Drone Tech Aerial flew the aerial unit on FUNNY little STORIES, the long-form music video released ahead of Damiano David’s debut solo album Funny Little Fears. The film weaves four tracks from the album into one continuous piece, and the aerial work carried some of the transitions that hold it together. We flew the DJI Inspire 3 in a two-operator setup: Jaron Denson piloting, Randall Berkeley on the drone camera.
The project premiered as an MTV Global First Look across MTV Live, MTVU, and MTV’s international channels, with placement on the Paramount billboards in Times Square. It earned a nomination for Best Long Form Video at the 2025 MTV VMAs.
Two Deserts, Two Jobs
The shoot covered two very different environments. At the Salton Sea, the brief was mood: expansive coverage of Damiano against the water and shoreline for the sequence where he lights a fire. Wide, patient framing that lets the landscape do the work.
At a movie ranch in the high desert near Palmdale, the job inverted. A full band was staged in the rocks, and the drone worked close and dynamic, operating like a jib and crane among the stationary cameras. The production was deliberately visible in some of those shots, the crew dressed in black, so the sequence reads like a live concert being broadcast.
The Airstream Reveal
The shot we get asked about starts tight on Damiano’s face as he lies on top of an Airstream trailer. The drone pulls back and away until the frame finds a road, and on that road is Damiano again, driving a car. The edit then cuts inside the car, and the film has moved from one scene into the next without a hard cut.
Executing it meant flying the pull-back blind: roughly seven to ten seconds in reverse with no view of where the car would enter. We worked from rehearsal marks and counted the move out loud, and the precision driver knew our position and adjusted his speed to us as we held our line, both converging on the same frame at the same moment. It took a few passes to lock the timing. Transitions like that, built in camera rather than in the edit, are a big part of why the long-form structure works: the songs segue instead of restarting.
Long-form music videos run like narrative productions: multiple company moves, continuity across setups, and aerial sequences that have to cut against ground coverage rather than stand apart from it. Our aerial unit handles that workflow as a department, from airspace and permitting through delivery.
For music video aerials in Los Angeles, see our music video drone cinematography services or request a quote.