Music Video Shot Entirely on Mavic Air using Smart Capture

[Datadogie]

Sorry
shaunmichaelj Don't mean to hijack your exelent video post.

Why does he need a commercial license? He's made a video of himself and putting it on YouTube.

Who would he be selling the video to?

Don't you think it is good enough to sell? Say he wants to use it as a promotional video. Does that count? I know this one is not monotized on youtube bit if it were (even only making pennies) this still comes under the rules. Which is why I say Bummer. I am not saying that drones don't need reguluted. I think they do as there are some idiots out there but at £1000 for a hobbiest to make a pound or two for the odd video for friends. To me that sucks, you are doing no harm unlike those that see how far they can fly their drone out of VLOS.

 

[Jez275]

Sorry
shaunmichaelj Don't mean to hijack your exelent video post.

Don't you think it is good enough to sell? Say he wants to use it as a promotional video. Does that count? I know this one is not monotized on youtube bit if it were (even only making pennies) this still comes under the rules. Which is why I say Bummer. I am not saying that drones don't need reguluted. I think they do as there are some idiots out there but at £1000 for a hobbiest to make a pound or two for the odd video for friends. To me that sucks, you are doing no harm unlike those that see how far they can fly their drone out of VLOS.

"Selling" video's is not something that happens in the music industry. A video is a necessary mechanism/platform to get your music heard.

As far as monetised YouTube videos - that’s outside of the CAA commercial operations definition (and FAA unless anyone here knows to the contrary), otherwise every single YT video that includes drone shots would need to be demonetised - unless filmed by a licensed operator. Which is not the case.

 

[ed956]

Good effort! Even more so that you bought and learnt to use a drone just to do this!

 

[Charles]

Awesome initiative and even better execution! You did a fantastic job Mate on the whole project --> I agree with one of the above comments, I bet the editing was a serious lesson in patience! I like the sone and I hope we all see more from you soon.

 

[TSP181]

I’m totally impressed! Makes me want to go find someone to work with and shoot a music video!

 

[James in the Desert]

Really good job, you nailed it, now I am inspired. Thanks for posting.

 

[zwt100]

wow.. So i did it...

I bought the Mavic Air Specifically for the purpose of shooting a music video, not to fly 2 miles out and spy on my neighbours (just kidding). People wanted to charge me nearly 2k to shoot 3 music videos. So i bought the Mavic Air to do it all myself, using the smart capture active track - I shot an entire music video using my drone.

I got some great cinematic footage of Oxford using advice about camera footage from people on this forum (Thank you!)

I made a lot of footage that i couldn't use due to low lighting, facing the sun or something else i didn't calculate. The battery died on me several times so i had to buy more batteries which took a month to come due to Chinese new year, and filming in active track, performing to the camera and playing the music from a bluetooth speaker was painful at times and other times people thought i was crazy and didn't even SEE the drone. They just thought i was singing in the street.

People are quite impressed and it got featured in the local newspaper - Reggae musician's drone music video in tribute to footballer Wayne St Clair

People like my song which i am VERY happy about.

Check it out.

Awesome song and really nice work on the video.

 

[Okiesnake]

Very Cool! Great job. Inspires me to bring up my video up to the next level.

 

[dbo]

Impressive. Syncing the audio must have been a nightmare. Sorry to put a damper on this. But your next step is to get a comersialdrone licence so you can sell the video. Which to me is the biggest bummer for the odd paying video. Not sure what the likelyhood of being caught is. Probably no more than the distance leader board.

Always one in every post

 

[HiKen51]

wow.. So i did it...

People are quite impressed and it got featured in the local newspaper - Reggae musician's drone music video in tribute to footballer Wayne St Clair

People like my song which i am VERY happy about.

Check it out.

Fantastic job! As to any comments about color or camera movement, hey--it's a music video. Anything goes. It's your stylistic touch!

 

[Priest]

Amazing music video and the song is really catchy. As others have mentioned, there are a few things that could be improved but it still turned out great and I’m sure it was a huge learning experience. Taking what you now know, I imagine your next music video is going to be even better, and the third one a masterpiece! I hope you’ll share those with us when you complete those also. I love this idea of you shooting your own music videos.

 

[NestleQuik]

NIce job, video and song

 

[KDog]

This is as about as shoe-string a budget as you can shoot a music video for these days, and the results - while not professional level of course - repeesemt huge bang for buck. And this is a brilliant, novel way of doing an entire video yourself. Well done.

There’s one trick that the music video industry ALWAYS uses that’s pretty easy to apply: have you ever wondered how the professional videos always look really flowy and nice? What they do is record the video at between 120% and 140% of the song speed. All this means is that you speed your lip sync track up this higher speed and then sing really fast (and move a little quicker but not much) when shooting. Then in post production, slow the footage down to 100% of the song speed and bam! You’ve got ‘slow motion’ footage of you singing your song at normal speed! A bit cheeky, but brilliant and relatively easy to execute. Syncing the sound back up to the music in post can become a bit trickier than if you film at normal speeds, but since you’ve (correctly) used very short shots and plenty of cut-scenes, it’s not a huge hassle (I’ve found that long shots filmed at 23.976 FPS can get out of sync due to the dropframe rate, so it’s easier to keep things nice and short).

Anyway, we’ll done and you can only learn and improve from here.

 

[skadee]

Very impressive! Beautiful use of Smart Capture, and great editing!

 

[Raymondo]

So Special - indeed. I am not into rap but this song is very catchy, and a tribute to boot.

The critics about the Air and it's ability to track, obviously have not seen music videos for a while. There are plenty of clips with far more hand-held Shaky Cam, than this - done intentionally. I think the style suits the song.

What is with the current obsession with 4K? I have started getting clients asking for it, yet they intend to publish on the web, to be viewed on a phone or laptop! I also film with camcorders. A GOOD 1080 camera can produce footage that looks great in a Cinema. Not so long ago, the first digital cinemas were only 2K, but the public didn't complain.

As filmmakers, data wrangling becomes a pain, plus having to upgrade cameras and edit stations. Due to client pressures for 4k, I have had to pay Apple a ridiculous price for a Prores license for my I2, and buy $1000+ SSD's. Thank goodness no one is asking for CinemaSSD yet.

Sorry if the last comments are on the wrong forum, but an earlier post complained abut 1080p restrictions on the Air.

 

[Raymondo]

Sorry,. Forgot to add that it was a great shoot and edit too. Would love to film the spires of Qxford, but am in Australia. How did you get the OK to film?

 

[rich146]

wow.. So i did it...

I bought the Mavic Air Specifically for the purpose of shooting a music video, not to fly 2 miles out and spy on my neighbours (just kidding). People wanted to charge me nearly 2k to shoot 3 music videos. So i bought the Mavic Air to do it all myself, using the smart capture active track - I shot an entire music video using my drone.

I got some great cinematic footage of Oxford using advice about camera footage from people on this forum (Thank you!)

I made a lot of footage that i couldn't use due to low lighting, facing the sun or something else i didn't calculate. The battery died on me several times so i had to buy more batteries which took a month to come due to Chinese new year, and filming in active track, performing to the camera and playing the music from a bluetooth speaker was painful at times and other times people thought i was crazy and didn't even SEE the drone. They just thought i was singing in the street.

People are quite impressed and it got featured in the local newspaper - Reggae musician's drone music video in tribute to footballer Wayne St Clair

People like my song which i am VERY happy about.

Check it out.

I plan to do the same. Good work. Takes balls to get shots like that in public (Artist miming perspective) .

I’m contemplating on whether to attempt my music video with my current DJI Spark or order the Mavic Air . I’m thinking the 3 axis smoothness of the Air will create a more professional look ? Any thoughts ? Cheers

 

[shaunmichaelj]

This is as about as shoe-string a budget as you can shoot a music video for these days, and the results - while not professional level of course - repeesemt huge bang for buck. And this is a brilliant, novel way of doing an entire video yourself. Well done.

There’s one trick that the music video industry ALWAYS uses that’s pretty easy to apply: have you ever wondered how the professional videos always look really flowy and nice? What they do is record the video at between 120% and 140% of the song speed. All this means is that you speed your lip sync track up this higher speed and then sing really fast (and move a little quicker but not much) when shooting. Then in post production, slow the footage down to 100% of the song speed and bam! You’ve got ‘slow motion’ footage of you singing your song at normal speed! A bit cheeky, but brilliant and relatively easy to execute. Syncing the sound back up to the music in post can become a bit trickier than if you film at normal speeds, but since you’ve (correctly) used very short shots and plenty of cut-scenes, it’s not a huge hassle (I’ve found that long shots filmed at 23.976 FPS can get out of sync due to the dropframe rate, so it’s easier to keep things nice and short).

Anyway, we’ll done and you can only learn and improve from here.

I’ve just played a gig and it’s
Nearly 6 am and I’m drinking wine. God **** it. It is spring after all, though people think I’m
In my mid 30’s I’m only 28 and this is the reason.

Anyhow, that is a great suggestion I might try it! Thank you for the insight! The one troubling thing is, your shooting alone or sometimes a friend might control the music, however you don’t want to make the wrong movement and crash the drone either especially with your hands. With no sensors in the side it may crash and end up in a wall or tree.

That was the biggest stress.

Thank you for the love

 

[shaunmichaelj]

Many thanks for liking my track! Please continue to support Shaun Michael that I may get the support to make more music!

Spotify - So Special
iTunes - So Special - Single von Shaun Michael
Soundcloud - So Special - Shaun Michael .Prod by Meek
Facebook.com/iamshaunmichaelj -page
Facebook.com/iamshaunmichael - personal
YouTube.com/MrShaunMichael

 

[KevinPritchett]

I made a lot of mistakes, but i got there in the end. The next video won't be so hard.

Outstanding just job. Simply amazing... Love the song, the video, and the fact that you managed to do that with the MA is impressive!!