How to Film a car chase using a DJI Phantom Drone. Using a drone to film a moving car isn’t as easy as you may guess, but the results can be stunning. This is the kind of shot that used to cost a lot of money, now it can be accomplished easily and cheaply using UAV drones, AKA quadcopters or sUAS. You can also use active track to do this on the Phantom 4 / magic and spark drones. This tutorial shows how to do it manually, as well as some important safety information while filming moving vehicles.
It’s not as easy as you would think to film a moving car from the air. In the case of this video, I show you how to accomplish this safely. Please note that the road we used is in an industrial park and has very little traffic on it. We made sure that everything was completely clear when doing this. We had spotters at both ends of the road and we stopped immediately if there was any sign of traffic.
Here are some tips for successful vehicle shots.
1. Make sure that it isn’t an area with a lot of traffic, a closed road is best.
2. Have communication with the driver, a walkie-talkie or open phone line.
3. Have an additional assistant for communications and spotting of any potential dangers (a spotter)
4. Begin to move the ‘copter first and try to match speed with the vehicle
5. FPV is essential for this kind of shot because it’s hard to judge distance when you have a moving platform in the air
6. Avoid any sudden movements, do everything slow and steady. A sudden yaw or correction will ruin the entire shot.
7. Don’t do this commercially without a part 107 license as it’s not allowed at the moment (In the USA).