
drone filmmaking due to concerns driven
by safety
and terrorism.
For the MPAA,
“achieving the
authorised use of
unmanned aerial
systems (UAS) for
shooting TV and
motion picture is
a priority for our
members,” says
Ducklo. “We are
hopeful that we can
work with the FAA
to implement the safe use of drones in the
US.” Ducklo certainly won’t have to wait
long, as the FAA recently announced that
they aim to greenlight commercial flights
for filmmaking (of machines that pose no
risk and weigh less than 55lbs) as soon as
November 2014.
While in the US an unclear landscape
still exists for the potential deployment of
drones within the film industry, in Europe
much friendlier skies await filmmakers as
the European Commission has recently
announced it will develop Europe-wide
regulations around the use of civic
and commercial drones. Forthcoming
regulations will address concerns
regarding safety, privacy, security, liability
and R&D. Until now the issue has been
regulated on a country by country basis,
enabling some countries to open up their
airspace to such aircrafts, while others
have banned their use, such as Spain.
Violeta Vargas, who edits Infouas - a blog
on the Spanish drone industry - and works
as an R&D project manager for a Spanish
company that designs and builds large
drones, laments the adverse effects the
ban on UAVs is having on the Spanish film
industry, an industry which is an important
contributor to the country’s economy. “The
Spanish film business has invested money
in something that currently cannot be
used and lots of projects have had to be
stopped”, she says.
Filmmakers wishing to use camera drones
face similar situations in South Africa.
The South African Civil Aviation Authority
(SACAA) has also recently imposed
an immediate ban on the use of UAVs,
essentially meaning that the use of camera
drones is illegal for outdoor film shoots.
Clearly there are significant implications
to these bans on the film industries
and subsequently on the (film related)
economies of these regions.
If the economic report produced by the
AUVSI is anything to go by, the potential
of the drone industry, both creative and
financial, is huge. It forecasts that for the
United States alone, in the first decade
following integration, the UAV industry will
create more than 100,000 jobs and have
an economic impact totalling $82bn.
However, until more light is shed on
these notoriously elusive machines, it
is important to verify the credentials of
your drone operators: check that they are
insured and that your pilot is certified. In
the right hands, you can achieve awe-
inspiring footage that will change the
nature of your film. Whether they will
succeed in displacing bigger, manned
aerial vehicles is yet to be seen but what
is certain is that a proliferation of gravity
defying films will hit our screens sooner
rather than later.
Drones are not a cheap and easy way of achieving
aerial footage that will replace helicopters,
They are another way of achieving earial footage
One that has perks, as well as limitations
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