AV Focus: PART 1 - AV Productions at Air + Style LA

Description: Welcome to AirVūz Focus! This AirVūz Original Program provides an in-depth look at the places, people, and products molding the technology, breaking the barriers, and carving the way for the drone revolution. With this two-part episode of AV Focus, we share how AirVūz Productions operates. Learn about making live drone videos in Part One of this premiere episode of AirVūz Focus, featuring a behind the scenes look at Air + Style LA 2017. You'll see what our Minneapolis-based drone pilots do on a shoot, and what techniques they use to make great videos. FAA Certified UAV Pilots Tyler Mason, Jay Christiansen, and Mike Welsh make their way to Los Angles for Shawn White’s Air+Style Snowboarding Competition and Music Festival. Hired to provide live aerial video for broadcasting, the AV crew can do that and much more. Producer Colin McDougall was on hand to document the entire process of our crew showing what it takes to produce world-class drone videos. Featuring performances by: Atmosphere, Chromeo, and Flume Featuring music by: Flamingosis, Home, De Lorrra, Twoods Learn more about Air + Style HERE. ------------ At AirVūz our video production department has done some pretty cool gigs, but for every amazing shot, there’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes. For our latest AirVūz Original program, we want to share with you an in depth look behind the scenes; profiling how companies in the drone industry are working to make it a success: This is AirVūz Focus! Air + Style is a snowboarding competition and Music festival rolled into one and AirVūz covered it from the air! Executive Producer, Kendall Mark, said, “It’s my job as Executive Producer to get the proper documents together whenever we do shoots. There’s the co-insurance document, or COI, for the company and for the drone, the FAA registration information, the SUAS certificate for the California Film Commission, the flight operations and maps for the venue, FAA, Fire Department, California Film Commission, and special COA’s - there's a lot of behind the scenes work to make something like this feasible." We sent Aerial Pilots Jay Christensen, Tyler Mason, and Mike Welsh, along with Producer Colin McDougall to make sure we covered all the aerial action: Jay Christensen said, “So I arrived in LA a little ahead of the other guys and decided to get some drone action in. Then the rain came..." Tyler Mason said, "We actually had better weather in Minnesota than there was in LA!" Mike Welsh said, "I was worried we'd go all the way to LA and not even be able to fly." Tyler said, "Rather than letting the rain get us we had a nice boys night out in Korea town with my friend Sonny and got some Bulgogi, I still have dreams about it to that day." Mike said, “So the next day, we arrived on location, it was still rainy, but the first thing we did was tour the flight area to assess where to fly from, potential safety hazards, stuff like that." Jay said, "Seeing the scale of that jump up close for the first time was awe inspiring!" Tyler said, “I’m going to take a picture and put it on the AirVūz official Instagram story.” With the rain delaying things, the AirVūz pilots went to get in their first flight at the iconic LA Coliseum: Mike said, "Flying in the coliseum was unreal! So much history there!" Tyler said, "The headquarters for all the behind the scenes stuff was actually in the USC locker room at the LA Coliseum. So naturally we had to get a drone up and get some shots from that iconic stadium." Mike said, "Flying in the L.A. Coliseum was unreal!" Tyler said, “I love taking stadium pictures. Should I mess with the settings here? We’ve got the Vivid one I love that one!" Jay said, "I noticed a rogue drone so I called Tyler to let them know there was a DJI Phantom in the sky." Tyler said, "We heard that there may be a drone west of the jump, so we had to radio down to command and tell them that is not our drone." With Tyler uploading pictures to social media, Mike headed out to meet Jay at the flight spot for some more golden hour shots of the jump. Mike said, “Drone Operator to dispatch, we are putting a drone up next to the ramp currently. What I’m going to do is I’m going to do like a side pan. I think the time lapse if cool but like I think it’d be almost like one shot and I want to capitalize on this sick sunset.” Jay said, “Yeah that’s fair.” Mike said, "The rain actually made some shots look cooler! Jay, I know you don't like it but I'm going to go to 24 frames per second." Jay said, "Oh no! Ok more cinematic that way!" Mike said, “Yes, cinematic...These Fly-Pan shots are just unbelievable!" Jay said, "I was really impressed with the DJI Phantom 4 performance that entire shoot." Mike saod "This looks straight out of a movie” Mike said, “So they did all the broadcasting out of a huge live truck, and all we had to do was run a really long SDI cable from our Inspire controller and patch it into the truck. Then they could see all the action from in there where they switched the cameras." Jay said, “We flew with 2 controllers fam-style, aka dual operation, since it’s more lit that way. OK lets fly this way above our heads." Mike: said,“Yep. I’m going to kind of loop back. Ok I'm going to run to the live truck to see if the livestream is working." Jay said, “This is like by far the coolest filming experience I’ve ever had. Minnesotans are here: Atmosphere, Dem Atlas, Tyler Mason with the story.” Mike said,"It was awesome being so close to atmosphere. During the Chromeo set I got some great shots while Jaybird was on stage, getting the mix of aerial and ground shots really helps in the final promo edit." Coming in Part 2; it's crunch time as the finals commence! And the AirVūz pilots have to bring their A game for the live broadcast of the final competition! --- Air + Style Behind the Scenes with AirVūz Productions This video is for educational purposes only and is not intended for commercial use. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Speaker 1: At Airvuz our video production team has done some pretty cool gigs. But for every amazing shot there's a lot of hard work behind the scenes. For our latest AirVuz original program we wanna share with you an in depth look behind the scenes, profiling how companies and people in the drone industry are working to make it a success. This is AirVuz focus. Air and Style is a snowboarding competition [00:00:30] and music festival rolled into one and AirVuz was there to cover all of the action. Kendal Mark: So it's my job as executive producer here at AirVuz to make sure that all the proper documentation filled out before we do something like Air and Style so we have got the certificate of insurance, in fact the insurance binder for the actual drone. There's requirements in the California Film Commission when you wanna film there especially with a drone you have to go through the FAA and fill out a flight plan, you talk to the local fire department, police departments, security that's on the ground. There's [00:01:00] a lot of documentation that you have to do as you can see from this massive file I have together for just Air and Style. Speaker 1: We sent pilots Tyler Mason, Mike Welsh and Jay Christensen along with producer Collin McDoogle to cover all the action. Jay Christensen: Yeah I got there a little bit before the rest of the crew and I ended up goin to Santa Monica Pier and gettin in some good time lapses of the pier and I got some good footage but soon enough it started to rain so that ended pretty early. Tyler Mason: [00:01:30] There was actually nicer weather in Minnesota than in L.A. so I was worried we were gonna get all the way down there and not even be able to fly cause of the rain. Speaker 5: CHP has closed the off-ramps of the area and the traffic all around here is just a complete nightmare of people trying to get around this. Jay Christensen: Welcome to Los Angeles California. We're here on the worst storm day in the last three years, there's like flash floods and stuff so, I still wanna swim in the pool. It's so cold! Mike Welsh: [00:02:00] You can fly in a little bit of rain but if it starts down pouring those drones are staying grounded. Tyler Mason: Yeah the rain was a bummer, but we try not to let it get us down. We ended up having a boys night in Korea Town that night. We met my friend from high school, Sunny at a Korean Barbecue place. It was kind of a life changing meal if I'm being honest with you. It was ... I still dream about that bulgogi to this day. Mike Welsh: So, when we first arrived it was still raining, we had to do the grand tour to see where the best places to fly were, what potential hazards are ... so we assessed the jump area [00:02:30] just to see what the best places are to fly and what are the best vantage points to have. Tyler Mason: That jump was absolutely enormous. I'll post an Instagram story from the AirVuz account. Snow in L.A. Speaker 1: With rehearsals canceled due to the rain, it meant there was time to get in the first flights at the iconic L.A. Coliseum. Tyler Mason: Yeah it was pretty cool the headquarters was set up in the USC Trojans locker room so we got to go down in there and see everything, how it was set up and see all the [00:03:00] cool stuff on the wall for that. Since we're at the Coliseum we figured we had to get out and fly the drone over it for a little bit too. That was really awesome, I'd never actually been the to Coliseum before, I've seen it football games and stuff like that so to be able to fly over it and get some cool drone shots of it, that was probably one of the highlights for me. Mike Welsh: The L.A. Coliseum was awesome, all of that history there was so dope. Probably the coolest stadium I've ever flown over. Mike Welsh: [00:03:30] Oh this one's goin too. Tyler Mason: Sick. Mike Welsh: Alright, I'm just gonna pull out. Tyler Mason: Can I take one picture for my [inaudible 00:03:53]. Mike Welsh: Oh yeah, for sure. Wanna take over? Jay Christensen: [00:04:00] Mike and Tyler went to go get shots in the Coliseum for sunset. I was over by the jump doing slow-mo shots on my camera and out of nowhere I just see a phantom flying and I ended up calling him and making sure that they knew that there was a drone in the sky. Tyler Mason: We had to radio in and let them know it wasn't us flying because we didn't want anyone to think we were going rogue. Yeah so we are currently actually right above the Coliseum, we did hear that ... it sounded like there might be one near the jump or west of the jump. That is not our drone. Speaker 7: [00:04:30] Copy that. Tyler Mason: Thank you, let us know if you need anything. We'll let you know when we land here, it should be just another minute. Jay Christensen: Copy, thanks Tyler. Speaker 1: While Tyler uploaded pictures to social media, Mike headed out to meet Jaybird at the flight spot for some more golden hour shots at the jump. Mike Welsh: Drone operator to dispatch, we are putting up a drone right by the ramp [00:05:00] currently. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do like a side pan. Jay Christensen: You got a drop [inaudible 00:05:09] or what? Kind of looks cool though I like it. Mike Welsh: I'm gonna land it. Jay Christensen: Okay. Mike Welsh: It rained a little bit when we were there, but it also made for some super cool sunsets when the rain subsided so I think we got even cooler footage because we had some rain there. You're going 24 FPS Jay, I know you hate it. Jay Christensen: Cinematic, yeah. Mike Welsh: [00:05:30] Cinematic, this is definitely a cinematic shot. Jay Christensen: Cinematic, I appreciate that. Dude you should go up with the elevator. Mike Welsh: Five pan shots are just like, unbelievable though. Jay Christensen: We finally had a moment at sunset where we took the Phantom 4 Pro up and got a beautiful view of the jump, the Coliseum and Downtown L.A. I was more than happy with the image quality on the Phantom 4 Pro for that entire shoot. Mike Welsh: [00:06:00] Oh my god dude, the color on this thing. Look at the city in the background. Jay Christensen: That is crazy, you've already gotten pictures from that angle right? Mike Welsh: Um, no not yet man, I gotta snap some. Jay Christensen: I'd say bring it back to the right. Mike Welsh: Bring it back to the city? Yeah, for sure. That's unbelievable. Jay Christensen: Oh yeah, perfect skyline, golden colors ... Mike Welsh: Up a little more? Jay Christensen: Up a little higher and [00:06:30] that is good. Mike Welsh: Right there? Jay Christensen: Yeah. Money. Cash money. Mike Welsh: I got it. Alright comin your way Jay. So we got the live stream goin with the Inspire 1 and with that we had an HDMI cable running out to a converter. We converted that to an SDI [00:07:00] cable, which would go straight to the production truck, giving those guys a live feed of what we're seeing. So it was cool, when we're flyin they're seein exactly what we're seein and they're tellin us when they're cuttin to us and everything so it's fun, it's very exciting. Jay Christensen: Mike and I decided to [dual-op 00:07:17] the Inspire 1 for the sunset shots next to the scaffolding. The shots that came through the scaffolding were unreal. We were just bummed out that there were no snowboarders to go along with probably the best lighting we had that entire time. Mike Welsh: [00:07:30] Sick handle on that, yeah nice, nice, nice. Jay Christensen: Now so, you should go that way. Mike Welsh: Yep, up and over. Jay Christensen: Yeah, alright start her. Mike Welsh: Alright lets go. Oh, record? Jay Christensen: Yep. Mike Welsh: Got it. Oh my god man. Up, up, up, up. [00:08:00] Altitude, altitude, yep. Jay Christensen: The thing is goin up. Mike Welsh: What's goin up. Jay Christensen: The elevator. Mike Welsh: The elevator? Jay Christensen: Yeah. Mike Welsh: Hey I'm gonna run in and make sure [00:08:30] they're getting the live stream, just one second. Jay Christensen: Man this is like, by far the coolest experience ... film experience I've ever had. It's nice that Minnesotan's are here, atmosphere, Dem Atlas, Tyler Mason with the story. A lot of people call it dual-op I call it [fam-style 00:08:50] at the time I didn't think dual-op was all that great. I thought having total control over the drone is the best way but when you're on the same page with the co-pilot you [00:09:00] can get some amazing footage. Mike Welsh: Oh I think we gotta get the sky, I'm just gonna bring it a little lower and then we can get that sky. Tyler Mason: So if you actually tilt up right now you won't get the legs in the shot. So lets uh ... [inaudible 00:09:12] Yeah. Mike Welsh: Okay, here we go. Wanna just go up higher? Tyler Mason: Yep. Mike Welsh: [00:09:30] Alright cool, that's it. Jay Christensen: Killer fam. Mike Welsh: Cool, awesome yeah. Good stuff. Jay Christensen: Good work today boys. We all killed it. Mike Welsh: The artist on Saturday night put on a great show. We had full access we were backstage. I was maybe 10 feet from Atmosphere. Tyler Mason: Personally I was excited to see Atmosphere, a local group from Minnesota, I've seen them a bunch before but they were one of the acts there and I actually got to go up on stage a little bit, which was pretty awesome, kind of a once in a lifetime experience. [00:10:00] They put on a great show as always. Mike Welsh: To the left of the stage there was about 20 yards of corridor space where we could fly and not be over people. During Chromeo's set I actually got some great shots that I knew was gonna be useful for the promo edit. While [00:10:30] Jaybird was on stage filming Chromeo I was flying. Getting both the ground and air perspective helps with the final edit to get that full immersive [00:11:00] experience. Speaker 1: Coming up in part two of this AirVuz Focus, it's crunch time as the finals commence and the AirVuz pilots have to bring their A-game for the live broadcast of the final competition. Speaker 8: Backside triple cork 1440 right there as seen by our tiny little helicopter that films all the tricks.