Why the Crew Behind the Drone Matters as Much as the Drone Itself
Producers and directors who’ve been burned by an inexperienced drone operator don’t make that mistake twice. The delay mid-shoot while a pilot figures out their permit situation. The footage that looks great on a monitor and falls apart in editorial. The crew that doesn’t understand call sheets or can’t coordinate with the DP’s lighting setup. When you’re booking aerial coverage for a professional production, the question isn’t just whether an operator has a drone. It is whether they have actually worked on a set.
Xizmo Media is a Brooklyn-based drone film company built from the ground up by people who came out of professional production, not hobbyist photography. That distinction shows up on every project we touch.
The Crew
Edward Kostakis, Xizmo’s CEO and co-founder, has logged thousands of hours on set piloting for live television broadcasts, feature films, commercials, and music videos. He holds a private pilot’s license alongside seaplane and helicopter ratings, spent four years as Senior Pilot in North America for DJI, and served eight years as an Air Intelligence Officer in the United States Marine Corps. He’s an award-winning aerial cinematographer whose work has been covered in the New York Times, Popular Mechanics, and ABC News. He doesn’t need to be told how a set works — he’s spent a career on them.
Pablo Barrera, co-founder and Operations Manager, is a New York Emmy winner and two-time Daytime Emmy-nominated producer with credits across dozens of TV shows, feature films, and digital productions. He’s a certified camera head operator and technician for the Arri SRH360, Shotover, and Newton heads, and he founded and chaired the AITSE Local 600 Eastern Region Drone Committee. He understands production from both sides of the camera, which means he knows how to integrate aerial work into a production’s rhythm rather than disrupting it.
Together, they have worked on projects including live international broadcasts with ABC Good Morning America, Volcano Live with Nik Wallenda, the drone whistleblower documentary National Bird, and large-scale commercial productions across New York and internationally.
What Production-Ready Actually Means
Production companies that work with Xizmo consistently note the same thing: the crew shows up prepared, adapts to the day’s conditions, and doesn’t require hand-holding. Our pilots understand call sheets, coordinate with DPs and gaffers on lighting timing, and come to set with flight paths already planned around the director’s shot list. Aerial coverage gets treated as a department, not a side gig happening in the background.
On the technical side, our drones are configured to carry cinema-grade camera systems including RED and ARRI, so your aerial footage matches the look of your ground-based imagery without a color science fight in post. For high-energy sequences, our FPV drone services cover chase shots, tracking sequences, and dynamic perspectives that traditional rigs can’t match at any budget. For productions that need helicopter-level stability with drone-level access, we have the platform options to bridge that gap.
Flying in New York City
Most productions that come to us for film and TV work are shooting in New York, which means airspace restrictions, permitting requirements, and site-specific rules at virtually every interesting location in the city. Our team has direct experience coordinating with the FAA, NYPD, and New York City Parks Department, and we understand which locations require advance agency coordination, which can be cleared quickly, and where the hard no-fly lines are. For productions on tight timelines, that knowledge prevents the kind of delays that come from discovering a permit problem on the morning of a shoot.
We’re also authorized to operate commercially in Class B, C, and D controlled airspace throughout the tri-state area, including airspace around JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International, locations that many drone operators simply can’t legally access.
Productions We Support
Our aerial work spans commercials, narrative film, documentary, music videos, live broadcast, and episodic television. For productions that need a single aerial unit on a specific shoot day, we integrate cleanly into existing crews. For longer-form projects that need ongoing aerial support across multiple shoot days or locations, we build the workflow around your production schedule.