Film art and drones

Filming with a drone singularly changes the way we look at the world, and perhaps the way we write film, in both political and sensitive dimensions.

The drone’s gaze

Recently, drones equipped with cameras have become accessible to the general public. That is to say that the flying camera, previously reserved for seasoned professionals or the army, is becoming “democratic”. This camera allows to produce images seen from the sky, as well as movements that no other camera could do.

We are, since a few years, daily users of images seen from above, by the interactive cartography that accompanies us (Google maps on phones and others), offering us an augmented experience of the world. Moreover, inside video games and virtual worlds (Second Life, Minecraft...), we manipulate a flying camera, which allows us to see the action from multiple angles.

This flying camera, the drone, now exists in the real world. It is only in its prehistory today, but it is there. Will it bring us to look at reality differently? To look at the real world as we look at virtual worlds? Will this superhuman point of view, now accessible, invite us to new forms of representation, visual, but also narrative, thematic? Will new film subjects be born?
It is a question, of course, of going beyond the anecdotal aerial image, the beautiful landscape seen from above, but of considering the aerial image at all its heights. As well as to consider the political dimension of the appropriation of a type of point of view previously forbidden by the technical limits. Moreover, to put it in a simplistic way, the law authorizes the piloting of drones, but not of drones equipped with cameras!

Real world images

When an image is made using a camera, the camera is almost always tied to the body. Whether it is carried, placed on a stand, a crane... the mechanical recording tool of the moving image has a link, more or less direct, to the body of the operator. The body, that is to say the look. There is thus intrinsically, most often, a relation of very great proximity between the glance of the one who films and the filmed image, a kind of translation of one to the other.

The images of the virtual worlds

On the other hand, in three-dimensional virtual worlds (video games, virtual worlds...), a character (avatar) represents the spectator-actor, but the camera, which gives us the view, can be completely disconnected from the spectator’s gaze: we can see ourselves from behind, from in front, from above, from below...

The drone-camera

The drone-camera, digital object, controlled by the mediation of a computer program, placing itself where it wants, where we want in space, allows the operator to produce an image of the real world in the same way that we produce an image of a virtual world. Thus, the drone allows us to look at the real world in the same way as we used to look at virtual worlds.
The manufactured look is no longer one with the lived look of the one who is filming. The drone brings to a deportation of the glance on the real. It is a striking experience for the operator. As if the body, so present behind the camera that films the real world, was no longer, or rather had changed its nature: the body carrying the camera has become an abstract entity, even in the real world. Experimenting with this leads to a reflection on writing and editing, to changes of perspective, perhaps quite major.

The political gaze

The look of the drone, the look from above, is carried by the armies (drone tool of surveillance, before becoming a tool of surveillance and death) as well as by Google (Google earth). The principle of the military drone is to go into spaces where it has no right to do so: to monitor “enemy territories”. The principle of Google, which looks down on us from above, is not to ask for anyone’s opinion, to act also “without authorization of image rights”.

On the other hand, in France (laws of 2012), if you buy a drone, you have the right to fly it if it is visible to your eyes, but if it is equipped with a camera and a fortiori if you fly in immersion, ie without seeing the device, seeing through its camera, there it is strictly prohibited.

So, choosing to look down is a political gesture. To experience it is symbolically powerful.

The movement of the world

After having experimented with multiple drone piloting-turnings, I realized that in many cases, the drone seemed to move by itself, going up, down, drifting... impossible to perfectly control its movement. It was not a space of absolute control of the gaze on the real world, as I had conceptualized it at first.

In fact, the drone was carried away by the wind, the hot air... in short, natural elements that are invisible to us. It is animated by organic movements, which give the image a lot of sensitivity.

The cinematographic camera and projector (with photochemical film) were not technically perfect, the film, driven by a machine, could have problems of fixity, small spots, etc. The fact that the machine could not be totally hidden from it brought to the spectator the sensibility of the experience; the awareness of the device made him feel the reality of the trace of a pre-existing reality. A rough and touching reality. In digital technologies, the pixel is absolutely fixed, the machine wants to be as transparent as possible (it is not always, cf. cell phones); the images can be quite cold. With drones, because the shooting machine cannot be completely fixed, because we can feel the “rustle” of the world, its slight permanent movement, the technical device is no longer hidden, and gives a lot of sensitivity to the images produced.

Thus, the drone interests me to rethink the very situation of shooting, scenes at normal height, which brings new relational modalities between the camera and the actors, the filmmaker, the set... and in fine the cinematographic writing.

Films

Films I shot entirely with drones:

• I saw you
• Chaosmos
• Richard Texier at work
• Territoire imaginaire
• Men on camera
• Trio-

Article and interview

• Interview as part of a drone masterclass at Digifest Festival (Toronto - May 2015)
• Article « Drone, the embedded look » on the UPOPI website.

Which drone to choose for filming? (2015)

If you want to try your hand at filming with drones, it’s not easy, as there are many models to choose from. Here are my tips for drones already equipped with cameras:

• Hubsan H107D+ (or Hubsan X4). For 150€, a very small drone, which films quite well, but is very difficult to fly, 5 minutes autonomy. Everyone can use it everywhere, it is safe. http://www.hubsan.com/productinfo_20.html
• DJI Inspire 1. The Rolls of the drones with integrated camera, 3000€. You are not supposed to fly it without a license and authorization. http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1
• DJI Phantom 3. The drone that flies over nuclear power plants. 20 minutes autonomy. Powerful, small, but still dangerous, you need a pilot’s license. http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3
• Parrot Bebop. Very interesting “intermediate” model, 500€, 17 minutes autonomy, which gives an average image quality, but extremely stable. It has the great advantage of not being dangerous, on sale from 14 years old. http://www.parrot.com/fr/produits/bebop-drone/
• Hexo +. Totally autonomous drone, which follows or precedes you. No need to pilot it. 1000€. https://hexoplus.com/
  Lily. Autonomous drone too. Not yet on sale (1000€) at the date of publication of this article. https://www.lily.camera/
  Make it yourself. If you want to make your own drone, it’s not impossible, because everything exists in open source on the web. http://diydrones.com/