Add B-roll Footage of Drone Shots
B-roll is supplementary footage that supports the primary content in your video. B-roll footage can be anything that can help enhance your main storyline, including b-roll drone shots. B-roll footage is also ideal for jumpstarting audience engagement with your video and helping them understand your message. B-roll is typically shown between scenes and before/after interviews, so it doesn’t interrupt the flow of your video. Even though it’s shown in the background, viewers are still able to engage with it, which helps them better understand the content being presented in the primary storyline. B-roll footage also allows you to set the scene for your primary content, which is especially important for drone footage. Since drone shots are typically landscapes, you need b-roll footage to set the scene for what location the drone is in. For example, if you want to use drone footage of a cityscape, you’ll need b-roll footage of what that city looks like. That way, your audience knows they’re looking at a city, which can help them better understand the content being presented in the primary storyline.

Use drone shots to set the scene
A key function of a drone in a video production is to set the scene for the primary content. That’s why you’ll often see drone footage used to capture landscapes and cityscapes. But setting the scene is also an important function of establishing shots in your video. An establishing shot is a wide shot of a scene that gives the viewer a sense of place and context for the action in the primary storyline. Elements of an establishing shot include: – The type of location – The movement of people and/or vehicles – The weather – The time of day – The season The goal of an establishing shot is for the viewer to feel as if they’re actually there in the scene with the primary subject. Drone footage is particularly effective for this because it allows you to set the scene in a wide, expansive manner that is difficult to achieve with ground-level cameras.

Add Drone Footage to Your Scripting Process
As you’re scripting out the content for each scene in your production, you should already be thinking about ways to integrate your drone footage. For example, if you’re producing content at a trade show or event and want to incorporate drone footage of the event, you’ll need to plan ahead. You’ll want to plan out the shots you want to capture and then get the footage back to edit it into your final production. You’ll also want to make sure you get all of the b-roll footage you need to set the scene for your primary event footage.

Utilize wide shots to set context
A wide shot is a shot that includes a large part of the scene. This type of shot is particularly effective for setting the context of your scene, which is why it’s so useful for drone footage. Wide shots allow you to set the context of your scene and show the audience what specific location you’re in. This is especially important for drone footage because audiences often have a hard time determining what location a drone is in. Wide shots also allow you to set the tone of your scene, which is important for any type of content, but it’s especially critical for drone footage. Drone content often conveys a sense of vastness and grandeur that can be hard for audiences to grasp if they don’t know where the drone is. Wide shots allow you to set context and tone and provide the audience with a visual anchor that makes it easier to understand what they’re seeing in the primary storyline.

Conclusion
Drone footage is an effective way to engage audiences, but only if the viewers know when it’s being used. To make the most of your drone video clips and achieve more audience views, you need to integrate them with other types of video content in your production. Using B-roll to show your drone footage, incorporating drone footage into your scripting process and utilizing wide shots to set context will help you integrate your drone footage and make it more effective.

314-913-5626
Mike Haller
St Louis Video Producer
stlouiscameracrew@gmail.com