Drones aren’t just “cool shots.” Used correctly, they compress time, reveal scale, and connect your operations to the people you serve. This playbook shows decision makers how to translate company goals into purposeful aerial sequences that drive measurable outcomes—on your website, landing pages, recruiting campaigns, trade-show loops, and social channels.
What Drones Do Better (and When to Use Them)
- Show scale and context: campuses, plants, job sites, logistics routes, retail footprints.
- Clarify process: top-down passes and lateral tracking can explain workflows faster than VO and b-roll alone.
- Transport the viewer: elegant reveals turn ordinary spaces into “arrival moments” that build pride and trust.
- Reduce production friction: one aircraft can capture multiple angles efficiently when a scene is time-sensitive (pour, install, ribbon-cutting).
- When not to use: tight, emotionally intimate scenes where dialog and micro-expressions matter—use grounded cameras and let aerials establish context.
The Story Framework: People, Place, Process, Proof
Tie every flight to one of these pillars:
- People — leadership, makers, crews, customers.
- Place — your footprint, access, safety culture, community.
- Process — how you build, care, deliver, innovate.
- Proof — outcomes, scale, quality, sustainability, reliability.
Design each aerial move to strengthen at least one pillar. If a shot doesn’t serve a pillar, it’s probably a vanity pass.
Pre-Production: Decisions That Make Aerials Work
Objectives & audience
- Define the business outcome (conversion, recruiting, investor relations, PR).
- Match deliverables to channels (16:9 web banners, 9:16 reels, 1:1 carousels).
Locations & permissions
- Identify controlled areas, rooftops, loading bays, parking, helipad/TFR proximity.
- Confirm landowner permission; schedule around peak traffic and critical operations.
Compliance & safety (commercial work)
- Part 107-qualified crew, LAANC/airspace checks, site-specific risk assessment.
- Establish emergency procedures, visual observer roles, and cordoned zones.
Creative brief
- Story beats, shot priorities, must-have signage/milestones, talent/vehicles, wardrobe/PPE, hero times (golden/blue hour), and weather plan.
Technical targets
- 4K or 5.1K capture, 10-bit log profile, ND filters for 180° shutter rule, consistent white balance, waypoints for repeatability, RAW stills for hero frames.
Shot Design: Moves With Marketing Intent
- Rise-Reveal: Begin behind a foreground (signage, product, machinery), ascend to reveal facility → strongest for “Place.”
- Parallax Orbit: Slow, wide orbit around a subject (doorway, team, machine) to imply stature and activity → “People + Proof.”
- Dolly Down the Line: Low, lateral track along a conveyor/assembly line → “Process.”
- Top-Down Diagram: True nadir pass to turn a floor layout into a living infographic → “Process + Proof.”
- Push-Through Transition: Start outside, transition through a bay door to the interior (with prop-guarded cinewhoop) → “Place → Process.”
- Pull-Back to Scale: Begin close on a product, retreat to show the campus, trucks, or customer arrival → “Proof.”
Speed & altitude discipline
- Exterior “hero” moves: 8–16 mph reads confident; indoor cinewhoop: 2–6 mph feels intentional.
- Keep horizons level unless motivated (e.g., purposeful tilt/angle during dynamic sports or event shots).
Flying Indoors: How to Make It Cinematic and Safe
- Aircraft: lightweight, prop-guarded platforms (cinewhoop-style) for hallways, labs, showrooms.
- Path rehearsal: walk the route, mark hazards (sprinkler heads, signage, cables), and pre-light corners.
- Crew roles: pilot, spotter, and floor safety—doors controlled, comms on discrete channel.
- Lighting: continuous practicals plus soft fills; avoid strobing; lock exposure and white balance for continuity.
- Sound plan: capture room tone and effects between flights; drones are loud—record clean dialogue separately.
Audio & Narration That Survive Rotor Noise
- Treat drone passes as visual b-roll. Record interviews, VO, and nat-sound on separate takes.
- Use cutaways (hands, machines, customer moments) to cover dialogue edits while the aerials establish space.
Post-Production & AI-Accelerated Finishing
- Color pipeline: normalize log to Rec.709 with consistent contrast and skin tone handling; reserve heavy looks for campaign needs.
- Stabilization & cadence: gentle stabilization; avoid over-smoothing that erases intent.
- AI assists (used responsibly): object cleanup (cones, scuffs), plate extensions, subtle sky continuity, logo isolation for animated reveals, intelligent noise management, auto-captions, and multi-format reframing (16:9 → 9:16/1:1) while protecting composition.
- Versioning: master cut (90–120s), 30s spot, 15s social, 6s bumper, plus 5–10 micro-moments for reels.
Distribution: Make the Aerials Earn Their Keep
- Web: hero video with silent-first captions; LCP-friendly encoding and fallback images.
- Social: platform-native aspect ratios; hook in first 2 seconds with motion or reveal.
- Recruiting: campus fly-ins + people at work; pair with testimonial lower-thirds.
- Sales enablement: loopable tradeshow edits; QR-linked facility tours.
- Measurement: track view-through rate, dwell time on pages with aerial hero, CTR from aerial thumbnails, and assisted conversions on campaigns featuring the drone cut.
Sample Shot Lists by Industry
Manufacturing
- Dawn campus reveal with trucks staging
- Top-down line flow → robotic cell → QA station
- Orbit of finished goods with brand mark foreground
- Pull-back from product detail → warehouse scale
Healthcare / Campus
- Approach along patient-arrival path (clear of PHI/people identifiers)
- Roofline solar/HVAC for sustainability talking points
- Courtyard orbit during shift change (faces controlled)
- Interior cinewhoop: lobby → wayfinding → care areas (non-clinical zones)
Construction
- Weekly waypointed progress orbits for consistent timelapse
- Crane-level tracking of façade install
- Nadir grid for site documentation overlays
- Golden-hour hero of topped-out structure with crew wave
Corporate HQ / Brand
- Signage rise-reveal with flag or kinetic element
- Executive arrival and lobby energy pass
- Product showroom push-through to collaboration spaces
- Sunset pull-back to skyline for context
A One-Day Field Plan (Example)
- 07:00–08:00: Exterior hero passes (golden hour)
- 08:00–09:00: Nadir mapping/grid + parking/traffic coverage
- 09:00–10:30: Interior cinewhoop route (pre-lit)
- 10:30–11:30: Targeted process sequences (line, lab, showroom)
- 13:00–14:00: Leadership/photo ops; ground b-roll to match aerials
- 16:30–17:30: Sunset/day-to-night exterior closes
Risk, Access, and Brand Protection Checklist
- Site permission, airspace review, NOTAM/TFR check
- Part 107 crew, VO assigned, emergency plan posted
- Indoors: path cleared, prop guards, spotter line-of-sight
- PPE compliance (hard hats, vests, eyewear) as required
- Data management: dual-card capture, checksum ingest, cloud backup same day
- Release and signage plan (privacy-sensitive areas controlled)
- Deliverables map: aspect ratios, runtimes, captioning, thumbnail plan
Why Partner With St Louis Drones
St Louis Drones is an experienced, full-service professional commercial photography and video production company with the right equipment and creative crew experience for successful image acquisition. We offer full-service studio and location video and photography, as well as editing and post-production, and our licensed drone pilots can tailor flights to your story, environment, and safety requirements. St Louis Drones can customize your productions for diverse types of media requirements. Repurposing your photography and video branding to gain more traction is another specialty—we are well-versed in all file types, styles of media, and accompanying software, and we use the latest in Artificial Intelligence across our media services for speed, consistency, and compliance. Our private studio lighting and visual setup is perfect for small productions and interview scenes, and our studio is large enough to incorporate props to round out your set. We support every aspect of your production—from setting up a private, custom interview studio to supplying professional sound and camera operators, as well as providing the right equipment—ensuring your next video production is seamless and successful. We can fly our specialized drones indoors. As a full-service video and photography production corporation, since 1982, St Louis Drones has partnered with businesses, marketing firms, and creative agencies throughout the St. Louis area for their marketing photography and video. If you want aerials that don’t just look good but move the needle, let’s plan your flight path to results.
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