MARCH 2024 - Interview with a Forensic Scientist for a crime documentary

An interesting day doing an interview with the countries leading expert on fibres. As in fibres from carpets clothes etc and matching them to other fibres. He was involved in a series killers case and created a large part of the evidence towards the killer. Pretty interesting although gruesome world to hear about. Tom the director was brilliant too and very well informed. Good having him there to ask the questions and as he is a camera operator too he could check the set up was the same as other interviews he had done surrounding this court case.

It was a three camera interview with very specific lighting and a window had to be in the back ground. But must also keep all the floweriness of these carpets and curtains out of shot as kind of didn’t fit our theme but was our only location lol.

Three camera interview

A Camera

B Camera

C Camera

MARCH 2024 - Filming Beluga Lagoon's concert in Stirling

What an awesome venue for a concert in the heart of Stirling. Great to be filming great mates as they sell out concerts. Andrew is keen to make a bit of a documentary of this year as Beluga lagoon start filling bigger venues. I pop along to enjoy the music and film a little bit of BTS as the band gets ready and then during the performance and them coming off stage.

Nerves within the band seemed less that Aviemore at this gig. Not that you’d notice from the audience:) Had a friend shooting some wides for me while I did a bit of steady cam and just hand held. Andrew wanted a bit more crowd in these shots so got in amongst the crowd. The crowd was a little more sober than Aviemore and most likely because Scotland had just won against England in the Rigby moments before the Aviemore concert lol.

Lovely interview with Iain ‘Fingers’ after the concert. Mainly unusable footage from Gregor and Willy after the concert lol:)

Very good vibe in this venue and a great night for all:)

Beluga Lagoon in Stirling

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FEBRUARY 2021 - Filming and aerial filming in the Cairngorms with Beluga Lagoon for a new documentary episode of 'Roaming in the Wild'

Here we headed into the wild with humungous rucksacks to go snow holing for several days in what would be (very lucky for Beluga Lagoon filming) four of the best weather days in the Cairngorms this winter, and there have been a few!!

It took a while getting landowner permissions and general covid go ahead etc so most of the lower snow had gone but luckily there is so much snow up top it didn’t matter.

The guys, Andrew and Mark would dig and live in a snow hole for three nights while I stayed in my tent as they are a shared household (Mark does a good bit of baby sitting in the O’Donnell household). I have to say it was absolutely amazing to be out of my house for longer than a day trip and with zero wind and sun each day life was great.

Here we would document our time up high and even I had to pop in front of the screen as snow holing is not the best activity to do without some guidance as depending on the conditions it can be a bit dangerous. Plus there are avalanches, weather, navigation, route choice etc to add to the winter experience. So luckily being a cameraman and MIC (now called WMCI) (Highest national qualification in summer/winter walking, climbing and mountaineering) and having spent many winters working and training people in the Cairngorms it was useful for this trip.

We got in some lengthy ski tours once we dumped the big bags at our base camp/hole. I leave those stories for when the episode airs though.

A few pics from the trip below.

Andrew returns from a toilet break:)

The snow hole and tent area from the drone:)

SEPTEMBER 2020 - Western Isles with GCN and some Aerial 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:)

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:)

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

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!