MobileMovieMaking: How did you get into drone videography?

Sloan: Originally I got into drone videography because I was filming day trips I would take with my kids to various areas near me to document the memories. I knew I wanted a drone but I wanted something small and compact since I was often hiking or traveling. Right around this time DJI released the original Mavic Pro and I managed to order one of the first units they shipped. At that time there was very little in the way of tutorial videos on the web so most of my learning was pure trial and error. There were a lot of errors too but fortunately none of them destroyed my drone. Once I had a decent base of coordination to be able to fly and film at the same time I started trying to imitate aerial shots I saw in movies and the rest is history. As drone footage became more common place, I started looking for ways to set mine apart and that led me to FPV drones (first-person view) which again was a lot of trial and error to learn to fly, but I really wanted to be able to capture some of the locations I visit with the feeling you have when flying in a small plane. FPV offers the ability to capture aerial shots that are inherently different from the normal drone footage. It has lots of motion and movement in it which can really add to the story. Plus it’s just a ton of fun to fly!

MobileMovieMaking: Did any filmmakers influence your work?

Sloan: There are a few that got me started down this road. First would probably be Casey Neistat. He is a brilliant story teller and while I don’t like all of his content he got me started documenting my trips with my kids. Another one is Josh from MAKE. ART. NOW. who has a really unique style and way of telling stories. And D4Darious is someone who does some really different editing to the way he tells stories. My approach to making movies and YouTube videos really started with those channels. I’ve evolved a lot as I have searched for my own unique style. I hope I always continue to learn and grow as a storyteller. As I was looking for what made me different from other people who produce similar content on YouTube (camera gear reviews) I really wanted to show off Alaska and the locations I get to visit. The idea of testing and reviewing gear out in the wilds of Alaska really came out of that.

MobileMovieMaking: What kind of planning goes into a movie like “Alaska Glacier FPV”?

Sloan: The project came out of wanting to get drone footage of someone riding a fat tire bike down a glacier. It took a year of planning to find a safe spot on a glacier that could be shot during winter when there was enough snow on the glacier to provide traction. We didn’t come up with a shot list because there were so many unknown variables to shooting it, but we had the overall concept. From that point it was a matter of timing the weather, waiting for the lake to freeze to get access to the glacier, and then waiting till we had enough day light to go shoot the whole thing. We got lucky this year and had great snow pack and good weather all at the right time when I and another drone pilot could both be on location to shoot it with my FPV drone and his Mavic 2 Pro.

MobileMovieMaking: What’s the difference between FPV drone footage and regular drone footages?

Sloan: FPV footage is unique in the way the footage feels. GPS stabilized drones like DJI drones produce fantastic stable footage and are great for establishing wide and close-following shots. You can get great parallax shots with them too. An example of a parallax shot would be orbiting around a subject. The subject stays in center frame while the background and the foreground are both moving around the subject. In any GPS drone shot the horizon stays level. FPV on the other hand is what it feels like if you were strapped to the front of a small acrobatic plane. The horizon tilts, you can dive at high speed toward something or fly through objects in your frame. When you are filming FPV everything is in motion and very dynamic because you never stop and hover but are flying through a scene or location at relatively high speed (50-60 mph). I have found that stabilized drone shots are great for establishing location and subject matter while FPV is great for establishing action and building tension.

MobileMovieMaking: Tell us about the structure of your movie.

Sloan:  This came from wanting to show how big and dangerous glaciers are. It’s incredibly difficult to show the scale of them since there is nothing familiar for us to judge size by such as  people trees, and cars. By flying through some of the crevasses and around the face of the glacier while trying to also get people in the shot I was able to give viewers an idea of both the size of the glacier and also the danger. Showing scale was also the reason I added the cliff dive down to the lake. If you look carefully you can see me and my friend sitting on the lake as two black specs. After showing off how vast and epic the landscape is, we wanted to transition to showing my friend riding his bike down the glacier. The original idea probably came from watching too many red bull or gropo commercials. I do want to stress that this whole thing was carefully planned. We scouted the location many times in the summer and fall when we could see the hazards clearly. We also took precautions and every possible safety measure on the day of the shoot. We are all very experienced mountaineers and climbers and went into this well prepared. I do not recommend anyone without extensive experience in mountaineering ever to try to do this or climb on a glacier. They are incredibly dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. All that said we had one shot at doing it due to daylight, weather and the shear amount of effort it took to get the bike up there. Everything went almost perfectly and while I wouldn’t likely try it again I am glad we did this one!

MobileMovieMaking: How long did the shoot take?

Sloan: It took use about an hour of bike riding across the frozen lake to get on site and then we spent three or four hours shooting before we started to loose the light. We didn’t have too many problems except I had a battery die on my FPV drone while I was shooting. I had to retrieve it from where it crashed on the glacier, fortunately in an area that was safe to access! We did spend some time working with filters and polarizers to try and minimize the glare off the snow and ice. From there it was mostly the effort it took to get the bike up to about 1,200 feet elevation on the glacier. Then gravity did the rest! Knowing your equipment inside and out. helps when it comes to trouble shooting. I always suggest you go out and spend a day or two with a new piece of equipment and get to know it really well before you go on a shoot that counts! There are way less surprises that way.

MobileMovieMaking: During the shoot were you always able to see the drone?

Sloan: Actually we used this location specifically due to the fact that we had great line of sight which also means we had excellent signal link to the drones as well as to the other drone pilot, so we could communicate with each other easily and quickly. I don’t fly beyond visual line of sight simply because so many things can go wrong quickly. iIt’s also illegal to do so without a waiver from the FAA in the United States.

MobileMovieMaking: Could you talk about the aircraft?

Sloan: I use my own custom built FPV drone for the FPV footage. For the opening shot and one or two other establishing shots I used my Skydio 2. The stabilized drone footage of the bike ride was shot with a Mavic 2 pro. Right now if you want a really solid drone for camera work the Mavic 2 pro is probably top of my list. DJI did just release the Mavic Air 2 but I haven’t been able to test it yet, but that will be coming soon on my YouTube channel lol. The Skydio is excellent as well but it is really built to follow you and film you while avoiding everything around it where as the Mavic series is built to be flown and to film by a pilot.

MobileMovieMaking: How did you go about editing the piece?

Sloan: I used Final Cut Pro X. With this kind of a video, I really start with a piece of music. I use Artlist for all my music. They have the most flexible terms for copyright and use that I have found. Once I find a piece of music I like,  I start to pull footage in to edit to the rhythm of the music and build the story to the ultimate end shots that are the climax of the story. In this case,  the bike ride down the glacier and, of course, the end shot of the glacier calving.

MobileMovieMaking: Speaking of glacier calving, how did you get that last astonishing shot?

Sloan: First off, it’s important to stay a good distance away from active glaciers because when they calve you often get little or no warning. The pieces that come off can be anywhere from the size of a car to the size of a city block or larger. Glaciers are giant rivers of ice that slowly flow down hill and at the end they are always pushing pieces of ice off. That’s what causes the calving to happen. Here this glacier calves into a lake but where we were standing was on solid ground on the shore. This was shot by a friend as we were leaving. We had been watching that area for a while because we knew it was going to calve soon and as we getting ready to leave it started to make a lot of noise. Fortunately, he was able to get his phone out and capture it!

MobileMovieMaking: Do you have any advice for someone who’d like to start shooting drone video?

Sloan: I highly recommend watching YouTube videos about flying, filming, and editing drone footage (I have a few on my YouTube channel). For a great drone to start out with you cannot go wrong with the Mavic Mini from DJI. It’s small enough that you don’t need to register it in most countries but still has great quality footage and is very capable to start out with. If you just want to do it for fun then that is really all you need but if you want to start selling footage or do other commercial work with drones then in most countries you will need to get a license. Getting that varies a lot by country but here in the US it means taking a written aeronautical knowledge exam. Unless you have a commercial drone license  in the US,  you can face steep penalties for commercial use of drone footage.

The best way to keep up with Jake Sloan’s work is through his YouTube channel.  He posts new videos every week doing reviews of drones and other gear, and giving tips and tutorials on how to use those resources. He’s also active on Twitter and Instagram.

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The editors of MobileMovieMaking have chosen “Alaska Glacier FPV fun” as the Mobile Movie of the Week.