Sometimes the drone is not the camera. It is the lamp you could not otherwise get into position.
Desert night exteriors outside the city have no ambient light and no power within a mile of where you want the camera. Aerial lighting solves both at once, and the dry air and open terrain make it far more predictable here than in a coastal or mountain market.
Airborne lighting units standing in for a helicopter searchlight, moonlight over a wide exterior, a police spot, or a source that has to move with the shot. On night exteriors where a condor cannot reach or cannot get there in time, an aerial unit puts the light exactly where the DP wants it and moves it between setups in seconds.
Summer daytime heat genuinely degrades battery performance and shortens flight times, which pushes serious work to early morning and after dark from June through September. Winter is the best flying weather in the country, and wind is the only real variable.
Vegas runs on residencies, fights, conventions and stadium events, which means the calendar and the airspace move together. Allegiant Stadium draws a temporary flight restriction on game days. Sphere changed what producers expect an establishing shot to look like. The work here rewards a unit that reads the event calendar as carefully as the call sheet.
We shoot the Strip, Fremont Street, Sphere, Allegiant Stadium, and the desert an hour in any direction — and we travel. CineDrones works nationwide, so if your production is basing in Las Vegas and shooting somewhere else entirely, that is a normal week for us.
Lighting units sized from a moving practical to a wide-exterior source, flown on airframes built for the weight.
Our aerial units have worked on Ozark, Jack Ryan, Bosch, Mayans M.C., SEAL Team, NCIS: New Orleans, Fear the Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Modern Family, 9-1-1, Goliath, The Resident, Raising Dion, Castle Rock, Doctor Sleep and Chef's Table, for Netflix, Amazon, Apple, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, Sony, CBS, AMC, MTV and Bravo. See the work →
Enough to serve as a motivated source over a wide exterior, though a condor still wins on raw sustained output. The advantage is position and speed: light exactly where the DP wants it, moved between setups in seconds.
Night operations are part of what we are approved for. Night is also when the airspace is quieter, which sometimes makes authorization easier rather than harder.
When access beats output — a location a lift cannot reach, a source that has to move with the shot, or a schedule where rigging time you do not have is the real constraint.
AERIAL LIGHTING — OTHER MARKETS: Albuquerque Atlanta Austin Chicago Los Angeles Miami New Orleans New York Salt Lake City
Get ready to elevate your production to new heights with CineDrones! Operating in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Albuquerque, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans, we bring the power of cutting-edge drone technology to every project. Whether you're capturing breathtaking aerial footage, thrilling FPV shots, or immersive drone-based virtual reality, our expert teams of FAA-certified pilots, aerial camera pros, and drone techs have you covered. Fully compliant with Part 107 regulations and protected by a $5M aviation liability policy, we guarantee precision, safety, and creativity. Plus, with Local 600 union and non-union crews available, we’re ready to deliver jaw-dropping results wherever you need them!