Why Your Hollywood Blockbuster Needs a Dedicated Drone Cinematographer
There's a massive difference between hiring a "drone guy" from a camera rental house and partnering with someone who has flown cinema drones on Star Wars, James Bond, and Fast & Furious 9. Over 14 years, I've learned that aerial cinematography is its own discipline. It's not just technical flying—it's understanding how to compose shots that blend seamlessly with traditional filmmaking, anticipating weather and air traffic, and solving problems before they happen on set. When you're working with A-list directors and budgets in the millions, you need someone who understands both the creative vision and the practical constraints.
23 January 2026
7 min read
FPV Drones vs. Heavy-Lift Cinema Rigs: When to Use Each
The drone cinematography industry has been fundamentally transformed by FPV technology. Freestyle FPV drones can move faster, squeeze through tighter spaces, and achieve shots that multi-rotors simply cannot. But they're not a replacement—they're complementary. Flying both FPV and traditional cinema platforms like the DJI Inspire 3 and custom heavy-lift rigs gives you the full toolkit. I use FPV for dynamic action sequences and immersive flyovers, but when you need precise control, longer flight times, and stabilized shots, the traditional platforms win. The best shoots leverage both. This post breaks down when each makes sense, what the trade-offs are, and how I approach shot selection on set.
15 January 2026
9 min read
Flying Drones in the Sahara: Lessons from Aquaman's Desert Sequences
Working on Aquaman presented some unique challenges that don't come up in typical film production. Sand gets everywhere. Wind patterns shift unexpectedly. There are thermal layers you have to account for. And when you're operating at the scale of a major studio production with safety officers, stunt coordinators, and dozens of crew members on set, every flight has to be perfectly choreographed. One of the most rewarding parts of that shoot was developing techniques for maintaining camera stability in extreme heat while flying long takes over complex terrain. I'll walk through the specific drone platforms we used, how we managed battery performance in those conditions, and the workflow that allowed us to capture footage that seamlessly integrated into the final film.
8 January 2026
10 min read
From Cinematography to VFX Data: The Second Life of Drone Footage
Not all drone flying is about capturing the hero shots that make it to the screen. A significant part of my work involves VFX scanning—using aerial photogrammetry, drone LiDAR, ground photogrammetry, and terrestrial LiDAR to create 3D data that VFX teams can use for digital environments. I've done this work for Lucasfilm, supporting both The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. The level of precision required is different from cinematography. You're flying specific patterns, maintaining exact altitudes, and capturing overlapping frames that can be stitched into point clouds and meshes. It's technical, it's methodical, and it's absolutely critical to modern filmmaking. This post explores what VFX scanning actually involves and why studios increasingly rely on it.
1 January 2026
8 min read
From Competitive Swimming to Hollywood Drones: An Unlikely Path
I was a competitive swimmer in my younger years—trained hard, raced nationally. I thought that was going to be my life. But sometimes the best careers are the ones you don't plan. I started flying RC cars and drones for fun, built a community around it, and somewhere along the way it became clear that I had developed a skill set that studios needed. Three guys with a dream co-founded XM2 without a fancy garage or venture capital—just passion and the belief that we could execute at the highest level. Fourteen years later, we've flown on Star Wars, James Bond, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, The Fall Guy, and dozens of other productions. I'll share the early days of XM2, the pivotal moments that shaped the business, and what I've learned about turning a technical skill into a global operation.
25 December 2025
12 min read
Achieving 661 km/h: The Guinness World Record and What It Taught Me
In 2023, Ben Biggs and I set a Guinness World Record for the fastest battery-powered drone at 661 km/h. It was an incredible achievement, but here's what surprised me: the lessons we learned weren't just about speed. They were about precision, team coordination, and understanding the limits of technology. Flying a drone that fast requires rethinking everything—aerodynamics, battery chemistry, power delivery, control systems. The safety protocols alone took months to develop. We had to work with aviation authorities, set up chase aircraft, and implement multiple layers of redundancy. This post isn't about the record itself—it's about the process. What does it take to push boundaries? How do you manage risk when you're operating at the edge? And what can regular drone operators learn from extreme flying?
18 December 2025
11 min read
The Evolution of Drone Technology in Film: 2015 to 2026
When I started flying cinematography drones seriously in the early 2010s, our options were extremely limited. You had heavy multi-rotors that could carry cinema cameras, but they were temperamental, slow, and required constant tweaking. Over the last decade-plus, I've watched the industry transform. We now have platforms like the DJI Inspire 3 that are incredibly sophisticated out of the box, FPV drones that can do things we could barely imagine a few years ago, and custom rigs that leverage modular components. But with that evolution comes complexity. There are more regulatory layers, more insurance considerations, and higher expectations around what's possible. I'll walk through the major shifts in drone technology, how they've changed the way we work on set, and what I see coming in the next few years.
10 December 2025
9 min read
Flying Drones in 7 Continents: Logistics, Challenges, and Unexpected Discoveries
One of the things I love most about this career is the travel. I've flown drones on productions across seven continents—Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. Each location brings its own set of challenges. High-altitude shoots in mountain ranges require different power management. Tropical environments test your equipment's reliability in ways that temperate climates don't. Arctic conditions demand specialized batteries and components. And then there are the regulatory and cultural differences. Getting permits in some countries is straightforward; in others, it requires months of negotiation. This post is a collection of lessons learned from global operations—both the technical insights and the human elements that make international productions work. It's an exploration of what it takes to move a drone operation across the world and deliver under pressure.
3 December 2025
13 min read
Building Drone Pro Hub: Education and the Future of Professional Flying
After 14 years of flying on some of the biggest film sets in the world, I realized that a huge gap existed: there were talented pilots who wanted to go professional, but very few resources that actually showed them how. The traditional path—getting lucky enough to meet someone in the industry, apprenticing, slowly climbing the ladder—is fine, but it shouldn't be the only way. Drone Pro Hub is my answer to that problem. It's an education and community platform built by someone who has actually done the work, who understands the technical depth and the business side. I'll share my vision for what professional drone education should look like, why community matters, and how I'm approaching the build of the platform. It's not just courses—it's mentorship at scale.
26 November 2025
10 min read
LiDAR Scanning for VFX: Why Studios Are Investing in 3D Data
The shift toward LiDAR scanning in film production is one of the most significant changes I've witnessed in recent years. Traditional photogrammetry is powerful, but LiDAR provides a different kind of data—point clouds that are incredibly precise, regardless of lighting conditions. I work with both drone LiDAR and ground LiDAR systems, and each has specific applications. Drone LiDAR is perfect for large environments and terrain; ground LiDAR excels at interior spaces and detailed surface capture. Studios like Lucasfilm use this data to build digital sets, extend physical locations, and create accurate environments for virtual production. The investment in scanning infrastructure has grown dramatically, and for good reason. This post explores the technical capabilities of modern LiDAR systems, the data pipeline that gets from raw point clouds to production-ready assets, and why this technology is becoming essential for visual effects.
19 November 2025
11 min read