Camera Operator for a U.S. Army Drone Program Shoot in Georgia

I spent a week on a military base filming a promotional video for the United States drone program. I was brought on as a Camera Operator to join a team that included three other Camera Operators, a Director, a Drone Operator and a few Producers.

The shoot took place at Fort Benning, a military base in Georgia south of Atlanta. The production company traveled in from New York City, and they hired camera crew in Atlanta who would be able to drive to the base.

This project was for the U.S. Army Drone Dominance Program. Drone warfare has become very prominent in modern combat, and the U.S. Army is looking to improve in that arena. They are trying to find the best company to produce a new fleet of drones, and I was there to film a competition between those companies. The winner would get the opportunity to partner with the Army.

The competition was an intense, fast-paced race to see who could fly their drones into a target in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Because of that, this was a very run-and-gun shoot. It was probably the most fast-paced shoot I have ever been involved in.

Each test started with the drone pilots standing in front of closed cases. Once the timer started, they had to unpack their drones, assemble them, get them in the air, and fly them into the target. Every time this happened, I was running around trying to capture as many different shots as I could.

Sometimes I was filming the pilots, and other times I was stationed at the targets filming the drones hitting or missing the target. A lot of the drones failed, and many of the companies were clearly not prepared. I saw multiple drones crash and catch fire.

The competition took place inside a mock town they had built for training purposes. It was a very cool place to work. It felt like I was filming in some kind of post-apocalyptic city.

On this project, I was filming with a Sony FX6, a zoom lens, and my EasyRig. This allowed me to move around quickly and capture a variety of shots. Most of the footage had a handheld look, but because of the EasyRig, the shots were smoother than traditional handheld camera work would have been.

This was a really cool experience. Working on an Army base for a week made me feel like I was in the military. Every morning as we drove in, there would be soldiers marching or doing drills, and a few times I drove by tanks rolling down the street. While we were filming, we were constantly hearing explosions in the distance.

Here is one of the videos they produced from the footage we filmed that week: https://youtu.be/3H3fYITGurQ?si=vQ6NdTQhIYHZijWu

Here is a picture of me in action:

I look angry in every picture I take with a camera, I promise I wasnt! I am wearing my EasyRig with my Sony FX9 and a Sigma 70-200 F2.8 lens.