A One-Take Thriller Shot Entirely on an FPV Drone

Filmmaker Mikhail Parkhomenko wrote and filmed a one-take thriller inside a long tunnel shot entirely on an FPV drone. The story required a bit of coordination as the drone could not go ahead of the car, so Parkhomenko had to reach out and catch the drone while fellow filmmaker Emil Khaziev had to turn off the drone while both car and drone were in motion. After a bit of practicing, they modified the drone to make it easier to handle.

We had a lot of challenges. One of them was to catch the drone without shaking, because the drone’s motors compensated for the slightest tilt when I grabbed it on the fly. So my goal was to grab the drone as smoothly as possible with my left hand, and Emil Khaziev’s goal was to turn the drone off directly in that time. …For convenience, we printed a special handle made of lightweight material to make it easy to hold and catch. And a lot of practice catching the drone. Also, I made a detailed work with stabilization and masks to reduce motion blur and shaking artifacts.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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