Step 1
Location and brief
The address, what has to be shown and what the footage is for. We check the airspace and the site rules against the maps before anything is confirmed.
Videography · Aerial and drone · Sydney
Drone videography in Sydney
Ten seconds of aerial footage changes how big something looks, how it sits in its surroundings, and how serious the whole production feels. The difficulty is almost never the flying. It is knowing what you are allowed to do, and where.
Grab the snowball. Give it a spin, and watch it grow as you scroll. Just like your reach.
120metre ceiling under the standard rules
4permission tiers a site can fall into
Licensedoperator, and the approvals arranged
Sydneyand across New South Wales
The short answer
What is drone videography, and what are you allowed to film?
Drone videography is aerial video filmed from a remotely piloted aircraft, used for scale, location and production value: property and development, construction progress, venues and events, and the establishing shots that open a brand film. In Australia commercial flying is licensed, and where you can fly matters more than what you can fly.
Under the standard operating conditions a drone stays below 120 metres, in daylight, within the pilot's sight, away from people who are not part of the operation, clear of emergencies, and out of controlled airspace near an aerodrome unless an approval has been obtained. Plenty of good locations sit outside those conditions, which is why the site check happens before the date is confirmed rather than on the morning.
We fly licensed, arrange the approvals and land permissions, and grade the aerial footage to match everything filmed on the ground so it reads as one production. Because our Snowball SEO platform automates the search heavy lifting other agencies bill by the hour, more of your budget goes into the shoot. It sits inside our wider Sydney video production service.
The difference
Where can you actually fly in Sydney?
This is the question that decides your shoot, and it is worth understanding before you pick a date. Sydney is a difficult place to fly: a harbour, a major airport, helicopter routes and a dense inner city.
What usually goes smoothly
- A private site with the owner's permission and no crowd
- Industrial, rural and semi-rural locations
- Construction and development sites, out of hours
- Suburban property, with the neighbours considered and the timing chosen
What needs a longer lead time
- Anything inside controlled airspace near an aerodrome
- The inner city, the harbour foreshore and most of the well known views
- Flying anywhere near a crowd, which is the most restricted case of all
- National parks and many council reserves, which have their own permissions
If what you actually want is aerial stills rather than moving footage, that is our aerial and drone photography service. Both are often flown on the same visit, which is the cheapest way to get both.
The cost
What drives the price of a drone shoot?
Approvals and waiting, more than flying. The aircraft is the cheap part. What costs money is the site check, the permissions, the travel and the weather window you have to hold open.
Add on to a shoot
Half day
Aerial coverage flown alongside a ground shoot we are already doing. By a distance the cheapest way to get it, because the travel and the planning are already paid for.
Standalone flight
One visit
A site with straightforward permissions, flown on its own. Establishing shots, the orbit, the reveal and enough coverage for an edit to have choices.
Progress series
Recurring
The same flight path repeated monthly or quarterly, framed identically each time, so a construction or development sequence actually cuts together at the end.
We quote a fixed price after a free consult and a site check, and we tell you before you book if a location is unlikely to be approved. For indicative Australian ranges across every kind of video, see our guide to what video production costs.
What moves the number, in order
Nothing here is about the aircraft, which is the thing most people assume they are paying for.
- Whether it is flown alongside a ground shoot or as its own visit
- The permission tier the site falls into, and the lead time that implies
- Whether a spotter or a second crew member is required
- Travel, and how far outside Sydney the site sits
- How many separate visits, for a progress series
- Grading and stabilisation, if the footage has to match filmed material
Weather is a real line, not a caveat
Wind and rain stop a flight, and no amount of planning changes that. The honest way to handle it is to agree in advance what happens: a nominated backup date, and who carries the cost of the day that did not fly.
We hold a backup date on every booking and we make the call the evening before rather than sending a crew out to stand in a field. It is a smaller cost to both of us than a wasted morning.
The other saving is obvious once said: book the aerial work into a day the crew is already on site for. Flown separately, you are paying the travel and the setup twice for perhaps fifteen usable seconds.
The scope
What you receive from an aerial shoot
Graded to match the rest of the production, because aerial footage that looks like it came from a different camera is worse than no aerial footage.
The aerial footage
Every usable flight, graded and stabilised, in the same colour space as the ground footage so an editor can cut between them without a second thought.
The standard moves
The reveal, the orbit, the top down and the pull back. Unglamorous names, and they are the four shots that do almost all the work in a finished edit.
Stills pulled from the flight
Frames lifted and graded from the same footage, useful for listings, decks and site reports without a second visit.
The paperwork
The approvals, the land permission and the flight log, which is what a client, a council or an insurer asks for when something goes wrong.
Cut versions
Short vertical and square cuts, because an aerial reveal is one of the few things that still stops a scroll.
A repeatable flight plan
For progress work, the exact path and framing recorded, so next quarter's flight lines up with this one instead of nearly lining up.
The return
How a drone shoot in a built-up area actually runs
Most of the work happens before the day, which is why we ask for the location early and why a producer who takes the booking without asking where it is has not started the job.
Give us the address before the date
It sounds like a small thing. It is the whole difference between a shoot that happens and one that gets cancelled the night before, because the answer to can we fly here is a matter of maps and rules rather than of effort.
A site check takes very little time and it is free. It tells you which tier you are in, whether an approval is needed, how long that will take, and whether there is a better vantage point fifty metres away that changes the answer entirely.
Where a site cannot be flown, there is usually another way to get the shot: a neighbouring rooftop, a longer lens from further back, or a different time of day. We would rather tell you that early than take the booking.
The process
How an aerial shoot gets made
Two to four weeks when an approval is needed, and as little as a few days when it is not. The variable is the airspace, not us.
Step 2
Approvals and permissions
Any airspace approval, plus the landowner or council permission to take off and land. This is the step with the lead time and the reason we ask early.
Step 3
Flight plan
The shots, the path, the height and the order, plus where the pilot and spotter stand. Agreed with you so there are no surprise angles and no missing ones.
Step 4
Weather call
Made the evening before against the forecast. If it is a no, we move to the backup date rather than sending a crew to look at the sky.
Step 5
The flight
Usually short. A well planned aerial shoot is twenty minutes of flying and a couple of hours of everything around it.
Step 6
Grade and delivery
Stabilised, graded to match the ground footage, cut into the versions you need, with the flight paperwork handed over.
The brief
What to ask before you book a drone operator
Aerial work is the easiest video service to book badly, because the pictures in everyone's portfolio look similar and the differences are all in the things you cannot see.
Are you licensed, and can we see it?
Commercial drone work in Australia is licensed and insured. Ask to see both. An operator who is offended by the question is not the one you want on your site.
Have you checked our specific location yet?
Not drone shoots in general. This address. The answer should mention airspace, the site's permission tier and any approval lead time, or the checking has not happened.
Who is the spotter, and what is the plan if the weather turns?
A named second person and a nominated backup date. If the answer is that it will probably be fine, you are carrying a risk you were not told you had.
Will the aerial footage match what we film on the ground?
Ask about colour space and grading. Aerial footage that was never matched is instantly obvious in an edit and is the commonest reason it goes unused.
We are happy to answer all four, and to check your location before you commit to anything. For the wider picture on formats, crew and timings, see our guide to video production in Sydney.
Start here
Ready to get up there?
Send us the address and what you need to show. The free consult is a working session, not a sales call, and you leave with three things whether or not you book us.
- A straight answer on whether your site can be flown, and what approval it needs
- The shots we would fly, and the ones not worth the airtime
- A fixed price with the travel, the approvals and the backup date written down
Good questions
Drone videography FAQs
What is drone videography?
Drone videography is aerial video filmed from a remotely piloted aircraft, used for scale, location and production value: property and development, construction progress, venues and events, and the establishing shots that open a brand film. Commercial flying in Australia is licensed and the rules about where you can fly matter more than the equipment.
Do you need a licence to fly a drone commercially in Australia?
Yes. Flying a drone for business in Australia requires the operator to be licensed or to be operating under one of the recognised categories, and there are standard conditions on every flight: below 120 metres, in daylight, within sight, away from people who are not part of the operation, and clear of controlled airspace near an aerodrome unless an approval has been obtained.
Can you fly over Sydney city or the harbour?
Sometimes, and it is never a quick yes. The inner city, the harbour foreshore and most of the well known views sit in controlled airspace, near helicopter routes, or over areas where flying close to people is restricted. Each of those needs its own approval and lead time. We check the exact location before confirming a date, and tell you early if the honest answer is no.
How much does a drone shoot cost in Sydney?
We do not publish a single figure. What moves it is whether the flight happens alongside a ground shoot or as its own visit, the permission tier the site falls into, whether a spotter is needed, travel, and how many visits a progress series needs. Flown alongside a shoot already booked, it is a fraction of the standalone cost. We quote a fixed price after a free site check.
What happens if the weather is bad?
The flight does not go ahead. Wind and rain are a hard stop and no amount of planning changes that, so we hold a nominated backup date on every booking and make the call the evening before rather than sending a crew out on a hope.
How much aerial footage does a video actually need?
Far less than people expect. Ten to twenty seconds across a finished piece is usually plenty, spread across an opening reveal, one orbit and a closing pull back. Aerial footage is seasoning, and a film made mostly of it feels like a real estate listing.
Can you do aerial stills as well?
Yes, and flown on the same visit it costs very little extra since the planning, approvals and travel are already covered. Stills are handled by our aerial and drone photography service, and we quote the two together when you need both.
Do you fly outside Sydney?
Yes, across New South Wales and interstate for larger jobs. Travel is quoted as a line you can see rather than folded into a day rate, and for regional sites the airspace is usually simpler than it is in the city.