Chapter 25 — Exercises

Specialty capture is a doing skill with a thinking skill wrapped around it. These exercises drill both: the technique (get a smooth timelapse, a clean slow-mo, a legal flight plan) and the judgment (should this shot exist at all?). Almost every one is possible on a phone — your phone already shoots timelapse and slow motion — and the drone exercises can be done as planning or storyboards if you don't fly. Do the shooting ones; that is where the learning lives.

Exercises are graded by effort and depth:

  • ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
  • ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many as you can.
  • ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; the biggest gains are here.

Model solutions and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Attempt each one before you read its answer — an attempt you got wrong teaches more than an answer you only read. Above all: never fly a drone without checking your local rules first (§25.1).

A. Seeing the specialty shot (Eye & Ear Training)

No camera — just attention. These sharpen the judgment §25.6 is built on.

1. ⭐ Spot the specialty shot. Add this chapter's Frame Log prompt to your running log. Over your next hour of viewing, find one specialty shot (aerial, FPV/action, timelapse, or slow-mo) and write one line: what storytelling question did it answer — or did it just show off? (Answer discusses how to judge.)

2. ⭐ Motivated or showing off. Recall five specialty shots you've seen recently. For each, write "motivated" or "showing off," and one sentence of why. Be honest about the ones you liked that were still just decoration.

3. ⭐⭐ Read the interval. Watch three timelapses. For each, estimate whether the interval was short (1–2 s), medium (3–5 s), or long (15+ s), based on the subject and how the motion flows. What tipped you off? (Answer provided.)

4. ⭐⭐ The slow-mo reveal. Find a slow-motion shot and name the specific thing it let you see that you couldn't at normal speed (a splash crown, a micro-expression, fabric, an impact). If you can't name one, the slow-mo was probably unmotivated — note that as your finding, because spotting the unmotivated ones is half the training. Then estimate the capture rate from how slow it runs: gentle (~60 fps), dramatic (~120 fps), or hyper (~240 fps+).

B. Reading Described Shots (Read the Sequence)

5. ⭐ The dramatic beat. Re-read FIGURE 25.2 (the reveal over the ridge). In one sentence, name the two-part dramatic structure built into every good reveal, and say which drone move (from FIGURE 25.1) delivers it. (Answer provided.)

6. ⭐⭐ Diagnose the fields. In FIGURE 25.5 (the slow-motion "pour"), THE MOVE is "locked off" and THE LIGHT is a hard backlight. Explain why each of those choices is required by the fact that it's a high-frame-rate slow-motion shot. What would go wrong if you handheld it under soft frontal light? (Answer provided.)

7. ⭐⭐⭐ Write your own. Choose a specialty shot you admire (a drone reveal, a hyperlapse, a slow-mo beat) and write a full seven-field Described Shot for it — Frame, Move, Light, Sound, Cut, Effect, Lesson. Then write the one sentence of the storytelling question it answers. (Model answer provided.)

C. Your specialty shoots (Shoot This)

The heart of the chapter. A phone does all of these.

8. ⭐ Your first timelapse. If you haven't done the §25.3 🎬 On Set, do it now: a subject with visible slow motion (clouds, foot traffic, shadows, a sunset), camera dead still, exposure and focus locked, shot long enough (do the math) for a 6–10 second clip. Before you walk away, watch the exposure indicator not move for thirty seconds to confirm the lock. Play it back and grade it on four things: flow (not strobe), steady brightness (no flicker), locked focus (no hunt), and visible change in the frame. (Model self-critique provided.)

9. ⭐⭐ The mounted POV. Do the §25.2 🎬 On Set: safely mount a camera or phone to a moving thing and shoot a point-of-view journey with a start and a destination. Three heights; keep the one that best makes a viewer feel the movement without dizziness. (Answer discusses trade-offs.)

10. ⭐⭐ The slow-mo hero beat. Shoot one slow-motion insert at your camera's highest quality-preserving rate (120 fps if it offers it), in bright light, of something worth stretching: pouring liquid, a jump, a pet shaking off water, hair in wind, a high-five. Frame it tight, lock focus on the action, and give the subject a little room so it doesn't drift out of the tight frame. Note your slow factor (capture fps ÷ 24), and afterward ask the key question: does the slowness reveal something the eye couldn't catch — or is it just slow? If nothing new is revealed, the beat wasn't worth stretching. (Model self-critique provided.)

11. ⭐⭐ The hyperlapse walk-up. Using a phone's hyperlapse mode, walk the camera slowly along a path toward a destination (a door, a landmark, a view), holding a fixed point centered as you go. Walk heel-to-toe and smaller than feels natural; keep your eyes locked on the target like it's on a string. Aim for a 4–8 second "teleport toward it" clip. This is a walk-and-talk done one frame at a time — if it warps, you drifted off the target or walked too fast; reset and go slower. (Answer provided.)

12. ⭐⭐⭐ The faux-aerial. Get the scale benefit of an aerial without an aircraft: find a legal, safe high vantage (a rooftop you're allowed on, a pedestrian bridge, a hillside, a tall car park) and shoot a high, wide, static establishing shot of a place your Project could open on. Never trespass or lean over an unguarded edge — the shot is not worth your safety. Compare its "where are we / how big" power to a ground-level wide of the same place, and write one sentence on what the height added that the ground could not. Bonus: shoot it as a timelapse from the high vantage and get scale and time in one shot.

D. One subject, many versions (Five Ways)

The fastest way to feel how a setting shapes a shot is to change only that one setting and watch. These two isolate the interval and the frame rate — the two numbers that define time-manipulation capture.

13. ⭐⭐ Five intervals. Pick one timelapse subject (clouds are ideal). Shoot it — or plan it precisely — five ways, changing only the interval: 1 s, 2 s, 5 s, 10 s, 20 s. Predict which will flow and which will strobe, then check. Which interval best fit this subject's speed, and why? (Answer provided.)

14. ⭐⭐ Five frame rates. Take one fast action (water pouring, a bouncing ball, a hand clap). Shoot it at every rate your camera offers — 30, 60, 120, 240 fps — and play each at 24 fps. Rank them for this action: at what point does more slowness stop revealing anything new and just get dark or soft?

E. Steal the move (Recreate It)

You don't need the gear to own the thinking behind a specialty shot. These reproduce the structure of famous specialty moves with whatever camera you have.

15. ⭐⭐ The ground-level reveal. You don't need a drone to practice the reveal's structure (hide, then show). At ground level, start the frame blocked by an object (a wall's edge, a doorway, foliage) and move the camera to clear it and reveal a subject or vista beyond. You've built the aerial's dramatic beat with your feet. (Answer provided.)

16. ⭐⭐⭐ The time-contrast (after Koyaanisqatsi). Recreate the case-study film's core move at tiny scale: cut one timelapse (time sped up — traffic, a crowd, clouds) directly against one slow-motion shot (time stretched — a single walker, a pair of hands, a face) of related subjects. Choose your speeds as judgments: decide before you shoot what the sped-up thing should feel like (frantic? mechanical?) and what the slowed thing should feel like (dignified? lonely?). Then cut them together and answer: what idea does the contrast between fast-time and slow-time create that neither shot makes alone? This is the whole film in two shots. (Answer discusses.)

F. A first taste of the edit (Cut This)

17. ⭐⭐ Punctuation, not paragraph. Take a timelapse (yours from Ex. 8, or any) and cut it to length as an establisher at the top of a short sequence. Try it at 12 seconds, then at 4 seconds. Which serves the piece? Why do timelapses almost always want to be shorter than the maker wants? (Answer provided.)

18. ⭐⭐ Frame the slow beat. Build a three-shot micro-sequence: a real-time shot → your slow-motion insert → a real-time shot. Time the slow beat to about 2 seconds on screen. Notice how framing the slow-mo with normal speed on both sides makes it land as emphasis rather than as syrup.

19. ⭐⭐⭐ The one-specialty-shot edit. Assemble a 45–60 second piece that is allowed exactly one specialty shot. Choose which one (drone/timelapse/slow-mo) earns the single slot, place it where it answers a real question, and defend the choice in one sentence. Then try to justify a second specialty shot — and if you can't, prove the budget discipline works by leaving it out. Notice how the scarcity makes the one shot you did keep feel intentional and earned, rather than one flourish among many. (Model answer provided.)

G. Diagnose and repair (Fix the Shot)

Diagnosis is the other half of skill: naming why a specialty shot failed, and prescribing the exact fix, is how you avoid the failure yourself. Sort each fix by stage — was it a planning error, a shooting error, or a wrong-tool-for-the-conditions call?

20. ⭐ The strobing timelapse. A described clip: a timelapse of a busy street shot at a 20-second interval; the cars and people jump across the frame in hard stutters instead of flowing. Name the problem, two fixes, and roughly what interval you'd choose instead for busy traffic. (Answer provided.)

21. ⭐⭐ The murky slow-mo. A described clip: a 240 fps slow-motion shot of a birthday candle indoors at night; it's dark, grainy, and soft. Name every reason it failed and the specific fix for each, and say whether the shot should have been attempted at all in that light. (Answer provided.)

22. ⭐⭐ The pointless aerial. A described clip: a two-minute video about a cheese-making workshop held entirely indoors opens with a 15-second drone orbit of the building's roof and car park. Diagnose why the shot fails on §25.6's master test, and prescribe what should open the piece instead. (Answer provided.)

23. ⭐⭐ Everything on the action cam. A described piece: a 90-second profile of a woodworker shot entirely on a chest-mounted action camera — all ultra-wide, all deep-focus, all slightly distorted, dialogue hollow and distant. List every problem and the coverage-and-audio fix for each, then say which one or two shots in a woodworker profile the action cam is genuinely the right tool for (hint: the immersive, in-the-work POV) and which it ruins. (Answer provided.)

H. Write the settings (Settings Drill)

A settings box is a starting point, not a recipe — but you have to be able to write one on the day. These drill the specific numbers (interval, shutter, frame rate) and the reasoning behind them.

24. ⭐⭐ Timelapse drill. For each scenario, write the interval, the shutter approach, and roughly how long you'd shoot for a 6-second clip at 24 fps: (a) fast clouds before a storm; (b) a slow sunset; (c) shadows creeping across a courtyard over an afternoon. (Model answers provided.)

25. ⭐⭐ Slow-mo drill. For each, write the capture frame rate, the resulting slow factor at 24 fps, and the one lighting note that makes it possible: (a) a subtle, barely-slowed emphasis on a handshake; (b) a dramatic slow-mo of a dog leaping for a ball outdoors; (c) a water balloon bursting, wanting maximum slowness. (Model answers provided.)

26. ⭐⭐ Drone pre-flight drill. You've been paid to get an aerial establisher of a coastal town. Before you touch the sticks, write the checklist of legal and safety items you must confirm (§25.1). Do not state specific numbers as universal — write what you'd look up, and where (which authority, which map/app). Then flag the two items that specifically apply because this is a paid job rather than a hobby flight. (Answer provided.)

27. ⭐ The pre-flight, from memory. Without looking, list as many of the drone pre-flight obligations from §25.1 as you can (registration, certification for paid work, airspace, line of sight, altitude, people/crowds, privacy, insurance). Then check yourself against the chapter. Which did you forget? (Answer provided.)

28. ⭐⭐ "Fly over the crowd." A paying client asks you to fly your drone directly over a packed festival crowd for a "wow" shot. Write, in three or four sentences, exactly how you respond — the risk (a machine with spinning blades can fall on people), the likely legality (flying over crowds is restricted or forbidden in many jurisdictions), and the alternative shot you offer instead (e.g., a legal aerial from the edge of the crowd, or a high-vantage or hyperlapse establisher). This is a real conversation you will have — practice sounding like a professional who protects the client, not a killjoy. (Model answer provided.)

J. Bringing back the kit (Interleaved)

Specialty capture doesn't replace the fundamentals — it stands on them. These deliberately interleave this chapter with earlier ones, because the connections are where real understanding lives.

29. ⭐⭐ The ND thread (Ch.5). Explain, in one short paragraph, why the same accessory — the ND filter from Chapter 5 — is essential for both a cinematic daytime drone shot and a smooth daytime timelapse. What do the two situations have in common? (Answer provided.)

30. ⭐⭐ Movement lineage (Ch.8). Draw a line from the walk-and-talk of Chapter 8 to three specialty movement tools in this chapter (action cam, FPV, hyperlapse). For each, name what it shares with the walk-and-talk (a motivated moving camera; a destination) and what it adds (energy, immersion, compressed time). Which of the three is the most direct descendant, and why? (Answer discusses.)

31. ⭐⭐⭐ Open a place (Ch.7, 20). Plan the opening 20 seconds of a piece about a specific real place near you. Combine an establisher (aerial, faux-aerial, or timelapse) with the coverage grammar of Chapter 7 and Chapter 20: what wide establishes the geography, what mediums and details follow to narrow the story? Write the shot list with a rough duration beside each shot, and mark which single shot is your specialty one — then confirm it answers "where are we / what is this place" and not just "look at my technique." (Model answer provided.)

K. Project and synthesis

32. ⭐⭐ Do the Production Checkpoint. Add one specialty shot — a drone/faux-aerial establisher, a timelapse, or a slow-motion insert — to one of your three projects (or storyboard it if you lack the gear). Write the one-sentence storytelling question it answers.

33. ⭐⭐⭐ Justify or cut. List every specialty shot currently in (or planned for) any of your projects. Beside each, write the single sentence that justifies it in terms of the story. Any shot whose best justification is "it looks cool" or "I have the gear" — cut it, and note what you learned. (Answer discusses the test.)

34. ⭐⭐⭐ Teach restraint back. In about 200 words, explain to a beginner who just bought a drone why "the technique the audience notices is usually the one that failed," and why a film made entirely of timelapse (like this chapter's case study) is not a failure of restraint. Use the idea that restraint means motivation, not scarcity. (Model answer provided.)

When you've done these — especially the timelapse and the slow-mo, which cost nothing but patience — you own the specialty toolkit and, more importantly, the judgment to use it sparingly. Part V is complete; you can now shoot any format the world asks for. Turn to Chapter 26, where all of it becomes film in the edit.