so ive been flying for about a year now mostly just doing recreational stuff but lately ive been trying to get more intentional about the footage i capture. like actually thinking about the shot before i take off instead of just winging it and hoping something looks good in post.

the problem is i feel like i spend half my flight time just kind of hovering and figuring out angles on the spot and then i land and review and its like... fine. not great. i know there are people who go out and come back with these incredible sequences and im trying to figure out what their process looks like before they even arm the motors.

do you use google earth to scout? do you storyboard anything? or is it more like you just know from experience what works at a given location? i feel like im missing some mental framework for this

honestly the biggest shift for me was just watching the location on google earth at different times of day using the 3d view and kind of mentally flying through it before i ever show up. you get a sense of where the sun is going to be, what the terrain looks like from above, whether there are obstacles that might not be obvious from ground level.

but beyond that i started keeping a little notes doc on my phone for each location ? just rough descriptions of shots i want to attempt. nothing fancy, not a storyboard or anything. something like "low pass through the gap between the two ridges heading east" or "reveal from behind the treeline at about 40m." just enough to remind myself when im up there and starting to blank on ideas because the battery clock is ticking.

the other thing that helped a lot was just accepting that some flights are scouting flights. you go up, you figure out whats there, you land, you think about it, maybe you go back another day with a real plan. thats not wasted time even if the footage isnt usable.

i started using sun seeker app and it changed everything for golden hour planning tbh. also yeah google earth is your friend, zoom in as much as you can and just spend like 20 mins virtually flying the area before you go. saves so much battery fumbling around when youre actually there