OFFSHORE & MARITIME DRONE COMPANY
WIND PARKS, WATERSPORTS, YACHTS AND NATURE
About Kiwi Aerial Shots
Welcome to Kiwi Aerial Shots. A professional and fully certified Dutch drone company that is specialized in offshore maritime drone video productions. in the last 10 years, we have worked on tons of different video productions and have flown our drones and cameras on all kinds of rough oceans, seas, and lakes. We only work with certified pilots and have some of the best cinematographers as camera operators.
Experience on open water
Making offshore aerial shots is an expertise you can only learn through trial and error. Flying a drone above open water brings certain risks you encounter above water and when flying from a follow boat. Over the years we have crafted this skill now filming brand new windmill parks and big million dollar superyachts all across the globe.
OFFSHORE
Massive wind farms, dredging activities, pulling big ocean cables, we can film it all using our drones or a Cineflex setup underneath a helicopter. We have the experience to get you the needed shots!
SHIPS
If it is the biggest cargo ship in the world, a small boat, or a million-dollar superyacht, we know how to set up the best possible drone shots for your video production.
Watersports
Driven by our own intrinsic motivation we have been filming the most extreme watersports for over a decade now. This passion has brought us all over the world and gave us some spectacular shots!
Harbors
As Kiwi Aerial Shots is a fully ROC certified Dutch drone company, and we work with ROC certified drones and RPA-L licenses pilots we can get airspace exemptions for any location including prohibited harbors like the harbor of Rotterdam.
Nature
We can’t get a better assigmnet than going out into nature and filming the richness and beauty of our planet. We got our drones to some of the most remote places on the planet and are happy to do it a million more times!
MARITIME
DRONE PORTFOLIO
THE RISCS OF AERIAL FILMING
ABOVE WATER
Making drone or helicopter aerial shots above open water brings certain risks and mitigating measures that need to be tackled and thought through in advance. For example the option to film from the vessel that is the subject itself or the option to film from a follow boat. The disadvantage of the drone team being on the vessel is that you don’t want the drone team to be in the shot and therefore the drone pilot can not go all out as it has to keep its eyes on the drone. This gives a limitation to some of the best flight lines so we always advise to work with the following boat. This has to be big enough for all the equipment (always more than you think) and needs to have space for a clear take-off of the drone. Next to the take-off, the landing is also quite tricky when filming from a boat. As the boat itself is always quite rocky because of the waves we have to catch the drone from mid-air to secure a save drone landing. This requires a lot of trust and experience between the drone pilot and camera operator and therefore we only work with our experienced drone teams!
Experienced maritime drone teams
Our experienced drone team members have done many drone video productions above open water. As they are known with most watersports we now when the action is taking place and therefore never miss a shot! Read more about our drone experience at our drone service page.
Drones and cameras for all kind of productions
The mostly used drone for our open water drone productions is the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 or X5s camera. this versatile drone is easy to handle, verry fast and relatively small to bring including a backup drone. next to the Inspire 2 we can also fly an even faster and more dynamic FPV drone or go for the big setup with our Kiwi X8, or matrice600 for ARRI or RED camera setups up to 15KG. Read more about our drones and camera options.
Offshore helicopter aerial shots
For some maritime aerial productions, a helicopter is the better option compared to a drone. This can be the case when we have to film far from shore, or when we have to film with a big 300mm zoom lens. This can be nice if we have to film specific details from a fast-moving ship or for the maritime aerial production we did for Discovery channel. This time we had to film Richard Hammond standing on the bridge of the biggest cargo ship in the world! Quite a complicated shot as we had to make a big pull out shot revealing the MEARSK while Richard was acting for a lip-sync shot. > Read more about our helicopter filming services.
Cineflex or gimball system
Using a helicopter for aerial filming above water gives us two options regarding the camera setup. We can use the Cineflex system or a gimbal setup in the back of the helicopter. The Cineflex system is the most comen used setup as this gives our camera operator most options as we can film in a 90-degrees angle and filming straight forward while making good speed. Both of these options are not available for the gimbal setup. This is because of the helicopter skits that are in the way for a top-down shot and as we have to film from the side of the helicopter we can not go for maximum speed. More info on our Helicopter or our camera equipment page.
How we work
- We talk about our main objective of the shoot
- We check the location and corresponding airspace
- Determine best camera setup for the shoot
- We send a quotation and talk things through
- We get the needed permits and determine all mitigating measures
- Production day!
- We send over the rushes / first rough edit
- We ask for feedback and wishes and make a final edit
- We finish the final version
Contact us now!
We love to help you with your maritieme aerial production
