3D Robotics, a California-based company that designs and manufactures drones, has decided to highlight one of its flagship commodities in a more creative pursuit: by way of a sci-fi web series shot entirely with a quadcopter.
Life After Gravity, a dystopian dreamscape, follows a protagonist named Hary Tran (or ichingbot32 on the Internet) as he comes up against a global tech conglomerate called Eon Space Agency. The first episode, posted on Oct. 22, lays the groundwork and mythology for this quasi-postapocalyptic universe—which may or may not be an alternate universe from the one we know.
Oh, and Tran/ichingbot32 has no "Zero ID"—an intriguing detail that will surely play out in a series that points to a lack of gravity in the title.
3DR will post upcoming future episodes on its website as well as its YouTube channel (obviously, the first episode has already been posted on both).
The drones used for the heavy-duty aerial camerawork (not to mention all of the camerawork) were Solo drones, quadcopters produced by 3DR that come equipped with 880 kV motors and an HD video-to-mobile cable cam—the drone is designed specifically to record death-defying shots and breathtaking cinematography to begin with.
Each episode is accompanied by a "behind-the-scenes" blog post, which delves in-depth into the making of each video shot-by-shot, and the tech used to create them.
Despite the sophisticated build of the Solo drone, filming the show is still a difficult enterprise, according to 3DR's Adam Schlender.
"There are, of course, constraints to shooting exclusively with a drone. Lighting is tricky. On-screen dialogue is tricky," Schlender relayed in an interview exclusive with Engadget.
"Part of the challenge (and reward) in working this way is that you plan to improvise, to be creative on the spot. Almost without fail, one location will look different from the air than it did on Google Earth, while another will immediately spark shots you didn't [initially] imagine," he concluded.
While some might see it as an attempt to market the Solo drone (it is, after all, a 3DR flagship device), the artistic vision and merit of the episodic venture can't be denied.
Check out episode 1 of Life After Gravity in the video below.
Via: Engadget
