--
By Stephanie Ornelas
No question, drones are impacting the way many filmmakers approach cinematography today. Whether in television, biopics, documentaries, or shorts, drones in more recent years have allowed artists from all walks of life to capture amazing shots.
But perhaps the question isn't: How are drones impacting the art of cinematography? Maybe it's more: How are artists using this advancing aerial technology to further tell their stories? A couple of recent Sundance films come to mind.
In a 2021 interview with The Film Stage, Radu Ciorniciuc, director of Acas , My Home (2020 Sundance Film Festival), talks about what drove him to use drone shots early on in the film - a feature in the documentary that has been praised by festival programmers and film critics.
In the film, two parents and their nine children, who lived in perfect harmony with nature in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city. Ciorniciuc explains in the interview that it was clear the film was going to be a family story, which is why he decided to go for an observational look while still creating the feeling of intimacy and of being at home.
The drone shot came during the pre-research interviews, Ciorniciuc says. The NGO (non-governmental organization) responsible for the park's management had their office on top of the high buildings close to the delta. We looked over their window and saw the striking contrast between the grayness of the city and the vast green park. It was such a dramatic image, and we chose to shoot it with a drone, not only for the spectacular look, but because we felt that it would reveal an essential part of the film's plot, he explains.
Still, many in the film industry argue that drone shots are so prevalent that filmmakers often get tricked into thinking that drone shots equate to great cinematography, so it's important to not oversaturate a project with aerial footage. But when used strategically, drone photography can play a crucial part in telling a story.
For viewers, drone footage can also serve as contrast from more intimate cinematography, allowing breathing room to process challenging or difficult subject matters, such as interviews, explains Sundance Film Festival senior programmer Basil Tsiokos.
In this way, aerials can function as (literally) elevated B-roll. While drone footage can be (and has been) overused, ultimately it's become another storytelling tool at a filmmaker's disposal.
Referencing the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Award Winning film The Territory, Tsiokos explains drone shots can help bring more opportunities to a film when used with purpose. In the documentary, the Uru-eu-wau-wau and their allies use drones to surveil their land for encroachment and environmental destruction by outsiders.
It depends on the needs of a given film or story approach, but aerial footage can help open up a film both literally and thematically, allowing participants in a film to gain access to different perspectives that can contribute to a broader understanding, he adds.
Another point Tsiokos makes is that drones are allowing for more opportunities for emerging filmmakers and cinematographers who may not have the means to create traditional aerials within their projects.
Drones have opened up a sense of scale to filmmakers who otherwise might not have been able to achieve it easily or cost-effectively, explains Tsiokos.
Back at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Utah-based Jigabot, provider of robotic devices, co-hosted a panel about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). At the time, the company made headlines when it announced its new product, AIMe, a robotic camera auto-framing system that can be mounted on UAVs, making it even easier for independent filmmakers to craft their stories on a small budget.
In essence, for the first time ever, independent filmmakers will now have the ability to shoot a scene without a crew for operating small cameras, microphones, or lights, said Jigabot co-founder Donna Root in a press release. AIMe points your camera, so you can be in the moment.
Although drones have become a common fixture on movie sets, including high-budget productions, it's important to remember quality over quantity. As Tsiokos says, each project has its own unique needs when it comes to the feature. The fact that drones make achieving aerials much easier for filmmakers doesn't mean a film should be overloaded.
After all, too much of anything is never a good thing.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- 
