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Part 1: Our studio

Part 2: Aerial filmmaking industry

Part 3: A look ahead

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Part 1| our studio

2018 was a phenomenal year for our studio. We’ve hit a new milestone in completed aerial projects, we’ve trained and licensed an aerial flight crew, and introduced an Apprenticeship program for new UAS pilots. This year also saw us expand our aerial and consultation services and added new equipment to our film-making line-up.

This year saw us more than double our aerial projects in a variety of different segments. We’ve had the opportunity to work with municipalities, corporations, real estate agents, engaged couples and event organizers to provide aerial services within Ottawa and its neighboring regions. We collaborated with the RCMP for complex flight operations in and around Ottawa and joined forces with talented local cinematographers to create short films, media and advertisements. We’ve also experienced Canada’s True North by working at one of Ontario’s northernest cities by road; Hearst, 12 hours north of Toronto and Ottawa. We’ve made countless customers happy and continued progressing and advocating for the aerial film-making market in Ottawa and Canada as a whole.

In Fall 2018 we’ve released 6 new packages in our Events Collection. These packages were created to encompass aerial film-making for all sorts of personal and commercial events; from a local park sporting events to Bluesfest or RedBlacks games. Like our other collections, these packages are designed to cater to a variety of uses and budgets and are fully customizable.

We’ve also added a phenomenal UAS to our under 1kg equipment line. The DJI Mavic Pro 2 sporting a Hasselblad camera was added to our line-up to further enhance the film making aerial capabilities when working up close to objects or persons of interest. This UAS has an exceptional 4K camera, excels in dark conditions, and its small size allows closer proximity to subjects than it’s bigger brothers, as per Transport Canada regulations. I am sure this UAS will become our most requested equipment of 2019.  

part two| aerial filmmaking industry

The use of drones continues to be expanded and re-imagined. Biggest absolute growth in drone adoption was in construction, mining and agriculture sectors, however drone use for film-making remains strong, albeit having a slower adoption growth. Perhaps most major film-makers have already adopted the UAS tools? We will dig deeper into these growth numbers in a future article.

The aerial film making industry itself got a considerable, albeit small, boost in 2018 with a release of several new film making drones by new entrants to the industry, and an upgrade to several classic drones. DJI, the Chinese professional and consumer film-making and commercial drone manufacturer continues leading the charge and innovation within the industry with the release of several new drones small, medium and large film-making drones.

Most notable of DJI 2018 releases are the Mavic 2 Pro series drones, released in late 2018 in the mid-weight segment. These models now come in an enterprise, zoom or Hasselblad versions. We’ve of course picked up the best of the bunch, and are looking forward to getting lots of exceptional footage with the powerful 20MP state-of-the-art camera on the Mavic 2 Pro - Hasselblad.

For hobbyists, DJI also released small sized Mavic Air and Spark in the under 1kg segment, however they are too light to produce consistently stable professional-looking footage and are best used for fun or practice flights and travels.

It’s fitting that as technology aims to get smaller, the larger film-making UAS segment over 1kg will not get as much love from DJI, and 2018 had only minor updates to its large drones. The Inspire 2 and the Matrice received upgrades to both hardware and software, but did not receive a major overhaul. That is likely slated for 2019, and we will be reviewing them when they come out. The larger UAS segment continues to dominate in the commercial use sector, however usually for film-makers smaller is better.

Other drone manufactures continue to lag behind the innovation of DJI, however a notable mention goes to Autel’s EVO drone, nearly a DJI Mavic Pro clone, however with interesting mapping capabilities. Nearly the same in looks, dimension and capabilities, the EVO still lacks proper autonomous camera features to take away market share from DJI, and it will be interesting to see if Autel is able to upgrade its camera capabilities to match DJI in 2019.

Part 3| A look ahead

While we are still years and perhaps decades away from flying taxis and aerial package deliveries (at least in Canada), there are still some interesting releases expected for 2019 and beyond, however the growth had noticeably gotten slower in the aerial film-making environment. I won’t say aerial UAS innovation had stagnated in 2018, however there’s only so much minituarization that is possible. I expect 2019 will continue to see smaller aerial drones with larger battery lives, better cameras and possibly (or hopefully!) miniature interchangeable lenses. I also anticipate other manufactures to enter and improve the aerial film-making UAS segment, increasing the competition in the segment and pressuring DJI to continue innovating at their former paces.

The true innovation for film-making drones will transition into the aquatic environment. Several consumer and commercial aquatic unmanned drones are scheduled to arrive in early 2019, Navatics being one of the companies leading the fray. This is an excellent move forward and will open up a plethora of new film-making opportunities, however the regulations surrounding nautical travel may be as complex to navigate as is air. Will federal Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans soon join forces with Transport Canada to regulate the drones on land, air and oceans? Only time will tell.

keep in touch

We’ll keep up to date for you, check our blog often and be up to date with UAS industry international and Canadian developments and standards and to see neat projects we get involved in year after year.