We have shot many videos for Yokoji over the years. This one came at the request of the Abbot who wanted a film that showed the beauty of the grounds and buildings using aerial photography. We used a DJI Phantom 4+ drone to capture all the aerial footage and combined it with shots from a Panasonic GH4 mounted to a handheld gimbal to ensure the smoothness of the footage continued throughout the entire piece.
It was an unusually and incredibly windy day, as luck would have it. Wind is not a good thing when flying a drone. Luckily we were able to shoot around the worst of it. Also, the drone handles winds up to about 20mph pretty well and the gimbal that's mounted on the drone performs wonders in stabilizing the footage.
Thanks to Chigen Sensei for being a patient model for the shots inside the meditation hall! You wouldn't believe how many times we had him strike that match…