Flown by a cinematographer
Aerial & drone cinematography
A licensed, insured aerial unit flown by the person shooting the rest of your film — so the aerial matches the ground footage instead of looking like it came from somewhere else.
Most productions hire a drone operator who has never seen the rest of the shoot. The aerial comes back beautiful and unusable — wrong light, wrong lens language, wrong grade — and the editor buries it under a music cue.
We fly our own aerial unit, and the person flying it is the cinematographer photographing the rest of the film. Same eye, same exposure, same grade. It cuts in instead of announcing itself.
That also means one booking rather than two. No second vendor to brief, no separate certificate of insurance to chase, no extra crew call, no minimum day for a vendor who is standing around until lunchtime. And when the weather turns or the board changes, the aerial plan changes with it — on the day, not next week.
What's included
- Certification
- FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot, current and insured
- Airspace
- LAANC authorisation, airspace checks and clearances handled before the call time
- Insurance
- Certificate of insurance issued to your production or venue on request
- Coverage
- Establishers, reveals, tracking, top-down, low-level dynamic work
- Delivery
- Graded to match the main unit, or raw plus LUTs if your post house prefers
- Hire
- Standalone aerial day, or built into a full shoot
Often used for
- Commercials and brand films
- Real estate and architecture
- Live events and festivals
- Documentary establishers
- Construction and industrial progress
- Tourism and destination films
Questions
The things people ask first
Are you licensed and insured to fly commercially?
Yes. Paul Cain holds a current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and carries drone liability insurance. We can issue a certificate of insurance naming your production company, client or venue as additional insured — usually the same day you ask.
Can you fly at our location?
Most of the time, yes. We check the airspace class before quoting and file for LAANC authorisation where controlled airspace requires it. Some locations — near airports, over crowds, at night — need a specific waiver or additional planning, and we will tell you honestly at the quote stage rather than on the shoot day.
Do you fly at night or over people?
This depends on the waivers currently held. Send us the location and what the shot needs and we will tell you straight away whether it is flyable, what it would take, and whether it is worth the paperwork.
Can we book you for aerial only?
Yes. A lot of our aerial work is a standalone day for a production that already has a ground crew. Send dates and a location and we will confirm availability and airspace.
How does aerial cost compare to hiring a separate drone operator?
When aerial is part of a shoot we are already on, it is usually cheaper than bringing in an outside operator, because you are not paying a second vendor's day rate, travel and insurance admin on top of ours. As a standalone booking we price it as its own day.
What do you need from us to quote?
Location, dates, and roughly what the shot needs to do. That is enough for us to check airspace and come back with a price.
Also
Other services
Brand films
The anchor piece a campaign hangs off — concept, shoot and finish, made as one job.
Learn more →Commercials
Broadcast, streaming and social spots delivered to spec — agency-grade craft, direct to the brand.
Learn more →Documentary
Founder stories, origin films and long-form branded documentary — small crew, cinematic result.
Learn more →Interviews & testimonials
Multi-camera interviews and testimonials with broadcast audio and same-day selects.
Learn more →Product cinematography
Tabletop, macro and motion control — for when the product has to look expensive and repeat exactly.
Learn more →Tell us what you're making
A brief, a deadline, or a rough idea. We'll come back with an approach and a budget.