The Next Shaky-Cam? How Drones Are Changing the Way Action Movies Are Made

thewrap.com:

“Day Shift,” a new vampire action movie on Netflix, that might be easy to miss, but for those paying attention, speaks directly to a moment happening in cinematography right now that’s changing how films are made.It happens during a high-speed car chase in which Jamie Foxx’s beleaguered San Fernando Valley vampire slayer is trying to elude various baddies.

It’s a zippy sequence for sure (the director is J.J. Perry, a former second-unit director and stuntman who worked alongside the creators of “John Wick”), but what really set me off (I rewound and watched it again) is when the camera is launched from inside one of the cars, traveling through the sunroof and, still in motion, continuing to capture the action.

It’s a small flourish but a truly incredible one that embodies not just how Hollywood is changing the way modern action movies look, but also how they feel.“In this business, everything’s been done already,” Perry told TheWrap. “And it’s trying to find a way to do things a little different, captured in a different way.”Drone photography — or attaching a camera to a drone to capture certain shots on film — isn’t necessarily new.

It used to be that drone shots were a cheaper, nimbler substitute for helicopter shots, which is how they have been used (or is it overused?) in documentary features for years.