You’ve probably seen those dramatic GlamBot videos. A camera moves on a robotic arm while someone poses, turns, walks, blows a kiss, or gives the camera their best red-carpet moment.
But our Star In It. experience does something very different.
There is no traditional GlamBot robotic arm.
The camera flies.
A drone creates the camera movement while you create what happens in front of it. And after watching people interact with it, we’ve learned something important.
The drone has its movement.
You have yours.
Reveal: Your Moment in the Spotlight
Reveal is the movement we’ve used most often with guests, and there’s a reason it works particularly well for one person.
The drone begins down low and rises, revealing you as it moves. Shoes become part of the shot. Then the outfit. Then you.
You can turn, move, change your expression, walk toward the camera, use your arms, or simply give it some attitude as the drone rises and moves away.
It’s a quick moment. There isn’t much time to stand there wondering what you’re supposed to do.
And that’s part of what makes it fun.
The drone creates the reveal. You create the attitude.
Reveal is really geared toward one person. Sometimes two people can fit, depending on the situation and how they’re positioned, but this is the movement that gives an individual room to own the camera.
It can also work within a more compact area than some of the larger flight movements.
When You’re Wearing Something You Want the Camera to See
Reveal gets particularly interesting when what you’re wearing is part of the moment.
A prom gown. A formal dress. A great suit. Something glamorous. Something unusual. Something you chose because you wanted people to see it.
We’ve even had a high-school student watch the experience and immediately start imagining what she would do if she were wearing her prom gown.
We understood exactly what she meant.
A photograph can show what you’re wearing. A moving camera can show what happens when you move in it.
The way you walk. The way the fabric moves. The turn. The expression. The attitude.
You’re not just showing what you’re wearing. You’re showing how you wear it.
And Then There Are the Other Movements
Reveal isn’t the only movement available.
There are also Flying V, Sweep, and Push In/Push Out.
And after watching the movements themselves, the interesting part isn’t simply that the drone flies a different path.
The people move differently, too.
Flying V
With Flying V, two women turn their bodies as the drone moves across them through its flight path.
They aren’t standing still while the camera does everything.
They follow it.
Their bodies turn as the camera changes position, so the movement of the people and the movement of the drone become part of the same shot.
Sweep
Sweep creates another kind of opportunity.
In the example we’ve worked with, four women dance as the drone travels across them. Arms move. Bodies move. Everyone brings something a little different to the shot.
It isn’t four people trying to squeeze into one stationary pose.
The group has room to do something together while the camera moves across them.
Push In/Push Out
Push In/Push Out changes the relationship with the camera again.
Two women interact with the camera as its distance changes. And at the end?
They blow it a kiss.
It’s a tiny gesture, but that’s exactly the point.
Nobody needed complicated choreography. They simply used the movement of the camera and added something of their own.
The Drone Has Its Movement. You Have Yours.
That’s what ties all four together.
The drone isn’t flying while everybody waits for it to finish.
With Reveal, you might walk, turn or pose as the camera reveals you.
With Flying V, you can turn with the camera as it moves.
With Sweep, a group can dance and move while the drone travels across them.
With Push In/Push Out, you can play directly to a camera that’s changing its relationship to you.
The drone has its movement. You have yours.
And when those two things work together, that’s where the finished moment comes from.
We Don’t Just Switch Movements for Every Guest
There is something else that’s important to understand about how this works.
Reveal, Flying V, Sweep, and Push In/Push Out aren’t simply four effects that we click through after somebody records a video.
Each movement is its own setup.
The drone has to be set to perform the appropriate movement. Our system also has to be set up to process the captured footage for that particular movement afterward.
The physical setup matters, too.
Reveal can work within a more compact area. Flying V, Sweep, and Push In/Push Out can require more operating room because the drone needs space to perform those larger flight movements.
That’s why we don’t normally have one guest do Reveal, immediately switch to Sweep for the next group, and then switch again for somebody else.
The movement is part of how the experience itself is set up.
Sometimes Glamorous Isn’t the Point
Of course, giving somebody a cinematic flying camera doesn’t mean they’re going to use it for a serious red-carpet moment.
We’ve learned that, too.
Give someone a great outfit and they may give the camera glamour.
Give someone a devil mask and...
Well, you’re probably getting something else entirely.
That’s the part we can’t program.
The drone knows its movement.
The computer knows what to do with the footage.
The person standing in front of the camera is the unpredictable part.
And we wouldn’t want it any other way.
So... What Happens When a GlamBot Takes Flight?
You get something that doesn’t behave like a traditional GlamBot because the camera isn’t attached to a robotic arm.
It can rise.
It can move across you.
It can change its relationship to you while you’re moving with it.
And depending on the movement being used, that can mean an individual Reveal, two people turning with Flying V, a group dancing through a Sweep, or somebody deciding that the only proper way to finish Push In/Push Out is with a kiss.
The camera movement creates the opportunity.
What you do with those few seconds is yours.
The drone has its movement. You have yours.
And when it’s Reveal?
The drone creates the reveal. You create the attitude.
Why call it Lotsa Laffs if you can’t have fun?