Getting Creative with Drones

At the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, this was the first year Excursions were available to delegates. They could learn about the newest technology in wildlife filmmaking, get outdoors to truly experience Jackson's beauty, and more. One popular workshop allowed attendees to do both: it was all about drones. The workshop, made possible by Freefly, explored the creative side of using drones with some of the best in the business. The panel of drone experts spoke about their experiences and gave advice to creatively use this popular specialty camera.

​Vanessa Boshoff, Creative Producer and Head of Development at VisionHawk films said, "It was a great group of humans and I really think people learned a lot!" Vanessa was the workshop facilitator, and was one of the reasons for inspiration that sparked in Jackson Hole WILD's own Executive Director Lisa Samford. Samford had never seen a drone in real life before the workshop. "The capacity of what drones are capable of is astounding," says Samford. "The sheer variety in sizes, their portability, and what you can accomplish with them in the field makes these cameras so valuable to wildlife filmmaking."

Patrick Dykstra, an independent filmmaker who has worked with BBC and produced content for Emirates Airlines and the government of Sri Lanka was also a workshop facilitator. He was happy with the experience, and was proud of everything that the attendees took away from the day.

"Attendees learned about aerial filming techniques, laws and regulations, types of aircraft and camera systems as well as the practicalities of insurance, transport and working with producers. As a facilitator, I was really impressed with the attendance.  The session was standing room only and the attendees asked some excellent questions.  The field session was also well attended.  Although I have been flying drones commercially for years, I also learned a lot from the other members of the panel.  The breadth of experience was fantastic.  Small UAVs, big UAVs, fixed wing and helicopters were all represented on the panel." 

Freefly Alta 8

Another workshop facilitator, Nel Boshoff, was proud of the variety of gear they had to show the attendees. "We showed a Freefly Alta 8, DJI inspire 2, DJI Mavic and DJI phantom. We demonstrated a gamut of drones all at the pinnacle of UAV tech." From the FreeFly Alta 8 with MoVI Pro, the most proven system capable of lifting all of the top cinema cameras, to the Mavic, capable of 4K video but folds up to fit in your pocket.

Be sure to check out some of Freefly's latest tech, and learn about camera compatibility and more on Freefly's blog to find what best suits you. (Our favorite blog post that helpfully explains a lot about their newest technology is called "Flying with the Epic.")