American Cinematographer - September 2022 - 29

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM
A DJI Mavic 2 drone captures a whale swimming
amid glacial waters in Ilulissat, Greenland.
lock one off and go to the other. "
Some caution that there can be too much reliance on drones,
particularly noisy models that make some animals anxious. Wildlife
filmmaker Dereck Joubert, who works with his wife, Beverly, notes
that some drones " sound like bees, and that high-pitched tone can be
very irritating, particularly to elephants. Buffalo start moving; big cats
get up - hippos, also. A helicopter with a long lens is much better. We
use drones, but cautiously. "
Says Tirén, " There are certainly things that drones can do that
helicopters can't, and vice versa. I think the industry still has a lot to
learn in terms of which of the two to use when, and I'm hoping we'll
get to a point in the not-too-distant future where helicopters and
drones can coexist in harmony. But we're not there yet. On many occasions,
drones are chosen [over] helicopters just to cut costs before
researching and comparing the practical aspects. There are [many]
examples of where it takes a lot longer, and a lot more crew is needed,
to achieve the desired shot or shots [with a drone]. "
Drone technology is evolving quickly. Alastair Fothergill, who
served as a director and producer on Polar Bear, says, " When we
started [production] in 2019, the drones - [DJI] Inspire and early
Mavics - weren't high-enough resolution, had short battery lives and
were too loud. " The polar bears didn't like the sound. " Then the Mavic
2 came out - it's quiet, has longer battery life and better res. Suddenly,
we could fly them longer, and the bears weren't bothered by them. "
Stephen Oh, camera operator and CEO of XM2 Pursuit, has been
designing new ways to mount cinema cameras on drones and helicopters,
as well as on ground-based vehicles. With a variety of platforms,
XM2 aims to give filmmakers an array of tools for different purposes.
" They're each a different paintbrush for a different application, "
Oh says. " They can emulate each other, but they can't replace each
other. "
Trial-and-error becomes key as new camera platforms are created,
he adds. " You quickly realize we're entering a new space. It's
not something you can go to school to learn. Drones have only been
around for a decade now. [The technology is] still fresh and new, and
there are always new ones being developed. It's opening a whole new
world for everyone [in the field], actually. "
" When you start getting long lenses on drones, they will become
massive tools, " Scholey says. " And if you look at the quality of these
military drones, there is clearly a lot of new stuff coming down the
line. "
As for the next frontier, Scholey points to the ocean. " Underwater
drones could start to be interesting, pushing the limits. If you have a
drone that can move at 20 knots underwater and can dive and follow
animals, imagine the results. Most of what marine creatures do we
have never seen. "
SEPTEMBER 2022 / 29
IMAGE COURTESY OF XM2 PURSUIT.
http://www.ASCMAG.COM
American Cinematographer - September 2022

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