Charleston Hotel Drone Fly-Throughs: 15+ Hotels for Vive Media
Air Views Media flew one-take indoor drone fly-throughs of more than 15 hotels in Charleston, SC for Vive Media, including 20 South Battery and Hotel Bennett. Each film is one continuous flight through the property, flown on small custom drones we build in house.
What a hotel fly-through shows
Photos and edited walk-throughs show rooms one at a time. A fly-through shows how they connect: the entrance, the lobby, the hallway, the room and the view at the end. Because the camera never cuts, the viewer gets a true sense of the layout and the distances between spaces. For a hotel, that is the stay as a guest would move through it.
Why one take
A one-take film is harder to fake and easier to trust. There are no jump cuts to hide a gap between two spaces, so what the viewer sees is the real path through the building. It also gives the property one film that works on its website, on social media and on screens in the lobby or at trade events.
Drones built for the job
We build our indoor drones in house. They are small enough to pass through doorways, down halls and past furniture, and they are set up for slow, steady movement in tight spaces. Building our own lets us size the drone to the space rather than fit the route to an off-the-shelf aircraft.
Working inside open hotels
A hotel doesn't have to close for a fly-through. We plan the route and timing with the property's team, and the areas on camera are either cleared or staged with people who have agreed to be filmed. We walk and rehearse the route before the take, so the final flight follows a path we already know.
20 South Battery
20 South Battery is a historic Charleston home that now operates as a bed and breakfast full of antiques. The fly-through moves through its rooms in a single flight. You can watch it on our fly-through tours page.
Hotel Bennett
Hotel Bennett was another property in the Charleston series for Vive Media, flown the same way: one planned route, rehearsed, then flown as a single take.
Beyond Charleston
The same approach carries to other buildings. We flew rooms and lobbies at Tempo by Hilton Times Square in New York for a Times Square billboard video, and we have flown inside Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, a historic house where the drone has to work around original interiors.
Insurance and travel
Our standard policy is $10M liability, with optional coverage up to $25M when a property or production requires it. Certificates naming your property are issued before the shoot. We are based in Augusta, GA, with a second location in Lynchburg, VA, and we travel to the property.
Plan a hotel fly-through
Tell us the property, the spaces you want on camera and where the film will run, and we'll come back with a route plan and a quote. See more work on our fly-through tours page and our Charleston drone videography page, call 706-284-8364 or Request a Quote.