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 trip round Edinburgh filming the sites for plates for animations. Bit of Geography/Geology for schools today with volcanic rocks and plugs. Headed a bit further south for other bits of rock formations and Bass Rock. Beautiful sunny day although very windy. The boat I had booked to Bass rock didn’t go, so a return journey needed one day:)
Edinburgh Castle
Back from Rum and after a few days off we start filming another episode of Dana. This time purely rock climbing and in Glen nevis. the sun is out again too and after a midge start they all run away from the sun thankfully. Episode out in the Autumn.
Kenny on Storm in Glen nevis. Picture from the Mavic 2 pro drone
Storm in Glen nevis. Kenny’s climbing partner climbing here.
A fantastic trip on the Isle of Rum doing some aerial cinematography while Hamish filmed with the ground camera and directed. We had some amazing weather for filming. Here we all carried our camera kit, batteries and tents, food, stove etc. This made the first day pretty big when we arrived on the morning ferry then did the whole of the Rum Cuillin filming on the way. A few pretty knackered by the end but we were rewarded with an amazing sunset from our high camp.
The next few days saw us walking, rock climbing and swimming and visiting ruins and bothies. We also got a tan:) A few pics below:) TV show out in the Autumn
Sunset Camp
Hamish filming Kenny on the Rock Climb, Rich Parker out of site doing some safety
Well this was amazing a team of us drone pilots working for Windfall films making a film for BBC won a BAFTA for our aerial filming under Factual: Photography woooohooo. It was a great team to work with Johnny Shipley as director and David Dugan as the Exec producer, both from Windfall films. Then swapping ideas with the other drone team members and seeing everyones setups was great. Most were on the Inspire 2 like myself.
If you are interested I’ve written a little bit about my own experience below on the shoot and what went in to a few of my bigger shots.
I had the job of meeting the Shepard Andrew at the top of Scarfell for the start of the gather on the main days shoot (Day 3 on site). We went up different routes as he chased sheep on the way. He arrived 30 mins early just as I had arrived and I asked for 5 minutes to set up he said “you can have 1 minute” haha. I managed just! Took off into very cloudy conditions and wind, ‘took off’ sounds a little dramatic, I basically hovered over the ground. Knowing that at 4:30am no one else would be daft enough to be up there, I was sure not to meet anyone. We could see 50m at best and had to walk with the drone just flying 5-10m ahead of me just off the ground. I got some lovely shots in the mist and extremely atmospheric and totally different from the planned shots that we agreed on two days ago on the recci. Andrew did say “not the best for gathering sheep in” just as I was shouting at him to remember and cheesily touch the top cairn for my shot, I got the impression he was only half keen to do this. But he did it anyway haha.
The drone landed and he continued onto the next set of drone pilots. I’d warned them he was early so they were ready, as we all had radios. My drone was extremely wet now I hadn’t quite realised how wet the cloud was as didn’t feel like rain. Picture below
So now I leap frogged three drone positions to set up at another spot down out of the cloud at the foot of the valley. I was there with David (exec producer) as he was keeping me company as I was a solo pilot. I got the drone setup ready to take a few GV’s as I waited for the sheep again. The drone wouldn’t record due to water in the microSD port. Then came 20mins of panic trying to dry inside it and get my drone working again!! Finally it started recording and all functions were good. So I flew up the cliff above for some GV’s. One of these formed the opening shot of the program. Then it switches to another drone pilots shot of sheep hanging out on hill side. After this into some of my shots of Andrew in the mist as the gather begins:)
On this spot I gathered a bit of a shot plan to try and create a long shot as my summit plans hadn’t come together as I’d liked (but did give a great different feel to the shots). You can only plan as best you can as the tricky bit is it’s live in essence and there is no reshoot and you don’t know exactly where or how quickly the sheep will move lol. So lots to think about. The key being to move very slow (but never stop, Johnny’s direction also had said please keep it moving) and try to keep interesting shots and develop things in a nicely framed shot. This started with a reveal over a slight knoll amongst boulders and fly over the rise and to see the sheep. As should be an easy cut if no sheep in it to start. Then the shot develops after I realise the sheep are slightly nervous of my drone (much less nervous that they are of the sheep dogs though but you can slightly tell in the film too). I move round the side and swoop round the back and down the left side then use the boulders very low to ground, notice a little turbulence in wind as drone starts moving up and down a little by itself. The low ground and boulders manage to create a bit of a second reveal then I start rising to where the crush or narrows are.
This is where the sheep come to a halt and I notice shepards standing blocking the way, I slow my rise trying desperately to keep the sheep in shot as they do not move forward into the space I had left and planned in my shot. In my head I am saying “move move” to the sheep and the shepards blocking the way, “you are about to destroy my shot!” I might have been mumbling a few swear words too but my memory is faint on that front.
Then finally the shepards clear and the sheep start running forward “thank ….!”. I’m almost as high as I can go (Drones have a legal maximum height above the ground) and fortunately I’m spinning with the shot so I can keep the spin as I stop going up and begin to come done again. This means the stop is not so noticeable to the audience but will display a change which will link with the sheep now moving on. I then lower down and stop the spin and blend it into the beginning of a tilt up to start to show where the sheep are going which we haven’t seen yet. I pull away from the sheep to show them going away from this location. Once the shot shows the sky which won’t link as well with the next shot my continuous shot stops at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Which is my longest shot I’ve ever had on a film and the longest shot in this film.
I remember being very chuffed the next day after first seeing the film on TV that this long shot was spoken about on twitter in relation to the program lol.
There were two days filming and the first was a smaller gather from opposite side of the valley and we used several shots from this too but we had a smaller team. Johnny had bought 360 Gopros to attach to sheep etc. I got one on a dog that morning but the dog wasn’t happy with it haha. It looked like a teenager asked to wear really uncool clothing to a friends party and just feeling awkward and not at all cool.
We switched it to put it on Andrew and a sheep. One shot which it caught was when Andrew was wearing it when he got to the top of the valley about 3-400m beyond me so I’m well out of shot. Andrew sits down and starts rolling a cigarette and is speaking to his dog and taking in the scenery and as he takes the cigarette up to his mouth because Johnny had 360 cameras then in the edit he could tilt up to its lighting and tilt back down to the view as the smoke is blown out. It’s a great shot and it’s actually been directed from the edit suite which is different:)
Hopefully its back on TV sometime and you can give it a watch.
The Team:) Although many members of the team not in the shot but most of the hill going ones.
The very wet drone after the misty shots at the start of the film!
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.
Always exciting doing a bit of live drone filming with ITV. You definitely don’t want any boo boos while a few million are watching eeeek!
We filmed live for a morning at Loch Ness then at John O’Groats the following day. Adam Young was directing, Dan on camera and Rich (who I’ve done a few jobs with) on sound:)
It went well with only twice I had to land due to heavy heavy rain:)
A great day filming with Josie Gibson on the Cobbler, with Dominic Gatt doing the directing. We had Emma a contributor with us and her friend Nick. Was a bit more of a day out that most expected but made for some great footage:) Then a swim in Loch Lomond to finish the shoot. A big day and myself doing camera, sound and drone.
My second job filming with Countryfile. A few jobs recently I have ended up doing camera, sound and drone on jobs like this due to the cover restrictions on numbers. Makes for a busy but fun day. Here I was working with Tom Heap who thankfully for me took on the organising and going through the script for me while I just ran around with cameras as we met all the different contributors.
The show was about the possible new spaceport that may get built here and also the other ones around Britain. Was pretty interesting as I actually didn’t know anything about these lol. Tom was great to work with also.
So in the past I have sold aerial footage to Country file but as yet I hadn’t filmed for them. So was great to get a call to film two segments for them. We got the first one done but the Reindeer still await the snow to return as we just missed the best snow.
So this days filming was with Alice Goodridge who runs a wild swimming company and runs the Scottish winter swimming championships and other things. She also swims everyday of the year. And this day it was -4 and blowing 20mph and the Loch was frozen over.
Usually for TV things there is often a director and sometimes a sound person, and maybe others but with this pandemic the country file team can’t get out of Bristol so are trying to use local folk, where they can, and also small teams. Which they would do camera wise anyway but usually have a director sent. So I did all the parts and had a fun day with Alice and Alistair her husband on Loch Insh. Alice swimming and getting straight in as spin drift blows over her just in a swim suit is pretty impressive. I was even persuaded to get in after a 7hr shoot day with already numb fingers and toes lol. It was very refreshing and I did indeed (as Alice says) feel much more alive after. (Although maybe not so much while in the water, more trying to stay live I think.
Fun when you can film with normal cameras, underwater and from the air. The producer Helen when she got the footage from me and was in the edit suite sent me a text. It started “you are a wonderful man. There are so many wonderful shots”. So good to hear when shooting for a new TV program and even though I have been making films for a while I still get weirdly nervous until things are in the edit suite:)
A few pics below.
Well tonight the TV program ‘The Great Mountain Sheep Gather’ shot in a slow television fashion to show the gathering of sheep in an almost real time by shepherds on Scafell Pike in the Lake District is on at 10pm on BBC4. The Program has been nominated for several awards now and is up for some hopefully shortly.
There were about 6 drone crews working on this. As a mountain instructor I got the joy of following the main Shepard up the mountain at 4am at an incredible speed to film our first shots on the main summit, in the wind and rain with 30m of visibility. A little taxing flying and the drone got very damp/wet. Then I leap frogged the next two drone teams to set up at another spot lower down. This is where I got a shot that ended up making it in with no cuts in 7 and a half minutes I was pretty chuffed solo flying the Inspire 2 with X7 camera shooting and in RAW. We were asked to get shots as long as possible. Totally different from normal as usually 10 seconds and sometimes just over 30 seconds for a end credit shot. So going for as long as possible you need to keep looking for new shots within shots to progress a clip in an interesting way and never ever make a sudden movement. A lot of fingers and thumbs and brain overload, but very good fun:)
My filming for a BBC school education project continued as I travel down the Tay filming from up stream of Perth down to Dundee. and a bit beyond:) Lovely day for it:)
As people (by people I mean road engineers) can’t get out on mass to see where new roads will go and walk the path, if you like, then I have been doing a few fly throughs, so people can watch in isolation in their houses what the landscape looks like and get a better idea of how to quote for jobs and what is feasable.
An old oak for a launchpad
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.
A fun week seeing how a massive 10km fibre optic cable is taken off a ship and coiled onto a carousel ready to be coiled onto another ship. I was filming drone for aerial shots and ground camera for some more close up shots. Unusually here just filming and handing over the footage to be edited by the in-house media department at the company. Always interesting to see the lives of other people in different industries and the technology going into these things.
An inversion one morning:)
A few days aerial filming on a series called ‘The worlds great rivers’ this one being the Spey. Handy being on my doorstep.
The first day was filming with Dave Craig and Jerry Craig, two local canoeists. Lots of tracking shots from the air. Andy Robbins was directing this and was shooting ground camera. The following day I was off on my own to capture different parts of the river including Spey Bay and many Distilleries. Few pics below.
Craigellachie
Cragganmore Distilery
Spent several day filming today turbines and the loading of a ship in Nigg Bay, near Invergordon, north of Inverness. Great to see these turbines being built in Scotland. Time and tide wait for no man, as they say so a guaranteed power source once in position. With Scotland having some amazing tides, probably the fastest and most extensive in Europe then its a good place to have them. this one is heading to Japan and is made by Atlantis (aptly named) and is being shipped using DShip:)
I was working for www.haraldhohenthal.com to get the footage for Harald to put the film together. Handy being close to these docks for this.
Pretty interesting to see how these 200+ tonne items get loaded on and how they balance the ship by pumping water into one side, as they lift on the other side to stop it tipping over.
The ship we were loading with some unrelated legs for wind turbines behind.
Nigg Bay and Invergordon in the background
The ship almost loaded from above
A day by myself filming lots of aerial shots to be used in amongst the live broadcast of Autumn watch. I was filming at Tentsmuir near St Andrews. Lovely place and saw a few red squirrels (not while flying just while walking) and some seals far out on the tidal flats.
The wee drone out for some flying, 9 batteries of filming:)
Headed off on my fourth job with the Global Cycling Network this summer to film a documentary about the Outer Hebrides and presented by Jenny Graham (fastest women round the world on a bicycle). We were a team of four with Hugh Farrow directing, Jenny presenting, Jason driving the follow truck, setup up specifically for following cyclists. Then myself as 2nd camera and doing the aerial cinematography.
The Islands were amazing and we travelled to 7 different ones and met many locals with interesting stories. Jenny did a great job presenting with her outgoing and very positive approach to life. We started in shorts and t-shirts getting a tan then finished with the horizontal rain trying to give us a skin exfoliation:)
As always great fun working with Andrew and Mark from Beluga Lagoon films as we make another episode of their ‘Roaming in the Wild’ for BBC. This time to the borders and with hiking and stand up boards involved. I was filming them on there journey with camera and drone. Andrew would be getting wildlife shots with his big lenses as we went. Do enjoy this work a lot when you get to take part in the trip (behind the camera) with the team. Carrying camping stuff, stove, tent, sleeping bag, and Camera, tripod, drone and all the batteries makes for a heavy load but good bit of exercise:)
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.
