The permit is part of the shot list.

The problem

Most aerial work in Croatia is quoted as if the only question were whether someone can fly. In practice there are two separate regulatory layers that have to be satisfied at the same time, and they answer different questions. The aviation layer asks whether the drone may fly here, like this. The defence layer asks whether this ground may be filmed at all, and whether the resulting footage may be used.

Almost every problem we see on a shoot comes from the second layer being overlooked. A crew flies legally, delivers a beautiful cut, and the client discovers afterwards that the material was never cleared for publication. The footage exists and cannot be used — which is worse than not having shot it, because the budget is already spent and the campaign date is already set.

So we treat clearance as part of the production, not as paperwork that happens around it. The question we answer before quoting is not "can we fly here" but "what will you be allowed to publish, and when."

The first decision: does this need approval?

This single question decides whether a job takes two days or three weeks, so it gets settled before anything else.

Approval is not required for targeted filming of an individual location or building, carried out solely for the needs of that location's owner or user. That covers most everyday work: a house, villa, or apartment shot for its owner or the agency selling it; construction progress for the investor; a hotel, campsite, or restaurant filmed to market that property; a roof, façade, or solar installation inspected for the building's owner. Material shot under this exception is used without further restriction and never goes for review.

Approval is required when the client is neither owner nor user of the location being filmed, when a wider area is covered rather than an individual site, when the subject is protected nature — a national park, nature park, or strict or special reserve — or when the area sits along a border demarcation zone.

The boundary between the two is not always obvious. Where there is genuine doubt, we ask the State Geodetic Administration for a written position and keep it with the job file rather than making the call ourselves and hoping.

What has to be in place before the first flight

Four things, all of them prerequisites rather than nice-to-haves. A registered activity for aerial filming — NKD 74.20 in Croatia — which is required in its own right, including on jobs where no approval is needed. Registration as a UAS operator with the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency, which issues the operator ID that is physically marked on the aircraft. Pilot competency, meaning at least an A1/A3 certificate for the open category, with A2 in practice for flying closer to people in built-up areas. And third-party liability insurance, which is a standard condition for commercial work and something clients increasingly ask to see.

Per job, the file starts with written consent from the location's owner or user, naming the property, the period, and the purpose of the filming. That document is what demonstrates the work was genuinely carried out for the owner, and it is the basis on which the exception applies. Where we file with the authorities on a client's behalf, a written authorisation from the client covers it — the same document can cover both the filming request and the later usage request.

Airspace is checked separately: flight zones, air traffic control clearance where the zone requires it, and protected areas verified against the nature protection information system.

The approval itself

Requests go to the State Geodetic Administration through its e-application. The submission covers the client, the operator, the aircraft, the planned period, the purpose, and the technical parameters — digital capture, GSD, camera and sensor, focal length, and recording format — along with the filming plan drawn on an interactive map and the supporting documents attached as PDFs.

The generated request has to come back into the system signed and certified, or digitally signed. Without that it is not taken into processing at all, which is the most common way a timeline slips for no good reason.

An approval covers the period stated in the request, up to a maximum of three months, and applies to each individual filming. There is an exception for reporting on cultural and sporting events and on extraordinary events, where one approval covers multiple shoots — but that is available only to television broadcasters holding a national concession, to HINA, and to those filming for them. For everyone else, it is one approval per shoot.

We file with real margin ahead of the shoot date and request a wider window than the plan strictly needs, because weather moves aerial work and an approval that expires the day before a re-scheduled flight is worth nothing.

The filming plan, and the mistake everyone makes

The plan marks the area being filmed — not the spot the drone takes off from. That distinction catches out more crews than any other part of the process.

The aircraft is a single point in space, but its frame covers far more ground than that point. With the camera tilted and a wide focal length, recognisable content lands in the footage several hundred metres beyond the flight position. The polygon is submitted with a list of coordinates for its break points, so it is a precise claim about what will be captured.

Three rules follow. Draw the polygon generously, with margin on every side the camera can look toward. Check what falls inside that margin before drawing it — military locations, ports, the border zone, protected areas. And hold the framing inside the declared area during the flight; where a shoot needs freedom to compose, the wider area is declared up front rather than negotiated afterwards.

The same logic applies to jobs that need no approval at all. The exception covers an individual location, so a broad panorama of the surrounding neighbourhood, shot from that location, has quietly stepped outside it.

What we fly

A DJI Air 3S. The dual focal length is the practical reason: a wide camera for the establishing pass and a medium telephoto on the same airframe, which means the two most useful looks come out of one flight instead of two, on one battery cycle and inside one declared area.

That matters more than it sounds when the area is declared in advance. A second aircraft swap, or a lens change that pushes the frame wider than planned, is not just a production inconvenience — it can put the shot outside the polygon that was approved. Flying one aircraft with a known frame at a known altitude keeps the footage and the paperwork describing it in agreement.

It is also a compact aircraft, which keeps more sites inside the open category and keeps the footprint small on locations where a larger rig would need a wider cordon and more of the client's day.

After the shoot: clearance to use the footage

Where filming was carried out under an approval, the material goes to the State Geodetic Administration for review immediately after the shoot, and no later than eight days from its completion.

What gets submitted is the unprocessed footage, which stays in the DGU archive, together with the plan of the filming as actually flown in .shp or .kml format. Transfer runs through a link in the e-application up to 10 GB, with larger volumes handed over on physical media. Footage that required prior consent from the Ministry of Defence is never sent by link — it goes on a data carrier only, and is reviewed by a dedicated commission.

The decision that comes back sets out which footage may be used, which may not be published or passed on, and which is withheld. Until it is issued, nothing is published. If a shoot did not happen at all, that is declared to the DGU within eight days of the approval period lapsing.

We plan the edit around this, not against it. The cut is assembled while review is pending, so the delivery date depends on the decision arriving rather than on post-production starting late.

How it runs in practice

A properly organised aerial job comes down to three decisions and one file. The decisions: whether this is targeted filming for an owner or not; what area the camera actually covers, as opposed to where the aircraft sits; and how much lead time to reserve before the shoot date.

The file, per project: owner's consent, client authorisation where we file on their behalf, the approval decision, the filming plan, the plan as flown, the usage decision, and proof the material was submitted. Assembled as the job runs rather than reconstructed afterwards.

The point of all of it is that risk moves off improvisation and onto procedure. The client gets footage they are allowed to use, without an unpleasant surprise arriving after the invoice.

Where it stands

A typical job pairs the aerial pass with whatever it is meant to support — a property listing, a launch, a site record — and lands the film and the thing it belongs to at the same time rather than weeks apart.

Aerial and drone work runs as a standing service rather than a one-off: events, real estate, promotional film, and insurance property surveys that document the condition of a house or building before a policy is written or a claim is settled. Full reel on request.