By Maysen Marolda
Staff Writer
Costa senior Michael Yaskowitz has taken his passion for photography and cinematography to get an elevated perspective on the beach cities’ most renowned feature through his hobby of drone filming.
Drone filming is the capture of still images and video by a remotely-operated or autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle, known commonly as a drone. In December of last year, Yaskowitz and his brother began drone filming in nearby parks and around their house. As the two became more experienced in working the drones, they advanced to film on the beach.
“My brother and I decided to put our passions of photography and cinematography together in drone filming because we can take both pictures and videos, which we can use to create short clips,” Yaskowitz said. “I focus more on videos rather than pictures because additions such as music and effects can be added to enhance them,” Yaskowitz said.
Since Yakowitz began drone filming, it has grown into one of his favorite hobbies, he said. Yaskowitz films his pictures and videos on the beach in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, as well as the beach. In addition to flying the drone over the sand, he also flies it over the ocean, with the farthest that he has released it being a half mile over the ocean. Once Yaskowitz has filmed for an hour, he edits his video by adding music, which takes about 30 minutes. The final product ranges from two to three minutes long.
“In the beginning, my brother and I were more careful, but now that we know how the drone functions, our range has expanded to film on the beach,” Yaskowitz said. “For the most part, drone filming is pretty easy, since most of the functions are automatic. That being said, I have improved immensely since I first began filming.”
Although his favorite place to film is the beach, he occasionally films Costa’s track and cross country teams while they are on their runs. Yaskowitz’s favorite video that he has composed thus far is of a house that he filmed for a realtor, who used the video to sell his house in a faster manner because it portrayed the noteworthy features of the house, according to Yaskowitz.
“The video of the house is so far my favorite because my video went far beyond the realtor’s expectations and it allowed him to share the video with interested buyers,” Yaskowitz said. “As a result, he was able to sell the house very quickly, and since then, I have made multiple videos for him since he was so happy with the result of the first video.”
Yaskowitz first learned about drones from watching videos of them on Youtube. He then bought his drone, which cost $1,000, as it is a high-end drone. To pay for the drone, Yakowitz saved up for a long period of time by completing small tasks such as walking dogs around the neighborhood.
“Although my drone is sufficient, I am thinking of upgrading to a newer model of the drone,” Yaskowitz said. “The newer features include better colors, picture quality, and stabilization, which could help me to create improved videos.”
In addition to the drone, Yaskowitz additionally had to buy an editing software, Final Cut Pro X which cost about $300. Final Cut Pro X allows Yaskowitz to have a multitude of features that enhance his videos, such as the ability to implement 3D titles, multicam, which allows one to work natively and in real time with a variety of formats, frame sizes, and frame rates, and color balancing, which improves the look of any clip.
“I think editing enhances my videos because it adds depth and there are so many editing options that I can make all of my videos completely different from each other by using one different editing feature,” Yaskowitz said.
Once Yaskowitz’s videos are edited and polished, he uploads them to YouTube. Currently, he has 14 drone videos since he first started uploading them last December. Although he primarily uses YouTube to upload his videos, he also shares the videos through email and flash drives with the videos installed on them. Yaskowitz is planning on making a Facebook page where anyone can share their drone videos so that people can share their footage with each other.
“My favorite part about drone filming is seeing the finished product and sharing it with others,” Yaskowitz said. “Eventually, I am thinking about becoming an aerial photographer for a wildlife organization so I can travel around the world to record and take photos of different kinds of wildlife.”
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