Our drone pilot for this project was Joe Warilow, who we have known for the last couple of years and now has his own drone company called ZOOMD Ltd. ZOOMD Ltd is a Drone Photography and Video Company originating from Kent with the ability to travel across the country. Their Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved pilots utilise state-of-the-art SUAS (Small Unmanned Aircraft System) technology to provide clients with stunning High-Resolution Videos and Photographs, which are provided in MP4 and JPEG/RAW format, respectively. ZOOMD Ltd is fully insured and underwritten by Flock Ltd.
Given the professionalism of the company and it's individuals we decided to employ their services in the understanding that they could use the footage on their showreel and that we would put their name forward to any possible networking opportunities we came across in the post-production and distribution of the documentary.
We decided to shoot all the drone footage we needed in one day, thus eliminating the need to spend money on food travel etc for the drone pilot coming out for another day. Our first location was the street adjacent to George's residence, a quick shot that pans up from the road to the top of the hill. Then we shot georges back garden as the drone took off vertically. This was done quickly and with no complications leading to us being able to drive to the next location promptly.
This next location was a very large park residing in a valley near Capstone. We had recce'd several park areas in Medway that had football pitches and this was the best location as it was so large there were very rarely people in every part of the park meaning we could capture some footage without worrying about accidentally getting people in shot who didn't want to get filmed.
Following this shoot we then packed up, parked back at georges and walked down to the train station at which we took a train to Depford and then Rotherhithe. This location had been established via google maps and a website called noflydrones.co.uk. We knew that we wanted a couple of good shots of the River Thames and some London landmarks if possible however almost all of the River Thames that runs through mid to central London is a no fly zone for drones. I followed the river's twists and turns to try and find some small point that we would be able to film and just before i approached the Ilse of Dogs right next to the Brunel Museum, there was about 800 meters of flyable air space that didn't impede on any other fly zones commercial or otherwise.
When we arrived at the London location we walked for 5 or so minutes and found the jetty that we had seen on Google Maps however it had been chained and locked shut because it had started to rot and become dangerous to the public. This would have been a problem if the tide had not been out when we arrived, so we found an entrance to the river banks and went down to about 15ft from the water's edge, the pilot got out a landing/take off pad and the drone took off. The reason for taking off on the river bank is the pilot as a part of the insurance agreement needs to take off and land with 15 meters space around them and if there are people in that space they must be people that are in your control e.g. crew.
After we got all the shots we needed we retrieved the drone just in time. I say just in time because each location we were shooting at had been insured for 2 hours, however these where not counted from time of arrival they were 2 hours within a set time e.g. 12:00 - 14:00. This was one of the biggest factors that meant we had to organised and arrive on time. Once the pilot had packed up on the river banks we headed back to the train and then back home.
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