JULY 2020 - 'Don't be like Barry' film series

Well I got a new lens for my camera, an Anamorphic one, Sirui 50mm. Basically wide screen cinema type lens, the cheapest one ever made and it is great. So looking for some test projects, I decided that I should try and help educate the litterers and dirty campers that have emerged since lockdown. Obviously I have been making some official films on responsible travel, but I wanted a bit more edge to it and possible comedy. I think the idea stemmed from some Aussie or kiwi hard hitting adverts I’d seen in the past.

Anyway I wrote a few scripts and then tried to find a person willing to be Barry which took a bit of thought. Scott from the Pine Marten Bar at loch Morlich was keen though after several nights of picking up litter from the beach. 9 bags his first night!

Anyway here are the first two and 3 more to follow:) Hopefully it helps a little, worth trying something anyway. As of today the first one has 92K views on facebook and the 2nd one has 54K. A few less on youtube which is always the way:)

JULY 2020 - The Cairngorms National Park, responsible tourism.

The past week I have been working on a new set of films for The Cairngorms National Park ( https://cairngorms.co.uk ). These have been to welcome people back and also to hopefully in a positive way let people learn a bit about being a responsible visitor to this very special environment.

We have had a spate of irresponsible visitors all over Britain since the escape from lockdown. Basically like never seen before, some people (a small number but greater than I’ve ever seen) are destroying our wild places and I was super happy to get involved in a small way to help tackle this for the good of all of us:)

The Cairngorms National Park is for everyone to enjoy, a place rich in wildlife, culture and vibrant communities. Become part of the #CairngormsTogether comm...

JULY 2020 - Visit Cairngorms welcome back film

Well it seems apt that my first few days of work since the 16th of March on “The Crown” is a promotional film called “ We miss you!! We are preparing to welcome you back” all about welcoming people back to the Cairngorms National Park, where I live:)

The film was organised by www.visitcairngorms.com and I had two days to shoot it and get round 18 businesses spread over the large park. I came up with a script giving each business one line to say from the message Visit Cairngorms had. This would allow me hopefully quicker filming at each place as I wanted some action shots with the drone also. Mark at Visit Cairngorms luckily did all the logistics and timings on a spread sheet so I could just travel round to people who knew I was coming and knew their line:) We wanted to keep the message positive with a brief mention of COVID as everyone gets plenty of the rules through the media and press to educate everyone on the best practices, and it keeps changing depending on where the country is at while fighting it.

Enjoy:)

We can't wait to share the place we are so proud to call home with you again soon. #CairngormsTogether 💜Get planning ➡️ https://www.visitcairngorms.com/ Like...

APRIL 2020 - The Great Mountain Sheep Gather

Tonight at 7pm on BBC 4, Easter Monday. Well there has been no filming or work for 5 weeks now due to the Virus for me. But tonight I have some footage on TV at least. 100 minutes of filming of sheep being gathered in from Englands highest peak. This was an awesome job to be involved in. Perfect for me being a mountain instructor and a drone pilot. 6 drone crews were involved which was what made it so special for me working with so many people and learning bits from everyone at some point.

Normally filming as a drone pilot you are looking for a 10-15 second long shots. But the format of this show by Windfall Films is known as slow television and tries to film things real time with no presenter etc. So we were asked to get as long a shot as possible for each shot. That doesn’t mean hold the same framing for ages. It meant getting a shot framed and filmed and in a nice way move into a re-framing and new shot then do this again and again as long as you can without messing up your framing or flying hahaha. I was using the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera on wide angle, solo operator. We all got long shots but I was lucky and got the longest shot of the program that made the cut with 7mins 30seconds in there:)

Can’t wait to do some more jobs like this in the future.

The Shepherd Andrew and a helper and the all important dogs. 4:30am walking up the hill. Man he walks fast even when rolling a cigarette!

MARCH 2020 - Plantlife Scotland film

Had a great time in the summer filming this film for Plantlife Scotland about the plants in the Cairngorms and especially the endangered ones. I love the fact with filmmaking you keep meeting knew people and learning lots about new things. As a Mountain Instructor I know a fair bit about the mountain plants but I learned so much more out with these guys:)

Filmed over three days with my ground cameras, steady cam and drone and then added too with my aerial archive and a few wildlife shots from Beluga Lagoon Films and also some music from Beluga Lagoon Band:)

FEBRUARY 2020 - Albania with a friends film company, Ground Level Up

Headed out filming with Ground Level Up ( www.groundlevelup.com check out their site ) a great film production company from Glasgow. I was lucky that their own drone operators were busy so I got the opportunity to head to a new country for me, Albania. A great country and a beautiful place to film. We had a lot of fun filming here over several days and met some great folk in a remote area of the country.

The Inspire 2 with X7 Camera doing its thing:)

FEBRUARY 2020 - A new drone showreel of places abroad:)

I live in Scotland and film a lot here.  Every so often I head abroad on a job to film in exotic places.  So I thought I should stick together a short montage of some of the work abroad I have been involved with.

We start in Antarctica with some mates climbing while working as a polar guide for British Antarctic Survey.  

Then to Sweden with Flying for Freedom who train injured and wounded service people how to fly microlights and get them to organise expeditions.  This was training for an Antarctic trip.

Next is Sardinia and filming Gino with ITV This Morning.  This was great fun as Gino is a right laugh and we were in the Mediterranean filming haha.  I was filming on the ground as DOP here also as we made a cooking show.

The Lake District next in England filming maybe not as exotic but pretty cool place with 4 other drone crews to capture the sheep being taken in from Scafell pike.  We had some interesting weather here too and took many long shots my longest shot was 14mins.  This was what they wanted for slow television.  Quite interesting keeping a shot continuously visually attractive for that length of time:)

Faroe Islands is next on a job with NHK Japan, we had pretty mixed weather as you'd expect with somewhere further north than Scotland with sea completely surrounding it. Also went to Guernsey and Sark Island in the Channel Islands on the same job which was much sunnier.  Had to fly from Georges boat on Sark as the government had only given us permission to fly over water and not on the island itself.  This made for interesting taking off and hand catching with the Inspire 2 with X7 camera.

Mallorca is next where I filmed with Dickson Minto during a road biking event.  A stunning place to go road cycling and lovely weather:)

South Africa next where I filmed some of Table mountain, a friends wedding out on western Cape (I was just filming for fun not doing a wedding video) then to Clint and Ruth's farm near Durban where I filmed the Lemon harvest and took a bunch of pictures of the fields from the air to see the quality of the orchard.  pretty cool to see what is involved in getting Lemons over to us.

Nepal and the village of Reipe, a very special place and my first time to Asia.  Here I was filming ground and air with Gerry of Thunderdragon fund on a documentary.  I also filmed in Scotland for this same documentary.  Check out https://thunderdragonfund.org for updates on this documentary coming out or to see the first in the trilogy.

Then back to Antarctica one of my favourite places, so features twice.   Here I film a bit with Scott driving the Tucker snow-cat and also climbing a mountain called Stork while we were out recording Snow petrel nests with a scientist in the area.

Hope you enjoy, I certainly loved filming it all:)

JANUARY 2020 - New drone showreel for the start of the year:)

Been a while since I have done a little showreel, as last year was so busy I never got time. But as it’s January I have a bit of time.

So here is a selection of aerial filming from jobs this past year in Scotland:) With Ocean Swift the self built catamaran at the start into kayaking, Kelpies, Springwatch, fly fishing, surf kayaking championships, Cairngorms trees, Devils Pulpit, steam train, Astin Martin, helicopters, VW camper, Cawdor Castle, maze, Kenmore and Beluga Lagoon team in Doug's boat.
Filmed with the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera and the DJI Mavic 2 pro.
Enjoy watching:)

JANUARY 2020 - Thunderdragon kickstarter project hits goal

Gerry and Pia Moffat of the Thunderdragon fund who I worked for in Scotland, Nepal and Bhutan last year started a fundraiser for the 11th step film and it hit its target of $25000 plus a few extra thousand which is great. Now the project and hundreds of hours of footage from myself and a few other DOP’s (Ben Figueiredo and Tyler Allyn) will go into post production to produce a finished film for around easter time, where it has its opening night at a festival near New York.

To follow how the film is going goto: https://thunderdragonfund.org

Trailer for the upcoming film is below, with music from Beluga Lagoon:)

DECEMBER 2019 - A Himalayan holiday for Perfect View productions:)

Well not a work blog here as after filming for two weeks I thought I might as well take a month off from work as I was in Asia and I had never been here before.

I have read many books on the Himalaya and several mates have guided Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam or have just climbed on them for themselves. So I thought it would be great to spend a few weeks and trek into see the peaks for myself and experience the amazing Sherpa country. So I went to climb a peak called Tokyo Ri at 5350m which would give me a stunning view of Everest and take me through many of the places I had heard about.

Everest is the higher peak to the left of the sun. Taken from the summit of Gokyo Ri at 5350m

Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam

NOVEMBER 2019 - The Kingdom of Bhutan filming

After a week of filming in Nepal we left the super busy Kathmandu for a much more peaceful and subdued Bhutan. It is a fantastic country that seems to be beautiful in every way. Here we would be filming some of the traditional places to get a feel of Bhutan and to link in to how things have changed since Gerry’s original footage of the country. Gerry also jumps back in a kayak to film on the river. We got a very nice morning shot past the Dzong just below in the landscape picture. We used ground camera throughout and several time lapses too. we couldn’t fly a drone in the country unfortunately. Karma who has known Gerry for many years was our guide, he was excellent.

Gerry’s website to see how the film is progressing is at: https://thunderdragonfund.org

NOVEMBER 2019 - Filming in Nepal

I fly out to Asia for my first time ever to spend a week in Nepal filming a documentary as director of photography with Thunderdragon fund. I worked on this documentary in Scotland with Gerry Moffat back in April May and they were keen on my footage so I got to head to Asia for two weeks filming with them:)

The first week was in Nepal in a small local village where an old friend of Gerry’s has been involved in turning it into a kind of Airbnb style place where you stay with the locals in a beautiful hilltop village over looking the Annapurna range. It was an amazing place with lovely people.

My goal was to catch the mountains in the distance and then catch the locals working with nature in detail. I had an awesome time and the memory of this place will stay with me for a long time:) Some pics below of our stay.

The company I worked for is https://thunderdragonfund.org if you want to check out the progress of the film or to find out more about the amazing Gerry and his adventures:)

The village we stayed in is: www.annapurnahomestay.com if you are interested in looking into it or going for your own stay there:)

Riepe village on the left and Annapurna on the right of shot:)

SEPTEMBER 2019 - TAG Heuer advert

Spent a few amazing days filming aerials for a TAG Heuer advert that included Astin Martins , helicopters and social media influencers. It was a superb crew to work with on this busy few days with many different activities. Filmed in Cine DNG on the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera. I piloted while Richard Elliot did an excellent job camera operating the drone. Mountain and Water Safety specialists were on hand doing the safety for the kayaking, walking and tyrollean too:)

A few pictures below of the days:)

SEPTEMBER 2019 - Two weeks filming with NHK Japan for an 8K drone show on Scotland

Spent a few weeks travelling all around Scotland for an NHK Japan (like a Japanese BBC). This was all shot on Cine DNG RAW 6K and will be ramped up to 8K for Japan’s 8K channel. The program was shot entirely by drone.

It was a great tour of history of Scotland and a great bunch of people to work with. We flew in remote parts of Scotland (Skye, Orkney, Cairngorms) and right in city centres and also inside buildings. Amazingly for September we filmed in 40 locations and got all our shots!! Unheard of in my experience with Scottish weather especially when lots of sites were programmed in for certain days and could not be changed. Often filming at Historic sites before visitors arrived or after they were closed.

We shot with the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera with Jordan summers camera operating for me and Takashi on focus pulling (Takashi is a world expert on 8k shooting and has been to the BBC HQ to teach people how to work with 8K formats). It was great to have him there and did an amazing job of keeping things in focus. Riwa was our director, Junku the producer and Cosmo the Sound man.

There were some real money shots from this program with amazing light early morning and late evening. A few pics from the shoot below.

AUGUST 2019 - Filming Whisky and Distilleries for WOW Scotland

A tour of some of Scotland distilleries on a tasting tour. Fun day out filming and got to see a barrel of whisky worth £1.2m! It was only a third full as the rest had evaporated! Also got to visit a cooperage where they make whisky barrels. My grandad did this all his life so it was pretty interesting to see. They fairly graft!

The 1953 barrel is worth £1.2m and is only a third full as the rest evaporated:)

AUGUST 2019 - Aerial filming Cawdor Castle for WOW Scotland

Had a great day at Cawdor Castle getting some aerial filming and ground shots of the Castle for Gordon of WOW Scotland. A beautiful Castle near Nairn in Scotland.

AUGUST 2019 - Filming John Torode cooking show for ITV 'This Morning'

Had a great few days working with this team again and this time in Dorset and in the sun. Great we all know each other as it makes the working a lot easier. John made some amazing dishes which we always get to taste and we visited some lovely spots.

Was using my GH5 and steady cam for a lot of the filming here plus the Mavic 2 pro Drone :)

John about to cook in the Vine yard:)

The Team in Dorset

AUGUST 2019 - Aerial filming for Bearsden band documentary of their tour through Scotland

Fun time on this with director Michael and DOP Sam and myself on the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera shooting for this documentary/music video. Bit of filming with the band in the morning then with their landrover later. Weather played ball for us which was great:) A few screen grabs below.

The band walking over Feshie Bridge

AUGUST 2019 - Drone work tonight on BBC 1

Tonight at 7.30pm some of my drone work from filming on the Isle of Bute with the Syrian refugees will be on.

This was a great shoot to a new Island for me and with a great bunch of people including Ali who I filmed the most of. We also ate in Helmi’s for a lunch a brilliant Bakery/cafe run by one of the Syrian families, well worth a visit if you are there:)

The filming was organised by Caledonia TV in Glasgow who I have done quite a bit of drone work for over the years:)

Myself and Ali on Bute

AUGUST 2019 - British Kayak Surf Champs film online

A few days ago Glenmore Lodge released the Surf Champs 2018 film. This was a great fun day up in Thurso on the North Coast of Scotland filming teenagers to folk in their fifties surf Kayaking. Great atmosphere and fun to watch and to film. Pretty fun drone flying too. Trying to get close but not get wave spray on my drones:) I used my DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera and the Mavic 2 pro. And used all of the combined 27 batteries haha.

All the action from the 2018 Surf Kayaking British Championships