Every year, Red Bull hosts a unique race in Valparaíso, Chile: the Cerro Abajo. Top mountain bikers race downhill through the city using narrow stairs, ramps, even an entire house is used as a jaw-dropping tunnel plus ramp. But how to capture the action up close? Well, the guys at Dutch Drone Gods grabbed their FPV gear, pulled a few tricks and got to work. The result is both breathtaking and quite educational. The aim of the following video was to capture the action involved when a racer dashes through the city of Valparaíso. The helmet cam is one thing, but following a real mountain biker through the narrow streets and down narrow staircases is quite another. Tomáš Slavik is an experienced Urban Downhill bike racer, and he’s the one the FPV drone followed in one take from top to bottom of the city. FPV Drone Chasing with Tomáš Slavik Tracking something moving very fast with an FPV drone is nothing new, we’ve seen it before. The same goes with long one-take videos of FPV Drones. But tracking someone across an all-out racetrack that runs through an entire city is a challenge of its own. The Dutch Drone Gods team had to set up some directional antennas along the racetrack and deploy a second, larger drone carrying a video relay system for -hopefully- seamless video transmission to the pilot’s goggles (hint: it didn’t always work). Glitchy video feed from the drone. Image credit: Red Bull The problem: once the pilot...
Published By: CineD - Thursday, 26 May, 2022