Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted September 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 8 hours ago, Gaurav said: This is really fun-tastic idea to explore the offroad tracks and cars from different angle and vantage point and make them look interesting and amazing even for ourself, let alone new eyes. I have had an experience in doing storyboard for corporate videos and happy to contribute here with the same and see how it unfold for this epic video and leaders challenge. Love the initiative, concept and can't wait to see the final output. Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergher Hi @Gaurav, this is indeed fun-tastic news. First of all, I like the idea of not just shooting at the cars but also at the tracks.. So many more possibilities for a fascinating storytelling. Great suggestion! Second, you are right, now that we have a first idea of the subject, the whole challenge will be about conceiving the screenplay / storyboard, i.e. detailing each shot setup and camera movement and then planning the drive so that we get at the right place by the right time to get the perfect light. Your experience in storyboards will be key! I'll be soon sharing some hints about some most powerful drone shot types, so everyone can widen their horizons while developing some thoughts about where, what and how to shoot. It sounds so cool.. 4 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rahimdad Posted September 22, 2020 Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 The Sweihan drive can be an excellent terrain to shoot in. Wonderful long winding dunes. @Srikumar & @Asif Hussain can we come up with some idea for 2 Oct. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted September 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 (edited) As promised, let us get started with the Carnity Leaders DRONE CHALLENGE. First of all, I would suggest we establish the foundations for the challenge, i.e. we define a basic understanding of what we should be aiming for. In order to shoot some great drone videos, there is obviously a bit of homework to do.. In the following I tried to put toghether some basic infos as a starting point of reference for whoever will be curious. Obviously these are just humble suggestions, as the game here is to do this as a collective community effort, with everyone's contribution to improve the original idea. 1. SUBJECT If we were in professional context, we could say we have defined the broad SUBJECT, which is essentially the overarching idea of the challenge itself (ie producing a showreel of highly cinematic off-roading videos shot by drones during real Carnity drives, taken each time during a different ride at a different location as conceived by the drive leader) and we now have to work on the video treatment and screenplay / storyboard. 2. TREATMENT For each shooting session during a drive, the TREATMENT is a brief description or, better, a short story of what whould happen in the video to be shot during the ride. It is usually written in the present tense and describes events as they happen. Example: "In an early morning drive, the quiet yellow dawn with the skyline of Fossil Rock on the horizon is awaken by a Carnity off-roading convoy heading toward the sunrise. The cars swiftly ride east, along the ridge of a long dune. After some some prolonged ridge riding, the Leader criss-crosses and suddenly dives nose-down on the slip-side to the right, with the rear left wheel floating in the air for a second and sand flying all around. As the rest of the convoy gets past the ridge, the convoy continues its quest for the next dune to climb." The treatment should be the Leader's call, as it requires the choice of the location, of the timing and of the story to be told. Don't set boundaries to your ideas for treatment, as there are tons of off-road stories to tell... Don't just think about riding cars: think about wheel tracks, landscape and sceneries, viewpoints, driving paths, off-road maneuvers, refusals, stucks and recoveries, play areas, animals, trees, bushes, wrecks, sunsets, sunrises, inflation, deflation, flags.. You've been there, you name it! 3. SCREENPLAY / STORYBOARD Next comes the SCREENPLAY, which is a detailed written description of the single scenes to be shot and of the desired camera movements, which may be complemented by a STORYBOARD, ie sketches of the key frames of each shot to help fixating the ideas. Example (forgive my awful sketching 😂😂😂😞) Scene 1 Exterior - Dune Ridge pointing East, on the west side of Fossil Rock. Not more than 30' mins after sunrise The dawn against the skyline of Fossil Rock fills the screen, with crests of nearer dunes lit by almost tangent sun beams. The drone camera slightly tilts down while reducing the altitude then starts moving forward, showing the ridge of a long dune in full display, aligned east. The 1st car in the convoy enters the screen from the bottom overtaking the camera, while the camera keeps on rolling forward at slow speed approx 5m above the ridge, allowing for the following cars in the convoy to enter the scene and eventually leave the camera behind. Scene 2: Same setting / time as Scene 1 Same or similar dune as above. The drone camera slowly rolls left moving parallel to the ridge line, at an altitude slightly lower than the ridge top. The convoy enters from the right side of the screen: as the 2nd car enters, the camera builds up speed and tracks the vehicle from the side for 5 seconds then, while rolling left, slowly gains elevation and gently tilts down, revealing the scenery on the other side of the ridge. Scene 3: Same setting / time as Scene 1 Same or similar dune as above. The drone camera is positioned 30m above ground, tilted 90 degrees down (bird's eye view). The dune ridge is captured parallel to the horizontal screen side, while the camera slowly rolls right. The convoy enters the screen from the left, seen from above. As the convoy moves in the camera increases altitude to approx 80m. The shot ends when the convoy exits the right side of the screen. Scene 4: Same setting / time as Scene 1 Same or similar dune as above. The camera stands next to the criss-crossing point, pointing east and down with a 45 degrees tilt. As the leading car enters the screen from below, the camera starts a fast clock-wise orbit at constant altitude with a slight parallax, capturing the criss-crossing at approx 180 degrees and the slip-side dive while reaching 270 degrees in the orbit. " As you can appreciate, conceiving a sceeenplay requires some more technical understanding of how drone shots could be made: the preparation of a mini-screenplay like the one above (which took me 10 mins, so no big deal timewise) will be done in cooperation with the drone pilot, ie myself. It again requires a lot of input from the Leader, who should have a clear idea of the spatial context where the shooting will happen, but may as well benefit from the ideas of all convoy members. We won't have much time to debate on-site, so this exercise should be mostly prepared beforehand if we want to keep the time slot for the drone challenge within the 15' plus prepping. 4. EXAMPLES OF CINEMATIC DRONE SHOTS For the purpose of enabling the best ideas for screenplays, I suggest everyone interested should have a look at the youtube video below, which exemplifies 20 of the most commont cinematic drone shots (ie shots where the camera motion is urilized to obtain a cinematic effect): https://youtu.be/BdtHWr_nDeU. Having seen these 20 simple examples, I believe you will all have enough to fancy your screenplay. In addition, bear in mind we cluld do time-lapses (ie accelerated shots, ie 15' accelerated in 30" for example) or slow-motions (ie decelerated shots, where we can reduce the speed down from 100% to 25% without any image quality loss). Also, bear in mind that the drones we will be using do not have optical zoom lenses, i.e. They are equipped with fixed focal lenght lenses. Zooming effects can be achieved either by physically zooming in or out by moving the drone forward or backward or (less advisable and with some limitations) in post processing, i.e. during video editing. 5. LIGHT As all of you who like photography know, the best images are always shot in those magic 15 mins after sunrise and before sunset, when colors and natural contrasts between highlights and shadows are enhanced by a less overwhelming light coming from much more interesting angles. Luckily, our drives are always planned to include such moments, thus there will be plenty of opportunities, nevertheless we can take beautiful videos in full daylight (we will use ND filters if there is too much light), so don't feel forced to frame the shooting session in those key minutes all the times. 6. LOGISTICS AND DRIVE PLANNING / EXECUTION The example above would require the convoy to ride along a dune ridge, criss-cross, dive down on the slip side and return back at the beginnig of the ridge for at least 4 times, which can be easily done in not more than 10 mins. Every round should be started by radio comms with the drone pilot, to ensure he is ready for the relevant shot. The whole convoy should be specifically briefed. (Needless to say we don't necessarily have to shoot multiple scenes at the same location, however edited/cut video looks much better if you can tell the story using multiple videos from different angles and movements) Setting up the drone and briefing the convoy will take approx 5 mins, and another 5 mins will be needed to store it back safely. Flying time can last up to 25 mins with a battery (and I typically have a set of 3) but I would expect to keep the drone in the air not more than 15 mins. It may however happen that a shot needs to be repeated, as not always things go right the 1st time, especially when there are synchronized movements, thus I'd factor in another 5 mins of contingency, for a total stop of 30 mins, during which, however, the convoy (except me and a volunteer acting as my crew/spotter and anyone curious to stand by and watch from a drone safe and Covid-19 social distance rather than driving) will be mostly driving back and forth. In the above example, we would probably take approx a 15' continous video shooting, but all 4 scenes above would then be cut and edited into a videoclip which should last indicatively not more than 120" max, otherwise it gets boring and repetitive. 7. SAFETY As expected from professional drone pilots, the safety of all convoy members and bystanders, the pilot/crew own safety and the integrity of the cars, any property and, of course, of the drone itself will never be compromised. This means we won't do any crazy high speed maneuvers, we will never fly close to people, we will respect no-fly and geo-fenced zones (if any), altitude (120m) and range limits (500m) for hobbyist flights, will always fly with VLOS (visual line of sight, i.e. never on a purely instrumental flight) and won't fly at night. I hope the above helps. I can't wait to spin my propellers! 😂😂 Edited September 23, 2020 by Lorenzo Candelpergher 3 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rahimdad Posted September 23, 2020 Report Share Posted September 23, 2020 Very complicated stuff explained in a very easy to understand language. @Gaurav bhai would you like to start with the story board, likely terrain, place and time to shoot this out. I believe the best lead for this will also be @Gaurav bhai as he really creates beautiful and adventurous routes. I am in with full support as required @Lorenzo Candelpergher. Never good at photography or angles or light. Will follow your orders like a good boy. 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted September 24, 2020 Report Share Posted September 24, 2020 Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergher for bringing such great details and educating everyone on this new journey/challenge. After going through your above detailed post (super impressed) now I think I know nothing about filming, especially about drone shooting. But I'm happy to put my views as per my limited knowledge and experience. Feel free to tweak, suggest or optimize as you find it useful. My corporate experience was to manage the video shoot to highlight companies progress and focus on new stuff/achievements done by different departments. My main role was to liaise with all internal departments and video production company to develop a detailed script and then screenplay to lock it with CEO sign off to start filming and production. Learning from such straight story telling technique which always work to impress and share the progress, I think we can develop this video challenge in 3 different bits to form a fully constructed story telling of an off-road drive. This video will cover and highlight the scenic beauty, fun, thrilling and adventurous side that motivate all of us to be awake so early on Friday morning and coming back for our sand dose every week. If we can power pack this final video within 3 minutes (approx) without the boring details and highlighting the drone filming, angles, cinematic shots and offroad adventure, it will be nice introduction to our off-roading lifestyle with Carnity spirit. Preparation (20%) - 30 - 40 Seconds Cars arriving at meeting point Drivers start deflating and fixing flag Trip lead meeting everyone to check cars Comms check, radio briefing Convoy numbering and move Driving (70%) - 2 Minutes Convoy on the move Start slow - enjoy the beautiful view, serene desert, sunrise, desert track, wildlife, bushes, plants, tree, exotic birds, camels, oryx, gazelles, etc. Build the pace - focus on convoy moving at good speed and everyone enjoying the trail and challenges Doing the swings/rainbow Ridge riding Criss crossing Above story board idea + few more hundreds (lol) Stucks and refusal - show the struggle, challenge and teamwork with safety aspects Play area - Side sloping, hill climb - track and follow cars, aerial view, fly low and overtake shots - This is where we need drone shooting creativity and retakes for A and B roll footage. Ending (10%) - 15 - 20 Seconds Debriefing Feedback Inflation and flag removal Back to tarmac till next Friday 1 1 3 Let's root for each other & watch each other grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted September 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2020 (edited) Hi @Gaurav, Thanks for your contribution. I see where you want to get in terms of story telling and I like it very much. To do a 3 mins video like this we will need many shots, over multiple drives, everytime we should focus on just a few moments not to derail the drive, unless we change the concept slightly and organise a 2 or 3 "video shooting drives" where we spend most of the time shooting (ie we keep the drones up in the air for the good part of 2 hours) and the convoy members support as "stunt actors". Most of the story can be shot with a couple of my drones (a smaller and quieter one for short distance shooting and tight manoeuvring to shoot recoveries, vegetation and wildlife, and a bigger one for faster more cinematic camera movements chasing cars in movement). We may have combine it with some conventional camera shooting (handheld on gimbal or fixed/suction mount GoPro - I have plenty of this stuff to mount in all possible ways), which could be cool as we may involve the convoy members in the shooting (it is going to be fun). We will need some voice recording too for radio comms, again to be done by GoPro or even phones. I think we could cover Preparation and Ending parts easily in 1 or 2 drives. The Driving part will take at least 5-6 separate drives to cover everything, especially if we want to capture wildlife, unless - as said - we plan for dedicated video shooting drives. I think your proposal is great, @Gaurav. Thanks very much for this fundamental step. Unless someone has more to add to it, we could consider it our TREATMENT, based on which we now start developing our SCREENPLAY, ie we break down the story in scenes and the scenes in single shots and, one by one we plan how to execute them during our drives. Ready to take off: This is so thrilling! Edited September 24, 2020 by Lorenzo Candelpergher 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted September 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2020 Hi @Gaurav, Yesterday I took advantage of a short break during a pop-out recovery at the Intermediate Drive in Area 53 with @Frederic to fly my drone a little. I stole a couple of nice shots, which I will share later, but with static parked cars, captured from some distance, they don't tell much, I must say. If we really want to have some great footage we will have to plan the shootings in advance and carve some dedicated time during the drive (or have specific drives just for the purpose of shooting), so that preparations are not rushed into and all shots are executed as per plan as much as possible, while the convoy performs real some real action. Can we plan for a test in one for the next drives? All in all, we should include a 10 mins break for preps and briefing, 15 mins shottings with convoy driving around and 5 mins wrapping up. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Srikumar Posted September 26, 2020 Report Share Posted September 26, 2020 @Lorenzo Candelpergher we can try it on the Sweihan drive. What time is better, just after sunrise or closer to 8 am. Will try to scout some nice dunes where we can try to shoot. With the well spaced out dunes of Sweihan we might get some good footage, Maybe then I can share with you the route and you can see if drones are allowed in those areas. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhaskar Posted September 26, 2020 Report Share Posted September 26, 2020 Hello guys! Although I am still a newbie when it comes to off-roading, this topic and initiative is too exciting to stop myself from putting in my two cents. Coming from the background of advertising & storytelling, I would like to give a few inputs, obviously completely up to you guys to take them into consideration or not. In my limited experience of off-roading, i think it's one such activity that elicits a myriad of emotions - from anticipation, excitement, challenge, struggle, thrill to the feeling of exploration, triumph, victory and of course bonding with the nature & the fellow convoy members. It would be interesting to try and capture these 'emotions' as few core themes in terms of the videos. The cars can become the protagonists or actors who experience these emotions as much as the drivers do. One way of doing this could be that each drive leader is assigned a theme that's made of a collection of emotions and they can plan their drive / drone shots in a way that brings those emotions to life in the best possible way. Possible themes / collection of emotions could be (limiting it to three for now) Anticipation & Thrill - at each and every step of the off-roading experience, there's always a sense of anticipation of what's coming next. Right from the preparation part to climbing up the dunes, this feeling is what gives us an edge of the seat experience. Could be captured well by a combination of mounted cameras for POV shots, low-flying + panning drone shots & shots that capture the human emotions as well. Challenge, struggle & Triumph - climbing up the dunes, stucks & refusals, the moment when you feel that you might get stuck but are able to cross the dune, side sloping etc. These could be brought to life with tracking shots, sliders, surprise shots & overtakes. Exploration, Discovery & Connection - the sense of wanting to go to unchartered territories, exploring the nature around, the feeling that you 'can' explore the unexplored and yet the feeling of being connected to the nature. This could be brought to life with parallax, tilt reveals and panning shots. I understand that a lot of this would come to life in post - edits and audio / music will play a big role in bringing the emotions out. The ultimate output of all this could be a Content Series for the Carnity social channels - something on the lines of 'The feeling called Carnity'. This series would then feature a series of short videos that showcases the various emotions Carnity drives make you experience. There could be a master film that's a sort of trailer to the content series. Seems likes a bit of a ramble now! All the best for this, fantastic initiative, excited to see the end result! Cheers! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted September 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2020 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Bhaskar said: Hello guys! Although I am still a newbie when it comes to off-roading, this topic and initiative is too exciting to stop myself from putting in my two cents. Coming from the background of advertising & storytelling, I would like to give a few inputs, obviously completely up to you guys to take them into consideration or not. In my limited experience of off-roading, i think it's one such activity that elicits a myriad of emotions - from anticipation, excitement, challenge, struggle, thrill to the feeling of exploration, triumph, victory and of course bonding with the nature & the fellow convoy members. It would be interesting to try and capture these 'emotions' as few core themes in terms of the videos. The cars can become the protagonists or actors who experience these emotions as much as the drivers do. One way of doing this could be that each drive leader is assigned a theme that's made of a collection of emotions and they can plan their drive / drone shots in a way that brings those emotions to life in the best possible way. Possible themes / collection of emotions could be (limiting it to three for now) Anticipation & Thrill - at each and every step of the off-roading experience, there's always a sense of anticipation of what's coming next. Right from the preparation part to climbing up the dunes, this feeling is what gives us an edge of the seat experience. Could be captured well by a combination of mounted cameras for POV shots, low-flying + panning drone shots & shots that capture the human emotions as well. Challenge, struggle & Triumph - climbing up the dunes, stucks & refusals, the moment when you feel that you might get stuck but are able to cross the dune, side sloping etc. These could be brought to life with tracking shots, sliders, surprise shots & overtakes. Exploration, Discovery & Connection - the sense of wanting to go to unchartered territories, exploring the nature around, the feeling that you 'can' explore the unexplored and yet the feeling of being connected to the nature. This could be brought to life with parallax, tilt reveals and panning shots. I understand that a lot of this would come to life in post - edits and audio / music will play a big role in bringing the emotions out. The ultimate output of all this could be a Content Series for the Carnity social channels - something on the lines of 'The feeling called Carnity'. This series would then feature a series of short videos that showcases the various emotions Carnity drives make you experience. There could be a master film that's a sort of trailer to the content series. Seems likes a bit of a ramble now! All the best for this, fantastic initiative, excited to see the end result! Cheers! Dear @Bhaskar, Thank your very much for your interesting contribution. I like very much the view on the emotional side of off-roading. As with @Gaurav's proposal this requires much more than drone shots, but I'd say the idea is worth much more than your two cents 😂. Let's think about it. 1 hour ago, Srikumar said: @Lorenzo Candelpergher we can try it on the Sweihan drive. What time is better, just after sunrise or closer to 8 am. Will try to scout some nice dunes where we can try to shoot. With the well spaced out dunes of Sweihan we might get some good footage, Maybe then I can share with you the route and you can see if drones are allowed in those areas. Dear @Srikumar, Yes pls share the route so I can check it against no-fly zones and GCAA regulations. Thanks. Edited September 26, 2020 by Lorenzo Candelpergher 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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