One continuous move, from the approach to inside the building

The challenge

A board needs to understand a facility it may never stand inside. Stills and a walkthrough video shot on foot show parts. What makes a plant feel like a place is continuity: arriving at it, going around it, and then going through it without a cut.

The site

A sulphur processing facility at Fort Saskatchewan, in the Industrial Heartland. The facility is not named here at the client's preference.

Equipment and method

The move was planned as one flight and rehearsed before it was recorded: an approach across the property, a circuit of the plant, then inside and through the building in one unbroken take. The interior leg is close quarters work where satellite positioning is unavailable and clearances are measured in centimetres, flown on first person and spherical capture rather than a mapping platform. The plant stayed in operation throughout, so the route was planned around live process areas and around people working.

Airspace and safety

Industrial airspace with a live process below and personnel on site. Route, altitudes and abort points were agreed with the facility before the first flight, and the interior leg was walked on foot before it was flown.

Deliverables

A finished edit delivered to the date the board met, with the raw capture retained.

Result

The facility was handled start to finish by one operator: planning, capture, edit and delivery, against a fixed date and an unforgiving audience. That is the argument for a single operator over a production crew on a working industrial site, where every additional person is another person to induct, escort and keep clear of the process.

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