THE DETAILS

THE DELIVERABLES

NO. 001
1 x Hero Video

THE CHALLENGES

NO. 001
Stealth Startup - Sifly was still in their early stage as a startup and had never created a brand video. This is both an exciting and critical moment to step in and help direct their visual direction and voice as a brand.

NO. 002
No Finished Product - SiFly’s flagship Q12 drone was still missing its exterior details and finishings at the time of filming. This led us to rely heavily on a VFX composite approach that allowed us to seamlessly cut between VFX compositions and real footage of the prototype Q12 drone

NO. 003
4 Locations, over 150 miles, in 2 days - We spent 2 days location scouting to find 4 locations that would work for the 6 different scenes we needed to capture.

NO. 004
Aerial Footage - Having drones flying in the sky is always a challenge, especially when there’s 3-4 in the sky at a time. We utilized the DJI Inspire 3 as well as FPV racing drones to add an element of motion and scale to the film. This required meticulous planning and precision to ensure safety in the sky, on the ground, and for the clients prototype.

THE PROCESS

NO. 001 | PRE PRODUCTION

Creative Development - I worked with the SiFly team to understand what made their drone unique and how best to showcase those features. After understanding the technical aspects of the drone, I jumped into crafting a creative and visual approach that would tell the technical story in an engaging and innovative way.
Script Writing - After settling on a creative approach, I moved on to script ideation where we tried to find a balance between telling the audience and showing the audience what makes the SiFly drone unique.
Location Scout - Once all of our creative was locked in, I spent 3 days driving around bay from Salinas to Mill Valley looking for the perfect locations for our 2 day shoot. I wanted to show a variety of environments the drone can perform in but also be realistic with what we could accomplish in 2 days.

NO. 002 | PRODUCTION

We executed a 2 day shoot, 1 day in San Francisco and Mill Valley and a 2nd day at SiFly’s HQ in San Jose and one of their customers' farms in Salinas. We incorporated 3 different camera formats to help create an immersive look into SiFly’s newest product.

NO. 003 | POST-PRODUCTION

Editing: I worked closely with Luma’s assistant editor to develop the structure and overall narrative for SiFly. We went through several iterations before locking in the final edit for VFX.
VFX: After the final edit was locked, we teamed up with our VFX artist to start placing our VFX drones into the edit where needed. It was critical that the movement and speed matched the real drones we had filmed on set so the audience never felt like we were seeing a “fake” product.