Jay Christensen, drone pilot and filmmaker, didn’t expect his video to be viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media. Named “Right Up Our Alley”, however, the video does not include any special effects. Shot by a drone, at full speed, in a bowling alley in Minneapolis, the video did not require any editing: it is a sequence shot, something particularly difficult to do.
The video begins outside the bowling alley: the drone swoops in and passes through the doors of the establishment. Once inside, the drone flies around the bowling players, passing between the aisles and approaching people at the bar. To end the video, the drone soars towards the bowling pins.
The video was made as part of a project to document known businesses in Minnesota that are threatened by the pandemic. And it was a success: shared thousands of times, the video reached Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who called the video “astounding“.
“I want them to come with us to London later this year when we shoot Guardians of the Galaxy 3“, he wrote in a first post on Twitter.”It’s incredible”, he then congratulates the drone pilot. It remains to be seen whether the young drone pilot will join the production team of the next film.