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Polaris Slingshot Shoot w/ DJI Aerial Platforms – Mike Mas

Joined
Sep 21, 2015
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Age
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Location
Blairsville Georgia
Website
www.rotory.com
Hello All - I posted this on another forum and wanted to share it on this one as well, its a piece we completed on the Polaris Slingshot. We had a blast doing the job, the Slingshot is very photogenic and as much fun to shoot as it is to drive. My partner Linda did all the driving! I used the P3 and I1.

Enjoy - Mike Mas www.rotory.com

 
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Nice job!

Curious. Did you use the course lock on the Inspire to fly it backwards for those tracking shots of the front of the Slingshot?

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One still needs to fly it by the sticks using course lock; however, course lock allows you to fly the inspire backwards in a much more intuitive way. To capture the following video, I flew the inspire forward, while the camera was facing backwards. Generally this worked, but the angle of the camera is poor and so as you can see the tail and feet of the craft were frequently getting in the shot. Since the field of view of the camera is better when it is facing forward, it is desirable to fly the craft backwards to get shots like this. I assume that is what you did. That is much more challenging, particularly if you are both driving and flying simultaneously as I am doing here. So, the course lock lets you orientate the craft in the direction you want to travel, then turn the craft around to face the direction you intend to film, all while maintaining controls that are intuitive (i.e., up stick to move forward, left for left, right for right, etc.). It's worth a try for those filming moving targets.

 
Good stuff - If i were doing your shot since you used the Inspire, I would have sat in ATV as a passenger with the trans between my knees and just flew it forward. You can see the terrain (turns trees etc.) ahead of you in that manner

A lot of your dipping with the machine showing up is because your flying and driving at different speeds so your ahead then behind back and forth - you need a driver to hold one steady speed say only 15 mph which keeps you smooth with easy minor distance adjustments. You can always get the action back by speeding it back up in post!

For a selfie its a bitchin video!

Mike
 
I've tried this both ways, as a passenger and as the driver. For example, this other video was shot riding the passenger seat as you described. Aside from using course lock to fly backwards, here are other lessons I've learned: (1) It is best to practice driving your route without the craft to decide speed, direction, and camera angles; (2) If you have a driver, one should come up with clear commands for speed adjustments and aborting the run; (3) if your vehicle has a roof, you should anticipate either losing line of sight or keeping the craft low in the horizon; (3) if you are driving off-road or on uneven road surfaces, it is going to be difficult to impossible to avoid small undesired inputs to the controls that are going to spoil your shots with unintended course corrections or uneven speed.

Of course these videos aren't great examples of me putting these lessons to use, but rather the shots I captured while learning these lessons. For example, this video features me frantically trying to give cues to my driver on speed corrections, while losing line of sight, and nearly crashing a dozen times. Worse yet, if you mess all of these things up and/or blow the exposure settings like I did here, reshoots are not an option unless you've brought a truckload of batteries.

In the end, the selflies are a bit easier for the close up forward shots as they take one complication out of the equation: the communication between the driver and pilot. It is easier to control variations in speed between the vehicle and craft when one has control of both simultaneously, albeit this probably isn't for everyone.

 
Beautiful scenery and super shots - hey look that's the problem with Drones today and the thousands of self-proclaimed experts out there, most of them don't understand the complexity of getting the shot - they all think this automation (waypoints - selfie - follow me) is going to do everything while they sit back and the client dumps thousands in their pockets - as you know, you have to work to get a good shot. I can't stress enough for these guys who want to do this professionally to go out buy a basic Phantom 2 leave the camera off and burn battery after battery putting themselves in uncomfortable situations to learn the basic skills of flying a helicopter.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Mike
 

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