You are not hiring a drone operator. You are hiring a film crew that can legally fly.
Most of the productions we fly for are not Rwandan. They arrive with a schedule, a budget and often their own aircraft, and they discover that flying here is tightly regulated. Nobody simply turns up and puts a drone in the air.
That is the moment a shoot slips. Permissions take time, they are granted to named operators for named locations, and a production that starts the process on arrival has already lost days it costed for filming.
We clear the flying before you travel. You land, we go to set, we shoot.
And we are filmmakers, not only pilots. That is the part most operators cannot offer.
Shot on our own operations
Frames from our own work
The paperwork is our job, not yours
Send us your dates, your locations and what you intend to shoot. We start the aircraft registration and the drone filming permit while you are still in pre production.
Read the full guide: do you need a permit to fly a drone in Rwanda?
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You send the plan
Shoot dates, locations, subject, and whether you are bringing an aircraft or using ours. A rough treatment is enough to begin.
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We file it, in the right order
Aircraft registration first, then any exemption a national park or a night shoot needs, then the activity permit itself. They run in sequence, not together, which is why the conversation is worth having early.
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We tell you what is possible
Some airspace is closed and some locations need longer notice. You hear that in pre production, when the schedule can still absorb it, rather than on the day.
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You arrive and shoot
Cleared to fly, with a crew that has already scouted the light and the weather window for every location on your list.
Local knowledge you cannot bring with you
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Filmmakers first
Our pilots came to the aircraft from film production. Moves are planned to a shot list, lighting is chosen rather than accepted, and the material is graded to cut with the rest of your production.
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The weather window
Rwandan light and cloud change fast and by valley. We know which hour a location works in, which season kills it, and when to move a call time rather than lose a day.
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Locations and people
Where the shot actually is, how to reach it, whose permission is needed on the ground, and who to speak to in the district. Scouting from abroad only gets you so far.
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Equipment, or fly your own
We operate current professional aerial camera systems of the kind used on feature and broadcast work. Bringing your own aircraft is fine; it has to be registered here first, and we handle that.
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Ground unit as well as air
Aerial rarely stands alone. We shoot the ground material, handle audio where location sound is used, and deliver a cut set that matches.
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Post in house
Editing, colour and finishing here, or graded rushes in your format and colour space if your edit is happening elsewhere.
Productions we fly for
Based in Kigali, we work as the aerial unit and drone videographer for film productions across Rwanda and East Africa, and for companies and individuals who want their own story told from the air.
Answered before you write
Can I just bring my drone and fly it in Rwanda?
No. Flying here is regulated and requires authorisation in advance. Arriving with an aircraft and no permissions is the most common reason a production loses its first shooting days. We handle the authorisations for you before you travel.
How long before the shoot do you need to know?
As early as you can. How long it takes genuinely varies with the location, the airspace and what you intend to shoot, so we will not quote you a fixed number here. Send us your dates and the treatment and we will tell you straight away whether that window is workable.
Can you fly the aircraft we are bringing?
Yes, once it is registered. Every aircraft flown in Rwanda must be registered with the civil aviation authority before it may leave the ground, whoever owns it and wherever it came from. Send us the details and we start that registration for you; once it is complete we operate your aircraft under our permit. If the timing is tight, we fly ours instead.
Do we need our own pilot on the trip?
No. Two separate things are required here and it helps to know which is which: the aircraft itself must be registered, and the permit for the activity attaches to the operator flying it. Bringing your own pilot does not carry a permit with them. Ours come from film production, so you get a camera operator who reads a shot list, not a technician waiting to be told what to do.
What if the weather closes in on a shoot day?
We plan around it rather than hope. Every location on your list gets a preferred hour and a fallback, and we will tell you in advance which days in your window are the risky ones.
Can you shoot in a national park, or at night?
Both are possible, and both need an exemption. That exemption has to be granted before the activity permit can even be applied for, so the two run in sequence rather than together. We run the whole sequence for you. Tell us early if either is in the treatment, because it is the one thing that cannot be rushed at the end.
What do we receive, and in what format?
Graded rushes or a finished cut, in the codec, frame rate and colour space your edit needs. Tell us the delivery specification and we match it.
Who owns the footage?
You do. Licensing is agreed in writing before the shoot, and we do not reuse a client's material without permission.
Send us the dates first.
Tell us when you are coming, where you want to shoot and what the film is. We will tell you honestly what is possible in that window, and start the paperwork the same week. We reply promptly.