Drone productions in Iceland
PROFESSIONAL DRONE COMPANY FOR YOUR ICELAND FILM PRODUCTION
Looking for a drone company to capture stunning aerial footage in Iceland While there are few truly professional local drone operators based in Iceland, we offer full drone service and high-end aerial productions across the country. Reykjavik is just a three-hour flight from Amsterdam, and we are fully certified to fly in most parts of Iceland, even in restricted or sensitive areas as we are European certified drone company. We operate a range of top-tier equipment, including the DJI Inspire 3, FPV drones, and heavy-lift platforms capable of flying RED or ARRI Alexa cinema cameras. Whether you’re planning a commercial, a documentary, full feature film or a 360 VR video for the immersive Apple Vision Pro, contact us to discuss all the possibilities for drone filming in Iceland.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTIONS WITH DRONES IN ICELAND
Kiwi Aerial Shots is a drone company specializing in outdoor drone cinematography. We bring our drones to the most extreme locations, from the summit of Mont Blanc to the volcanic craters of Iceland’s remote lakes. Whether it’s for high-end film productions, intimate documentaries, commercials, or corporate films, we deliver professional drone footage for a wide range of projects, anywhere you need us. We operate heavy-lift drones capable of flying ARRI Alexa or RED cameras, as well as FPV drones, the DJI Inspire 3, and cinelifters equipped with a RED Komodo-X. At our workshop in Amsterdam, we also design and build custom drones, both for camera rigs and powerful drone lighting setups, including a LED systems up to 2800W. These lights are often used in car commercials and music videos, and can even serve as flexible key lights for full film sets, easy to move, adaptable, and dramatic in effect.
Contact us for a professional drone company to film in Iceland.
Let us know if you’re looking for a fully certified drone company to operate flights in Iceland. We have the experience and in-depth knowledge of much of the island, and we’re happy to help think along on the often challenging productions that can take place here. Feel free to give us a call directly with any questions, or explore the rest of our website for more information about our drone services.
THE LAST LINE | A KIWI AERIAL SHOTS FILM PRODUCTION IN ICELAND
THE LAST LINE - ICELAND FILM PRODUCTION
The phone rings: “Hey Tom! How would you feel about joining Kiwi and bringing the drones to follow Roderick Pijls and me in Iceland? We’re going kiting — inside a volcanic crater, across glacier lakes, and between floating icebergs. Sound epic? That’s how we got an unexpected call from our friend Rein Rijke in late June. He and Roderick Pijls had dreamed up yet another wild quest for their The Last Line project.
“Were we up for it? HELL YES — LET’S GO!!!”
After a few meetings with Rein and Roderick, it was clear what was expected of us. With just a two-person crew, we were set to capture the latest The Last Line adventure in Iceland — using our DJI Inspire 2 drone and RED Raven camera. We’d be hiking up mountains to reach remote locations, so we had to pack as minimally as possible. But as any camera team knows, that’s always a challenge. You want backups of nearly everything: extra tools, batteries, drives — because there’s nothing worse than missing the perfect shot due to a dead battery or a firmware glitch.
The drone of choice for this production was the Inspire 2. We would’ve loved to bring two, but space in both the car and our overnight gear made that impossible. As a backup, we brought only a small Mavic 2 Pro, hoping we wouldn’t have to rely on it, especially since lens swapping and camera flexibility would be extremely limited. Thankfully, the Inspire 2 performed flawlessly throughout the entire production. To streamline our power setup, we modified our RED Raven so it could run on the TB50 batteries from the Inspire. We also brought a power inverter, allowing us to create a charging station in the rental car, meaning we could charge batteries on the go, no matter where we were.
All in all, we packed 16TB of storage, lenses ranging from 15mm to 300mm for the RED, and a ton of energy to make it through our long shoot days — often from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. in search of the most breathtaking locations Iceland has to offer, and to capture the essence of The Last Line project.
THE LAST LINE PROJECT
The Last Line is a project by Rein Rijke and Roderick Pijls, a brilliant duo combining Rein’s eye for photography with Roderick’s skills as a professional kitesurfer. Together, they travel to the world’s most extraordinary and fragile locations to create stunning visual stories that blend extreme sports with environmental awareness.
The name The Last Line reflects the project’s urgency — in many cases, these might be the last opportunities to kite in such places before they disappear or become inaccessible due to climate change. Rein and Roderick deliberately choose locations under threat, from melting glaciers to rising sea levels, and through their breathtaking imagery, they hope to inspire others to appreciate the beauty of the planet while it’s still here. But beyond the message, the challenge is very real. Rein has a clear vision in his mind of the perfect shot, and together they’ll do whatever it takes to capture it. These two are true outdoor adventurers, always choosing the volcano lake that takes a four-hour hike to reach over the one that’s just a few steps from a parking lot.
The project has now been running for several years. After the success of their previous expedition to Tanzania, the duo has truly found their rhythm. In that journey, they set out to kite on Lake Natron, a toxic, red-colored lake reaching temperatures of 60°C, known for its high alkalinity and vivid algae bloom. But after a long journey, the lake wasn’t red. According to the local Maasai, the change in color was due to heavy rainfall, increasingly common in recent years and a direct consequence of climate change.
LONG ICELAND DAYS FROM 07:00 TO 02:00
The days we spent in Iceland were, to put it simply, quite long, roughly from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. Luckily, the sun barely sets during the Icelandic summer, so physically, we didn’t even fully realize what we were putting our bodies through. The long hours were driven purely by enthusiasm. The country was exactly as stunning as everyone had said beforehand, and as a professional camera crew, you just want to keep filming.
The locations Rein and Roderick had in mind were far from easy to capture the perfect shot. We also faced highly unpredictable weather conditions, experiencing everything from gale-force winds (force 10) to complete calm (force 0) at different spots. And you can probably imagine that wind inside a volcanic crater isn’t exactly steady. Small tornadoes, downdrafts, and intense thermals popped up all over the place, so we often had to wait a long time for the right moment to launch the kite, with at least some confidence that Roderick wouldn’t be dragged out of the crater. After hitting one or two locations in a day, we often still had to hike and drive back to base camp for four hours. By the time we got there, it was usually around 1 a.m. before we could finally cook and eat dinner. Well, usually Rein and Roderick still had a long list of emails and messages to answer from media and fans, while we at Kiwi were busy every evening backing up data and charging batteries for the next day.
Good night!
DRONE REGULATIONS ICELAND
Iceland is, of course, a fantastic country for drone filming. Fortunately, our drones are allowed to fly in many places across the island. Only a few popular tourist spots have strict bans on drone flights, but in about 99% of the country, you can confidently capture stunning aerial footage.
It’s mainly up to you to be respectful and ensure you don’t disturb others or the natural environment while filming. The basic rules are as follows:
Drones may not exceed 3 kg in weight when flying over populated areas.
Outside populated areas, drones can weigh up to 25 kg.
Maximum flight altitude is 120 meters.
Drones must be flown VLOS (Visual Line Of Sight) at all times, meaning they must remain in the pilot’s direct sight.
Both the drone and the drone operator/company must be properly insured.
Maintain a minimum distance of 2 km from airports. Note: Iceland has several small airfields to watch out for.
Maintain at least 150 meters distance from buildings or structures.
Our encounters with local rangers and police during past drone productions have always been positive. They were genuinely excited about the documentary we were making, and they were more curious than concerned when Roderick flew his kite over a glacier; it was never an issue. All in all, we had eight amazing days in Iceland and captured fantastic drone footage. The teaser for the upcoming short film is now live, and you can watch the full Last Line film right at the top of this page. Enjoy!
