K2 Studios | World Flight

K2 | World Flight

W

e were approached by K2 Studios with one of the most difficult permits requests in Peru:
Shooting Machu Picchu with a drone.

K2 Studios is a big player in the Giant Screen film industry, they are responsible for financing, distribution and marketing of content exhibited by IMAX®, and other specialty theaters located in museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums and other cultural venues. They have produced over 90 videos in these formats!

This new project wanted to take the World Wonders to theaters in the USA, so that the audience could get an immersive experience using flying theatre ride systems. The brief was very meticulate as not all drone movements work for this system. You basically can only go forward, and all movement has to be extra smooth so that the ride feels seamless.

However the big question was: How do we approach the Ministry of Culture in order to be able to get the shooting permits?

For years we had applied several times for permits to fly a drone over Machu Picchu but it was always denied. Until 2021, when we finally got the chance to use drones for the "Transformers 7: Rise of the Beasts" movie.

The main reason for this exemption was that the only way to achieve the line of sight of one of the bigger robots was either using a huge crane, or the use of drones. We also had the backing of the minister of culture for this project, so that helped as well in getting a positive answer with a few restrictions.

Being K2’s project a production with educational purposes we were able to obtain a permit to fly a smaller drone, the Inspire 2, and the footage we were going to get would serve two purposes: First, it would be used on the World Flight projections, and then, we would edit a version for the ministry of Culture.