AERIAL VIDEO SOLUTIONS

Brendan has nearly a decade of drone operation experience since the first GoPro-equipped quadcopters came out. He is confident flying in the most difficult and demanding situations and works with highly experienced camera operators for “dual-op” shoots. We primarily operate with a DJI Inspire 2 recording RAW/ProRes in order to stay light and get to remote locations. But, we also use heavy lift drones for certain applications and are ready to capture Alaska with the best equipment available - the Freely Alta X with RED Raptor 8K VV.

THE ‘CUB CAM’

Operating our Inspire 2 and Mavic 2 drones serve many of our client’s aerial cinematography needs. However, drones are limiting with a short flight time, 400’ maximum altitude, and line-of-sight operation only. That’s why we developed the ‘Cub Cam’ - a gimbal-stabilized camera mounted to a fixed-wing aircraft — usually the legendary Piper Super Cub airplane. This allows hours of flight time, virtually unlimited altitude travel throughout Alaska, and greatly reduced regulations that commercial drone operations must follow. 

Now, we can offer aerial imaging solutions previously only possible with a GSS/Shotover and helicopter. We partner with Part 135 certified aircraft transportation companies and pilots who are fully insured and licensed for commercial operations by the FAA. Generally we fly with a Canon R5 camera (8K RAW) with 24-105 zoom lens with everything controlled via monitor, joystick and zoom wheel in the cockpit. This setup also allows battery and media hot swaps in-flight.

Using fixed-wing aircraft cuts costs with very few limitations. Obviously, you can’t hover an airplane, but you can capture a lot with a Super Cub or equivalent aircraft that happily flies in the 50-100 mph range. Using highly equipped “Bush Planes”, we can film on the way to extremely remote areas to land and film where others can’t.

Helicopter and other aerial services

As a pilot and owner of a Piper Super Cub bush plane, Brendan can scout and access basically anywhere in Alaska, whether it means landing on a river gravel bar, alpine lake on floats, or a glacier on skis. Brendan and the Mountain Mind team also partner with an air taxi/charter service in Willow, Alaska that operates three R44 helicopters, a Cessna 206, Cessna 185, and PA18 Super Cub that can serve just about any production situation imaginable. Utilizing the R44 or larger turbine helicopters, we can also accommodate GSS/Shotover rigs.