My 2016 Aerial Cinematography Demo Reel

You'll enjoy my fun, fast-paced aerial cinematography reel. It's a gas!

I use aerial imagery to give you, the viewer, a clear sense of place... to immerse you in the story. Instead of using the word "drone," which is fraught with connotations about Predator drones and the military, I call these devices "flying cameras" because that's what they are... tools that can help filmmakers tell compelling stories

Prepping for a big pullback shot at Mt. Tamalpais on a job for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. We were flying in 18mph winds that day and the DJI Inspire/X5R is absolutely capable of flying in those conditions because of its four powerful motors. Although I prefer to work as part of a two-person team, I was both pilot and camera operator on that shoot.

Visiting an elementary school in the remote Nakawaga village on the island of Vanua Levu, Fiji. The kids had never seen anything like this before and were absolutely entranced.

Two geeks take a selfie. I'm on the right with the pilot controls, training my cinematographer friend friend Jamie LeJune to be a remote camera operator. He's wearing the Zeiss Cinemizer goggles and controlling the camera pan, tilt, exposure and focus. The experience of being a camera op, wearing those fully immersive goggles, puts you right into the craft as if you're a bird in the scene itself. It's tremendous fun!

If you'd like to see more of my aerial work,
here's a compendium of short films I've made, featured on Droneblog.com.
Enjoy!

(and thanks for watching)

I have a long history of inventing tools for animators and also making films and photographs. My wife, daughter and I live at the foot of beautiful Mt. Tamalpais on the San Francisco Bay and I've been using technology to tell complex stories for a long time. My biggest claim to fame? Leading the team that created Autodesk 3ds Max... the most popular 3D animation tool of all time. When I sold the Yost Group to Autodesk at the end of the last century I jumped headfirst into pursing my original love... photography and filmmaking. Now I spend all of my time exploring the mysteries of my world with my cameras, and revealing what I find in my images and films.

You can find my verification post here.