The short answer
There is no objectively “best” drone company in Atlanta, and every company that ranks for that phrase is asserting the title about itself. That is not a useful answer for a producer with a shoot date.
What is verifiable is a company’s record. Four numbers and one list settle almost every hiring decision:
- How many years it has worked scripted sets — not how many years it has owned drones
- Its aviation liability limit, and whether that limit is standing or bought for your job
- Whether it can staff Local 600 union and non-union, so the answer does not change mid-prep
- Whether FAA and film-permit work happens in-house or gets pushed back to your production
- Which productions it has actually flown, named
CineDrones has worked sets since 2013, carries $5 million in aviation liability plus workers compensation, supplies both Local 600 union and non-union crews, handles FAA authorization and coordinates local film permitting in-house, and holds aerial or on-camera drone credits on more than forty productions. We work Atlanta as one of ten markets, and the full aerial toolkit that operates out of Los Angeles is available here.
Ask every company on your list for the same five things. The ones that answer in specifics are the ones to call back.
What Atlanta specifically demands
Atlanta is the loosest of the major production markets for drone regulation, and that catches producers out in a different way: there is almost nothing to hide behind. State law strips the city of authority to regulate drones, so the only things standing between a production and a problem are FAA compliance, property permission, and the competence of the crew.
Georgia preempts local drone rules almost entirely
O.C.G.A. § 6-1-4 makes any county or municipal ordinance regulating the testing or operation of unmanned aircraft systems null and void. Local governments may restrict launch and landing on their own public property — except for UAS operated for commercial purposes. That carve-out is why Atlanta issues no drone permit at all.
Atlanta issues a film permit but not a drone permit
The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment states plainly that it does not issue drone permits. You still need the camera filming permit — commercial filming in the City of Atlanta without one is prohibited — but the drone layer is FAA plus property owner permission.
Lead times are short
Minimum 5 business days to process a film permit application, with applications submitted before 4pm generally beginning processing the same business day. Community notification letters run 5 to 7 business days ahead of the first production day. Insurance minimum is $1,000,000 liability; the application fee is $100 for non-students.
Georgia State Parks ban drones outright
Drone operation is prohibited across Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites. Waivers exist for professional commercial projects with prior approval from the Division Director, requiring project description, exact site, exact dates and times, FAA drone registration, pilot name and proof of Part 107. Blanket requests are not approved, and drone use over populated areas of a park is not permitted.
There is no permit process to hide a weak safety plan behind
In cities with a heavy permit apparatus, the paperwork forces a plan. Atlanta does not. The stages are enormous — Assembly Studios runs 19 sound stages across 135 acres, Trilith spans 700-plus acres, Tyler Perry Studios sits on 330 acres — and the volume of work moving through them means the difference between vendors shows up on set rather than in an application.
The airspace
Hartsfield-Jackson anchors Atlanta Class B airspace, and Part 107 operations inside it require an FAA authorization through LAANC or FAADroneZone. DeKalb-Peachtree, Fulton County and Cobb County airports add controlled airspace across the metro’s studio corridors. Facility-map grid ceilings are informational only and get pulled fresh per location and date.
Rules change. Treat the above as a briefing for planning conversations rather than legal or regulatory advice, and confirm current requirements with the relevant authorities and your insurer before you shoot.
The checks that apply everywhere
Regardless of market, the same seven questions sort a working aerial department from a pilot with a drone.
- The insurance floor is $5 million, and it should already be in place. Most studio productions will not accept an aerial vendor below it. A company that has to buy up for your shoot is telling you what level it normally works at. Ask for the certificate in prep, and ask whether workers compensation is carried too.
- Part 107 is the entry ticket, not the qualification. Every legal commercial pilot holds one. What separates companies is the hard operations — flying over people under the FAA’s Subpart D categories or a waiver, at night, beyond visual line of sight, and inside controlled airspace.
- Local 600, both ways. Signatory scripted work generally requires the aerial camera position to be filled by an ICG Local 600 member; commercials and non-signatory work usually do not. The failure mode is hiring a company that can only staff one way.
- Permitting done, not delegated. Airspace and ground are two separate approvals from two different bodies. If a vendor sends the paperwork back to your line producer, price that time into the bid.
- Redundancy, because aircraft come down. Ask what happens when the primary aircraft is out of service at 2pm. Ask the same about the pilot.
- Payload range, because the shot picks the aircraft. Heavy-lift for a full-size cinema camera — the Freefly Alta X carries RED and ALEXA Mini. Mid-size stabilised for aerials that intercut with A-camera — the DJI Inspire 3 shooting 8K full-frame on swappable DL-mount lenses, and the Inspire 2 with the Super 35 X7. FPV for continuous moving shots through spaces nothing else fits, carrying anything from a GoPro up to cinema cameras. A company with one aircraft will tell you your shot suits that aircraft.
- Named credits, not logo walls. “We’ve worked with Netflix and HBO” is a claim any company can make after one day of second-unit work. A named production list is checkable.
The long version of each check, written for the Los Angeles market, is here.
The credit list
CineDrones has provided aerial cinematography, on-camera prop drones, stunt drones or aerial lighting on productions including:
Ozark · 9-1-1 · SEAL Team · Jack Ryan · Bosch · Goliath · Castle Rock · Doctor Sleep · NOS4A2 · Mayans M.C. · Modern Family · NCIS: New Orleans · American Horror Story: Cult · Fear the Walking Dead · Station 19 · The Politician · The Resident · Runaways · Raising Dion · Good Trouble · The Gifted · 24: Legacy · American Housewife · The Fix · The First 48 · Hell’s Kitchen · The Grand Tour · Basketball Wives · Shahs of Sunset · Bizaardvark · I Feel Bad · Kevin (Probably) Saves the World · Making It · The Leisure Seeker · Trial by Fire · First and Last · Spartan · TKO · You’re the Worst — and NFL broadcasts.
Two are written up in detail — what the production needed, what it took to fly, and what that demonstrates: 9-1-1, where we brought the look and the aerial design to the show from day one, and Ozark, where the aerials carried feel and drama into the visual language of the series.
When to hire somebody else
We would rather say this in prep than take a booking and disappoint a producer.
- If the job is real estate, weddings or single-operator social content, an aerial department is the wrong purchase. You do not need Local 600 crews and a $5M policy to shoot a listing.
- If the job is inspection, survey or mapping, hire a company that does that work. We fly for camera.
- If the schedule allows no rehearsal for a complex FPV move through a practical location, the honest answer is that the shot should be flown a different way, or the schedule should change.
- If the only thing that matters is the lowest number on the bid, someone will always be cheaper. What we will not do is quote a crew and a safety plan we would not actually staff.
How to run the comparison
Send every company on your shortlist the same message:
Shoot dates, location, and city. What is your standing aviation liability limit? Can you staff Local 600 and non-union? Who files the FAA authorization and who coordinates the film permit? What aircraft would you bring for this shot, and what is the backup? Name five productions you have flown.
The replies sort themselves. Specific answers with numbers and titles come from companies that have done the work.
Frequently asked
Do I need a drone permit to film in Atlanta?
No — the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment does not issue drone permits. Georgia state law, O.C.G.A. § 6-1-4, preempts local governments from regulating the operation of unmanned aircraft systems, which is why no local drone permit exists. You do still need a camera filming permit from the city, since commercial filming in Atlanta without a permit is prohibited, and you need FAA airspace authorization plus permission from whoever owns the property you are flying over.
How far in advance do I need an Atlanta film permit?
The City of Atlanta requires a minimum of 5 business days to process a film permit application, and applications submitted before 4pm generally begin processing the same business day. Community notification letters go out 5 to 7 business days ahead of the first production day. The insurance minimum is $1,000,000 liability, and the non-student application fee is $100.
Can you fly a drone in a Georgia State Park?
Not without a waiver. Drone operation is prohibited across Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites, but waivers are available for professional commercial projects with prior approval from the Division Director. The application requires a project description, exact site, exact dates and times, FAA drone registration, the pilot’s name and proof of Part 107 certification. Blanket requests are not approved, and flights over populated areas of a park will not be permitted.
More on this market: drone cinematography in Atlanta · aerial cinematography · FPV drone pilot · Local 600 drone operators
CineDrones is a Hollywood-based aerial cinematography company working in Atlanta and nine other markets nationwide. FAA Part 107 certified, $5M aviation liability, Local 600 union and non-union crews, flying since 2013.
Send us the shot and the dates — 310-905-9195. We will tell you what it takes, and we will tell you if it should be flown a different way.
