4 tips for making promotional aerial videos

What does it take to make a good promotional aerial video? A few tools we recommend for success.

They are invading the worlds of advertising, music clips and cinema and, of course, they "fly" from social network to social network.
These are aerial videos shot with the help of drones.
As already mentioned in a recent article, for various reasons they are also increasingly chosen by private and public bodies to promote protected areas, tourist destinations and accommodation facilities.

But not every aerial video shot with a drone is the right promotional card, and not all of them "turn out well". So what are the keys to success? How do you make a good aerial video?

#Time

Have you ever noticed how long a TV commercial lasts? About thirty seconds, give or take.
The reason is that the user's attention tends to drop as soon as they realize someone is trying to sell them something. Although a promotional video is not a real commercial and its job is not only to sell but also to amaze and inform, it is still important not to exceed two (or at most three) minutes.
This runs counter to many videos, some of them very beautiful, found online, which show entire territories from the point of view of an eagle in flight. But let's put ourselves in the shoes of a user who finds a video online, on a social network, and gets curious about it:

will they have time to watch a whole video, perhaps ten minutes long?
Between other posts to read that will catch their attention, messages to answer and having to get back to work, time will pass and they won't watch the whole video. You can show a lot even in a short time!

#Editing

A good camera is not enough. You also need good post-production that makes our two-to-three minutes of video dynamic and able to keep attention and curiosity high. As soon as you watch the full footage, note down the minutes that you find most interesting from a visual and emotional point of view. Then take note of the different feelings each sequence gives you. From a single shoot and a single flight, several videos could come out, to be used in different situations and periods or for different audiences.

#Music

As in all videos, the soundtrack is extremely important. Let's choose it based on the spirit of the video and the feeling we want to convey. Do we want to promote a facility or an area that offers extreme sports, like the Flight of the Angel in the Lucanian Dolomites? Then you will use an adrenaline-filled soundtrack with high BPM. Do you want to promote a dream resort with a pool overlooking the Chianti hills? A jazz track or similar blends and something sentimental but not cloying will work well.

For beginners there are programs that let you edit videos in a few minutes and choose royalty-free, copyright-free soundtracks (another thing to pay attention to!!). One of them is stupeflix, incredibly intuitive, which can even automatically adapt the transition of images and new video scenes to the BPM of the chosen music.

#Titles

However short and beautiful the video is, not everyone will have the time and desire to watch it to the end. That is why it is better to insert, using a nice font and a nice effect, the name of the place to be promoted also at the beginning and/or during the video, and then perhaps repeat it at the end as closing credits.

Technical tools: which ones to use?

Obviously, everything said so far depends closely on the tools we decide to use. Once, aerial videos were shot only by professionals with very expensive equipment such as small helicopters. Now, thanks to drones and new compact cameras, it is possible to spend much less and get good results, but it is important to choose the right tools such as:

- A GoPro

- A professional gimbal (preferably a 3-axis one)

- A certified drone, like our Black Hunter to fly in compliance with the law. Pay attention to this aspect! Besides having to comply with ENAC rules regardless of the purpose of the video and the activity, you cannot sign official contracts with a client if the drone you use is not certified by the Italian National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC).

Feel free to write to us to ask for (or give us) other tips and suggestions.