Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
Expat’s aerial video leads to business idea
Print Edition
FOUR months ago Austrian Dominik Derflinger purchased an unmanned drone and started shooting a video of Hangzhou.
The result is “Thank You Hangzhou,” which is widely spread on social media, receiving some 110,000 clicks in two weeks.
The video includes most of the city’s famous scenic sites like West Lake, Xixi Wetland and Hefang Street. There are also some scenes of locals doing tai chi, expatriates in a pub and people barbecuing kebabs.
“I never imagined my video would become so popular,” says Derflinger, who lives in Hangzhou, adding he purchased the drone in March and taught himself how to use it.
The video is his first and is inspired by his affection for Hangzhou.
"I really like Hangzhou,” he says. “It has given me a lot, such as good friends, good times and good meals. I want to give something back."
Derflinger says he quit his job as a manager at Bosch a few months ago and was planning on leaving the city. He only bought his first single lens reflex camera, a second-hand one, in February 2014. Soon after, he says he was snapping thousands of photos while on vacation in India. Today he owns three cameras and numerous lenses.
This spring, after watching the winning video from an international aerial cinema festival, Derflinger says he equipped himself with a UVA-DJI Phantom 2 and a GoPro Hero 4, a high-definition action camera, which cost a combined 10,000 yuan (US$1,574).
Despite it being his first aerial film, the shots are stable and the lighting is gentle, professionals say. The locations also look good because few people can be seen in the video.
“I got up at five in the morning when I did the filming,” he says.
“I wanted the beautiful dawn light and fewer people.”
He says his first stop was Eight Diagram (Bagua) Field, a 10-hectare octagon field originally the private domain of the Southern Song (1127-1279) emperor.
“There is a good view here and few tourists in the morning, so it would not be embarrassing if the drone dropped,” he says, joking.
His fears proved unwarranted as his drone has never crashed. Over the following couple of months, the Austrian has mounted his GoPro on the drone to film scenes at Baoshi Hill, Hefang Street, Xixi Wetland and the Qiantang River.
He has also made a concerted effort to capture smiling people, in most cases those he knows like the doorman at his apartment, the owners of a grocery store downstairs and the cook at a neighborhood barbecue stall.
Derflinger says he also purchased background music online for the video. The music is gentle during the day scenes and fast with the night shots. At the end of the video, the Chinese characters Xie Xie Hangzhou, meaning thank you Hangzhou, fade in.
Derflinger speaks Chinese reasonably well and has visited dozens of places in the country including Harbin and Tibet.
“Many foreigners say China’s scenic places today are too modernized, but I find many small cities and countrysides still retain lots of culture and history,” he says.
Derflinger’s interest in Asia began when he became an exchange student at University of Hong Kong in 2010, studying international business. In 2011 he studied as an exchange student in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
He says “Thank You Hangzhou” was originally intended as a gift to himself as he had planned to leave Hangzhou after resigning from Bosch and wanted something to remember the city. However, since his video has gained widespread attention, he and his friends are starting a business to promote Chinese scenery via aerial videos and photography. And for the time being, Derflinger will remain in Hangzhou.
“It’s always good to combine your hobby and work,” he says.
Where it will take him is anybody’s guess.
You can go to www.shanghaidaily.com/hangzhou/Thank-you-Hangzhou/shdaily.shtml to watch Derflinger’s video “Thank You Hangzhou.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
