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Drone Shot definition
What is a Drone Shot?
A drone shot is captured using a drone equipped with a camera. Most often, filmmakers use drone shots for sweeping aerial footage, or to film hard-to-reach places. This is why drone shots are commonly used in nature documentaries, where filming an area may prove too dangerous for manned cameras. In narrative film, drone shots are often used to showcase vast landscapes or follow movement at great heights with fluidity.
For an in-depth exploration of this technique, check out our full guide to drone shot, complete with examples and breakdowns.
Types of Drone Shots
Drone Shot examples
It’s helpful to see the Drone Shot in action before exploring how they operate within visual storytelling. Browse this curated selection of Drone Shots to get a sense of their uses across films.
Showcase scenery
Reach difficult spots
Create smooth visual movements
Offer new perspectives
Uses
What does a Drone Shot do?
Drone Shot
Showcasing landscapes
Drone shots are used to sweep over vast landscapes, often to show their enormity or beauty.
Finding Hard-to-Reach Places
Drones can fly into places that traditional cameras or humans can have trouble finding, allowing for unique perspectives.
Creating movement
Drone shots are one of the dynamic shots a filmmaker can use to create smooth, dynamic camera movements that give variety to a film.
Create perspective
Since drones can fly both close to the ground or very high, they can be used to find unique camera angles that enhance the overall visuals of the film.
Drone Shots
Drone Shot vs Crane Shot
Drone shots and crane shots both can be used to capture vastness or height, but a drone shot is captured using a flying drone, which allows it to capture shots that are far above ground. A crane shot uses a crane to move the camera up or down, but there is a limit to how high a crane can go. Drone shots are used to capture wide perspectives, such as showcasing a landscape. Meanwhile, crane shots are more precise and used for sweeping indoor scenes or perspective changes.
Case Study
Shot listing a Drone Shot
Drone shots are most often used in film to depict vast landscapes, showcasing their size and scale, and awing the audience. In Chloé “Nomadland,” there are several drone shots that capture the vastness of the deserts and highways of the American landscape. As the main character travels through the country, the shots capture her sense of isolation and loneliness, and also her sense of freedom.
Click the shot list below to take a closer look at the entire scene.
Drone Shots are a newer, but powerful addition to a filmmaker’s toolbox, as drones can go places cranes and rigs may not be able to capture. But drone shots can be even more impactful when combined with other camera techniques.
Unexpected combos
How can you use a Drone Shot with other camera techniques?
How to combine a Drone Shot
Drone Shots are a versatile addition to any filmmaker’s visual language. While impactful on their own, they gain even more power when paired with other techniques. Here are some creative ways a Drone Shot can be combined with different cinematic approaches:
- Zoom Shot: In a Zoom Drone Shot, the drone hovers still while the camera zooms in or out.
- Tracking Shot: In this shot, the drone follows a subject from above, tracking them through the setting.
- Reveal Shot: In this dynamic shot, the drone flies toward an object, dramatically revealing what lies behind it. In the opening of “The Birdcage,” the camera flies over a calm ocean, then moves into South Beach to reveal a contrasting scene of boisterous nightlife.
- Pan Shot: In this shot, the drone hovers still while the camera itself pans horizontally. This is often used to showcase the scale of a landscape or cityscape.
- Tilt Shot: In this shot, the drone hovers as the camera itself tilts up or down. This is often used to indicate height, such as showing how tall a skyscraper is.
- Dolly Zoom Shot: Often called the “vertigo shot,” in a dolly zoom with a drone, the drone would move forward or backward while the camera zooms in the opposite way, creating a feeling of disorientation.
- Orbit or 360 Drone Shot: In this shot, the drone circles around a subject to give a 360-degree perspective.
Frequently asked questions about the drone shot
A drone shot uses a drone, which flies over or around a subject to get an overhead angle.
Aerial shots can be captured without a drone, using helicopters, cranes, or jibs.
In this shot, the drone circles around a subject to give a 360-degree perspective.
You take drone shots using a drone equipped with a camera, which can create great overhead shots as the drone flies.
As a drone flies, it can capture landscapes or other large scenes that are hard to capture from the ground.
