Carnival Cruise Line Viral Drone Video
Flying a drone off a moving ship, with zero margin for error
A behind-the-scenes look at how we launched, filmed and landed a drone on a moving cruise ship.
The ask
Two Carnival ships were departing side by side out of Melbourne to officially kick off their new life in Carnival's Australian fleet.
It doesn't happen often, so it made sense that Carnival would want to capture it and the only way to show the scale was with drone. They wanted one clean aerial shot that did justice to a genuinely rare sight.
Before the shoot
Weeks of preparation went into this before we got anywhere near the ship.
The main challenge we had to overcome is that the return-to-launch function uses GPS to send the drone back to wherever it took off, which is great if you're on land and not moving. Not great when your launch point is a cruise ship that's moving, because by the time the drone's ready to come home, that GPS coordinate is just ocean. We won't go into it here but if you are interested in the ins and outs of how we got past this little hurdle, get in touch.
On top of all of that we had multiple conversations with CASA and Carnival to ensure we were all on the same page and everyone was comfortable.
And then we had a tiny window to launch, fly, film and land. Simple.
A quick fly from dry land before boarding
In short it worked. Really well.
During the shoot
Although the speed of the ship combined with the wind was a lot more intense than we anticipated and we were squarely focussed on battery power as the drone was returning because it was working a lot harder to come home.
There was a fair bit of relief from all involved when the drone made it back to the ship and didn't end up in the ocean!
So we stayed dry and we got the shot. The next step was to get the footage off the drone and onto an edit timeline.
We trimmed, colour graded, added some music and got it to the client within an hour - who then posted across all of Carnival's social channels.
The result
The behind-the-scenes Good Morning post about how we pulled it off did well in its own right on LinkedIn: 101,598 impressions, 71,733 members reached, 1,158 engagements and 171 new followers.
The footage itself did better. On Carnival's Facebook and Instagram, the post pulled close to 950,000 views combined, along with roughly 15,000 likes, 865 comments and 1,200 shares.
By Carnival's own account, it's their most successful Australian social media post ever.
Why This Project Worked
Our licensing
We operate under our own ReOC (Remote Operator's Certificate) and RePL (Remote Pilot Licence). That's why we were given the green light to fly in a genuinely tricky maritime environment - over water, off a moving vessel - not just in an empty paddock. We also have OONP (Operations Over or Near People) licensing.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
The GPS return-to-launch problem gets solved in practice, not live. By the time we were on the ship, the only unknown left was the weather.
Clear communication
CASA, the ship's captain and Carnival's comms team all had to sign off before we could even think about firing up the drone. None of that happens without clear communication well in advance.
One shot, one opportunity
Two ships departing side by side isn't a recurring event. We didn't get a second attempt, so the plan had to work the first time.
If you've made it this far, why not keep going?
To get in touch send us an email at hello@goodmorningcreative.com.au
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Good Morning Creative · Melbourne