Vourly rates at a glance:
- iPhone 4K filming: $100 per hour, 1 hour minimum
- Professional cinema cameras: $200 per hour, 2 hour minimum
- Editing: $75 per hour, billed separately from filming
- Add-ons per shoot: drone video $150, drone photos $125, professional lighting $150, second camera $150, photo add-on $250
- All raw footage included, plus one free revision round on your edited video
Construction aerial videography answers a question that ground footage structurally cannot: what does this whole site look like right now. A camera at eye level shows a trade doing a task. A camera at 200 feet shows sequence, logistics, and the relationship between the building and everything around it. On a job site those are different products with different audiences, and it is worth being clear about which one you are buying.
What aerial coverage shows that ground footage cannot
Four things, reliably:
- Extent. The full footprint in one frame, which is the only honest way to show a large site to someone who has never stood on it.
- Context. The parcel, the setbacks, the adjacent streets, the approach. This matters enormously for a developer or an owner who is thinking about the site rather than the building.
- Sequence. Flown from the same points repeatedly, aerials turn into a progress record that reads instantly.
- Logistics. Laydown areas, crane position, access routes, and staging are legible from above and invisible from the ground.
The three aerial jobs on a construction site
These get conflated constantly, and they want different flights:
- Progress documentation. Repeatable, unglamorous, flown from fixed positions and altitudes so month 3 is comparable to month 9. The value is in the consistency, not the cinematography.
- Marketing and leasing footage. Golden hour, moving reveals, the building looking its best. This is the material that ends up on the website and in a pitch.
- Condition and dispute record. High resolution stills of a specific area at a specific date. Rarely the reason a drone gets booked, and frequently the reason people are glad it was.
Trying to get all three out of one flight usually produces a compromised version of each. Naming the priority before the pilot arrives is the single highest leverage thing a project manager can do.
Part 107, airspace, and what that means near Seattle
Commercial aerial work in the United States requires an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, and Vourly aerial work is flown by a Part 107 certified pilot. The Puget Sound region has a lot of controlled airspace, so a site can sit in a zone that requires authorisation before a legal flight. That is a scheduling question, not a shoot day question, and it is much cheaper to resolve a week early.
Two practical site rules that save a wasted visit: confirm who on site can clear the area under the flight path, and confirm whether the general contractor requires its own notice before a drone is in the air.
How aerial work is priced
Aerial is a flat add-on per shoot rather than an hourly charge:
- Drone video, $150 per shoot.
- Drone photos, $125 per shoot.
That sits on top of hourly filming, which is $100 per hour on iPhone 4K with a 1 hour minimum or $200 per hour on professional cinema cameras with a 2 hour minimum. Editing is $75 per hour and is quoted separately.
A worked example: a 2 hour professional site visit is $400, drone video adds $150, and a 2 hour edit adds $150, for $700. Because the drone charge is flat, a longer site visit spreads it across more coverage, which is why batching a walkthrough, a trade interview, and the aerials into one visit is better value than three separate trips.
What a first aerial visit should capture
The first flight is the one that sets up every later flight, so it is worth being deliberate. A useful first visit gets four things on the card:
- A high wide of the full parcel from at least two opposing directions, so the site reads regardless of where the sun is on a later visit.
- A fixed orbit at a recorded altitude and radius. This is the shot that becomes the progress sequence.
- A context frame that includes the surrounding streets and neighbouring buildings, which is what an owner or developer usually wants and a superintendent rarely thinks to ask for.
- Detail passes over anything that will be buried later: underground utilities, footings, waterproofing. These are the frames that turn out to matter in a dispute, and they only exist if someone flew that week.
Record the GPS points, altitudes, and headings after the first flight. That log is what makes month 9 comparable to month 3, and it costs nothing to keep.
The hourly filming those aerials sit on top of is priced the same way everything else here is, and videographer day rates covers what a half day and a full day actually buy.
Pairing ground and air in one visit
Aerial alone rarely tells the whole story. Because the drone charge is flat per shoot rather than hourly, the efficient move is to combine it with ground coverage in a single visit rather than booking two:
- Aerial for the site, ground for the work. Wide context from above, then trades, materials, and detail at eye level.
- A superintendent or PM segment filmed on site while the crew is already there. Thirty seconds of someone explaining what happened this month turns a progress reel into an owner update.
- Stills in the same visit. The photo add-on is $250 per shoot and produces the images that go into a monthly report, a bid package, or a website.
A combined visit also halves the site access overhead, which on a secured commercial job is often the slowest part of the whole engagement.
Flying the same site month after month
A progress sequence is only worth having if the frames match. Fly from the same GPS points, at the same altitudes, on the same headings, and note them after the first visit so any pilot can repeat them. Mid morning light is the most reproducible across a year in Seattle. If a month is missed, the sequence has a hole in it that no amount of later flying fills, which is the argument for putting the cadence on the calendar at the start of the build rather than deciding each month.
Where a genuinely continuous record is the goal rather than a monthly sample, a fixed progress timelapse is the better instrument, and the two work well together.
Weather, delivery, revisions, and what you keep
Steady rain and high wind ground a flight, so the aerial portion is the part most likely to move. Local zone travel is included and out of zone travel is $1 per mile. Washington sales tax is added at 10.5%.
Every booking includes one free revision round on the edited video, and further editing is $75 per hour. All raw footage is included and yours to keep with full commercial rights, drone files included, delivered through a secure client portal within 24 to 48 hours. For a multi year build that matters more than usual, because the archive is what a later marketing piece gets cut from.
Frequently asked questions
How much does construction aerial videography cost?
At Vourly, drone video is a flat $150 per shoot and drone photos are $125 per shoot, added on top of hourly filming at $100 per hour on iPhone 4K or $200 per hour on professional cinema cameras. A 2 hour professional site visit with drone video is $550 before editing, and editing is $75 per hour.
Do you need a licence to fly a drone over a construction site?
Yes. Commercial drone work in the United States requires an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate. Vourly aerial work is flown by a Part 107 certified pilot. Sites inside controlled airspace also need airspace authorisation, which is worth checking before the shoot is scheduled rather than on the day.
How often should a job site be flown?
Monthly is the most common cadence, because it matches how draw schedules and owner updates tend to run and it produces a usable progress sequence over the life of the build. Weekly is worth it during a fast moving phase such as steel or envelope.
Can you fly in Seattle weather?
Often, but not always. Steady rain and high wind ground a flight for safety and image quality reasons. Because aerial is a flat per shoot add-on rather than an hourly charge, rescheduling the aerial portion is usually straightforward.