CRI听力:Remote Control Aerial Video Shooting Popular in China

A growing number of companies are emerging in China offering remote-control aerial video shooting.

CRI's Liu Min has more.

Aerial images are often used in video advertisements, films and TV news reports. An increasing number of small companies in China are emerging to provide aerial image shooting services. Feng Chang is cameraman from Flycam Aerial Shooting Company based in Beijing. He says his team recently helped Beijing Television Channel to capture the aerial images above the illegal mountaintop villa built on top of a Beijing residential building.

"At first, I only watched the news on TV, and didn't know that our shooting would inspire such huge reactions from the audience. The whole shooting procedure only took us half an hour, and it is not that difficult for us professionals."

It usually costs more than 100 thousand yuan per day to rent a helicopter for aerial shooting, but it only costs several thousand to 10 thousand yuan per day to hire people like Feng Chang to shoot with a remote controlled multi-copter, a special helicopter with at least six aircrews. In contrast to simple aviation models that people enjoy playing with, Feng Chang says remote control aerial shooting is a challenging job.

"It is not easy for us to control the angle of the images. And that's why this job needs more professional and trained personnel. The moving pictures of a video need to be set at a steady pace so that the video can be connected with film clips. And at the same time, we need to pay special attention not to break the machine, since it is quite expensive."

Feng Chang admits that his company's business is growing very fast. They are usually asked to shoot pictures for films, advertisement, documentaries, weddings, and news reports, and the price ranges from three thousand yuan per order to more than ten thousand yuan based on the difficulty of the job at hand.

But so far, there is no related law or regulation overlooking this market. Director Ji Bowen is from the Beijing Modeling Association. He says the remote control aerial shooting in China only started in recent years.

"So far we don't have a clear regulation for this part of the market. We are only supervising these businesses based on the aviation regulations and law. The suggestion is that they carry out this activity outside of the fifth ring road in Beijing and report to the supervisory department before they shoot anything."

The remote control aerial shooting business is growing rapidly, but still relies on demand from a small section of the market. Some suggest that the local government clarify the regulations to help those starting businesses in this field.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.