You are not hiring a drone. You are hiring the person flying it, the person pulling focus off it, and the paperwork that lets it leave the ground.
Miami operators live or die on turnaround. Commercial, music video and fashion work here books late and shoots fast, and the weather window can close in an afternoon. An operator who needs a week of lead time for authorization is not useful to this market.
A CineDrones operator arrives as a unit, not a hobbyist with a case. FAA Part 107 certificated pilot, dedicated camera operator on the gimbal where the shot calls for it, visual observer, and the authorizations filed before the call sheet locks. We have worked on sets since 2013, which mostly means we know when not to fly — when the AD is behind, when the light is about to go, when the shot is better served by staying out of the way.
Miami-Dade coordinates county film permitting, and the City of Miami Beach runs its own separate process with its own rules for aerial work. A shoot that crosses the causeway crosses a permitting jurisdiction.
Miami crews work fast and book late, matching a market driven by commercials, music videos and fashion. The bilingual crew base is a real asset for the volume of Spanish-language production shooting here.
We shoot South Beach, the causeways, Brickell, and the water — and we travel. CineDrones works nationwide, so if your production is basing in Miami and shooting somewhere else entirely, that is a normal week for us.
DRONE OPERATOR — OTHER MARKETS: Albuquerque Atlanta Austin Chicago Las Vegas Los Angeles New Orleans New York Salt Lake City