FPV
Drone
FPV drone cinematography through New York City: every frame captured from custom-built aircraft I designed, assembled, and piloted in full manual flight.
Behind The Scenes
Every flight starts at the bench: diagnosing motors, replacing burned ESCs, reflashing firmware, soldering new parts between sessions. Analog and digital fly side by side, DJI O4 video transmitters paired with ELRS control links for the lowest latency on both ends.
The fleet is mostly Tinywhoops: sub-250g builds that thread indoor corridors and fly inches from surfaces where a 5-inch quad would be too aggressive.
Featured Flights
Soho Swing
A daytime proximity run through Soho's cast-iron district, threading between fire escapes and facades at street level.
Night Run
A night flight through Queens at 60fps: fireworks, crowds, and shifting street light, with reaction windows of fractions of a second.
Open Air
A wide-open flight over open terrain, trading tight corridors for full-throttle speed and altitude.
Why FPV
Traditional drone cinematography keeps its distance. FPV puts the camera in a body that can dive, roll, accelerate through a 10-foot corridor between two buildings, and come out the other side without a cut. It's the closest thing to swinging between skyscrapers.
That Spider-Man instinct, a city at velocity from inside its geometry, drives every flight.
There is no autopilot, no GPS hold, no obstacle avoidance. The pilot is the only thing preventing a collision, and that constraint forces a reactive relationship with the environment that no gimbal platform can replicate.
Production Pipeline
Build & Tune
Every aircraft is hand-assembled from carbon fiber frames, brushless motors, electronic speed controllers, and flight computers, with PID rates tuned to each rig's weight and camera payload.
Scout & Plan
Scouting finds the gaps, sight lines, and lighting windows; flight paths are rehearsed for obstacle clearance, wind, and framing before takeoff.
Fly Manual
All flights run in full Acro mode through low-latency goggles. The aircraft never self-levels or holds position; every axis is under continuous stick control.
Stabilize & Grade
Onboard gyroscope telemetry goes through Gyroflow to cancel vibration and micro-jitter, then the footage is graded and edited.
Technical Architecture
Custom Hardware Engineering
Each drone is built for its mission, from 5-inch heavy-lift rigs carrying full action cameras to sub-250g "cinewhoops" for indoor proximity work. Motors, flight controllers, and video transmitters are hand-soldered; prop pitch and motor KV are matched to each shoot.
Zero-Latency Video Link
DJI O3 digital transmission sends low-latency 1080p video straight to the pilot's goggles. At 85mph, a 50-millisecond delay can be the difference between threading a gap and losing an aircraft.
Full Manual Flight Dynamics
Acro mode removes every safety net: no auto-level, no altitude hold, no return-to-home. That unlocks building dives, inverted passes, power loops, and proximity lines impossible on a stabilized platform.
Gyroscopic Post-Stabilization
Instead of optical or mechanical stabilization that limits camera movement, raw gyroscope data is recorded with the video at high sample rates. Gyroflow uses it to cancel vibration in post while preserving the flight path.
