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

AUGUST 2019 - Surf Champs teaser on youtube

Little teaser film I made for the British Kayak Surf champs for Glenmore Lodge and the British Kayak Surf association. I think the full film will be out next week or so:) This was a lot of fun with the drone. I flew every battery on two drones to empty haha. Thats 27 batteries:)

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:)

JULY 2019 - Ground filming and aerial filming with Beluga lagoon always fun

Spent five days with Andrew and Mark from Beluga Lagoon films on the North coast of Scotland as they cycled from Jon O’Groats to Cape Wrath on a tandem bicycle.

It was a week of mixed weather and a variety of landscapes and fun from lots of fog to sunshine, broken chains, dinner in a cave, boat trips, camping wild and swimming in the North Atlantic:)

To break up the cycling a bit we got into my mate Dougs boat and went out to see the North Coast as seen from the sea and get a look at the massive rugged cliffs out there.

A few pics from the week below:) It will appear on BBC iplayer later in the year as one of three adventures with this pair. Check out Beluga Lagoon on facebook to see other films by Andrew:)

The team on Doug’s Boat

The wide shot of the team on the boat flying in towards the shot below for some tight flying:)

Then through the arch:)

JUNE 2019 - Aerial Filming for Rolls Royce advert in Scotland

So spent a few days with the DJI Inspire 2 filming on a Rolls Royce advert which was fun. Got to ride in my first Rolls Royce, very comfortable. Slightly beyond my price range haha.

We did a lot of dual operator during these days with Sammy the DOP doing my Camera Operating as he is also a drone pilot and obviously knows a bit about cameras. Dual op is often required once we start using the longer lenses and especially following fast cars.

We had to change locations several times to avoid the rain so it was great using some local knowledge and contacts to figure out the best spots. I did a bit of Camera assisting in-between drone flying to help out setting up camera kit, lights and focus pulling:)

Great fun few days and a super switched on crew from SWR Media Magazines Ltd, which was great:)

MAY 2019: Interview with Westlife for 'ITV This Morning'

I continue doing quite a few shoots for ITV ‘This Morning’ this time an interview with Westlife at Glasgow Hydro. Not something I thought I’d be doing but it was great laugh and very sound guys. The presenter Alison Hammond is brilliant too and Riaz the producer who is a real life Westlife fan:)

MAY 2019: 24 Days as director of photography on a documentary

Had an amazing time travelling around Scotland for these 24 days days with Gerry Moffat making his new film, the second in a trilogy.

The film looks at coming home, connection to people, places, adventures and the wildernesses affect on people and several other themes. One theme is looking at the fact that many adventures are on your doorstep at home and Scotland shined for us with amazing weather during this month of May.

A common theme linking the film together was kayaking as Gerry is a well known kayaker so I took back to my boat to carry my camera kit into the wild for several parts of the film. We got a lot of fantastic footage and it was great to get too know Gerry better and he definitely influenced my outlook on life:)

A few pictures from the iPhone below. The film will be released next year after they have shot in America and the Kingdom of Bhutan. Fantastically I shall be travelling to Bhutan to be the DOP there too:) Can’t wait!

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.

FEBRUARY 2019 - Ski Instructional films Val d'Isere

Headed back to Val d'Isere this year to continue with our instructional films. This time with Level 4 alpine skiing. Slightly better than I can ski hahaha.

I even lost half a stone skiing this week and trying to keep up:)

The skiers are Lynn Mill, Giles Lewis and Roy Henderson. All part of the British association of Ski Instructors:)

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:)

JANUARY 2019 - ITV 'This Morning' Torode on the Road

Heres just a wee clip I filmed on my TV of the last in 5 video clips from This Morning on ITV which I filmed, did sound, drone and lighting, Anthony Brown Directed and did second camera. Natalie Bloxham produced and generally sorted all the cooking stuff ready for John Torode to do his magic with actually cooking. My first cook show and I thought it would be sort of pretend cooking. But no it was incredibly great tasting food every time:)

We filmed at the beautiful Alladale Estate which was awesome and covered in snow. I did my first live broadcast through the Inspire 2 with X7 camera. The Cendance controller with its SDI output worked perfectly for it. Got an Adrenline rush there:) Next stop Sardinia with ITV and Gino D'Acampo for my second cooking show:)

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:)

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

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.