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.
A very different kind of drone job, heading four hours into the North Atlantic from Orkney to survey the huge seabird colonies of Sule Skerry and Sule Stack. Flying a DJI Matrice from a moving boat, photographing thousands of puffins and gannets, and visiting one of the most remote lighthouses in Britain.
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 fun day going round several sites in the highlands in Scotland to capture footage and pictures and also use the meta data in the pictures from my Inspire 3 drone to create 3D models of these locations for the set designers for the new Highlander film. A big day getting to all these sites which are also all secret so can’t reveal anything, plus it is still in the recci stage so these sites weren’t confirmed yet.
Exciting to get involved in this film though in some way and I was pretty chuffed with how my 3D models look. The Set design team were also super pleased with them and will have me out on others again soon:)
Used my Inspire 3 drone to do the pictures for 3D modelling as it has very accurate GPS and positioning data on every picture
Also flew my Mavic 3 pro CINE to get a bunch of footage of the site to give a feel of surroundings etc for them. They wanted smaller files for the filming than the Inspire 3 creates:)
A fun day aerial filming on a Bollywood feature film near Glasgow. Bollywood is always a little different from other Films to work on. Mainly as you get maybe 15 people telling you what to do. Thankfully the DOP said this to me early on and said just listen to myself and these two and ignore everyone else as if just background noise lol!
Had a morning of doing establishing shots of the Finlayston House and estate. Then a few fast car shots flying down a stream with trees very near my props which was fun. Then later in the day we did a bunch of shots with the actor running from the building. A great bunch of folk to work with and interesting to see all their setups as they headed into doing a night shoot too..
A few screen grabs and 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:)
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:)
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:)
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:
A fun day hanging out with Jenny Graham to film the Strathpuffer in the snow. A great fun event with a super atmosphere. Pretty amusing in the snow to with adults riding bikes like 3 year olds on balance bikes with both feet out to the sides on the downhills as it was slidy granular snow and many slow motion non injury type crashes going on.
Pretty impressive the grit these women and men who have entered. I filmed into the night but then left them to it in the dark. The dark certainly looked the hardest bit! It goes for 24hrs and they do as many laps as possible.
Couple of films I made on the day below.
A fun last minute day filming the actuality of the hunt for the illegally released Lynx cats nearby in the Cairngorms National Park. Unfortunately I did not get to see the Lynx themselves. I got to see the camera trap footage and they looked so cute.
So today I filmed the press in the local area as they gave interviews with Dr Helen the head of conservation for the Royal Zoological society. The press were at Ruthann Barracks so took some drone shots around this area. The Highland park said I could fly there but not any further east as this was where the Lynx were spotted. Then I returned to the park for some actuality of the team doing the search with pics and videos etc. These images I shot will be used when the Highlands cops TV show follow the wildlife investigator as he tries to track down who released the Lynx.
The caught the second two lynx only an hour or two after I left. Few screen grabs below of the day.
Ruthven Barracks
A day out with cameras and drone to film a few adverts on FAQ’s for mountain bike courses at Glenmore Lodge. We spent the morning filming near Aviemore the actual biking part then we filmed indoors with interviews of the guys chatting about the courses. A fun day out, a few pics from the day below.
A fun day if a little full on with midges to start the day lol. Today I had to be up high in the mountains by 8:30am to catch some runners as they went by. I was taking shots of the sunrise on the way up and my hands were black as if I was wearing gloves as I flew. Was so hard to get a decent shot without scratching.
I arrived at my position for filming and then had to walk back and fourth 200m for an hour until they arrived due to the midges. Fortunately 30 minutes after the runners arrived so did a subtle breeze and the sun to scare away the nasty midge:)
The film is an advert for a duathlon for next year taking place up here and organised by Jenny. The rest of the day with two different groups with a few folk I knew we all had fun getting a bunch of shots together for Jenny’s film that Markus Stiz will edit together:) A screen grabs from my footage of the stunning day below.
Sun just hitting the mountains 6:30am and my hands totally covered in midgies
Runners silhouetted in the sun
Reflection of the runners after they all swam here too.
A superb few weeks up on these islands with wonderful locals, well worth a visit up here if you have not been yet. Season 2 of Jules and Greg’s Wild Swimming and this year it was Islands. I missed the first 2 weeks on the Western isles as I was is Norway on the Dana shoot for the same company the great Solus Productions.
We had the same team as last year with obviously Jules and Greg doing a super job of presenting and generally being lovely guys to hang out with for the few weeks. Then we have a brilliant and great fun team to work with. As last year Tony was at the helm directing again, Jim producing, Sean as DOP (main camera and gyros in water), also water safety, Colin on sound, Raonaid doing a bit of everything and myself filming the aerials and a little bit of second camera too:)
We swam in lots of different spots for the TV program with beautiful beaches, saunas, rum, vikings, shipwrecks, cliffs, waves, town swims etc and many swims on time off too:) So good being the only people on a lot of these beaches and we met some super characters along the way. A few pictures below to give you a flavour and it will be on BBC Scotland in January coming:)
An amazing two weeks in Lofted in Norway with a very familiar crew of the Dana TV now:) We are on season 4 now and got to head to Norway for what will be episodes 1 and 2 of this new series out later in Autumn.
Coineach is joined by Calum Gibb from Skye to climb, scramble, boulder, surf and bidi in Norway. Hamish was filming on his sony cameras while I filmed with my drone from the air. Rich and Becky did the mountain safety. For the first time in four years we actually got a day off to go climbing ourselves too which was brilliant:) Few pics below of the awesome trip. Looking forward to see what Hamish has done with it all in the edit:)
Our home for the two weeks
First days climb with Calum on it
The guys on Stentind ridge:)
Kenny on Ridge
A great week in Switzerland aerial filming Freja Shannon and Ariane Moreau. This is to be one of the Brit rock films for this year directed and film by Alaister Lee who was on the cliff filming as I was at the bottom flying up the climb. Love working with Alistair on these films as always fun filming and challenging at the same time, plus he is a good crack to hang out with. Kim Ladiges was the guide who hset up the ropes for Al to go up and down during filming. A sound guy.
A good bunch of people and some pretty epic shots were had on the Petit Clocher du Portalet. The team were climbing Caesar route, can’t remember the full name but a 7c route following several crack lines up the impressive face.
Definitely got my bit of adrenaline flying with clouds coming in and out making for exciting moments with the drone. The other people climbing were good with the drone as I flew most of the days (a lot) and because we had chatted to them all they seemed pretty happy.
Few pics below of the area and the film will be out in November time, I think.
The Spikey peak the team climbed.
Looking down the route from the drone perspective
The Climbers Freja and Ariane
Was fun this job as I was working with an old friend from ITV This Morning who runs his own company now called Opposite Land Productions. So was fun to catch up and see a few different pubs I hadn’t been in before. had a few randoms with morning and early afternoon drinking very keen to join in. I think they would have been unto have in there. Definitely characters for sure. one lady had only a few prominent teeth and very smily. I don’t think they were what was wanted for the advert but maybe a future one:)
