Drone Operator & Camera Operator | Scotland
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 filming Beluga Lagoon’s new Mesolithic-era music video across Scotland. From crafting Stone Age props indoors during wild Highland weather to shooting atmospheric scenes in Smoo Cave, ancient forests, rivers and the Scottish Crannog Centre.
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A stitch from 6 of my pictures
Behind the Scenes: Filming the Oasis Drone Swarm in Cardiff
Earlier this month, I headed down to Cardiff, Wales, for a unique and exciting shoot — the opening night of the Oasis Tour at the Principality Stadium. The event featured something pretty special: a drone swarm by Celestial Drones, forming the iconic Oasis logo high above the city skyline.
My friend Richard from Richard Elliott Aerial Filming was brought on to capture the spectacle. Richard regularly works with Celestial and was flying his DJI Inspire 3 to get close-range shots. But for this job, given the complexity of flying in a built-up city environment, they needed a second drone filming from further out. That’s where I came in — operating Richard’s Mavic 4 Pro from one of the nearby parks, offering a different angle on the action.
This was my first time witnessing a drone swarm in real life, and I couldn’t wait to get involved.
I arrived in Cardiff around 4pm and headed straight to the rugby grounds next to the stadium, where the Celestial team was setting up. Hundreds of drones were lined up, each carefully tested and checked through the control interface on their screens. It was impressive to see the sheer scale of the operation and the precision involved in coordinating a performance like this.
After meeting up with Richard, we scouted out the location where I’d be flying. It had been cleared with the local council and community ahead of time, and I gave South Wales Police a quick call to make them aware of a drone flight happening after dark.
As night fell, an Alanis Morissette concert elsewhere in the city meant the park I was flying from was briefly swarming with concertgoers, but by midnight it had cleared out completely. I was able to launch the Mavic and run a couple of test flights in peace. Unfortunately, Cardiff Castle didn’t switch on its floodlights as expected, so I had to adapt the shot list on the fly.
Then came the countdown. I saw the Celestial drones begin to rise, taking shape in the sky, and I launched my drone for real. With just 12 minutes to capture everything, there wasn’t much room for error. I had a few planned shots in mind, but quickly started improvising — flying behind trees, revealing wide cityscapes, and trying to bring out the scale and beauty of the display. Also capturing the skyline of Cardiff.
It felt like it was over in a flash. One moment I was filming the drones lighting up the sky, the next they were descending back to the rugby field. I handed off the footage, which the team seemed really happy with.
By 2am, I was back at my B&B, and the next morning I was already heading back to Scotland. A whirlwind trip — my first ever visit to Cardiff — but a brilliant experience to be part of. I’m looking forward to filming more with Richard and the Celestial team later this year on future Oasis events.
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
Had fun making this film with Andrew. A music video for the track ‘Isla’ from the ‘Slugs Bonnet’ Album. I filmed the aerial shots as the drone pilot here which we got a lovely day for. Andrew does the dancing on the hill. Which was a bit exciting at times for him as some reasonably drops off to the sides and tricky seeing anything in these masks. Lindsay his wife is Hula hooping and holding the signs, which Andrew filmed near home. The final shot we did last week. The one with the traffic cone.
All beautifully edited and turned to black and white by Andrew in the edit suite and obviously timed to his music to make a very entertaining, fun and different video. Be interesting to see what happens inside Andrews mind hahahahaha.
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:)
