so ive been flying for about a year and a half now, mostly just messing around and getting comfortable with the sticks, but lately ive been trying to actually make my footage look... good? like properly cinematic instead of just "cool drone footage"

the problem is i keep doing the same three moves over and over ? slow push forward, reveal shot pulling back from a subject, and the orbit. and honestly my edits are starting to all look the same. i watch stuff from other people on youtube and vimeo and i cant figure out what theyre doing differently. is it the shot selection? the editing? the color grade? probably all three i guess

my setup is a mini 4 pro if that matters, shooting in d-log m, 4k 60fps mostly. i just feel like im missing something fundamental about how to think about shots before i even take off. anyone been through this and figured it out?

yeah totally been there, it's kind of a plateau thing that happens around the year mark. the big shift for me was honestly just forcing myself to plan shots on the ground before the battery even goes in. like actually standing at the location and thinking "what is the story of this place" which sounds pretentious but it really changes how you fly.

the other thing ? and this took me way too long to figure out ? is that slow is almost always better than you think in the moment. when i watch my footage back the moves i thought were too slow are usually the ones that actually feel cinematic, and the ones i liked flying feel rushed. also try varying your altitude during a move, not just flying straight lines. a slow descending orbit hits different than a flat one. and stop shooting 60fps unless you actually need slow mo, 24fps with proper ND filtration just has a different feel to it that really helps.

the jib shot changed everything for me honestly, where you fly forward and slowly lower the altitude at the same time so it feels like a crane coming down. takes a bit of practice to keep it smooth but its one of those moves that doesnt get old. also look up "the parallax effect" for drone shots, basically flying sideways while keeping the subject framed ? when you have foreground elements it looks insane