Flying up and forward was hard enough for me as a first-time camera drone pilot, so when Skydio, a consumer autonomous flying drone company based in the Bay Area, reps suggested I could take movie-like shots I laughed it off. But with the recently released Skydio 2+ drone, it actually is possible for an unskilled pilot like myself to pull off an advanced shot.

At the CES tech show earlier this month Skydio unveiled KeyFrame, which automates one of the more mind-bending challenges in drone photography: nailing your chosen spots and angles in three-dimensional space with cinematic flourish.

A blue drone in front of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

The Skydio 2+ sitting pretty.
Credit: Sasha Lekach / Mashable

I tried out this new skill, and while I didn’t capture the most riveting content while learning the ropes, I saw how it makes flying between different shots possible. Before KeyFrame, even the most skilled pilot would struggle to direct the drone to the exact same vantage spot or fly smoothly in reverse the same way it had previously flown. Automated flightpaths exist, but with those, the user typically still has to manually find the right camera angles, take after take.

But now the software update (and improved drone with retractable antennae) lets you mark moments, or “KeyFrames,” that you want to go back to. I made a simple KeyFrame production of an office building entrance, the parking lot, and then finally the view of the San Francisco bay from above the building. At each of those moments I pushed a button on the app and a notch was added on my recording timeline.

A mansion with a rendered trail marking where it was filmed.

Set your KeyFrames along the way.
Credit: Skydio

The magic happened after I collected my footage and then pushed a button on the Skydio app to film those same three moments from the exact same spots and angles, but in reverse. I didn’t have to navigate the drone to the building overlook, the parking lot, or the front door. It did it on its own at the 4.4 mph speed I had set it to. Movie magic!

I set up my flight with the drone remote control connected to the Skydio iPhone app on my phone, and then had the drone autonomously film between the three KeyFrames for me. Here’s what it looked like:

Others have gotten more creative than me and taken fuller advantage of the new filming mode, like this footage of a sprawling SoCal mansion. The first video shows how the second video, a 19-second clip flying outside the house, was made.

Here’s another Skydio user who created a shot of a stand-up paddle boarder using KeyFrame. This is a screen-recording that shows what the Skydio drone and app are doing during the autonomous KeyFrame filming.

Knowing that drones are restricted in many of the really awesome locations (I wanted to film an incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge, but drones aren’t allowed at the nearby park), the standard price of $1,099 for the 2+ model would be an investment for me. However, it could be worth it at drone-friendly locations to be able to create typically inaccessible shots that only trained pilots or movie crews with cranes and equipment can snag.

For moments that don’t require KeyFrame’s cinematic capabilities, the Skydio drone easily flew to vantage points far above tree level that even the nicest hand-held camera would dream of capturing.

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Even drone newbies can pull off cinematic shots with Skydio’s new mode