At the request of Vinci/Travaux du Midi, our loyal customer, we have been asked to film the progress of the titanic works that are taking place there over an 18-month period, and then, after each visit, to produce a 2 to 3-minute video montage, such as this one:
Most shoots on this Air Force site include one or two interviews with military personnel explaining the aims of this monumental operation or simply the progress of the site.
We shoot with two cameramen: one pilots the drone, the other shoots images on the ground as close as possible to the workers and machines. We then meet up again for the interviews, either on location or in the officers’ offices.
As we are operating on a military base, and an air base at that, where filming is strictly forbidden under normal circumstances, let alone flying a drone, we are bound by the strictest confidentiality when it comes to our footage. Even if we are proud of our films, we can only relay what the Ministry of the Armed Forces makes public.
So, to date, of the 4 films produced by Drone-Pictures, only the very first is public!
It was at the very beginning of the demolition of the old buildings, and as we were warned at the very last minute, it was impossible to use the drone as we were unable to obtain all the necessary agreements for this particular site. But, as we’re never short of ideas or resources (!), we used a 5-metre pole and attached the Mavic 3 drone to it alternately, for sideways shots in the car, and then a VR360 camera operated by hand, indoors or outdoors.
We’ll leave you to judge the results!
After that, we had plenty of time to obtain permission to fly on the construction site at BA115, because contrary to what you might think, although the Rafales no longer fly there, the helicopters continue their training and operations.
A word about this operation carried out by a dozen construction and public works companies at the request of the SID – the Defence Infrastructure Service – this is a major project at the Orange air base, in preparation for the arrival of the 5th conventional fighter squadron.
This involves demolishing and then rebuilding the many infrastructures needed to accommodate the Rafale.
By now, the new buildings are springing up like mushrooms, much to the delight of the military personnel and the Vinci/Travaux du Midi group and its partners.
If you’re curious to see what the new infrastructure will look like, take a look at this video showing the entire project modelled in 3D.
Here you can see the magnificent timber structure filmed by drone, and some screenshots from the latest drone video shot of the site monitoring as seen by drone and on the ground during our last visit, at the end of August 2023.
