Drone Company: Drone Crew
South African director Neill Blomkamp's debut movie was the critically acclaimed District 9, and while Chappie may have had less positive reviews than Blomkamp's first film, it contained some interesting firsts of its own.
Out of all the films we touch on that include drones, none have embraced the new tech as holistically as Chappie. Not only were drones used to shoot a number of the scenes in the film, the actors used them as a reference point to look at when interacting with characters that would need to be added in post-production.
In an interview, John Gore, one of the drone operators on the film, talked about a scene in which one of the robot characters runs through a glass window that was filmed using his drone. Traditionally this shot would have been done on a cable camera, but the quadcopter gave the shot a greater sense of speed and organic movement.
