Incorporating Mavic Mini into TV news

[George in Sacramento]

I work at the CBS-owned TV station in Sacramento and the news department is big on drones– but it's a bit of a hassle when I want to get video or shoot a standup and I need a photographer to meet me with a station-owned drone. Today I experimented with Quickshot to see how easy it would be to pre-set a flight sequence for a reporter standup with no photographer. I was amazed at the stability of the Mavic Mini. It's also nice that it's a relatively quiet drone. I was wearing a lavalier mic and digital audio recorder and synced the audio in Premiere Pro. Unfortunately even though I have a drone license, CBS doesn't allow staff to use personal drones, so I'll have to do it when I'm not on the clock.

drone standup demos.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[xspwhite]

Look good. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Rchawks]

Excellent presentation on these features. And welcome to the forum. Looking forward to seeing your opinions.

 

[BigAl07]

Excellent demonstration.

I like how you used the mic to capture your audio and then edited it into the video clip. Very well done.

 

[BadRad]

Interesting George. Good report. If its a no-go at CBS, maybe some freelance work, workshops, travel, etc. Anyway, my only suggestions might be: 1) slower circles — maybe not even full circles just to get establishing views; and 2) facials are blown out, but I get all that for a quick practice run. 3). And the old adage for others — practice practice. Maybe a nice closer too after tripod standup and crops. I’m envious considering our no-fly weather here in Minnesota, altho I don’t think that holds CBS news back when needed.

 

[George in Sacramento]

Interesting George. Good report. If its a no-go at CBS, maybe some freelance work, workshops, travel, etc. Anyway, my only suggestions might be: 1) slower circles — maybe not even full circles just to get establishing views; and 2) facials are blown out, but I get all that for a quick practice run. 3). And the old adage for others — practice practice. Maybe a nice closer too after tripod standup and crops. I’m envious considering our no-fly weather here in Minnesota, altho I don’t think that holds CBS news back when needed.

Yeah... I wish we had more control over the speed of the orbit. I’m thinking I’ll likely just do a static hovering shot, which would also allow better control of exposure. The station has full size Mavics with zoom lenses, which opens up a whole bunch of possibilities.

 

[BushWacker]

How do you sync the audio track to the Mini video track?

 

[George in Sacramento]

How do you sync the audio track to the Mini video track?

I’ve got a digital audio recorder about the size of a pack of gum with a lavalier mic. I clap my hands to sync video/audio like a movie scene clapper.

 

[Capt KO]

Hopefully, It won’t be to long until people except tiny drones like carrying a phone. They’ll follow people around like a pet. That may be a bit much ? but I bet CBS would like the spontaneous, in the moment, videos.

still waiting for my first UFO video

 

[Maviac]

I saw a local news story yesterday where they used a drone. It started out directly in front of the reporter then rose up to catch some scene in the background. The props were just barely audible, picked up by the reporter’s mic. It was nicely done.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

News services are really getting into them now, current affairs shows, docos too.
It's great seeing those nice short cinematic shots, sometimes only 5 seconds.

It's interesting I recall one of the major US news outlets about a year or two ago, got an FAA exemption for flying over crowds for news reporting.
They had either the drone that has the full prop cages, or maybe it was a 360 sphere frame shell, or one that breaks up into harmless bits if crashed (and can then be reassembled and fly).

There are quite a lot of them out there now, just don't see them marketed as much as you'd expect.