DRONE PRO
Not unlike planning any professional flight, Paul and the crew were able to script the entire aerial shoot from start to finish.
was effectively out of his hands. “I had to do as much as I could to tee everyone up for success but ultimately once we called action I was essentially a spectator. The Director of Photography, Greg Wilson, and I had a walkie-talkie that allowed us to modulate the tempo of the drone pilot’s moves, but that was about as much control as I had.
“On the day of the shoot, we ran very rough rehearsal walkthroughs of the scene before going to lunch. As we ran our first rehearsal take, my heart was racing. There was a lot on the line, especially since this was all coming out of my pocket. I had no idea if this would actually work. I felt the rehearsal take worked for the most part but it wasn’t perfect.”
One Take TO Rule Them all
Without spoiling one of the film’s most striking moments, a scripted mechanical element failed to work, but Paul says the cast carried on anyway. Also, in the final shot where the drone rises up for a stunning overhead he tells us that “a gust of wind threw it off course”.In addition the take also cut out a little earlier than planned, losing a number of frames. “I figured it was a good start and was ready to move on to the bigger set up. When we ran it again we had more problems.”
Once again the mechanical ‘gag’ didn’t fire and that wasn’t the only problem. “The lead actor’s mic pack came loose and the drone battery was dying sooner than expected. We landed the drone and tried to pick up the take
we were nearly out of light since the sun set at 4:30pm that day. By the time we were ready to do another take, we were completely out of daylight. I was devastated as I thought we didn’t get the take. I thought we’d have to come and shoot it again and I just lost thousands of dollars.
“It wasn’t until I reviewed the Inspire’s ‘rehearsal’ take that I began to talk myself into salvaging it; what you see as the final film was supposed to be a rehearsal. It was truly our first and only good take.” And presumably the mechanical issue was rectified with a little digital wizardry in post-production.
The results are certainly impressive, especially for a rehearsal. It’s also interesting to see how far the
technology has come in the short period since the film was
DRONE PRO
PRacTice makes PeRfecT
Although the film itself was shot in a single take, it’s worth emphasising that the final product actually came from a rehearsal shoot – and when we asked Paul for any advice for his fellow directors as a result, he was quick to draw attention to his due diligence. “I can’t stress how important the rehearsing, blocking and choreography is when doing something this intricate. That’s really the key; how dedicated are you to rehearsing something as many times as it takes?
“That’s all a good long take is, tons of rehearsing. Rehearsing can certainly limit the spontaneity of an actor’s performance so you want to make sure that you’re rehearsing only the cues and timing. Work with each actor on their own to make sure that when you’re finally rolling the real take, you keep some surprises up their sleeve.”
shot, with the Inspire 2 still barely a rumour back then and Paul pointing to problems with the drone’s stabilizing tech. “There is this unsettling floating movement that is always present, even when the camera is supposed to be still. It’s not a type of floating movement we’re used to seeing since it has a different quality than handheld. At first it bothered me, but the more times I watch the film the more I grew used to it. I think it adds to the unsettling atmosphere of the film.”
Unsurprisingly Paul is happy to have drones as part of his filmmaking arsenal and can see even more people following in his footsteps (or air trails?). “It’s certainly allowed amateur filmmakers access to what was once an expensive shot to be done incredibly cheap. I would have killed to have had a drone when I was a kid! However, the purpose of making this film was to explore other ways of using the drone for storytelling purposes. When anyone can get a ‘cool shot’ you’ve got to bring something else to the table. You have to bring your unique perspective on why the hell you’re using a drone in the first place.”
Paul tells us that this “definitely won’t be the last time I use a drone” and even hints at some technological advancements he’s working on to further eliminate the potential for human error. “It was a personal challenge to do this film, a giant experiment essentially. I’m pleased with the results but this was only to prove that we could do bigger and better things. If you’re interested in drones or long takes, or both, please check out the film and let me know your thoughts. Even if this is not someone’s cup of tea, I hope it inspires people to use drones more for storytelling purposes.”
We’d certainly recommend a viewing – though we would emphasise that its ‘Mature’ rating makes it unsuitable for younger readers. You can watch the film, along with a ‘Making Of’ featurette and a variety of Paul’s other work, on Vimeo (vimeo.com/paultrillo)
and via his website paultrillo.com.