30 November 2023

The drone industry is booming and with that comes massive drone sales and an industry that's worth over 33 billion dollars. Consumers are buying up big, with the shipment of drones projected to reach 7.1 million in 2025, and with that comes a whole new generation of pilots that need training.

Drone Creator Pro is the latest online drone film school being offered by an Australian pilot, but instead of offering a course that teaches pilots how to get their official licensing, Drone Creator Pro focuses more on training up-and-coming pilots on their filmmaking skills required to capture stunning videography and photography.

“There are a lot of drone pilots that think flying a drone is just about getting certified” said Drone Creator Pro Founder, Amy Creighton. “There is so much more that pilots need to learn when it comes to capturing cinematic footage, it is just like a mini film camera in the sky and you can really tell the difference between someone who is trained with a filmmaking background and pilots who aren't.”

Amy Creighton

Creighton started the online course as she was receiving a lot of questions from new pilots on how they could improve their footage. “Getting that extra bit of filmmaking training can really make new pilots stand out from the crowd as everyone these days seems to own a drone, but 80% of people really don’t know what they are doing when it comes to the settings and the filmmaking techniques for capturing beautiful drone footage. This extra edge can enable pilots to start earning serious money from their drones.”

Drones have really revolutionized the industry. “When I was working for one of the major networks here in Australia, we heavily relied on using helicopters to capture aerial footage. The expense involved was astronomical compared to what we can achieve with drones these days. Not to mention the newer drones that have been released with high quality zoom cameras. These drones have changed the way the industry captures aerial footage and photography. Imagine if you wanted to get an aerial shot of the sunset on a rural property? Back then you had to pay for the helicopter hire, the pilot’s time, the fuel, tens of thousands of dollars just for one shot. Whereas now you can have the flexibility to pop the drone up and capture spectacular stabilized footage.”

And that's how Drone Creator Pro was born. “Having this technology freely available to any Joe Bloggs really has opened a can of worms, anyone these days can call themselves a professional drone pilot. I wanted to give pilots the skills they need to differentiate themselves from the drone cowboys in the industry, there is a reason why a drone pilot can charge thousands of dollars a day as opposed to hundreds a day.”

Drone Creator Pro is taught by actual professional drone pilots working within the drone industry on a day-to-day basis for large brands and companies and is proving very popular around the world. The course is designed for entry level beginners but also is geared towards professional drone pilots that need some extra training.

The online drone film school currently has over 50 individual lessons teaching students the basics, from what drone you should be buying, cinematic drone settings, drone equipment, right through to advanced training including 3D Mapping, Surveying, FPV, Drone Photography and even teaches pilots how to edit their drone footage using pacing, music and sound effects, as well as color grading tutorials and export settings.

One of the unique benefits of Drone Creator Pro is they offer membership to a private Facebook group as part of the course. “The online Facebook group is really exciting as we have all of our members together in one place and we can all discuss and give advice on pretty much anything related to drones and just having a place like that helps inspiring drone pilots to achieve more and really expand their drone skills and knowledge by getting valuable advice from each other.”

Being a female drone pilot in a male dominant industry has also had its challenges. “I always wanted to be in filmmaking. Fresh out of school I enrolled in film school and quickly learnt females were not generally in the roles I wanted to work in, like the camera department or directing or editing, so I had to be even more determined to prove that I could produce the same results as anyone else. These days things have changed a lot and after 15 years of running my own production company and winning several awards for cinematography, it’s becoming pretty normal to see females flying drones and shooting behind the camera, so I love seeing females having a crack at flying drones and doing well within the drone and filmmaking industry.”

“There are so many opportunities for male and female drone pilots these days, there simply isn't enough pilots to keep up with the demand,” said Creighton.

The drone industry really is booming with pilot opportunities to work in so many different fields including professional creative jobs like television commercials, corporate and social media videos for online marketing, ads and general branding, as well as construction and site inspection opportunities within the energy and mining industries. Not to mention how drones have changed the face of agriculture and farming as well as their involvement in recent conflicts and wars around the world.

The list really does go on and while there are more non-creative opportunities like mapping, surveying and enterprise which are covered in the course, Amy says that being able to creatively use your drone is the starting point and the backbone of a great drone pilot. “Without these foundations and knowing your drone’s capabilities front to back and knowing how to address problems and issues immediately, will accelerate your opportunities and give you the confidence required to tackle any job in any industry.”

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