Changing the way we watch sports
Drones are perfect action cameras. Like the athletes they film, they defy physical limitations. They move like Hollywood camera rigs but are more flexible and spontaneous. Think of them not as action cameras, really, but as athletic cameras. They can film pretty much anywhere: clinging to a sheer cliff face; over open water; behind a dirtbike going 60; even in the middle of fireworks. Drones mimic the way we move—they can even follow you, hands-free—and by doing that they go one step beyond the sports coverage we’re used to: they convey not just the visuals, but the feeling.
This will change the way we watch sports. For instance, I don’t remember the first time I saw a BMX double backflip — the YouTube clips fuse into one — but I remember the first time I saw it through a GoPro. Even though I’d never jumped a BMX, I felt, or imagined I did, what the rider pulling the trick felt.
This is because the thrills of action sports—sports in general, really—come from their extreme physical challenges: speed, height, strength, distance, and terrain. Static or handheld cameras can’t keep up, and most professional camera rigs can’t quite communicate the spontaneity of sport. Drones excel at this stuff—they can capture spontaneous movement and do best with extreme speeds, heights and distances. (For an idea of what I mean, think of the NFL’s Cablecam.)
That’s what a fireworks display feels like. In other words, with a drone, the shots can have the same spirit as the subject.
And now: I’ll elaborate.
Surfing, for instance: I like surfing, but I’m not an enthusiast and don’t especially like watching it. One reason that sport hasn’t broken into more mainstream broadcasts, aside from all the downtime, is that it’s pretty hard, visually, to get the right feel. It’s been tough to get a camera out over the water that, unlike a helicopter, can track exactly (and safely) with a surfer’s every move.
You probably want another visual aide here, so here’s an edit of action sports drone footage featuring surf shots. Again, you’re probably going to mute your speakers at some point. (Almost all drone footage online is for some reason completely unlistenable.)
Even golf has its physical extremes of distance and accuracy. A helicopter—which costs who knows how much to rent—can give you a sense of the course, but here’s an interactive 18-hole aerial tour where the drone more or less tracks with each individual shot. Or with what your shot’s supposed to be.
Football coaches realized the value of an aerial perspective long ago, installing cameras on top of broadcast booths to record practice and games. Those are static views, though, and can only show so much. Drones move in three dimensions and can spontaneously react to plays in real time, the way a Cablecam does in a game, except cheaper. The NFL has permission to use drones in practices, including the Patriots.
Let’s blow it out a bit.
Astronauts say they experience a shift in awareness when they see the Earth from space: the entire planet, a fragile blue dot suspended in isolation. They swim in empathy for the planet, and, with all borders and boundaries removed, feel a yearning for peace and cooperation among all people. They say the feeling never leaves them.
This is known as “the overview effect.” Drones will let us experience it. The scale is obviously magnitudes smaller but the principle is the same. For now we say “Whoa, look up there,” or, “man that thing is annoying,” but the really interesting thing is what happens after you get past that part, and you look back down.
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