The words to describe video taken from a helicopter are usually, “Fantastic! Epic! Amazing!” That’s what people will say when they see a video taken from air of your business or organization. Having aerial footage taken from a helicopter is a fantastic way to make your video have that “Hollywood Spectacular!” feeling.

It looks great and people also know that it is expensive to make… Or is it?

If you have a business that revolves around a large area of real estate, such as apartments, homes, a school, church, temple, farm, camping, fishing, skiing, horse back riding, and recreation or a river or mountain. Then there is nothing like a video shot from the air to give the viewer an idea of the excitement, expanse and breathtaking view and beauty of what you offer.

But, of course, most small businesses cannot afford a few thousand dollars a day to charter a helicopter and cameraman. And companies today that offer drone services in Japan are quite expensive: I’ve checked and the cheapest I’ve heard about was ¥400,000 per day (which isn’t that bad, really.) The top companies charge ¥1,000,000 per day (about $10,000 USD)

One of the reasons why drones might be so expensive to rent is that there are few seasoned operators; and usage of drones is becoming more and more restricted as they get to become more and pore popular for professionals and enthusiasts alike. One can longer just fly a drone around the neighborhood; people will definitely call the police. Why? A drone is a flying computer and can take photos and videos. This is an invasion of privacy.

This is another reason why aerial video taken by drone is so expensive.

Interestingly, as the use of drones becomes more and more commonplace, some companies have banned the use of them. A major Japanese advertising agency has banned drones for any and all shoots because during a shoot for a major sporting event, the operator of a drone lost control and the drone actually crashed. OK, well a crash is bad, but this is even worse; the drone crashed into one of the events athletes during the event

Oh, I’ll bet that hurt. And I bet that cost the company a lot of money!

So usage of drones requires common sense and expertise and professionalism as well as following the rules and the law (make sure neighbors know what’s up and don’t get bent our of shape when they see a “UFO” buzzing around.)

We are capable of providing aerial footage by drone (and our pilot is experienced and fully insured) for about 1/4 ~ 1/8th what the competition is charging. Our basic one-hour set up and shoot (about 12 minutes of aerial footage – which is way more than your video will need) runs about ¥40,000 ~ ¥100,000 (depending on circumstances).

There’s no company in Japan today that even come close to beating our price for aerial video by drone.

Please contact us and let’s get started on discussion on making the video for your business that makes everyone who sees it say, “Fantastic! Epic! Amazing!”

Email Mike or Ken: contact@robot55.jp