# Automated Cinematography with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.04353 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.04353/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Dec 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Agentic Aerial Cinematography: From Dialogue Cues to Cinematic Trajectories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16176/) (2025)
- [Efficient Self-Supervised Neuro-Analytic Visual Servoing for Real-time Quadrotor Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19878/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rise of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and their increasing use in the cinema industry calls for the creation of dedicated tools. Though there is a range of techniques to automatically control drones for a variety of applications, none have considered the problem of producing cinematographic camera motion in real-time for shooting purposes. In this paper we present our approach to UAV navigation for autonomous cinematography. The contributions of this research are twofold: (i) we adapt virtual camera control techniques to UAV navigation; (ii) we introduce a drone-independent platform for high-level user interactions that integrates cinematographic knowledge. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the capacities of our tool to capture live movie scenes involving one or two moving actors.