Mav Air Reaction

Hi
How does the Mavic Air react to being flown over a cliff edge, when one-minute your flying at say 50ft and the next the beach is 200ft below.
Just needed to know before finding out the hard way.
Regards
Alan

Our drones have no knowledge of where the ground is ( … other than the sensors that assist with landing, and these are only any good for a few feet).

The take off point will be 0ft regardless of how high the cliff is.If you fly up to 50ft then go over the cliff the display will still show 50ft even though you are now 250ft above the beach. If you descend below the take off point (0ft) the display will start to show minus figures.

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Except for maybe the strong gusts of wind up the cliff face. It’ll take it in its stride no problem.

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Flew this with my Mavic Air, took her WELL out to sea! Totally fine!

I recall a very early flight of mine where I did something very similar and was amused to read that I was -20ft or whatever the then reading was…marginally confused me for a second until I realised I had reduced my height past take off.

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@awsan5 Hi, I did the same thing with my MP the other day and it handled it no problem, landing was a bit tricky as it was getting buffeted about a bit, otherwise no problem.

That was an amazing video, did you purposely make your cuts in time with the music, it certainly seemed so in the early part?

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Thats very reasuring, i will it a go, nearly said take the plunge but that would be tempting fate.

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I tried my best :wink: not perfect though!

Now I watch it back I’ve learned a lot since. For example if you’re panning along the coast doing cut Away’s, it’s jarring to the brain if you cut back to exactly where you left off, the brain expects the camera to have moved on further if you get me?

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@Longstride

So when you started editing it did you start with the music first, you can’t really cut a music clip as it would not sound good. This is what I thought you must have done, it is really effective when it works as it did in your video, especially if the music is building up to something dramatic you can do with the video.

I’m not up to that yet I’m still trying to put a reasonable video together, timing cuts to the music can come later. I think you need to plan your flight with an eye to what you want to produce at the end, begin with the end in mind as Covey put it.

At the moment I am just going out and taking video as I fly around, trying to get smooth movements when panning round etc, keeping things slow and steady, but having lots of fun doing it, and enjoying trying to cobble something together with it when I get home. I should get myself more familiar with the things it can do automatically such as POIs etc. I think the Osmo Pocket video I did recently came out not too bad.

Thanks for linking that great video, it gave me a lot to think about.

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Hi @SkyJumper no I always start with the video and then add the music midway through the process, see what works, then tweak it… here’s what I personally found when I started out…

  1. You need a subject/story from the start. I found just flying about gave me a set of unrelated vids that were just garbage when I tried to put together. What I quickly found is before taking off (or shortly after) you need to be thinking in terms of the “story” your final piece may tell. This will make everything else come together.

  2. With the “story” in mind, set out to grab shots that will tell it. E.g you decide to film a light house, you’ll want a long leading shot maybe, flying low over scenery and then soaring up to “reveal” the light house. Then perhaps a 360 around said lighthouse, then any other arty shots like a sideways pan, or a close up climbing up the tower etc… then you need a “close”, to end on. You could reverse the intro shot, or you could pull slowly away while the sun sets behind subject etc… but try to go out thinking in these terms, start, middle, end. It’ll make life easier in the edit.

  3. Import everything into your movie editor then pull down a few keys bits from your beginning, middle, end clips. See how they flow. Ruthlessly trim them to avoid dull, slow or badly panned juddery bits. Watch it back a few times with a critical eye.

  4. Now you’ll hopefully have a story coming together. Go find some music you feel fits. Drop it into the edit, and maybe trim parts to fit or cut nicely to your chosen track.

  5. Finally make any colour tweaks or grading across your clips if needed to help fit the general vibe your story and music are telling. Add a fade in and fade out with title if you want.

That’s it! :wink:

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Simples. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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And keep it short :wink:

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Thanks to you all, especially Glenn for your help and advice. So Start with a story board, begin with the end in mind. My latest A Sunny Afternoon at Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Huts was mostly done before getting all this help and well after the footage was taken. I did end up cutting the length to about half of what it started as, but it still ended up at 3 1/2 minutes.