MAY 2019: CASIO F30: The making of film

Here is a little look back at the second Casio watch advert I have made over the past 12 months. This goes into the details of what goes on behind the scenes and how Scottish weather can make things change quite a lot!

Just noticed this was a while back and I definitely look that 3 and 1/2 stone heavier than I am now, kept me solid on the windy days though hahaha;)

Had a great team with Warren the script writer and presenter and initial ideas man from Casio. Then we added into the mix this time: Joe Kirk (kayaker and biker), Jess Creber (biker), Iain Rudkin (photographer) and Will Copestake (photographer).

Have a look below and the actual advert is below that again:)

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:)

APRIL 2019 - Wow Scotland filming on Skye

A few days of Filming with Gordon of WOW Scotland. One to get the new bus into a previous film linked below and to show the new corporate image of this family business and the other day round Loch Ness, Culloden Battlefield etc to cover a separate tour. Great fun and lucky on the weather front for these:)

MARCH 2019 - ITV filming about the wilderness link to mental health

Great day out filming for ‘This Morning’ ITV with Simon (ex Blue Peter presenter) and Will Thomas the director and Ross the sound man:) We filmed in Glen Tilt part of Atholl Estates with several Teenagers. Super interesting hearing everyones stories.

MARCH 2019 - Filming the Adventure Syndicate

A day out filming with Lee and Jenny. I even had to get on my bike for over 20 miles. Trying to keep up with ex British mountain bike champion and the women who holds the around the world female record!

Was a fun day out to make an advert. Tiny clip of a few shots below:)

FEBRUARY 2019 - Look back at Casio Watch film

So myself and Warren (Casio man) collaborated on our second Casio film. Also pulled into the fold was a pregnant Jess Creber (now a mother) and Joe Kirk (has a great second name) who would help out with some riding and Joe with some Kayaking and stunts.

The film below which I was very worried would not get many views as Casio popped a 9 second title at the beginning which is always going to reduce your views on youtube as people often switch off when given titles straight away much better to get straight into the story (those first 3 seconds are important:). Anyway it seems to be doing alright on youtube now with 82K views.

We shot over 5 days and had pretty long days and often had to change locations the night before and sometimes on the morning due to the weather being very fickle during the week. But we pulled it off and achieved everything that was on our storyboard we’d prepped in the previous months.

Always great fun making these films as there is such a variety to them, enjoy.

Join us as we take on the Scottish wilderness with the new WSD-F30! With a newly improved battery life of up to 3 days as well as an LCD mode with Compass, Altimeter & Barometer the F30 lets you explore and navigate longer for over a month on a single charge.

Below is the first Film that Warren and myself collaborated on. It has done very well with 795K 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.

JANUARY 2019 - Ocean Swift trailer edit

This past summer I was invited onboard 'Ocean Swift'. A boat entirely built by a mate JT (John Taylor) and his Dad. As in he even built an oven to ben the glass windows to fit!!

It is now probably the fastest Catamaran for its type there is:) To find out more about the boat goto: epoxycraft.com/ocean-swift-a-self-build-like-n…/ and ocean-swift.net

During this week at see every single place I saw was new to me, even where we left from on the main land:)

Joining us onboard was the Wildlife filmmaker Andrew O'Donnell Of Beluga Lagoon (who filmed this wee trailer with myself) and his mate Mark and then Zoe who is an Antarctic person like myself and JT. We traveled out to St Kilda on his Catamaran via, corrievreckan whirlpools, Mull, Staffa, Uist, Monarch Isles, etc. On St Kilda we had three mates working there so it was good to see them and see the spectacular island:)

Longer film to come when I get a moment to my own projects:)

JANUARY 2019 - Winterwatch (Same as Springwatch but in Winter)

So Winterwatch and the rest of the watches come to the Cairngorms for the year and I am lucky enough to get the aerial filming contract for the series:)

This was a great week as the crew and presenters are all superb people and a good crack.

Me taking the place of the Welshman on the presenter line up:)

OCTOBER 2018 - Casio Watch Advert

Had a great week working on a Casio online advert with Warren from Casio and several other mates:). Warren outlined his story and then we bounced it back and forward between us to fill it in with locations extra ideas transitions etc.

We were challenged by the weather this time after doing an advert back in march where we had perfect weather. This time we chased round the country with some long days out and about and winds up to 60mph and rain, sleet, snow, hail and fortunately some sun to keep us thinking. We got there though:)

Selection of behind the scenes pics above by Iain Rudkin (out with us to capture the mountain biking on Monday www.iainrudkin.com), Will Copestake (Out with us to capture the kayaking on Wednesday www.willcopestakemedia.com) and a couple from my iPhone and one from the drone:)

Thanks to Jess Creber for biking abilities while carrying a wee one inside and Joe Kirk for a bit of biking and lapping big waterfalls in his kayak for the camera:)

SEPTEMBER 2018 - Mink Camper Advert

I spent a few Days with Steven and Lisa who run Mink Camper Scotland. We had a brilliant time travelling about the west coast of Scotland in these cool little campers. The job was to get a large variety of landscapes and different situations for the campers to be in over a few days and obviously make it all look beautiful and interesting:) We involved, kayaks, mountain bikes, beaches, mountains, bridges, swimming, ferries…….The film will be out later in the year and some short clips for instagram too.

A few clips from the film above:) The Ferry Captain, Q, said personally he hated drones. But my drone and my paperwork and flight planning which took into account, licence, insurance, RAF, Sea Eagles, power lines, buildings, boats, airports etc made him love mine. Always good to change folks opinions on these craft.

DRONE SHOWREEL 2018

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:)

New drone showreel of Scotland for www.perfectviewproductions.co.uk. This showreel shows a few highlights from the last 12 months of work with my drones:) The first eight clips are the Cairngorms near home. This was my first trip out on my own with the new DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera before a few jobs I had with it so I could get used to it. The best new thing apart from the great footage from 14 stops of dynamic range is the fact I have four prime lenses. You’ll see from the clip of myself walking on Facial Ridge the 50mm (35mm equivalent to 77mm) is great for giving a different look from the standard wide angle drones all have. Brings the background closer to me in this shot. Same lens was used with the shot of the top of Shelterstone crag and the couple on the summit of Ben MacDui. The next five clips are of the Strathspey Steam engine (based in Aviemore). This was an awesome day on the job where I had sole use of the train for my filming:) I used the DJI Inspire 1. Then we head to the Western Isles for seven shots with the opening shot of the CalMac ferry coming into Stornaway. This is within the ATZ of the local airport so I had to co-ordinate this flying with Air Traffic control to do this. They were super friendly like everyone out on the Western isles:) Some great beaches and seascapes out here. A wave sport kayak clip from the Moray Coast was thrown in here to from an advert I made. Into a bit of Rock Climbing next while filming for Glenmore Lodge and their youtube channel. First two shots are at Reiff climbing then onto Stac Pollaidh for a mountain day. The long shot of panning round into Dave and Jon climbing is one of my favourite. The shot was too long to play in full for a showreel. It does make for a very atmospheric shot though. These were all filmed with the DJI Mavic Pro. (easiest drone to climb a hill with:) The 32nd shot with the old tree, is a sunset shot of Cairngorm with the 50mm lens on the X7 Camera. 3 shots of an Army truck for a TV program. With the Mavic and Inspire 1. The third shot was in an amazing corridor of trees that were super tall. This was filmed on an estate in Aberdeenshire where the crew stayed and filmed for part of the show. Two tree shots to swap from summer to winter. Summer shot from the X7 camera and the winter one from the Mavic. I do love the trees covered in snow in the winter. Few winter shots of Glenmore lodge filming of Mountaineering skills and Ski mountaineering. We then finish on several shots from the summit of Sgor Gaoith in the Cairngorms. These shot were with the Mavic Pro for a Casio GPS watch advert. The tops of the hills were clear for only 30 minutes that day (I know this from friends running ski mountaineering courses up on the tops that day) and we happened to be there on the summit just as it cleared. Great shots and would be very hard to re-create again but hopefully I will:) If you ever need a drone pilot for your shoot give me a shout and check out my website www.perfectviewproductions.co.uk

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.

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.