Storytelling with Drones

This outstanding piece by former DVOW Winner and 2023 DVOY nominee Alexandre Velluet x Scandia Productions offers hope as well as a warning.  Opening with stunning shots from Iceland, the video reminds us it took 4 billion years for the earth to evolve to the point where it could support life.  Just before the 1:00, the scene shifts to the Chassiron Lighthouse on France's Oléron, then back to Iceland, during which time we are reminded that humankind's "progress" over the last 200 years has put the earth on the brink of destruction.  
 

"Cinewhoop" style first person view (FPV) drones - which are light weight and have ducted propellers - are becoming one of the most versatile tools for creative cinematographers.  When flown by skilled pilots, they can be flown both indoors and outdoors, and in close proximity to people.  To see the vistas that these tiny platforms are opening up, check out this amazing piece by contributor and FPV pilot aniacopian.  Stabilized with Reelsteady and expertly edited, you'll see why this video won the Cinematic FPV category at the 6th Annual NYCDFF.

Drone pilot Face du Monde brings us this magnificent video production from the West African country of Gabon. This video uses drone footage to pay tribute to the American environmental scientist J. Michael Fay and the Spanish-born National Geographic "explorer in residence" Eric Sala, who spent extensive time exploring Gabon's fragile eco-systems and were credited with helping this stunningly bio-diverse country establish its national park system as well as its extensive system of oceanic reserves. This video earned a nomination for the landscape category at the NYCDFF.

Top AirVuz contributor JAZ used a drone to create this mini-documentary covering a dogsled race in the Alps Mountains.  The event is called the La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc 2020, and it's been held on the slopes of the tallest mountain in the Alps since 2005.  The race involves teams of 14 dogs and covers a distance of 900 km (around 560 mi.) in France and Switzerland, with a total altitude change of 25k meters (about 82k ft.).  This video earned a NYCDFF nomination in the Narrative/Documentary category.

First-person view (FPV) pilot jhonyazeir brings us this powerful video of Beirut, Lebanon in the aftermath of a powerful explosion which earned a NYCDFF nomination.  The accidental detonation of a huge store of fertilizer ingredient ammonium nitrate killed approximately 200 people, injured several thousand, and caused an estimated US $10-15 billion in property damage in this Mediterranean port city.  The haunting FPV footage will bring you a unique perspective of the loss created by the tragedy.

Muhamad AbuShakra is one of the top content creators in the AirVuz community; his videos have garnered numerous Drone Video of the Week/Month awards.  He travels solo extensively throughout Europe, and his signature style shots involve epic views of himself hiking and climbing in epic locations.  In this highly inspiring piece, he's compiled some of his best footage to tell a story about the wonder and joy of travel and adventure.  The video features stunning footage from across the Alps Mountains as well as from Iceland and Norway.   

Created by the Belgian contributor Kelly's Heroes, "Drift" is a short that tells the story of a young boy named Oscar and his imaginary friend.  The film uses a drone photography technique that the creator calls Anamorphic retrozooms, which can only be understood by watching the film.  Suffice to say it's an extremely creative use of the power of the modern drone to make incredible content.  This video was chosen as a finalist for the first annual AirVuz Drone Video Awards in the Originality category.  

Belgian contributor and pilot Kelly's Heroes created an instant drone video classic with this amazing film, which was created to help promote the Comic Arts Museum and Hotel in Ghent, the great medieval city in the country's Flanders region. It tells a human story, set against a beautiful backdrop of the Benelux landscape of plains intermixed with hills.  The video combines both elements beautifully, and it was nominated for the Drone Video of the Week Award in one of the contest's first weeks.  

In this highly creative short film, contributor Chrisxgxc teamed up with his five year old son and used his DJI Phantom 4 drone with some very clever editing to create the impression of chasing his son piloting a World War I era biplane.  The video was the winner of the 2017 AirVuz Drone Video Awards in the Originality category and was also a winner at the Los Angeles Drone Film Festival.  The backdrop is area of northwestern Oklahoma known as the Panhandle, which is located in the heart of the USA's Great Plains. 

AirVuz content creator and pilot Aerobo used a DJI Inspire 1 drone mounted with a Zenmuse X5 camera to create a single shot of a rather comic scene in a a cul de sac in small neighborhood.  The video received high acclaim worldwide for its highly creative approach, earning a number of drone film festival and similar awards.  As you watch it, you'll appreciate that this scene would be  impossible to film without the use of an airborne camera.  It bears watching twice to appreciate how clever this is.  

In this highly creative piece, AirVuz contributor and pilot Drone Media Chicago used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create an aerial story about the great Midwestern city of Chicago and its troubled neighborhoods.  The video includes a mix of ground footage and aerial footage from across the Windy City, all of which is beautifully edited.  With its powerful story told in part through aerial footage, the video was nominated as a finalist for the 2017 AirVuz Drone Video Awards in the Originality category.  

Celebrate Earth Day 2023 with this stunning drone video by top AirVuz contributor and pilot VolcaDrone Productions.  The video opens with shots of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, followed by views of some migrating whales.  Next, you'll track a group of hikers descending into a volcanic caldera, followed by some epic shots of some parasailers.  Other highlights of this Drone Video of the Week Finalist video include a series of epic surfing and waterfall shots.  

Award-winning contributor Grim Berge created this amazing recreation of a scene from the 2018 blockbuster Mission: Impossible - Fallout from its original filming location.  Located in western Norway, Preikestolen, aka the Pulpit Rock, features a vertical cliff of over 600 meters (almost 2k ft.) down to the Lysefjorden.  Shot mainly with a DJI Inspire 2 drone, the video recreates an epic escape scene in the film, which was set in the Himalayas but was in fact filmed right here in Norway. 

What would it look like to land on Mars? This Drone Video of the Week Nominee and Drone Video of the Month Staff Pick by contributor and pilot petemaj23 shows us what he imagines a lone astronaut on the Red Planet would see and feel. The deserts of southern Utah are the perfect backdrop for his short, experimental narrative, shot with a DJI Mavic Air, about what life would look like on another planet.  This video was picked as a Finalist in the Originality category for the second annual Drone Video Awards.

Mauro Pagliai has an alternative idea of what a travel video should look like! Navigate through time as he uses his drone to soar around ancient ruins, creatively showing off the different ways photography has changed. The backdrop of Abruzzo in the central part of Italy is perfect for this highly creative piece.  This video won both the Drone Video of the Week and the Drone Video of the Month contest and was picked as a Finalist in the Originality category for the second annual Drone Video Awards.

This beautiful aerial reel is a perfect homage to Women Who Drone, and who better to represent women drone influencers than top AirVuz constibutor Sandrine Hecq? The talented content creator compiled all her favorite drone shots from her unforgettable travels to both share the backstory for how she was drawn to create in this new art medium, as well as show appreciation to women in the drone zone. This video was picked as a Finalist in the second annual Drone Videos Awards in the People/Lifestyle category.

Award-winning contributor Postandfly makes brilliant use of his DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to create this very powerful "aerial story" of Mexico City.  With a metropolitan population of over 20 million, the Mexican capital city presents enormous contrasts: it's home to over a dozen billionaires, many millions who live in cramped apartments or worse, and millions more in countless varieties in between.  In this video, you'll get a great bird's eye perspective on the way in which millions live in the great city. 

Brand-new AirVuz contributor tomjauncey is a legendary content creator; he is the Vice President of Content Creation for the juggernaut travel platform Beautiful Destinations, and has an Instagram following approaching 300k as of late 2020.  For his first upload to AirVuz, he brings us this highly creative video, which incorporates some stunningly cinematic first person view (FPV) drone footage.  It depicts a terrorist attack and is shown in reverse sequence.  This was an easy pick for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in December, 2020.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner brings us another stunning drone video, this one from the Namib Desert of Southern Africa.  Shot with a Zenmuse X7 camera mounted to a DJI Inspire 2 drone, the video follows the path of a girl who is "lost" in the vastness of this giant coastal desert, which covers the entire Namibian coastline as well as parts of Angola to the north and South Africa to the south.  Formed an estimated 55-80 million years ago, the Namib is believed to be the oldest desert in the world.  

What's a bored dinosaur to do? Take an adventure through the Alps Mountains of Europe, of course! This unique and hilarious piece comes from the imagination of contributor and drone pilot Borsch. Watch Dino do "touristy" things like observing nature, hitch hiking, and snowboarding against a dream-like background of the snow-capped Alps mountains in the heart of Central Europe.  This video was picked as a Finalist in the Originality category for the second annual Drone Video Awards. 

Shot on a DJI Phantom 4, chrisxgxc uses his skills and mighty imagination to bring us what a dronie would look like if the world was taken over by zombies. A master of visual effects, Chris says this is how he would break out of a horde of zombies - mapping his escape route with a drone!  Chris was a winner at the first annual Drone Video Awards with his classic "Cardboard Cadet"; he repeated the feat the following year when this video was chosen as the Winner in the Dronie category for the 2nd Annual Drone Video Awards.

Two-time Drone Video Award winner Chrisxgxc helped to produce this moving video story about the impact of the Carr Fire which raged through Shasta and Trinity Counties of Northern California in late July and August of 2018.  The fire, one of the worst in California history, destroyed over a thousand homes and damaged hundreds more.  It took over a month of backbreaking, dangerous work by hundreds of firefighters to bring the fire under control.  The film required superimposing fire and smoke effects on drone footage of the area.  

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) drone pilot fpvunity put together this amazing video showing the loading of a train with relief supplies at a port facility in Hamburg, Germany.  Called the Train of Hope, it went on to cross Europe on a journey to an area of Turkey that was decimated by the February, 2023 earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey and adjacent areas of Syria.  This video was picked by the AirVuz editorial staff for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in January of 2024.    

Top AirVuz contributor and FPV drone pilot WestPsydeFPV had the rare honor of winning the Drone Video of the Week contest and also making the FPV Pilots to Watch list with this highly creative and inspiring piece.  In the video, he relates how the end of a romantic relationship forced him out of his "comfort" zone, leading him to relocate from his native Colorado and to pursue a new niche flying for music festivals.  The video features some amazing shots from his old and new homes, including some highly cinematic "setup" shots.  

The great Lebanese capital city of Beirut experienced one of the worst tragedies in its long history on August 4, 2020, when a warehouse full of fertilizer ingredients exploded.  One of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, the blast killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, and left much of its port area in ruins.  As part of a fundraiser for relief efforts, MrFpv | manuelbass captured this devastating scene via his first person view (FPV) drone; the video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in August, 2020.  
 

Contributor and pilot Carlos Duarte used a drone to create this powerful video of a Central American "migrant caravan".  These caravans are part of a vast movement of people north from Central America into Mexico and thence to the United States.  In this particular video, you'll see these unfortunates making their way out of (or through) Honduras into Guatemala, which has a long border with Mexico.  Exposed to all manner of deprivations, these migrants hope to make their way to the United States.  

Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the oil rich country known as the United Arab Emirates. Sitting off the mainland on an island in the Persian Gulf, the modern skyline and white-marble domes of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque make the city look like Dorthy’s mythical Oz. This incredible piece by T.E.S.T. Srls features the city, doing an excellent job showcasing its culture. We particularly enjoyed the shot at 20 seconds, where the protagonist stands in the white desert sands, staring ahead into the mirage-like city.  

Contributor and drone pilot Marco G. Lerin traveled in a van for three months throughout the great Southern European nation of Spain.  This incredibly inspiring travel film blends the natural beauty of the Iberian Penninsula and adds a human element, woven together with beautifully edited transitions.  The video was nominated as a finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest, and subsequently was picked as a Finalist in the Originality category for the second annual Drone Video Awards. 

New AirVuz contributor AirJourdanFPV brings us this haunting first person view (FPV) drone video of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the immediate aftermath of the civil unrest triggered by the death of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.  Captured on video, the brutal killing caused international outrage and triggered massive protests which began in the Twin Cities and soon spread around the world.  While most protests were peaceful, Minneapolis and St. Paul saw considerable rioting damage.  

Award-winning content creator and drone pilot LukeMaximoBell blended aerial and ground camera footage to create this unforgettable video from the Southeast Asian island nation of Papua New Guinea.  PNG occupies the eastern half of New Guinea, the world's second-largest island, which it shares with Indonesia.  With long coastlines on the Solomon, Coral, and Bismarck Seas, the island is dominated by a chain of mountains and highlands which runs along its length and is home to some of the largest contiguous rainforest areas.  

Award-winning contributor Postandfly used a drone to document one of the darker sides of Mexico City: its pollution.  He flew a drone out over the Mexican capital on one of its worst air quality days yet, providing a compelling visual testament to the limits of urban growth.  The largest city in the Western Hemisphere, Mexico City's smog is a function not just of its size but the fact that it's in a valley surrounded by mountains.  It's a combination that can yield conditions like what you'll see here.

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot smakozawr took home his third Drone Video of the Week win with this haunting video showing the devastation in Ukraine from the war triggered by the invasion from neighboring Russia in February of 2022.  The video focuses on three cities: Irpin, Bucha, and Gostomel.  The three cities lie a bit to the northwest of Kiev and bore the brunt of the Russian offensive against the national capital, which  was successfully repulsed by Ukraine's armed forces but which resulted in thousands of civilian deaths.  

Check out this magnificent video from the Portuguese island of Madeira, compliments of Drone Video Award winner videobros. Shot just before much of Portugal went into lockdown to combat the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic, the video plays upon the cloudcover which prevented the creator from hiking to the top of Pico Ruivo, the island's highest mountain. "Behind the Clouds" is a metaphor for the uncertainty faced by humanity as the deadly virus disrupts the lives of billions around the globe.  This video won DVOW in April 2020.

While tulips originated in the mountains of Central Asia, since the late Middle Ages the flower has been most closely associated with the lands now part of the Netherlands.  In this excellent video by former Drone Video of the Week/Month Winner By_ewold, you'll get a highly instructive aerial view of the process of planting and harvesting tulips.  The narrated video follows the cycle of tulip bulb planting in the Fall to their harvest in the Spring, when the Dutch countryside explodes in color.  

Top AirVuz creator and 2023 Drone Video of the Year nominee Feeling Drone - Guillermo García won the Drone Video of the Week contest in October, 2023 with this fantastic piece shot on DJI's new Air 3 drone.  The video was filmed in two spots: the Spanish region of Valencia, in the east-central part of the country; and the Portuguese island of Madeira, which lies off the coast of North Africa.  The video is set to an inspiring narrative describing how technology can help bring us closer to nature and help us understand our fragile world.  
 

Much of the damage caused to the earth by the march of "civilization" is not readily visible from the ground.  That's where drones can be used to tell a story of how the planet's landscapes have been profoundly altered by industrialization.  In this incredible piece by new AirVuz contributor MilanRadisics, you'll see an excellent example of "storytelling by drone".  He was able to fly over some of these planetary scars - tailing ponds, chemical residue pools, ashponds, and the like - showing us how profoundly our consumption has changed the earth.

Top contributor Jay Christensen brings us this masterpiece of a drone reel from his home city of Minneapolis. The film uses a variety of drone footage to show the empty downtowns due to the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, as well as the protests, rioting, and devastation following the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day, which triggered some of the most serious racial unrest in the USA in decades.  Also seen are empty Target Field, US Bank Stadium, Target Center, Excel Center, and Allianz Field. 

"We'll Be Back" is an appropriate title for this excellent 2020 drone highlight reel by AirVuz contributor and former Drone Video of the Week Finalist CG Films, who compiled some of his best footage from across Italy to send an inspiring message to close out the year so tragically marred by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The video features spectacular aerial footage from across the country, including the Dolomite Mountains, the Tyrennian Sea coast of Salerno, the Amalfi Coast, the ancient city of Basilicata, and more.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist RobSkyHigh brings us this stunning drone video from Utah's Wasatch Mountains.  The video was shot during the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.  Accompanying the magnificent footage is an inspiring message regarding the fragility of the Earth and humanity's collective responsibility to maintain.  The Wasatch Range runs on a north-south for a length of about 160 mi. (around 260 km), with its northern end near the Utah/Idaho border.  It's part of the Rocky Mountains system.  

AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot MrFpv brings us this rather haunting tour of central Beirut, Lebanon in the aftermath of a giant explosion which devastated the city in August, 2020.  The explosion of a store of fertilizer ingredients in a warehouse ripped through this Mediterranean port on August 4 killed hundreds, injured thousands, and caused billions of US dollars' worth of property damage.  This video was picked for the AirVuz FPV Pilots to Watch list in late September, 2020.   

In this AirVuz Original production, contributor and Instagram star Pilot Viking stars as a Scandinavian Viking obsessed with legends about "another" Viking tribe in a faraway place called Minneota.  Filmed primarily with drones, the the video depicts him discovering a helmet worn by his far away "brothers", setting off on a journey in a Viking boat across the ocean and, after a mishap, ending up first on the shore of Lake Superior and ultimately in a strange place called US Bank Stadium to join his fellow norsemen.  

On this episode of The Drone Dish, host Tyler talks with Chris Castor (AirVūz Profile: chrisxgxc), a visual artist turned filmmaker from whose breakthrough video "Cardboard Cadet" won the 2017 Drone Video of the Year in the "Originality" category.  Chris's videos (including his more recent video "The Last Dronie", which was nominated as a Finalist in the Dronie category for the second annual DVA's) are all shot against the backdrop of the Great Plains in his native Oklahoma.