A couple of months ago, we had the pleasure of partaking in a three-day shoot for The North Face and REI for a 3-part series called "REWIND NATURE" thanks to Pepper Humphrey Executive Producer of Timing Dragons content who produced the series.
Episode one is about Sustainable Design with Tim Hamilton who is Global Head of Design at The North Face. Episode two focuses on conscious consumption with author and host of the Green Dreamer Podcast Kaméa Chayne. Episode three centers on Artful Upcycling with founder of Icon, Jonathan Ward.
The opening shot in episode two is a low-altitude aerial that we got in Malibu at country line pictured above with a link to the episode. Two other drone shots in this episode were at 2:49 which is a top down view of the rocks and waves crashing down, with the drone ascending through a low lying marine layer- which was a really beautiful shot, and made the scene and narration really dramatic.
The very last shot in episode two is a shot flying through some low-lying clouds in the Malibu mountains. The director described the shot they wanted, but the conditions were not right at the time and we didn’t have the permit to fly at that location. Having one of the largest drone stock collections available, we were able to dig into our archives and get the exact shot for this closing sequence the director wanted.
A big thanks to Matt Feige, our Executive Producer, for taking care of all the permitting and insurance paperwork, which allowed us to fly here legally with State Park approval and to get the shot needed for the Director, Client, and Talent safely all in a closed setting.
Episode three was shot at multiple locations in California, with the main location being Alabama Hills, which is about a 4 hour drive from Los Angeles. The first drone shot picks up at 32 seconds in and is a tracking shot of one of Jonathan’s custom built 4x4's. This goes for 10 seconds into the episode and was shot single-operator in sport mode.. an extremely difficult shot to accomplish in this location with no prior scouting or rehearsing. The big jumbo rock that appears and wipes across the screen at 39 seconds is really dramatic and something you can only achieve with a drone, as I pushed closer to the car and talent towards the end.
The following shot at 45 seconds is another beautiful drone shot perfect for the title of the series REWIND NATURE which appears and goes on to lead us to Jonathan telling his story, which was extremely captivating when I met him in person.
The next drone shot in episode three is at 2:01, which was at an auto junk yard and is a top down shot revealing the row of cars that are absolute treasures in Jonathan’s eyes. This was a really cool place to fly! Another one of the drone shots from this location was used in the trailer video which we’ll put a link to below.
The final drone shot is at 5:17 which is one that goes on for 12 seconds flying low and over the jumbo rocks of Alabama hills, with a slow pan to the left of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the background. This location was truly breathtaking to fly at and a must see location if you’re ever looking for this beautiful nature scene for one of your productions.. or if you just want to get up there to escape the city grind.
Thanks again to our Executive Producer, Matt Feige, for taking care of all the paperwork for permits and insurance for this series for the client. I can’t do my job as a drone pilot if we don’t have permits, so thank you Matt.
Matt’s email is MATT@DRONEGEAR.TV if you have a job inquiry for us.
Here’s a link to the National Geographic website with the full series -
Big thanks to The Tiffen Company for keeping all our shots perfectly exposed with their NATural ND Cinema Drone Filters throughout this entire production.
If you’d like a 15% discount on Tiffen filters please use the code DRONEGEAR15 at checkout or click on this link - http://bit.ly/2zZN9pW