Jay Worsley’s ETHOS short-film is visually stunning, conceptually intriguing, and a testament to how effective unmanned aerial vehicles are in the film landscape of today. Some of the shots and footage captured by Worsley’s DJI Inspire Pro drone (with the company’s X5R camera and various lenses attached) are both breathtaking and unique to UAVs. The aerial maneuvering on display here is damn impressive with notable discipline in the editing process to maintain pacing where necessary and allow shots to linger where desired.
As a young man whose primary business is split between capturing wedding footage, and producing quality films and photographs, Worsley’s notion “that there is an insane amount of beauty in the world” is certainly on display in ETHOS. The short, narrated expertly by a voiceover borrowing from Alan Ginsberg and Robert Penn-Warren poems, showcases a variety of majestic landscapes in California, Oregon, and Arizona. According to FStoppers, Worsley used the following lenses on hid Inspire Pro to most effectively capture the desired light and environmental conditions: DJI 15 millimeter, Olympus 25mm, and Olympus 45mm. Regarding the sound, he used a Rode NTG-2 hooked into a Zoom H4n.
Let’s forego the technical aspects for a few minutes and bask in this gorgeous short, shall we?
As you can see, these disparate landscapes are captured so well by Worsley, one really begins to appreciate the planet we inhabit. From the dry gravely mountains in Arizona and the luscious Pacific, this modern aerial tool provides filmmakers like Worsley with the chance to digitally capture the beauty without having to spend a fortune. “I feel like there is almost this unspoken romance between man and Mother Nature. Everyone always gets that feeling of awe and beauty when in different landscapes like the Grand Canyon or the Oregon coast. It’s that desire and respect and love that we have for this place we call home,” explained Worsley. Regarding the poetry laid over the visuals, he explained that the “voiceover with those poems and the score of the film was my attempt to draw out feelings about these places that people already have but maybe forgot about.”
As we’re always eager to know how drone users from all sorts of backgrounds and professions gauge the future of UAVs, we asked Worsley about his thoughts on the matter. “I don’t see the drone industry slowing down by any means. I see it growing in ways not just with photography and cinematography, but also in ways for different business(es) to perform different tasks, whether delivery, testing, security, and so on. It’s really exciting to see just how fast it’s growing and changing,” he said. We’re certainly in agreement there. Say what you will about the drone industry, at least there’s an Ethos.