Nicely Made Media Produces High Flying Drone Footage for Manufactured Home Communities, Events & Products
Carson Nicely founded Nicely Made Media as a photography agency in Los Angeles in 2011. It was no time at all before he was off, and flying, with state-of-the-art drone footage.
Drones and drone-created media material is big business today, and Nicely has shot and produced marketing materials with a drone more than 1,000 times. His customers include Habitat for Humanity, Next Step Homes, more than 50 manufactured home communities nationwide, Havaianas footwear, Leap Foundation and Beauty Blender.
“It’s like playing a video game. They’re a lot of fun,” Nicely said. “That’s the way I sell it. I ask a potential customer to watch a video, and they will sit and view the entire thing. Then I can say, ‘Imagine if you had that on your home page’.”
Drone Footage is a Storytelling Medium
But drone video involves more than a fly-over or two.
“I like to help tell a little story,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since we started. We work with a lot of event planners who would like to have footage of the event while it’s going on.”
Nicely’s drones operated by remote control send a signal back to a tablet that enables live streaming footage and still photography. The 4k camera captures 30 frames per second. It can fly as much as two miles from the origination point, and stays in the air for 30 minutes on a single charge.
This week Nicely is working on documenting SECO17, a gathering of manufactured housing community owners in Marietta, Ga. He has a history in the industry. Nicely’s father Chris Nicely worked for many years with Clayton Homes and presently is CEO of Next Step Homes.
Clients can schedule a shoot as much as six months in advance. Nicely can work nationwide, and prefers two weeks of lead time for a project.
“We’ll get you a finished product within three business days. It’s something that’s quick, but it’s still high quality,” he said. “We can provide raw files in a day.”
In addition to photo or video, Nicely can modify the file to add information. For instance, on a home flyover, he can have price points, makes and models, or square footage cues pop up from individual homes as a video progresses.
