salim

You don't really need the Goggles, but I believe it can use your head movement to control the camera. I'm not sure how organic that would look, but it might be helpful. 
Ask you friend which camera he has for the Inspire 2. Inspire 2 comes with two independent remote controls. One for the pilot and one for the camera operator. Have your friend pilot the drone and you can manage the camera. I've only crashed my drones on two different occasions. Both of them involving me, flying backwards and putting all my attention on getting  interesting camera movements. Then, it was the moment your heart stops. Because you can see your drone tumbling downwards.  I was lucky to recover my drones both times. The first time, I was in a remote village in the Republic of Georgia. I had no idea how the GPS on app works and I basically failed trying to find drone though the GPS. However, because there is a local cache video footage. I was able to triangulate the last few seconds of my footage and kept hiking uphill through the woods till my eyes were seeing the exact image that my drone last capture and miraculously found my drone in thick forest before it got dark and the storm came in. 
 
Moral of story is, you always need an observer, if you're piloting and shooting yourself. Otherwise if you have a pilot, you can have the pilot focus on flying and you on the shot. Reduces all the potential hazards.  There are also very nice fancy apps. Which I have not learned to use yet. That allow you draw a flight path which avoids hitting the buildings, etc. You can then have the drone fly that path and you can focus on the shot. That way, you can repeat the exact same drone movement without worry of hitting anything on the way. 
 
Inspire 2 also has hot swappable batteries. You basically replace one of the two batteries one by one and the drone does not need to reboot and sync with the GPS. 
 
 
 

Well... too make things even MORE complicated, the inspire 2 is capable of mounting many different cameras. So it might have a good camera or a really good camera!!!
Also, kind of depends on which version of the Phantom 4 your other friend has. The phantom 4 pro (often called a P4P) and the Phantom 4 Advanced (called a P4A) have one-inch sensors and variable apertures. I think the Phantom 4 Standard has a smaller sensor with a fixed aperture. Personally, i like the footage I have seen from the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced. I am not familiar enough with the different camera options on the inspire to say if they are better (I suspect they are because I know that the inspire can have a m43 sensor camera outfitted to it.)
The Mavic and Spark have lesser cameras than the Phantom 4 Pro or Advanced, and lesser than the inspire.
The googles are NOT supposed to be used by the drone pilot. But they might be helpful for YOU if you will be able to instruct the pilot (move to the left, ok lower, go forward, etc.,) The pilot is required to maintain line of sight (meaning, looking at the drone at all times).
I would agree with Salim above that an inspire with an m43 camera would be great. But again, a P4P or a P4A might do the job... But I hope others will chime in.

The noise is going to be really bad...almost useless. Unless you use higher end drones. Will the final footage be 4k or 1080 ? With downsampling, you probably can reduce some noise. 
Anything below P4P is useless. I shot Budapest at blue hour. May look passable on small iPhone screen but it's totally crap. 

THEN, there is the bigger issue of focusing. The focusing on these things are pain, specially in low light. 

So, regular P4 has a fixed focus, which is perfect for anything farther than 1-2M. But it only has the small sensor.  Newer drones have a AF. But, they always hunt and it's a pain, especially the kind of shot you described where you want change your distance from your subject and elevate your position. 
My suggestion would be to see if you can rent a Inspire 2 with a X5r camera. This is a m4/3 camera that shoots raw. Use a m4/3 lens and set some kind of hyperlocal length manually on your focus and shoot with that.  
The noise is going to be really bad...almost useless. Unless you use higher end drones. Will the final footage be 4k or 1080 ? With downsampling, you probably can reduce some noise. 
Anything below P4P is useless. I shot Budapest at blue hour. May look passable on small iPhone screen but it's totally crap. 

THEN, there is the bigger issue of focusing. The focusing on these things are pain, specially in low light. 

So, regular P4 has a fixed focus, which is perfect for anything farther than 1-2M. But it only has the small sensor.  Newer drones have a AF. But, they always hunt and it's a pain, especially the kind of shot you described where you want change your distance from your subject and elevate your position. 
My suggestion would be to see if you can rent a Inspire 2 with a X5r camera. This is a m4/3 camera that shoots raw. Use a m4/3 lens and set some kind of hyperlocal length manually on your focus and shoot with that.  
 
 
One correction!  You can use P4P and set manual focus, You can also try to find some kind of a hyperlocal distance that way, but then you wont have as much low light ability as the I2/X5r

I love Casey and I think he is a story telling genius. I had no idea about his background for love of movies. This makes sense why he is such a good story teller. 
This is one best things I've seen in the past month. Thanks for sharing! 

I love Casey and I think he is a story telling genius. I had no idea about his background for love of movies. This makes sense why he is such a good story teller. 
This is one best things I've seen in the past month. Thanks for sharing! 

Well I know he is not a lot of peoples favorite on here, but he has some damn good points in the video.
 
https://nofilmschool.com/2018/01/powerful-4-minute-lesson-filmmaking-casey-neistat

One last thing, the down draft from the drone, will most likely ruffle the blanket and hair on your talent. So you probably wont get the shot you want. 
Remember these drones are very powerful to lift a few pounds into air. So there is a lot of down draft blowing under the drone and it may be distracting to the story you want to tell. 

I’m seeing Alexa classics going for $8k now. I’m still going to hold out but the Alexa is really the only camera that I’d “upgrade” my 1DC from. 

Of course they are, I just spent my wireless budget on 3 Sony kits!
I didn’t see that coming. What are the differences with G3.Is this a hybrid system? Do we know anything about the pricing?

I've flown both the phantom and the mavic. 
 
@DaveAltizer gave you good advice on P4P (phantom 4 pro or phantom 4 advance as both have the 1" sensors). 
DJI uses a few internal sensors including the GPS for stability. So indoor shooting where is no GPS signal is actually can be a tad tricky. 
 
 in US, you'e under the FAA rules. For safety of other aerial vehicles, they limit you to about 400 feet.  DJI remote (with minimal interference) is about 4 miles. There is a company in Moscow that can hack your remote if you even want to fly a longer range. However, as you fly higher the air density decreases, so it doesn't mean that you can fly 4 miles high, even if there was no restriction. 
 
On P4P the lens on it is equivalent to a 24 mm lens (on full frame 35 SLR). So that might impact the look that you're going for, but at the same time it means you don't have to fly that high to create the perception of a longer camera movement. In other words, you wont this ceiling and still get a wide enough shot. 
 
The other issue is color matching your P4P with your other stuff. Also I don't think DJI is able to get the most out of the 1" sensor out in their video files. So light you shot for iso100 f/2.8 
 
 
Lastly, if the video is used for an actual paid commercial. You're technically suppose to get your FAA certificate (but validate with others here) to shoot it.  
 
One last thing. Jan 23rd DJI is releasing a new product. Wait until then to make your decision. The very least, you might be able to pick up a drone for a great price. 
 
 

just a thought... if you took a high resolution still from the ceiling, could you crop in at the start of the shot and simply zoom out in post to replicate the movement?  It would keep it simple. 
Assuming, of course, there’s no other movement in the shot.

It can be done with a Drone and is not that difficult but drones are less stable indoors than outdoor due to the lack of GPS signal. I have flown my DJI P4p many time indoors and if the indoor location is well illuminated is quite stable.
For indoor the smaller the drone the better it is, because it can be more easily maneuvered, make less noise and the most important part they are less dangerous. A smaller drone like DJI Spark (HD only) with propeller guards is probably the best one for the indoor shoot. DJI Mavic would also work but it would be already quite big to maneuver in such small height advantage is that is 4k but also you can buy a full cage for propellers so no risk to cut the face or finger of the actor.
Anyway I would not recommend flying so close over an actor head without a lot of experience. I would not buy a drone just for this shoot even if you need to redo it many times as Grimor said a Crane/JIb is way easier and safer and you can also record audio... drones indoors make tons of noise and some wind.
Outdoor any good drone will do the job but pay attention that every country has its own altitude limits. All DJI drones are capped at max 500m altitude from takeoff point, but in many countries the law limit is way below.

Fingers crossed! As if they show up with only their current DSLRs and a Keymission, well it would be like those makeup booths you see at tradeshows and you wonder why the fvck are they there?!?!

Absent at NAB in the last two years. Nikon has reserved a big boot for the NAB 2018 
https://nikonrumors.com/2018/01/17/why-did-nikon-reserve-a-big-booth-for-the-2018-nab-show.aspx/#more-118912
 
Could this mean the mirrorless will be announced soon and it has an important video function? 
 

Yeah, I'm ready for some hot new KeyMission goodness!  Bring it! 'The storytelling revolution has begun.'
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/action-cameras/index.page

Minimal:
D810 sensor (DR and colors) 
Sony A7Riii level focus ability (with native Z-mount lenses and adapted Nikon G lenses)
small but sharp 28/f2.8 or 35/f2.8 lens at launch. 
Plus:
IBIS (probably wont happen, at least 1-2 generations later)
10bit 4k video 
D810 level weather sealing

Minimal:
D810 sensor (DR and colors) 
Sony A7Riii level focus ability (with native Z-mount lenses and adapted Nikon G lenses)
small but sharp 28/f2.8 or 35/f2.8 lens at launch. 
Plus:
IBIS (probably wont happen, at least 1-2 generations later)
10bit 4k video 
D810 level weather sealing

A7SIII should be 10bit. Anyway, 10 bit is nice but not more important for me than things like good video AF or IBIS. I have found 8 bit easily gradable and people have posted master piece 8 bit cinematic videos where you would not tell the difference with 10bit. It does not really change how people see your content. IBIS and AF does. A shaky video is trash, focus hunting is trash. 
 
@Andrew Reid I found the HLG different profile significations: 
 
HLG: Gamma curve for HDR recording. Equivalent to the HDR standard Hybrid Log-Gamma, ITU-R BT.2100.
HLG1: Gamma curve for HDR recording. Emphasizes noise reduction. However, shooting is restricted to a narrower dynamic range than with [HLG2] or [HLG3].
HLG2: Gamma curve for HDR recording. Provides a balance of dynamic range and noise reduction.
HLG3: Gamma curve for HDR recording. Wider dynamic range than [HLG2]. However, noise may increase.
[HLG1], [HLG2], and [HLG3] all apply a gamma curve with the same characteristics, but each offers a different balance between dynamic range and noise reduction. Each has a different maximum video output level, as follows: [HLG1]: approx. 87%, [HLG2]: approx. 95%, [HLG3]: approx. 100%.
AS seen here http://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1710/v1/en/contents/TP0001211745.html
@Andrew Reid which one did you like?

I believe the AJA camera uses exactly the same sensor as the BMD 4K one. Which was BMD's worst ever choice of sensor. 

Plus the very high cost of the AJA Cion at launch (relative to BMD with the same sensor), and a bunch of other quirks with it, set it back and the camera never took off. 

 It is a pity, I'd have liked to have seen an AJA Cion mk2!

But yes, it shows what you can do even with lower DR and terrible lowlight performance!

Heck, even I'd rather shoot with a BMPC4K + URSA Mini 4K combo than shoot with one RED ONE MX. (which the two cameras together secondhand would cost similar, or less, as what a RED ONE does)

Will be seriously putting forward this as a proposal for the feature film I might be shooting this year, as an alternative over the RED ONE (which unfortunately the director/producer has their heart set on! We have had a shoot already last month for this feature film with 2x RED ONE I was DoP for). I'll certainly have a few other suggestions up my sleeve as well to try and swing away from the RED ONE preference, such as Sony PMW-F3 or Sony FS700 4K raw output.  (EVA1 + GH5S would be the dream! But probably way out of the budget)

The Tiffen Variable ND is good. One of the drawbacks of the cheaper ones is the depth and placement of the rotating part of the filter. In my experience, they are usually too slim and awkwardly placed. The Tiffen one is relatively chunky and placed well. 
The "X" effect mentioned by others is inevitable of an 8-stop variable ND. Others that don't have the X effect only go up to 6 stops. 
Of course you can go a step higher to the SLR Magic VariND, which has hard stops, a nice handle and better optics. But you really don't need to unless you have the money or are being paid good money. 
You can also go to fixed stop filters like JonPais suggests, but they're a pain in the ass in the field. 

I have the tiffen vari nd 82 and as other have mentioned it suffer from the x effect at maximum stop and it does not have hard stops that is a real pain. You simply bump the lens and it rotates so there is no way to fix the ND value. I would buy the Heliopan... buy the largest one that you need and some step down rings... it will not fit inside the hood of the smallest lenses...

I have several Tiffen NDs. The optical quality is OK but (as with most 8-stop variable NDs) they have polarization artifacts at high attenuation. Another problem is Tiffen filters have no hard stops at each end, so you can't tell by feel where you are.
I have some NiSi variable NDs and I like them much better. They have hard stops plus don't have the "X" effect at high attenuation, OTOH they are limited to six stops: https://***URL removed***/news/8909959108/nisi-launches-variable-nd-filter-with-the-dreaded-x-effect
My favorite filter is the Heliopan 77mm, which also has hard stops and also avoids the "X" effect. It's minimum attenuation is only 1 stop and max is 6 stops. It is expensive but it's an excellent filter. IMO it doesn't make sense to put a cheap filter on a $2500 lens, but if you test a cheaper filter and it works for you, go ahead and use it.  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/829300-REG/Heliopan_708290_82mm_Variable_Gray_ND.html
Although not commonly discussed, a major factor with variable NDs is whether they fit inside the lens hood. You typically use them when shooting outside which often means the sun is out and you need a lens hood for best results if shooting within 180 degrees of the sun angle. There are various strap-on hoods, french flags, etc. but they can be cumbersome. Ironically even some very expensive cameras like the RED Raven have no built-in ND so you can end up using the same screw-on variable ND as somebody with with a GH5.
This is a very difficult area because neither lens manufacturers nor filter manufacturers have specs on filter/lens hood fitment. A big place like B&H can sometimes give advice but not always. You basically need to take all your lenses to some place with a huge in-stock supply that would let you try them all; maybe B&H or the NAB show? If people would methodically post (maybe on a sticky thread)  what filter fits inside the hood of what lens, that would help.
I know from personal testing the Heliopan 77mm variable ND fits inside the lens hood of my Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II, and I can easily reach inside (with lens hood attached) and turn the filter. It will not fit inside the hood of the Sony 70-200 2.8 G-Master, and none of the NiSi, Tiffen or GenusTech 77mm variable NDs I've tried will fit.
I have this 95mm filter which NiSi makes for Hasselblad, and it fits inside the lens hood of my Sony 28-135 f/4 cinema lens: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NiSi-95-mm-Slim-Fader-Variable-ND-Filter-ND4-to-ND500-Adjustable-Neutral-Density-for-Hasselblad/32311172283.html
Some of the longer Sony A-mount and FE-mount lenses actually have a cutout in the bottom of the lens hood where you can turn a variable filter -- provided it fits. 
Dave Dugdale did a variable ND test here:
 

It looks like they've brought back all of their December deals for 2 days...Tascam, Z Cam, SmallHD, X-T1, etc. I grabbed two of the DR10Ls the first go around but still haven't used them.

The SmallHD is much much better! 

I am coming back to comment on the Focus monitor. So far is being excellent judging focus, and framing. 
I have only done a few tests, as I haven't any camera work at the time, but my opinion is very positive so far.
I wish there was a double tap - magnification option, instead of the 2 fingers action, it could be faster and move the camera less.
I wish it said there was a screen protector included, as I bought and installed an extra one (for 23euros! crazy expensive for what it is) and then I discovered the included one under everything!