JULY 2018: Drone Filming on Sark Island in the Channel Isles

Off to Sark island with the DJI Inspire 2 and X7 Camera to be a drone pilot on a NHK Television show about European Islands.  This is my fifth Job with Japanese Television, most of which have been NHK and they are great to work with.  Brilliant team of folk.

Permissions were tricky here but got permission to fly from a boat no closer than 150m from the Island.  Fortunately I no longer just have one set wide angle lens I have four prime lenses so I can appear much closer to a subject.  One of the days I took to using the X7 Camera for a bit of steady cam cinematography on the Island and it work really well running alongside the horse and carriages (as no vehicles apart from tractors on the Island).  Also managed a whole bunch of dolly shots and crane shots with it.  The director was super chuffed as they had only the FS7 Mark 2 (great footage from this machine) with sticks for shooting and a bit of handheld but never quite the same as with a gimbal and a steady walking man:)

JUNE 2018: DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera arrives

Very exciting this month as the new DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera with four prime lenses and all the other bits arrives at Perfect View Productions Ltd ready to up the came of the company.   It is a real beast and some beautiful imagery from it hopefully in July I'll pop some of my own footage out as busy with a few jobs for Television with it first.

JUNE 2018: World Heritage TV Program on the Lake District

I headed to the Lake District to film for Japanese television about the World heritage site.  We travelled round a fair bit and visited a few key places of Peter Rabbit and his author.  We also filmed a wedding.

APRIL 2018: Blackrock Cottage Glencoe

Spent a couple of days and a night staying in Blackrock Cottage in Glencoe.  This was my great Grandads and Grandmothers housed they were the last people to live in it.  So I went along with my mum and mothers cousin Helen to take a bit of footage just for a wee personal project.  Was great for my mum to have slept in the same room her mother would have slept in when she was a kid.

MAY 2018: Wavesport Advert

Wave sport Kayaks are bringing out a new Touring Kayak and wanted myself to make an advert for them.  So over two days we filmed it using a variety of locations.  I used the Lumix GH5, go pro, steady cam rig and the DJI Mavic Pro.

The all-new Hydra from Wave Sport is a feature rich sporty tourer set to turn heads - whitewater DNA courses through the Hydra gelling with modern touring design - This is Touring: Wave Sport style! https://www.WaveSport.com/Hydra #WaveSportKayaks

APRIL 2018: Eagle Brae - Building a Log Cabin

I spent a very interesting day up at Eagle Brae filming the building of a Log Cabin.  A proper log cabin too with huge logs and put together by Canadians.

How to set an Eagle Brae log cabin in 2 minutes...

APRIL 2018: Ride Cairngorm opening

A mate Nash opens a shop in Boat of Garden called Ride Cairngorm so I go along to make a couple of wee films for the opening and his webpage.   Danny MacAskill and the Drop and Roll team were there to put on a show. Was a great day with over 4000 people there throughout the day.

Danny MacAskill and his team from Drop and Roll help open Nash's shop with a brilliant display of their stunts at Ride Cairngorm in Boat of Garten. Right next to the StrathSpey Steam engine. It was a brilliant day with over 4000 people coming through the village that day.

Ride Cairngorm Shop. Bit of riding here from Nash around Aviemore and a look inside his shop in the first month of opening.

MARCH 2018: PVP's most watched video so far! Casio watch Instructional/advert film

This little project came about back in January as myself and the Casio Northern UK Rep Warren Halliwell started putting together a story to film about the new CASIO Rangeman for www.casio.co.uk.  It's tricky planning days for filming when you want to get up onto the Cairngorm plateau at almost 4000ft with a drone and other cameras especially so far in advance.

The day we filmed the tops of the hills only cleared for 30minutes after several hours walking in the mist on the hill.  Those 30 minutes gave us our spectacular opening shots, these would be hard to repeat.  (friends were out skiing on the tops all day and said that was the only time it cleared for them too.  My drone filming, story telling, camera and mountain/ropework skills all came into play to bring this film to completion.  

It has done well with over 434K views so far:)

G-SHOCK UK RANGEMAN GPR-B1000-1ER from Master of G, LAND Collection Part of the MASTER OF G series of watches designed for use in the most extreme conditions, the all new RANGEMAN challenges the limits of what a timepiece can be in true G-SHOCK style - the World's First*1 Solar-Assisted*2 GPS Navigation for the G-SHOCK RANGEMAN.

MARCH 2018: Pokemon Mountain and Water Safety

Hollywood comes to Scotland for the new Pokemon film and we did the safety in many locations for them.  I stepped back into my MIC (Mountain Instructor) role to join the www.mountainandwatersafety.co.uk team of which there were quite a few on this big budget feature.

Click the right side of the image to scroll through the three shots:)

FEBRUARY 2018: Drone filming for Visit Scotland Advert

Spent a day around Speyside and the Moray Coat filming some shots for Visit Scotland.  We had to hit the drone shots in-between snow and sleet showers but we got it done in the end:)

Bow Fiddle rock near the end of the day

FEBRUARY 2018: Locations work for plate shots for Mary Queen of Scots film

I spent a week travelling around with Angus Hudson BSC DOP, Erin Murphy (directors assistant), Julia Green (sound), and Nick Everett (Focus puller and DIT) as we filmed plate shots for Mary Queen of Scots that we shot earlier in the year.  It's always a chance when you come to take winter shots for the film in the middle of winter because sometimes it might have all melted for the week. Scotland did not disappoint us and the weather was sunny, snowy, cloudy, clear everything really.  We even got blizzards at sea level and it looked great.

FEBRUARY 2018: Pokemon Location Scouting

I spent a few weeks this month searching out locations for the new Hollywood Pokemon film.  Was a nice change from the usual. I drove around the country taking pictures and speaking to land owners etc.  Can't reveal much really but I visited a lot of places and they will get narrowed down by the folks in London.

Click the right side of the image to scroll through the three pictures:)

JANUARY 2018: Sullivans Wild Scotland - Rivers

I spent a couple of days working with mates Andrew O'Donnel (A very talented wildlife cameraman, songwriter, editor, story teller etc) and Blaine Abercrombie ( A talented Actor).  I was to do a bit of drone filming for the film which I have done before on the previous film Sullivans Winter, Well worth a watch (I've included below under Rivers)

In Rivers I just did a bit at the end of the film as Andrew did most of his own.  We also needed a canoe (mine from the back garden) and I had to do a bit of acting as a nod to Deliverance (1972 Burt Reynolds).  It was great fun and worked out well.

Andrew's company is called Beluga Lagoon and his films including the BBC Social shorts are always worth watching as he has a very different presentation to any other wildlife filmmakers with a good bit of comedy in there too.

https://www.facebook.com/belugalagoon/

Join Sullivan as he explores Scotland's Rivers and looks for the creatures that live there. Filmed & Directed by Andrew O'Donnell With Blane Abercrombie. https://www.facebook.com/belugalagoon/?ref=bookmarks https://twitter.com/BelugaLagoon Soundtrack available @ https://soundcloud.com/beluga-lagoon belugalagoon.alba@gmail.com All rights reserved by Beluga Lagoon Films.

Join Sullivan as he explores Wild Scotland during the most magical time of year. Winter! Filmed and Directed by Andrew O'Donnell With Blane Abercrombie Areal Cinematography by Kirk Watson Original Soundtrack by Beluga Lagoon https://www.facebook.com/belugalagoon/

DECEMBER: Filming entrepreneurs that might change the world, hopefully

A super interesting time filming for Unreasonable Impact sponsored by Barclays.  

Unreasonable Impact is well worth a look www.unreasonableimpact.com the people who run this and are attending on it are incredibly inspirational.  I filmed with my GH5 and drone, Interviews, GV's and shots of workshops and talks.  Worked with a great team, Rupert (filmmaker), Chad (photographer) and Jessy (sound person).

NOVEMBER 2017: A film for Galiford Try

I spent a few weeks piecing together the footage from a few different people who worked on this project to try and come out with a professional looking film.  Always tricky when you weren't there to film it yourself.  Interesting to see the build on a remote place.

I first started doing some films for Galiford Try after working with them in Antarctica on the Halley VI project which I think finished in 2012.  A short snippet below of this for your interest.

Construction of the new Health Facility on Tristan Da Cunha. Designed by Hugh Broughton Architects and constructed by Galliford Try

Halley VI build, the trailer. A state of the art station being built in Antarctica and was finished this year 2012. The building is like no other ever built before in Antarctica. It took many people from all over the world to put it together in a hostile environment with blizzards and freezing temperatures.

OCTOBER 2017: Aviemore Half Marathon

Aviemore half marathon was on and www.badaguish.org asked myself to make a film of it.  It was a very quick hit day running around trying to get shots during the race which doesn't last very long.  Good exercise for me.

The Aviemore Half Marathon is fundraising event for the Speyside Trust, a small Scottish Charity giving disabled people the opportunity to have an activity holiday in the care of our 24 hour respite team.

OCTOBER 2017: OUTLAW KING NETFLIX SAFETY

Here I joint the team run by Liam and Graeme who own www.mountainandwatersafety.co.uk to cover the safety mainly on the River Etive but also in other places.  There were a good bunch of us and it involved quite a lot of technical water scenarios with ever changing water levels.

Few pics below showing the changing river, no revealing pics of the actual film set until after the film comes out:)  The big crane in the water was when the river came up about 3-4 meters over night!  We got the crane out safely and we had attached it to the rock using climbing protection which held well:)

Clickon the image to scroll through the slide show:)

OCTOBER 2017: Mountain and water Safety on Mary Queen of Scots

For a weeks this month I headed up the safety on Mary Queen of Scots for www.mountainandwatersafety.co.uk with a team of around 16.  We had some porters there and the rest were doing safety for a large battle scene that would take place in a river and steep banks with 40 stunt people.

Building a floating camera platform

Camera platform ready and easy to position anywhere on the river

Once the film is out I shall post some more reviewing images of the behind the scenes:)

OCTOBER 2017: Majorca with Dickson Minto

Here I travelled to Majorca with Dickson Minto to make a short film on a cycling trip they organised.  Later in the year some of this footage will be used in a film for new recruits, along with other footage I will collect back in Scotland.

The team cycling in Mallorca in 2017. A great trip in the sun:)