First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Its only the two clips in the beginning but I think it really added some production value! Whether its necessary.. that is to remain seen lol. Still afraid of crashing it and getting sued!

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Hi James,

In my opinion the aerial shots make a good lead-in to the movie, to see the venue like that at the beginning gives a feeling of anticipation not normally there. It will be great in years to come "Wow Grandma, you really got married there?" Not necessary, but desirable.

I think you are right to be cautious with the drone. Apart from the safety angle, I'm sure many people would feel nervous with one buzzing around their heads at any ceremony. I know I would! In any case, over use would devalue its merit.

Dave

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Perfect in my opinion ... do it while the venues empty, grab a few nice aerial shots and pack the drone away in the car and get on with the job for the rest of the day.

I'm considering one myself after I upgrade to 4K in the next year or two (as i'd rather spend my money on a 4K camera at the moment).

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

My friend purchased one recently and has been working on commercial car films with it to great effect. He still says that he worries about crashing it, but is full of praise for the Go Pro Hero 3 and its image quality that goes nicely alongside his 5D footage.

He's only used it on a couple of weddings, but I think he's sold on the idea... he just says that he knows he's going to crash it at some point - but it's better to crash it than to never use it (obviously by crashing he means into an inanimate object and not a person). It's probably the best way to add production value to your films... it's incredible to consider aerial shots in an independent film and what's more, you probably only need to fly it once at each venue - as long as the weather is similar the next time you're there and the season is likely to be the same, who knows any better? Of course, you would (if time allowed) fly it anyways.

It's an interesting one... I was tempted to buy one when I seen his, but there are other things that are more important to me at this stage, like stepping away from DSLRs for ceremonies and replacing them with the Sony AX100s that Noa uses.

Great opening shots though! And a really nice story to your film.

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Love it, too. Agreed. It's a great tool to use in the right spots, same as your slider - your establishing shots are perfect.

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Hey thanks for the kind words everyone. Yeah I don't think Id be able to pull this off the same day of the wedding, I went back to the location the next week to snag the clips.

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Im going editing during the week and i got some footage of the venue the day before which looked pretty much like on the day of the wedding, so i plan to use a few seconds of it for an establishing shot of the venue, was a terrible windy day - it can be seen at about the 2 minute mark, was lucky not to have ran it into the trees :-)

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Nice Rob

However I still think that flyovers look much more impressive! Sort of fly up to the venue and over the top of the roof ...I would have thought that would have impressed brides!!

What are you using to fly in wind like that?? I gave up on quadracopters after two flights when a motor died!! I still like the idea of hoisting a GoPro on a bunch of helium balloons and attach a fishing rod and line and just reel it in over the top of the building .

Chris

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

hi Chris
Yeah a complete overhead flight would have been the one!
I'm still somewhat inexperienced with this so i was basically flying it straight up and trying to hover, i think i had it in the wrong mode so was flying manually, or at least it felt that way!
The day was very windy so i had my hands full controlling it rather that trying to get better footage. It's a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+

For the establishing shot it will only be two or three seconds anyway, something different than the usual ground level shot.

Id say the balloons could be problematic too in any kind of wind.

Re: First use of a drone at a wedding
 

Hi Rob

I would have crashed it for sure!! Yeah balloons would only work in dead calm!!! I think unless you spend a fair amount of money for a decent drone and not a toy like I had you are wasting your time .. I think my quad cost me a massive $149 !! but it was worse than useless!!

Maybe what you need to do is go around to all the nice looking venues and shoot some flyover footage and then sell it to the videographers (and maybe even the venue)

It certainly doesn't look easy at all... it would think it would need a LOT of practice to become really good!

For me to get something half decent isn't worth the investment for a few seconds of footage unless I can find another use for it instead of just a hobby?

Chris