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.
A fun few days filming and learning about cladding, flooring, decking and how it all goes together and what wood its made from and how it is finished. Combine all these things and you have some very high quality products produced for sites all over the UK. Always interesting learning new things while filming them. Down to editing this now:) www.russwood.co.uk
I listened to a good bit of Runrig in my school days and at the dances at the Highland games. So it seemed fitting I was filming for Jack Cocker (Director). I went to school with Jack (the year above me) and haven't seen him in about 20 years and in that time he has had a few BAFTA's:) The forecast was drizzle and we didn't get rained on once and got quiet roads for filming some Runrig fans in the Northwest of Scotland. The crew were very happy with the shots.
What an experience finally stepping onboard the Ocean Swift. A boat built entirely by a mate John sat in the middle above. He even built an oven to bend the windows! It is one of the fastest catamarans of its size in the world if not the fastest. So from Crinan we made it to St Kilda in the first twenty four hours. Minus my breakfast and lunch:)
We visited some mates there and then journeyed around many other islands on the way home filming on the way and flying the drone from the back of the boat which is always exciting:) Film to follow some point.
I have always wanted to go to the Faroe Islands and it was great to be invited by the Japanese to continue with the TV program on European Islands. It is a fantastic place. A bit like Northern Skye with bigger cliffs, waterfalls and more of it:) Travelled on a Carnet with the DJI Inspire 2 and X7 Camera for this 4K TV Show. In the Faroe you must be insured but no licence required and they have their own rules which are a bit different from UK Laws. Inspiring place to film though.
A new aerial showreel for Perfect View productions from jobs working as a Drone pilot in Scotland over the past year. I had a bit of spare time this week so good to put this together. I hope you enjoy it:)
Mary Queen of Scots a feature film due for release in December which I worked on doing a Drone Pilot Recce and mountain and water safety with www.mountainandwatersafety.co.uk
Read MoreOff 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:)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:)
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:)
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
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.
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:)
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/
