What Drone Footage Will Do For Your Videos

What are the benefits of aerial drone video?

What industries can benefit from aerial drone video?

How are drones used in the film industry?

What do drone photography and videography cost?

What do I need to know before hiring a drone pilot?

Who doesn't want to wow their clients and audiences? Well, the use of aerial video can help you do just that and stand out from your competition. It can help you grab attention, leave a lasting impression, and make your good video, commercial, or film even better.

Until recently, if you wanted to have aerial footage included in your video you had to rent expensive equipment (helicopter or an airplane), hire a pilot to fly it, and a videographer to shoot aerial footage, so this was out of reach for many businesses and filmmakers. In 2016 commercial drone use became legal when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started regulating and licensing drone operators. Affordable, but high-quality drone equipment also became available, which made this type of footage accessible for smaller budgets.

Here are several reasons why you should think of including aerial shots into your video content or film:

For starters, it gives any video that wow factor. Humans are visual beings, and when you see anything from a different perspective (especially aerial), it elevates the visual experience to a completely different level. In simple terms though, you see more from the bird's eye view and this perspective can be mesmerizing, so you are instantly able to grab attention and get an emotional response from the viewer, regardless of what you are showcasing. Watch the short downtown Cleveland drone video below, you will see what kind of mood and tone can be set with some aerials and music!

In addition to arousing an emotional response from the viewer, many products and services are best showcased from an aerial perspective. Companies now realize that marketing content in video form works best (we cover this in detail in Why Video For Your Marketing Content blog post), and adding aerial video for those industries adds a lot of visual value.

For the real estate and hospitality industries, aerial photos and videos can instantly provide information not available from the ground perspective. With a couple of shots, you can showcase the location, property size and amenities, backyard features, proximity to transportation, leisure activities, and more. Most real estate customers and event planners do their research online nowadays, and beautiful and informative aerial views can help them evaluate the property and help visualize themselves in these locations. Here are examples of commercial and residential real estate videos produced by V1DroneMedia that do just that.

Aerial views are also best for documenting the work of companies in Construction, Roofing, Landscaping, Paving, Lighting, and other industries. This type of footage can give tools to not only share the progress of work and results with clients, but also content for marketing to prospective customers via print materials, website, and social media. Here is a paving company marketing video that V1DroneMedia fully produced. Drones make even dirty work look cool!

And here is a hyperlapse construction progress video that showcases the project to the client or prospective clients with a lot of powerful imagery, almost making the customer feel like they are on the site watching it happen!

Companies that manufacture and provide transportation and recreation products and services also can benefit from the aerial shots, as they can highlight their products and services in action. Such products are cars, boats, travel services and experiences, and many more. There isn't a car or a cruise commercial nowadays that doesn't have an aerial shot included!

Drones are also being widely used for outdoor event coverage, including live streaming. Aerial view of the event allows organizers to highlight attendance, show action on the field from a different perspective, convey the atmosphere and attractions of the event, as well as highlight sponsors. Sporting events, outdoor concerts, community festivals, business events, and weddings regularly use drone footage for their event videography and broadcasting. Here is the Sunnyside Chevrolet outdoor car show event video, and Quaker Steak & Lube franchise corporate video, combining traditional ground and aerial footage from V1DroneMedia.

In film and TV, drones are often used to showcase locations, buildings (i.e. establishing shots), time of day (sunrise, sunset, nighttime), weather conditions, and beautiful scenery with many of these shots being used for transition between scenes. Also, motion and tracking shots are very popular (we've all seen chase scenes from the bird's eye view) and showcasing remote locations and the expansive size of the subject matter (battlefield scenes, forests, deserts, bodies of water, etc.). Therefore, almost every movie and documentary have drone footage nowadays. As an example, here is a 30 second Cleveland Cavaliers commercial with Cleveland downtown aerials shot by V1DroneMedia throughout the spot, and below is the opening sequence of the NFL Draft 2021 shown on the NFL Network with the Cleveland drone footage shot by V1DroneMedia.

In short, drones will elevate your video value to the viewer and help you grab attention, whether you are making a corporate video, highlighting office or factory location, showcasing your product/service, showing a different perspective of your subject matter, or documenting an event.

What will drone video services cost? A simple short video clip can be as low as a few hundred dollars, with a short fully produced video with original footage starting around $1500-$2000. If you don't need original video footage, a fully edited video from existing video clips is a good budget option. Overall pricing depends on the level of complexity: type of drone equipment used, length of the video, location, flight authorizations required, ownership rights to the footage, and level of video editing services needed.

So, you have decided to get some drone shots, now what? If you are looking to hire a drone pilot or production company for aerial drone video, you should make sure that they are qualified to perform the work. Here are the top 5 things to consider:

1.   Is the pilot licensed?

2.   Is the operator insured?

3.   Are they knowledgeable about airspace, flight restrictions, and authorizations?

4.   What is the pilot's experience level?

5.   Do you like their previous work/portfolio?

We cover this subject in more depth in our article Hiring a Drone Pilot

V1DroneMedia started providing aerial media services as soon as the use of drones became regulated by FAA and since then we have gained a lot of experience helping to sell residential and commercial real estate, produce corporate videos, TV commercials, document and Livestream events, provide aerial footage for TV, news and documentaries. See our Portfolio and YouTube channel for more customer projects.

Our drone pilot, Jason Damman, is a commercial airline pilot by trade who has been passionate for aviation since his teenage years, flying radio-controlled airplanes before going on to the airline career where he has now spent over 20+ years flying the friendly skies. You can get more details on our pilot and his credentials on the About page. Besides technical and flying expertise, Jason has also developed a keen cinematographer eye and always provides excellent customer service, for which he is constantly praised. You can see our customer reviews here.

V1DroneMedia video services range from raw video clips to include in your video, to fully produced and edited video, including traditional ground videography and post-production services such as color grading, licensed music and subtitles, complete with digital file delivery. We also have Cleveland aerial drone stock footage available for purchase.

If you are interested in a consultation or getting a quote, call us at 419-699-6010, or get in touch with us on the Contact page.

Why Is Video Important For Your Marketing?

This post will cover these frequently asked questions about Video for Marketing Content

Why is video important for my business?

What is video marketing ROI?

Is video affordable for my company?

What type of videos should we make?

How do we get started with video?

We live in the ‘information age’ when we are constantly bombarded and distracted by a myriad of messages from our gadgets, which makes it difficult to devote a lot of time to absorb the information necessary to make personal and business decisions.

Humans are a visual species, retaining 95% of a message when we watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in a text (Insivia). With modern technology making it easy to publish through websites and social media, everyone can take advantage of this human behavior and create and publish video content that viewers find engaging, memorable, and easy to consume (we've all watched those 'How To' videos on YouTube to learn something, right?).

According to the 2020 Wyzowl Video Marketing Statistic Survey,

·       96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service

·       66% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product

·       84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video

Consumers are more engaged when watching video vs. reading text, and this translates into higher ROI (Return on Investment), when companies choose to invest in this type of marketing content. Marketers who use video grow revenue nearly 50% faster than non-video users.

And all businesses and marketers took notice. In 2019, the video was the #1 form of media used in content strategy, overtaking blogs and infographics (2020 State of Marketing). Video has always been used for storytelling in TV, Film, and corporate commercials, but required big budgets to hire traditional advertising agencies and production companies to produce and distribute them.

However, video is also the best available marketing tool for small to medium-sized businesses, even with minimal budgets. Why, do you ask? Because good equipment has become very affordable, and when you hire a small media production company you don't have to pay for a big agency or production company’s overhead that inflates that cost.

Video can be used for a variety of purposes, with all of them ultimately leading to building your brand equity. Here are the most often types of videos produced:

Corporate Videos, for educational and informational purposes:

·       Company Overview Videos (about us, etc.)

·       Explainers

·       Product Demonstration Videos

·       New Product and Service Announcements

·       Product Assembly/Installation Videos

·       Service Workflow Videos

Promotional videos, intended to keep your business top of mind by nurturing and engaging your audience/clients:

·       Social Media Ads

·       TV Ads

·       Digital Ads

·       Video Blogs (Vlogs)

·       Live Streams

·       Webinars

·       Event Videos

·       Behind the Scenes Videos

·       Mini Documentaries

Customer Videos to increase the trustworthiness of your brand:

·       Customer Testimonials (or Case Study Videos)

To start producing video for your company’s content you will need to decide what type of content you want to publish and hire a videographer or a production company (unless you have one internally or decide to do this yourself). Professionally made videos, of course, always make your content look more polished, and your business more professional and credible. Many video production companies can also help with video content strategy to decide what type of content your company should produce.

Video production service businesses, like V1DroneMedia, have professional video equipment to produce the video from start to finish, including scripting and fully editing video, complete with digital delivery in the format of your choice.

What sets V1Dronemedia apart from others is our ability to not only capture traditional (ground) video, but also include aerial (drone) footage into the videos we produce. Our videographer is an FAA-certified Part 107 drone pilot (with 20+ years of experience in commercial aviation), holding numerous authorizations to fly in FAA-controlled airspace. There are lots of reasons to include aerial media in your videos (such as showcasing your location, infrastructure, outdoor products/services, amazing view, etc.), and we cover it in-depth in our How Drone Footage Can Enhance Your Videos blog post.

Now that you know how important it is to include video in marketing content for your business/brand, time to get started!  Check out our videos on the V1DroneMedia YouTube Channel or Video Portfolio page of our website, and Contact Us to discuss your project and request a quote!

V1DroneMedia's Drone Blog

Welcome to the V1DroneMedia drone blog!  

As a commercial drone operator in the Cleveland, Ohio area, we get asked A LOT of questions - whether it be from companies looking to incorporate drone technology into their operation or from individuals that are new to drones and have questions or need some guidance.

Though 'drones' have been around for quite some time, they have really only hit the mass market in the last 7 years.  While everyone and their brother (it seems) may soon own a drone, the percentage of folks that actually know the rules and FAA regulations and how to safely fly is rather small, to put it lightly.  When you throw in the fact that the FAA's regulations regarding drone operations have changed multiple times in the last couple of years, it can be quite confusing.

That being said, the goal of this blog is to promote the safe use of drones by providing educational material, answering commonly asked questions, as well as sharing information about drone technology and how it is being used in many different industries to create a safer and more efficient workflow.  Whether you are already flying, or just looking for information on topics related to the ever-growing drone industry, we hope that you will find this blog to be an informative and educational resource.

Besides drone services, we also offer traditional (ground) video services to our clients, and always work on developing new solutions, so we will occasionally cover the topics related to videography and video marketing in hopes of sharing our knowledge and expertise there as well.

Got a question or a topic you would like us to cover in our blog?  Leave us a comment in the 'comments' section below?  We look forward to hearing from you!

If you have not already done so, I would like to invite you to check out our full website to learn more about V1DroneMedia and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram