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.
New York is the market where the wrong operator gets your production stopped. Federal airspace is only half of it — the City has its own rules about where a drone may take off and land, and enforcement is NYPD, on the street, in the moment. An operator here needs to know both regimes cold.
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.
Film permits come through the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and aerial work sits on a separate track from a standard street permit. The City has been opening a narrow, structured pathway for permitted drone operations, which is exactly the kind of thing a producer needs a crew to already understand rather than research after the fact.
New York crews are fast, expensive and used to working in tight quarters. The logistical constraint is not people, it is parking, load-in and the fact that everything moves on foot for the last hundred yards.
We shoot the Manhattan skyline, the bridges, the boroughs, and the waterfront — and we travel. CineDrones works nationwide, so if your production is basing in New York and shooting somewhere else entirely, that is a normal week for us.
Cinema-payload multirotors, FPV airframes, and the smaller aircraft that fit where the big ones cannot.
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 →
For a straightforward day, a week is usually enough. For anything inside controlled airspace or needing a waiver, give us two to three weeks — the authorization is the long pole, not the crew. Short-notice calls are worth making anyway; we hold availability for exactly that.
Yes, both. We file the airspace authorization and we work with your locations department on the permit side. What we will not do is show up and hope, which is the failure mode that costs productions a day.
We give you a straight go or no-go rather than an optimistic maybe. Wind limits and visibility minimums are aircraft specifications, not preferences, and a unit that flies outside them is risking your production, not just our aircraft.
DRONE OPERATOR — OTHER MARKETS: Albuquerque Atlanta Austin Chicago Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami New Orleans 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!