Filming With Altitude in Cumbria

THE name of Dave Baillie’s company just about sums up his high-flying aspirations: Wildcat – Filming With Altitude. For as the country’s leading aerial filming facility outside the south east – and the only aerial business in the world to provide 4:4:4 data recording as standard – the Cumbria-based business has experienced every extreme imaginable.

“We’ve worked in over 90 countries from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and no two shoots are ever the same,” adds Dave, who has won several awards, including two BAFTAs and RTS nominations and over a dozen regional RTS awards, for his work. And this month he adds another accolade to the list, after being named Facility of the Month by regional screen agency Northwest Vision and Media, which works on behalf of the film, TV and digital content industries.

“It’s great to be singled out for praise,” says Dave, who decided to start Wildcat Flying after finding it difficult for Wildcat Films, his small indie, to win commissions against larger production companies.

“I had my own indie for about 15 years, but like many rural indies it was becoming increasingly hard to beat the big boys,” says Dave. “I already had a pilot’s licence so I thought it would be good to do something new, which is why I started doing aerial filming.

“I bought one of the first HD stabilised cameras in the UK, hired a helicopter, bolted it on, and started making aerial films.”

That was in 2005, and as Dave confides, business was quite slow to start. “Because we are a small company, I had to build a reputation in order to make an impact,” he says.

But his reputation soon started to gain momentum, especially as he invested in cutting edge technology. “Most high definition recording is still compressed and recorded onto tape, but the future is recording as uncompressed data onto hard disk as it's data files that are manipulated when you edit the film. So we decided very early on to provide the same cutting edge data recording now being used in Hollywood,” explains Dave, talking from his remote North Pennines HQ in Alston, Cumbria.

Within months, the BBC was on the phone. “That was my big break, when we started worked for the BBC’s Planet Earth series,” says Dave.

“Shot over the winter of 2005/06 the series won awards all over the place, and although we only played a small part in the series it’s nice to have been part of the team. I also think we set the benchmark for HD filming with that series, and it certainly helped Wildcat make its mark.

With Mountain and Top Gear also among his credits, Dave recently provided aerial filming for the" Life", the BBC Natural History Unit's next landmark series. The 12-part, 60-minute series is due to be transmitted at the end of next year.

“And we will be going back to the Poles to film for three months next year for a series called Frozen Planet, due to transmit in 2010. Luckily, I love cold climates!” adds Dave.

Dave’s day-to-day work includes filming for TV series, commercials and corporate work. He’s recently set up a new partnership with Cheshire Helicopters (www.cheshirehelicopters.co.uk), based near Manchester Airport. “This makes us even more convenient and economic for producers and facilities in the Northwest.” says Dave.

Although he works across the country, the northwest will continue to be Wildcat’s base. “We’ll definitely stay in Cumbria,” says Dave. “One of the biggest costs in aerial filming is getting the helicopter to where you want to film, so it makes sense for London-based production companies to start further up the country when hiring an aerial camera team. We pretty much feel the Northwest and Scotland is out patch.”

However, getting the best-stabilised HD aerial images is never easy. As Dave explains: “It’s an expensive mixture of art and science.” Which is why so much planning goes into a shot, long before the aircraft takes off, or a crane is ordered. But technology and experience is nothing without the right pilot. “That’s why we always match the shoot with the very best UK film pilots,” explains Dave, who has a bank of professional pilots he can call on for filming.

Despite his already substantial success, though, Dave still feels that too many top end aerial jobs still go to the London and South East.

“Although we’ve contributed to three feature films in the past, we would like to break into feature film work in a much bigger way,” he confides. “We have the technical capability and expertise to take on a full feature, bit it’s a very closed world and trying to break in is very difficult. It would be very nice though, if a feature was in production here in the Northwest and we were asked to get involved. I think we’d produce something very special.”