so ive been flying for about 8 months now and my footage still looks kinda... amateur? like i watch it back and its just not the same vibe as those cinematic videos i see on youtube. i shoot in 4k on my mini 3 pro and i use ND filters (usually ND16 or ND64 depending on conditions) so the exposure seems fine. im not sure if its a flying problem or an editing problem or both honestly.

one thing i noticed is my movements feel jerky sometimes even when i think im being smooth on the sticks. and in post i usually just color grade a bit in premiere and call it done. maybe thats the issue? do people actually spend hours on a single short clip or am i just being impatient with myself

any tips would be great, not looking for a whole tutorial just some direction on what to actually focus on

honestly the biggest thing for me was slowing everything down way more than feels natural. like when youre flying a reveal shot or an orbit, you think youre going slow enough and then you watch it back and its still too fast. i spent months on this before it clicked. try cutting your stick sensitivity and just... go slower than feels right.

the other thing is the 180 degree shutter rule ? if youre already doing that with your NDs then great, but a lot of people skip it and thats what makes footage look floaty or stuttery depending on which direction you mess up. and for editing, dont sleep on color grading in LOG if your drone supports it. D-Log M on the mini 3 gives you way more to work with even if it looks flat out of camera.

im kind of in the same boat as you so take this with a grain of salt but what helped me was just copying specific shots i liked from videos i found online. like literally try to recreate them, same movement same timing. you learn a lot about whats actually hard to pull off. some shots look simple but require way more stick coordination than you'd think