APRIL 2023 - Drone pilot in Orkney and some camera work for Stramash Films Ltd

Great few days filming with Deva Smith from Stramash films as we film with Orbital a company leading the way with tidal power. Super interesting to see what they do. Also very interesting flying my drone from a moving boat that can’t stop for me as it’s towing a 700 ton turbine. usually have the option of getting the boat to slow down or stop completely as I land. deva was catching the drone and did a great job at it as he has done it many times before.

Had to set up NOTAMS with Kirkwall airport for this as the final position was within the FRZ . Lovely being out on a boat round Orkney and it was a great sunny day:)

JUNE 2021 - Gleneagles making a short social media film

A rushed windy day here but fun all the same. Made a short mid summers day film and also filmed a few of the golf club holes and fishing.

The wee drone in the wind

MAY 2021 - Cameraman and aerial filming on Springwatch

Had a fun few days filming with a lovely crew. Iolo Williams presenting, Ruth directing and Raymond on the long lens. Lots of people involved with this show around the UK and we were at Alladale Nature Reserve in Scotland. Highlight was hearing and seeing the Black Grouse Lek even though it involved getting up at 00:30 and sitting in a cold hide on a mountain for 5 hrs hahaha.

JANUARY 2021 - Drone filming in the Scottish Highlands for BBC

Filming for a BBC Geography Animation for Education. A fun few days and got to go up a mountain as this film traces the River Tay from source to sea. Unfortunately after the first few days filming it snowed so continuity has been lost for the next part of filming so just waiting for the snow to go (as it keeps falling outside haha). But the team are getting going with the animation from the first two days filming. All the shots are static shots from drone and also ground cameras to make the animation onto the shots easier.

The view on Ben Lui from the source of the river Tay.

AUGUST 2020 - Recreation of Highland Cyclist Battalion with Mark Beaumont

The second GCN Job (Global cycling network) this summer again working with Stephan as director (morrocomedia). Myself as 2nd camera and Drone extraordinaire:) A fun day in the Kingdom of Fife with these guys and learning about this WW1 military unit. Mark also found a bike from a friend from this era which was great.

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:)

JULY 2019 - Filming with Plant Life

A few days filming with Plant Life in the Cairngorms. Was super interesting meeting the different people here and learning several new plants and flowers. One of the rare ones below, the Twin Flower which the guys are helping to protect and become more spread out before it goes extinct!

Filmed with GH5 and Cosmo pocket on the ground and the Mavic 2 pro for the aerial footage:) Down to the editing bit now, although one day out with a mountain leader who hs had training from Plant Life.

The Twin Flower:)

APRIL 2019 - Gino D'Acampo in Sardinia for ITV 'This Morning"

Headed out for another This morning cooking show the last one was in Scotland with John Torode and this one to Sardina, Italy for Gino D’Acampo. We had a great fun week once the sun came out so we could show off this lovely place in the sunlight:)

Very good Crack with Gino, a great guy and very funny. The team was also awesome Natalie as Director, myself as DOP and Drone, Will on second Camera, Rich on Sound and Julia as Home economics person. We all worked well together and should be a great six pieces starting in a few weeks time.

We finished the week with a Ferrari scene. This was awesome I have to say:)

SEPTEMBER 2018 - Salmon fishing film

It was great to film some fly fishing on the River Tay and spend some time with the Gillies and fishermen. Filming from the air here was great and the drone always works well with the fly cast.

The film will be up soon on the website: https://www.salmon-fishing-scotland.com

Great review from Jock Monteith who runs the company:

“Having vast experience of some of Scotland's brilliant TV producers on the riverbanks of Scotland it was a true breath of fresh air to gain the professional eye and experience of Kirk Watson who is indeed a 'true' master of drone flight and has 'real' flair for creating true masterpieces at a reasonable cost. Any of my future salmon river filming requirements will be directed only to him and I cannot recommend Kirk highly enough.”

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.

SEPTEMBER 2017: Less Castle the Isle of Lewis

I headed out to Lewis and Harris for a week with a mate Rupert (www.rupertshanks.com) to make a promotional film for Natural Retreats.  We had a great time going round filming the Islands and working with some actors/staff to produce the below film.  I did the aerials and second camera and Rupert did camera produced the films to there final products.

The main film is below

From beaches and crystal clear waters that rival luxury tropical islands, to its rich history and stunning scenery, this remote and spectacular destination in the Outer Hebrides is the perfect venue for wonderful memories. Overlooking Stornoway harbour, the impressive gothic-revival style castle was built in the mid 1800's by Sir James Matheson.