It’s a one-of-a-kind drone video with such dazzling never-before-seen aerial footage that you’ll wonder if it’s even real. For five awe-inspiring minutes, a small drone proceeds to soar and speed across vast outdoor expanses of an automotive complex, then suddenly dives low and zooms through buildings and open door ways, under work tables, and around corners, finally exiting and landing on the roof of a passing car.  It’s an extraordinary display of what drone cameras can do when their capabilities are pushed to the limits. If you thought “cinematic” drones could capture breathtaking aerial images, get ready:  your vision of what constitutes a drone visual “landscape” is about to be blown wide open.

Hendricks Motorsports, which commissioned the video, was hoping to showcase the day-to-day workings of its near-legendary professional auto racing design and production factory located in Concord, North Carolina, just a mile from the Charlotte Speedway.  The company also intended to create audience buzz about its new weekly TV series debuting the drivers and racing cars competing in this year’s NASCAR races.  Make no mistake:  Hendricks’ has done more than celebrate the creativity of a cutting-edge drone cinematographer.  It’s created a breath-taking new AI-inspired advertising vehicle that may well transform the way drones are used to market companies and their services in the future.

The genius behind the 5-minute video is K2 Productions, which first began collaborating with Hendricks Motorsports in late 2020.  K2’s first video for Hendricks was the adrenaline-charged “Track Attack,” which filmed a new line of the company’s race cars hurtling around a track, interspersed with the stunned and exhilarated reactions of the K2 crew as they rode in Hendricks vehicles at super-high speeds.  But with its latest opus, filmed with an expanded crew of crack drone pilots fully certified to fly by the FAA, the 17-year old company has pushed the boundaries of drone cinematography into an exciting new realm.

It turns out that K2 is a relative newcomer to Drone World.  Prior to signing up with Hendricks, the company was producing high-profile videos for Hollywood celebrities like Jamie Foxx and a bevy of major league sports figures, including NBA basketball star Shaquille O’Neal.  But in 2019, K2 saw an opening in the burgeoning UAV market and decided to create a special line of drone photography services for real estate and construction companies and other businesses, including sports stadiums, featuring large outdoor venues.  “Aerial, action, tracking, dolly, and crane shots can all be captured safely with drones eliminating other costly and time-consuming cinema tools,” the company’s marketing video notes.  But K2 may be the first company to stitch all these techniques together into a seamless non-stop visual action drama that feels less like a marketing vehicle than a high-speed car chase.  Excerpts have already begun appearing on Tik Tok and Instagram, and the full video is circulating on YouTube, to rave reviews.  (“Social media hearts have been set aflutter,” one commentator noted).

With this breakthrough production, K2 has raised the standard of creative innovation and excellence in drone advertising to exciting – and perhaps unreachable – new heights. What could possibly be next?

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