Given the filming took place in winter, the ground & drone crew were extremely lucky to have sufficient breaks in stormy conditions to allow us to travel in a small boat to both Bell Rock off the Angus coast near Arbroath in Scotland, & Eddystone Rock, off the Devon/Cornwall coast near Plymouth in England.

Flying DJI’s Inspire 2 above open water at least 10 miles offshore in both cases, requires a drone team of at least two, hand taking off & hand catching while carefully anticipating the sea’s swell to avoid accidents or injury. Compass calibration problems quickly set in too, with the dreaded ‘Cannot Take Off’ error message requiring calibration before each flight & with the drone being held as high as possible to avoid the boat’s metal surfaces. The pilot has to make sure that the home point is dynamically set to follow the controller, & both pilot & camera operator have to contend with the extra queasiness which comes from shifting vision to drone, to screen & back again, all the while trying to avoid queasiness becoming full-blown seasickness!