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John Dickow: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Your Drone Questions Answered. I'm John Dicko here to find the answers to your drone questions. And today I have with me David Beedy of BD Media founder and video producer of BD Media. David, thank you for joining me today.

David Beedy: Good to be with you, John,

John Dickow: our question today is how drones can be used for video production, which is a pretty broad question because video production is, is a pretty broad industry. Explain kind of what you do in your video work, what kind of videos you produce and how you started using a drone.

David Beedy: Sure, after I, guess eight years, 10 years in the news business, early in my career, first in radio news and then in television news, about 30 years ago, I went into video production and I had a business partner and we had a eight person staff, and we did all kinds of corporate and government videos.

I think we both put our houses up for mortgage. We needed about a million dollars in capital back in the, late eighties to get into the video game. And back in those days, if you were a for real video production company in Chicago, there was [00:01:00] maybe a half a dozen, maybe a dozen.

That was it. It was a, it was a small universe. Obviously things have changed quite a bit since then, and so fast forward in time and I run a video production company and 95% of the jobs that I do, it's just me. I shoot, I edit, I'm a producer by trade and about four years ago got the bug to get a drone and to get my license and one of the reasons.

In addition to it just being fun to fly, the big reason is I wanted to get those epic shots that I could never afford to get in my low production, you know, jobs. And so I wanted to be able to get, skyline shots of in beautiful buildings and golf courses and all those sorts of things.

I took the, uh, took the test. I studied for the test, and I took it I'm not a drone business by any stretch, but it's probably. I'm gonna say 15 20% of my business at this point is drone in terms of, I'll be hired to do just drone and then I use it all the time for, let's say I'm working for a non-for-profit the Fisher [00:02:00] House at the uh, VA hospital.

In addition to the interviews and the B roll that I'm getting to tell that story, some epic shots showing the facility from up above really helps just make everything a little larger than life. And so the drone has become a tool, it's become like the funnest tool in my toolbox. And, I'm, I'm loving it.

I'm loving it.

John Dickow: that's awesome. I mean, talking about these epic shots, I mean, you've been in the business for a while now. Before you had the drone, before you're able to fly the drone, did you have any alternative for getting those kinda shots or was that just not

David Beedy: possible? You know, on a couple of occasions, I hired drone pilots and I do remember at the time getting the footage back.

all in all, yeah, that's really epic. But boy, if I was shooting that I would've done this kind of thing. Okay.

I guess hiring a couple of drone operators and actually paying for it something clicked like, Hey, there's, there's actual value here. may be a market for it. Or you'd go for stock footage or you wouldn't use that epic shot at all, you wouldn't have [00:03:00] it.

I think, really increases the production value of what's on your demo reel? if you go to my website, bd media.com, I think I have a 12 second clip of just different shots, you know, eye candy. And I think four or five of those are drone shots there.

It just, it just looks cool.

John Dickow: Well, absolutely. And it's kinda like what you said there. Clearly there's a demand for it because for your work, you having to shop out and have to find somebody who, who could fly the drone and who could get you those shots. and you're doing videos obviously shooting with a camera on the ground as well, and sometimes You're sprinkling those drone shots within the video that you're producing, the greater video, or you mentioned sometimes people just hire you just for the drone.

Shots just for acquiring those drone

David Beedy: shots. Exactly. Yeah. There's, I have half a dozen or so clients who, who think I'm a drone operator and that's what I do and that's fine, that's fine. I'm happy to do that. I always, at some point it's also a foot in the door. I always let them know that, for example, I'm doing a building construction.

it's a big data center and it takes about 5, 6, 7 months for that thing to go up. And so the client hires me to [00:04:00] come out every so often when the walls are coming up, when the roof is going in, and at the end I said, you know, I, I've got great footage I can put together, like a minute and a half, two minute set to like bold music and, and it'll be an epic.

And there's like, oh, you can do that. And it's like, yeah, yeah. That's what we do. And so, uh, the drone has actually served in a few cases to create other new business opportunities in video production.

John Dickow: Absolutely. That's really cool. I mean, that really is cool how that's expanded. Not just your clientele, but just the type of work you can do, reasons for people to hire you.

talking more about, you know, these videos that you do make and, and kind of thinking about videos, the videos as a whole. What kind of videos are you producing? Is it just like across the spectrum, whatever people are asking, or do you have sort of a, niche or a specialty in the

David Beedy: kind of videos you produce?

No, it's, it really is across the spectrum, so, I tend to do a lot of work for associations, the American Association of Implant Dentistry and the American Board of Medical Specialties, and the. Dental [00:05:00] association, those sort of associations, I guess would be the closest thing I have to a niche.

But all these associations have an ongoing need to deliver messages to their membership. All of them tend to have conferences that I tend to go and shoot B-roll at. All of 'em need promotions for the conferences. So, I tend to do a fair amount of work in that realm. I do a lot of nonprofit work, so I do, legal Aid Chicago, I do, uh, videos for Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, Fisher House.

and in almost all cases, it's using, B-roll telling a. interview driven stories, and then the drone becomes a way to just add great production value to simple storytelling.

John Dickow: Well, that's, that's awesome. I I'll admit, I work a little bit in video production as well, and I'm definitely one of those people guilty of needing to find somebody, hire somebody who has a drone, and you can give us that shot.

And it's always the shot, when you're starting your video and you're introducing your organization or maybe you're ending the video and you're looking for some kind of emotional close to it. So I'm definitely, [00:06:00] one of those people who, would seek somebody like you out and, that's kind what I'm looking for when I'm looking for like an emotional shot.

You know, I'm thinking like the sun setting over the building of our organization. very cool. Well, What kind of drone do you have? is it a special drone? Is it your typical

David Beedy: drone? So four years ago, quick story aside, uh, the kids knew that I was playing like the little.

Helicopter flying around the house, and at one point my one son said, we should get dad a drone. he could use that in his video business. And so they bought something on eBay. It was like a knockoff, I think it was like $70, and so it had a high deaf camera, and I immediately launched it. And true story, first flight up, it went and it started circling, you know, the, the whole toilet bowl phenomenon.

And, and with each pass it got wider and wider, and within two minutes it was so wide I couldn't see it on the screen anymore, and I lost it. I didn't even get a chance to land my first drone. And so the next morning [00:07:00] I did, however, have enough of a bug just flying at that one time to like, I, I gotta figure this out.

So I called. DuPage airport, I think it was. And they had a drone class. And I went there like four days long, long days, four days. And the deal was, if you study, we'll make sure that you're ready to take the test and we almost guarantee you'll, you'll pass. And so it was in that class that the instructor said, well, first off, stop buying knockoff drones on eBay.

That's, that, that's one of the problems. If you get a D J I drone, you'll like, almost never. I've, I've never had it happen. So at that time, that's four years ago now. I bought a Mavic to Zoom and the reason I got the Zoom as opposed to the pro, I took a little hit in the video quality, but because I do At least some news that I could get, you know, zoom into things and, and quality wasn't quite as important. So that's the drone that I bought. Okay. Interestingly, that served me very well. I've had very good success with it, and it's the only drone I've [00:08:00] ever had this weekend. I, realized that I'm gonna be out of compliance come mid September with the remote ID requirements kicking in.

D G A I has not yet updated the firmware for the Zoom two and, don't expect to until December. I was faced with. Am I gonna be out of compliance for a couple of months? And I, I went, went ahead and bought The, D j I Air three is what? Okay.

Just, and I haven't taken possession yet, so I'm kind of excited right now to try that out. From what I've seen and the reviews I'm watching it, it looks like an amazing machine. That's very

John Dickow: exciting. I kind of do appreciate that story I'm sure our audience does too, because many people in our audience are drone beginners, people who are learning, and one of the biggest fear is, is crashing your drone.

Losing your drone. It happens to everybody. And that's cool that you just got back on the horse and kept going and, here you are now four years later and you're, you're running a smooth business and expanding your, clientele just with the drone alone, which is, really cool. You mentioned you did take a class.

Was that just the part 1 [00:09:00] 0 7, class? It was, yes. Mm-hmm. a great reminder too for people To get in compliance with remote ID laws and, it's too bad that d j i Do you think they'll never update it at this point?

Do you think it's just not

David Beedy: coming? I don't know. I haven't contacted that, contacted them directly, but, from what I read on the different chat boards, they have been kind of like little slow at the switch. and perhaps it's 'cause they want to sell some new drones, you know? that would be my guess.

I also know that, when I look at the picture quality and the specs of this new drone and its ability to do some things, you know, I, I got four years of use out of the Mavic two. I may hold onto it as a backup. I may ultimately sell it, the used market to, to defray some of the cost of the new one.

But, um, it's been a great drone. I've been completely satisfied with it.

John Dickow: And kind of in that vein, and I know we're, we're getting a little short on time now, so I like to always ask this question, to our guests and especially people who, have started their own business and are really using their drone in business.

many of our viewers are, are people who wanna get into something like that. what would be your advice to somebody who either wants [00:10:00] to start a business with a drone or introduce a drone to their business, but. has no experience with the drone maybe a little afraid of screwing up.

What would you have to say to

David Beedy: that person? You know, I think you, you just have to go out and look for opportunities. I remember it wasn't that long ago, it was four years ago, that I was thinking, you know, I need a drone reel. I need a reel to show, you know, people, you know what I can do. And I remember I went to a golf course and that was just beautiful.

I think somewhere in the city I went down to, the riverfront in Chicago and. Got some like rising shots with the bridge and the merchandise mart. And so you start putting together, nobody hired me to do those shots, but think in terms of I need a reel. And so you need a nice piece of music and it doesn't need to be more than 30, 40 seconds and you probably get 6, 7, 8 shots in there, but.

That process of putting those shots together will also be great experience and you can start, really understanding what works and what kind of shots are possible.

John Dickow: That is really great. Well, David, I [00:11:00] really appreciate you being on, today, sharing your experience. It's valuable to our listeners, it's valuable to our viewers, and I hope, you know, if we get more questions coming through the pike, related to video production, we'd love to have you back

David Beedy: on.

Absolutely, John, I enjoyed it. Thanks for inviting me.

John Dickow: No problem at all. And, and speaking of questions, you can submit your own drone questions and we'll find the answer to it. you can submit a question on y dqa.io. we'll see it and we'll look for somebody who can answer it.

You can also submit a question over the Drone Launch Connect, private community if you're a part of that. so please submit your questions. In the meantime, we'll see you in the sky.