Angelisqatsi • Life Out of Body (2023)

Angelisqatsi is a collection of drone cinematography around the Los Angeles and SoCal areas, set to music. Kudos to you if you recognize the music (or the reference in the title), I thought it appropriate given the context of the imagery.

Notes on this film: the 2022 version was originally shot entirely with a DJI Mavic Mini 2, for 2023, shots added from the DJI Mavic Mini 3 Pro. All shots were flown using manual control only, I did not use any of the "automated" fly features. Camera was set to 24 fps 4K, and for Mini 3 Pro in HDR 10 bit "cinestyle" pseudo log, graded in Davinci. The more recent shots with a K&F variable ND filter. 

The original Angelisqatsi was the first week or two of flying the DJI Mini 2, getting used to flying drones. As such I didn't yet have the polarizer or ND filters, and some of the earlier day shots, like the wind farm, suffered as a result. Some time was spent salvaging the wind farm shot in DaVinci Resolve.

I did of course get a set of ND and polarizers for the Mini 2 and the Mini 3 pro. My go to for the 3 is the K&F Variable ND, which uses two polarizers, one of which is rotatable, allowing for an adjustable 1 to 5 stops of exposure reduction.

Edit and color grade was using DaVinci Resolve, my current favorite "Swiss Army Knife" for post production. It literally does everything, and blows "A Dough Bee" products out of the water. DaVinci Resolve has a very functional free version, and the full paid version is very affordable, with no subscription needed.

Resolve has features such as

- Automated syncing audio for dailies (TC or audio waveform match!)

- Automated proxy management

- Two different editorial interfaces, including a fully animatable keyframe-able timeline, with...

- Integrated Fusion, a node-based compositor/VFX app, including rock solid point, planar, and 3D camera trackers, 3D environment, 3D text, and all the nodes you'd expect with a fully-functional compositing app.

- Full node-based HDR-capable color grading with all the pro features such as multiple modes of qualifier, sharpening, temporal noise reduction, power windows, power curves, all trackable/keyframe-able, easy one-click LUT generation, etc etc.

- For audio, a Fairlight! Blast from my past to be sure!

- Output to anything, Dolby Vision capable....

Thanks for watching!

Andrew Somers, Andy Somers, Myndex, drone pilot, drone cinematography, visual effects supervisor, VFX, aerial photography