Since 2014, XM2 Aerial has been pioneering the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones on movie sets around the world.

The demands of movie making means today’s cinematography is technically complex, requiring precision image capture, balanced with flexibility to react to constantly changing storylines and shot requests. This is making traditional means of hoisting cameras or using helicopters to get above ground shots time consuming, rigid, costly, and in some cases, dangerous tools of trade.

UAV are the perfect solution for the modern cinematographer. With a never-ending design process, XM2 has continuously developed bespoke UAV systems and workflows that meet the needs of major movie productions in multiple ways. A recent example was on the production of the recently released movie Pacific Rim: Uprising. XM2 were deployed to South Korea as the entire 2nd Unit team. They were able to use UAV to replace traditional dolly, cranes and booms, completing what would have taken 2-3 weeks shooting, in just 6 days.

The rise of the drone is providing movie producers and creatives with a tool to capture never-before-possible shots, with high-quality imagery in a fraction of the time and at much less cost.