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Top 5 Reasons to Use A Professionally Operated Drone in Your Next Video

ZAMP 1625-01Look in the sky. It’s a plane. It’s a bird. No, it’s a drone. While drones aren’t delivering Amazon packages just yet, in the right hands they can be an effective tool to capture the eye of your target audience through video.

Here are the top five reasons to use a professionally operated drone to move the needle on your next video project:

  1. FAA regulations. The rules for drone operation are still being written. Every good pilot knows it’s important to check more than the wind speed and direction before takeoff, you must also know the regulations. A professional drone operator helps ensure your video shoot does not violate rules of restricted airspace, or other rules that could change at a moment’s notice.
  2. Helicopters aren’t cheap. Before camera-mounted drone technology, the practical way to shoot aerial video or photography was to rent a helicopter with a gyro-mounted camera and hire a pilot. It was expensive – thousands of dollars an hour expensive. Drones are not.
  3. Get noticed. Nothing captures attention like the unexpected. Professional drone operators specialize in the unexpected. They capture footage from unique perspectives and angles your audience isn’t used to seeing. Use it to grab their attention.
  4. Maximize your effort. As you plan a video shoot, include drone footage to get the most out of your shoot day. While conventional footage is gathered, a professional drone operator can smoothly maneuver the drone, even in challenging tight-cornered spots, without interrupting the action.
  5. Don’t drone on. A professional drone operator also knows when not to use a drone and can recommend alternatives when a drone isn’t the best option to capture a scene.

 

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.