Case study: Northern Monk Brewery
I have worked with Northern Monk on several projects, so when they asked me to capture some drone footage of their brewery expansion, I was excited to show off the buildings in the best way possible.
The project
The brief was simple - a flyover shot to use on social media and on an upcoming blog post to start 2020.
However, whilst the incredible beers that Northern Monk create within the walls of their brewery are wrapped in beautifully designed labels, the buildings themselves aren’t quite as immediately attractive to the eye.
Northern Monk are very proud of their base in Holbeck, so it was clear to me that the final video should show the brewery within its setting. Despite the light industrial units that dominate its immediate surroundings, there is plenty of beauty to be found in the area.
Filming and editing
The shoot date had been planned carefully in advance (see ‘flight safety’ below) and conditions during filming were as good as we could have hoped for in winter, with blue skies and long shadows. On scouting the area, I chose a few points of focus on which to base the key shots: the main brewery sign with its industrial look, the large painted container, and their iconic 4x4.
For this kind of subject, dynamic camera moves are key to get the most out of the scene. A combination of circular flight paths around the brewery, flying directly over the buildings, and long backward ascents were used to capture a wide variety of footage. When editing the clips together, I combined these different angles in the best order to show off the scale of the growing business, and used a variety of speed ramping techniques to keep the video interesting.
Flight safety
As with all drone projects, flight planning is crucial, where aeronautical charts and satellite imagery are used to put together a site survey of the location. Northern Monk is located just outside of Leeds city centre and underneath the flight path on approach to Leeds Bradford Airport. The drone would remain below 120m altitude and therefore no special permissions were required from air traffic control. By examining all of the nearby hazards such as roads and railways, it is straightforward to plan a safe operation that does not put any persons or property at risk.
Given that the filming was to take place in November and December, the weather was an important factor, so I remained as flexible as possible to choose a day with the best conditions. Once on location, a further on-site survey is always carried out to sketch any additional hazards on the day. In this case, we especially needed to manage the flight with delivery vehicles and forklifts operating.
All of the flights went ahead without any issues, plenty of 4k footage was captured, and I was able to get some additional still images using the drone’s 20 megapixel camera at no extra cost to the client.
“Thanks so much, this footage is awesome.”
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Dan Waters runs Adarak, a Leeds-based provider of professional and affordable videography, photography and aerial footage. We’re here to help you turn your ideas, products, and case studies into something you’ll be proud to share.