Linkin Park – Tour video with flying DJI cameras

During the summer of 2015, after six years, Linkin Park returned to China with their The Huntington Party Tour. They collaborated with DJI to share this spectacle with as many fans as possible. DJI, world leader in the flying camera industry, accompanied the band during their adventures through China to capture the whole tour. In only ten days they visited five of China’s biggest cities – Shenzhen, Nanjing, Shanghai, Chongqing und Beijing.

A DJI-Advertorial by Daniel Shuster, Photos: DJI

DJI started this mission with the aim to capture the full intensity of the concerts and to provide exclusive backstage material. DJI’s filming crew used the Ronin and Ronin-M stabilizing camera system with the RED EPIC camera or the Panasonic GH4 camera, as well as the handheld Osmo gimbal for shots on the ground. While the Ronin setup was mostly used to film on stage, to get as close as possible to the band without actually disrupting the live show, the DJI Osmo was used to vlog everything backstage and in the tour bus, because of its convenient size. On stage, especially for concerts with multiple artists, a mobile stabilizing system has the advantage of having no constraints and being able to spontaneously react to the movements of the artists during the show.

DJI also accompanied Linkin Park in between concerts. The band gave us some insight backstage and told us how they feel about touring China and to perform in front of about a billion people, which is still new to most western artists. City-wise, the band was especially impressed by Shanghai and its cosmopolitan architecture and the rapidly growing art scene made.

In Shenzhen additional flying platforms were used for aerial imagery to livestream footage from the sky directly onto the screens in the stadium. Besides the bigger S1000 flying system the more compact Inspire 1 Pro with the Zenmuse X5 Pro camera was being used. Due to the extended flight time and the adaptable speed the film crew was able to make sure to not miss any important moments. The Zenmuse X5 camera is the world’s first M4/3 camera that was specially designed for aerial imagery. The high quality and crispy clear footage went well with the video material from the Panasonic GH4, that was used with the Ronin as well as the S1000, even with difficult lighting conditions.

The result is a DJI Story that is a homage to Linkin Park and a backstage diary that shows a side of the band that has never been seen before. To learn more about these state-of-the-art cameras and the stabilizing equipment go to www.dji.com or the SAE Alumni- and student store to get exclusive deals for SAE students.