Kirk Watson films
I am a freelance filmmaker, based in Scotland. I can self shoot promotional, documentary, educational and narrative content and edit into a final film. I am also a fully licensed, CAA approved drone pilot and cinematographer. Perfect View Productions has all their own equipment to complete a project.
Whatever your story be it commercial, documentary or fictional we can help you get your message across in a high quality and professional manner.
Behind the scenes of an NBC travel show filmed at Scotland’s five-star Cameron House Hotel. Drone and gimbal work across Loch Lomond, Inveraray Castle, and the Royal Scotsman train — a luxury shoot with a great Scottish crew.
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So, we’re out with the Beluga Lagoon crew again, this time filming for Andrew’s big new wildlife film Rivers (aye, nae surprises what it’s about). The line-up: me, Andrew, Craig, and Mark. Blaine was meant to be there but sacked it off to head to Edinburgh to meet his film-making journo pal in the big city lights.
Our “very serious job” was to film this wee wooden toy boat drifting down the river. Proper wildlife cinematography, right? Truth is, it was just four grown men standing at the riverbank like daft laddies, cheering on a toy boat like it was Shackleton’s Endurance on a world-first expedition.
Then came the drama. The poor wooden boat made a beeline straight for a waterfall. Mark, channeling his inner Hollywood action hero, launched himself into the river in a heroic dive. For a moment it looked like we were about to film his last scene. He missed the boat, nearly went over the edge, and gave us all a heart attack.
Luckily, I legged it downstream and managed to fish the wee boat out after it went over. Boat saved. Mark still alive. Result.
To add to the fun, we were also playing about with my brand-new waterproof probe lenses. And no, before you ask, they’re not for probing people like some alien abduction kit — these beauties are for getting right in close to tiny wildlife. We got some cracking shots looking up at beetles, millipedes, frogs and whatever else was willing to sit still. Basically, a whole new angle on the world, macro-style.
A couple of weeks later, I even took one of the boats on a “holiday” up to the Moray Coast. Got some shots of it bobbing about at sea, looking like it had crossed the Atlantic on some epic voyage. Honestly, that wooden thing’s seen more adventure than most folk manage in a year.
Andrew’s close to finishing the film now — just needs a few autumn and winter shots. I’ve dropped in the odd drone flight and camera bit over the last couple of years, and knowing Andrew it’ll be brilliant. The man could film a puddle and make it look like Attenborough.
So aye, keep an eye out for Rivers next year. In the meantime, check out Beluga Lagoon Films on YouTube. That wee wooden boat had a near-death experience, but now it’s a star.
Looking towards the Larig thru from the drone
I had a fun few days working with Rupert Shanks and Robbie, on a beautifully creative project for Cairngorms Connect. The film is being led by Robbie, who has a background in dance and movement, and this piece brings that expressive energy into the landscape and everyday work of the young rangers from the Cairngorms National Park.
Over a couple of days, we filmed the rangers as they carried out conservation work like tree planting, using a mix of Steadicam, traditional handheld camera work, and some macro-style close-ups using my new probe lens — great for getting right into the detail of nature.
Robbie had choreographed some simple but expressive movements that tied into the surroundings and the actions the rangers were doing — giving it a very organic, art-meets-environment feel.
Then, one evening, we headed up near Badaguish to capture a more stylised sequence in the woods. The rangers — and a bunch of other kids — moved dynamically through the trees, jumping, climbing, and swinging. The sequence built up to a really striking final scene centred on a moth trap — a glowing, bright light source in the darkness. As dusk fell, we filmed them swarming around it like moths themselves, using the drone to capture wide, elegant aerial movements.
It was an unusual and rewarding project — a nice mix of nature, movement, and cinematography. I’m looking forward to seeing what Rupert and Robbie piece together from the footage.
Filming Dundee’s new ropes course on the RRS Discovery with drones, 5 cameras, and Lorraine Kelly and Dan Snow — a chance to safely relive what the ship’s original sailors once faced. Adventure meets history high above the Tay.
Read MoreOut again with Al Lee and BritRock Films to film Robbie Phillips attempting an on-sight of An Inconvenient Tooth (E7 6c), with Topher along to belay.
Al’s plan was to catch the golden evening light to give the footage a cinematic edge. We met at the Sligachan pub at 2pm and began the walk-in with the usual heavy sacks. It was a clammy, sweltering day—by the time we hit the steep scree slopes below the climb, I felt like I was about to burst with heat.
Up at the base, we were met with cloud blowing hard over the Basteir Tooth from the south, leaving the rock damp and conditions less than ideal. Flying the drone was a gamble too—thick cloud can interfere with sensors and cause sketchy auto-landings as it mistakes mist for solid ground.
So we sat it out, rehydrating and regrouping, hoping conditions would shift. And luckily, they did. As the sun began to dip—on the longest day of the year, no less—the clouds lifted and the wind began to settle, as it often does on Scottish evenings. It reminded me of my old canoe guiding days: battling winds all day, then launching at dinnertime when the breeze finally dropped. The wind didn’t vanish completely, but it halved in strength—enough to dry the route and give Robbie a more relaxed feeling about the route.
As with all filming missions with Al, I’ll keep the full story under wraps—it’s best saved for the big screen later in the year :) But behind the scenes, it was a big day in the end. Unfortunately as Al abseiled off the top of the tooth after filming on the ropes for the day/night, the ropes jammed. On Gabbro this can just take an edge to do. Doesn’t need to be twisted or jammed in a groove as the rock is so rough. Robbie soloed up Naismith’s route in the dark to throw them from the top. While we looked after his dog Bonnie and carried his bag and would meet him after he traversed over Am Bastier and down the other side.
We wrapped up on the longest day with headtorches blazing and a long walk back in the dark. I reached my car at 3am, just as the heavens opened, and crashed out in the back while the rain hammered down.
An epic day on the hill, and hopefully some stunning footage to show for it—the Cuillin never disappoints. Al’s girlfriend Lewis was along too, snapping photos, and hopefully enjoyed the adventure despite the late finish.
Here’s my favourite shot of the day—Sgùrr nan Gillean at sunset, stitched from six drone photos, taken from 100 metres above the ridge:
A wild week following Sam Thompson doing a marathon a day on foot and by bike from one stadium to the next stadium. Start at Arsenal in London and finishing at Old Trafford in Manchester.
A friend Vicci was doing the media bit for UNICEF and brought me on board to film as I have previously filmed with Comic Relief and Children in Need with Vicci and we get on well.
Here I would be in the lead vehicle filming Sam as he ran and cycled. The lead vehicle had a documentary crew in it. As these challenge events they raise usually a quarter to half the money from the actual event and through daytime TV, News and social media and the other half from a documentary that airs a week or so after the event. So it’s funny filming these as the documentary team are trying to film everything too. But I just film the occasional pieces throughout the day not absolutely everything like them and try stay out of their cameras way:) I then do a rough edit on my computer to pull out the better pieces etc and then upload to our base where a guy Matthew then edited social media posts from it, and Anna and Gabs would also edit things from it. I’d then film a bit, edit, upload repeat over and over all day. Then in the evening I’d have to quickly do a 5-10 minute highlight reel for Media. Such as News shows etc to use in their cycles. I would then do a longer edit (I say edit its just more a selection of shots and interviews for others to edit) for ITV This Morning that was featuring my footage each day. One of the days I also filmed a VT for This Morning with Ben Sheperd.
As well as myself and the Doc crew there was a social media team for UNICEF getting other pieces and then Sam had his own social guy Ted, ITV TM had a live crew each day and each person that met Sam to run with him for a short while usually also had their own media team:)
Was a fun week, couldn’t do it every week as 18 hr days take their toll. But worth it for the money raised and my overtime was my bit to charity:) A few pics of the day week below.
Some of the footage I took that was made into reels on instagram have individually had millions of views (one vid 8million) and probably 10’s of millions combined which is amazing.. This started the fund raising this week with £1.5m and by the end of it all as in documentary and football game it got up to £15m:)
Continuing the following of hard climbs and climbers I headed to Ben Loyal again with Alastair Lee for Britrock films. This time to film Franco Cookson who is working a hard slab route on one of the buttresses of this amazing mountain:)
A big walk in with a 30 Kg rucksack again and got some filming done with the drone and long lens. But we will return at a later date to see the route completed as Franco works away at it. A few pictures of the day below:)
A fun day with Britrock films and Alaister Lee filming Dalriada a E7 6b climb first climber by Gary Latter in 1995 then a second ascent by Dave Macleod in 1999 and the first female ascent in 2015 by Natalie Berry. An amazing route and possibly Scotlands most photogenic route!
We had a great day out especially after arriving at the bottom of the routes finishing the carry of 30Kg of camera kit, drone batteries etc from sea level lol. Al was on the ropes and route as usual doing A Camera while I did drone operator and Long lens:)
Should be a fun watch to see how it goes for the onsight on Bitrock film tour later in the year:) https://britrockfilms.com
A few pictures from the day below
A fun few days out in Jersey doing some filming for VT’s with Phil Vickery as the chef presenter, Dom Gatt directing and Julia as food preparations. Then we had John from Jersey as our main fixer who sorted all the people and places we visited. Extremely helpful guy.
We went out fishing for a morning then visited a Jersey cow dairy farm then we cooked the mackerel near a beach at The ‘Driftwood’ Cafe which also has some lovely food inside. The following day we filmed the first picking of Jersey Royal potatoes live. The first live I have done for over 20 years. The last one was with ITN News with Laurence McGuinty in Antarctica lol.
We then cooked the Jersey Royals Live on television for ITV This Morning and it all went well and looked good thanksfully:) I then cooked the same Jersey Royals at home for my parents when they visited and had them with Salmon, it was very tasty:)
A fun weekend with 11 folk in the house as we film another music video nearby my home in Aviemore at a friends derelict house that we spent a bit of time making look like a real bothy. It actually looked quite cosy after a bit of work. The house is Richard Elliots and mate who is also a drone pilot and I work with a fair bit.
Freddy a 10 year old and his Dad Craig would be the main stars here. With Andrew and myself filming. Blaine was here to help sort things on set and also entertain Freddy when we were filming Craig.
Freddy did amazing as this was a night shoot and we did not finish until after midnight! A few pictures below of the BTS. Looking forward to seeing the finished film.
Here’s the finished film from the previous blog. Pretty pleased with how Andrew edited it together with his music:). Blaine is looking good in the shots and whole thing looks stunning. Camera operators are both myself and Andrews as he was on his camera too. Obviously during me doing the drone pilot bits Andrew filmed with his camera. That floating light had a bird carrying it on a longline:)
Another few days filming with Beluga Laggon. We had a fun few days as we paddled into a remote spot in the Scottish Highlands to film some night scenes and bad weather scenes for a man lost somewhere remote. I never really know entirely what I’m filming when doing these with Andrew and the story is in his head and often they are a little wacky the stories until you see them then sometimes they are a little less wacky when on screen with the music. But sometimes not lol.
Blaine was our main character here but Mark had come along for the banter anyway and ended up as chief smoke machine operator. I mean an actual smoke machine not a euphemism. We got some great shots of Blaine and some fun making my drone carry a little bunch of lights that were to represent some weird object in the night sky for Blaine to follow. It looked pretty good through the ground cameras. Few pics below.
Our paddle out was pretty horrendous in a head wind and complete pishing with rain. Underwear wet in 20 mins type rain. But we made it. Took 30 minutes to paddle in and 3.5 hrs to paddle out hahaha.
Blaine doing a bit of acting
The bad weather comes in for a bit:)
Blaine following the mysterious light
Great fun filming this Speyside way film for Cairngorms Business Partnership. Quite a bit of drone pilot filming here to show the landscape of the different sections along the way from Seaside to the mountains of the Cairngorms. Not a route I have done, I have only paddled the Spey many times, so nice to see the different parts of the footpath/cycle path. Also did a bit as a camera operator to catch the ground scenes and pub, distillery scenes. Was in the Cairn Distillery which was nice to see as a new place. They let me sniff the 70 year old dram but not taste lol. Then an edit of the project until we had what the team wanted:)
Definately worth a walk through the Speyside Way or a cycle also. Enjoy the wee film that Visit Cairngorms shared for Spring coming. Has almost 100k views on facebook now:)
A great fun few days with Andrew and Blaine filming a new music video for a new song, not yet released. I was out with my new cameras which now match Andrews cameras which is a great bonus. The Sony FX6 and FX3
We were filming several scenes of Blaine all dressed up in tweeds and a flat cap crossing the wilderness with his backpack and stick. Starting in the sun and with the weather getting more grim as he goes on. Well that’s the story anyway but was filmed in reverse because you have to go with the weather you have. Canoes were also at hand to get us to some locations.
Always great fun with this pair and a good crack. We also entered the pub quiz in the Clachaig and came third. One of the questions was “What does the Acronym BBC stand for?'“ Now there are a few answers to this question. The poor quiz master got quite embarrassed with all the laughing. But we did get it right in the end with “British Broadcasting Corporation”:)
Oh and we finally filmed the last clip of Isla music video. I think we did the first clip in September or October hahaha. I see it will premiere Saturday night 1st march as Andrew drops in the final clip to his edit, tomorrow on Beluga Lagoon Films on Youtube.
A few pics below with some screen shots from my camera of Blaine striding out over the moors:)
Blaine dwarfed by the great Highland mountains
Blaine striding out through the lush mossy birch forest in the sun.
Camera operator Kirk with my new shiny camera and 200mm lens:)
An interesting project that I’ve been working on in conjunction with Glenmore Lodge (National Outdoor Centre) and Scottish Mountain Rescue.
This was making a film about Group Avalanche rescue when no one has a transceiver. It is not all that common for people in the UK to walk or climb in the mountains while wearing transceivers. Ski-mountaineers tend to more as they head to where more snow is. There was no videos out there that cover the scenario of when people do not carry transceivers so it was decided that one should be put together as an educational guide for anyone venturing into the mountains.
We filmed this a while back and I went on the mountain as the camera operator for a couple of days. I then started the edit process and then handed it over to a large group of people who all decide on what should go in it and what shouldn’t go in it. At one point the video was also shown to clients on some winter courses and their feedback was very interesting and they also loved the info. This all lead to a few edits for me hahaha. Then an old school mate Rachel did the voice over for it for us.
Here is the finished video below:
So made a big upgrade and changed from my Panasonic micro four third cameras to Sony Full Frame Cameras. This is the FX6 and FX3 Cameras and I have been using them the last few weeks to get used to how they work. Footage is beautiful from them. I also bought four G master lenses with them and a monitor. Amazing having autofocus for first time in 9 cameras hahaha.
So new kit list below. Cameras and lenses are the only new parts to this Kit list:)
A fun few days following a group of shop keepers learning more about Rab Equipment and Gore-tex at Glenmore Lodge as part of a training conference. The first day was all around the Lodge as they dived deeper into the new Gore-Tex (more environmentally friendly). Then learning also about how to look after it to keep its waterproof ability. Much more washing to keep it alive.
Day two everyone took to the mountains with Glenmore Lodge guides leading the way. I headed over to after thought aerate in the Loch Avon basin for my filming. Pretty rushed day trying to fit the filming into the day while the people I filmed tried to get their days done too. Such an awesome weather day filming.
Loch Basin in the Cairngorms. Shelterstone crag on the right with Carn Etchachan behind and Stag rocks on the left. Loch Avon in the middle.
An Ice Bow, formed when there are ice particles in the air. Which there was this day as my drone did not like the fine ice mist!!
It’s been a fun year following Andrew and his band Beluga Lagoon as they play bigger venues throughout Scotland. All have been sold out shows and some sold out in literary 2 minutes !
I’ve filmed several of the bigger concerts with Rupert Shanks for Andrew to do an edit at some point to make a bit of a documentary of the year, not for TV or the likes just for Andrews Youtube channel where he pops all his films over the years https://www.youtube.com/@belugalagoonfilms8620 . Wish I’d gone along to film them receiving a few awards along the way too. Anyway I’m sure there are phone pics and video of these occasions.
O2 Academy in Glasgow would be the biggest so far 3500. There are some pretty big nerves before these concerts for some of the band. Andrews worries he will catch the flu or the likes and he had a little bit of a sore throat coming into this but managed to miss it getting worse thankfully. Some of the band seem to not get nervous at all. Although Andrew and Matt the drummer were the most nervous earlier in the year they seem to have gotten slightly more used to it as time has gone on. Just shit themselves on a medium level now until the first 2 songs are in the bag:)
Such great fun seeing this set up and loved the massive tree at the back of stage with eye balls in an opening and an owl on a branch, made by Jamie and Andrew. True to form Andrew manages to make every concert different. So for those fans, of which there are quite a few, that go to many of the shows they never see the same show twice. This one being special (like Dunoon, Queens Hall) had the voices of Argyll join as an all female choir giving a much bigger sound to the music for the first half of the show.
Going to be fun to see what Andrew does this year. He certainly doesn’t stop and is with Gregor right now doing something in the studio. How he fits it in I’m not sure, always impresses me how productive he is, daily! A few pics below of the O2 Night, what an awesome night:)
Wee drone shot of the venue from the mini 3 pro tiny drone
One of Ruperts angles from back of Hall
Great fun day meeting this team and seeing what they do. We were filming Angela who is partially sighted who has organised a group where each month a team of partially sighted and blind folk (there were 21 this day) go for a walk and lunch together in Inverness. She is a great person and we were filming her as she is one of several folk who might be selected for an award for amazing people like Angela who have helped several people in making their lives better. I’ve actually forgotten the exact name of the award but if you watch on Christmas day then you will see the finalist and find out who wins.
I got to film this one because it is close to home but other camera operators will film the other people. Would have been good to see them all as always very fascinating and fun shoots these. A few screen shots below of the day.
The team and Inverness
Always fun filming with Beluga Lagoon and great to see a practice on the go, especially with ‘The Voices of Argyll’ joining in here. We all headed to Dunoon for the practice and the place of the upcoming gig on the 7th of December where they will perform together at the Queens Hall. The choir and Beluga Lagoon will then perform at the O2 Academy to 3500 people on the 19th of December. The biggest concert so far for Beluga Lagoon and a great way to finish off the year for this band.
Here we were capturing some BTS for the documentary Andrew will make of this first year of Beluga Lagoon playing larger venues. So we caught a bit of chat with the choir and and followed Gregor doing a bit of directing of the team to polish where and how the choir come in to create the best sound possible. It does sound amazing and complements the band brilliantly.
I have a few screen grabs of the practice below. Enjoy Dunoon if you have a ticket for tomorrow night. I’ll be along to O2 Academy later in the month to film the big gig, can’t wait. After the practice we went for a few beers and the choir carried on a different practice, busy Ladies! Dunoon pub was £3 a pint of Guiness, amazing!!!
Having fun with ‘Ronnie and the Reindeer’ song:)
Very atmospheric singing ‘Still”
Not sure if Gregor is giving me the fingers or if it’s some music directing thing?
