Latest / Drone As The Future / Lights! Camera! Action! Drone! W/ Patrick Weir of PeaceMaker Filmworks | Episode 15

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Lights! Camera! Action! Drone! W/ Patrick Weir of PeaceMaker Filmworks | Episode 15 · Drone As The Future

• Patrick Weir (00:00) He brought it in and he crashed it on the first day that he was there. Mark Masterton (00:04) Which players all the time. Today on the Drone as the Future podcast, we get the pleasure of talking with Patrick Weir of Peacemaker Filmworks. He tells his story going from the reality television gold mining in the Yukon to flying around and above the stars of Hollywood North. An early adopter of drone technology, Patrick tells us how drones have taken him all over the world, including recording the Oh. Tune in to our conversation that takes off now. Drone as the Future is made in partnership with Drone as a Service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with droneaservice.com. well, Patrick, thank you so much for coming on the Drone as a Future Podcast. Patrick Weir (00:49) Hey, no worries. Thanks for having me. This place is really cool. It's neat that you guys are doing this like in Vancouver in person too. Mark Masterton (00:55) We we love an in-person podcast. Yeah, yeah. Um you are the perfect trifector of interests for us because uh we're all massive fans of movies here. cool. Um massive fans of cinematography, and of course we do a podcast all about drones. So we've been wanting to get you on for a while. really? You're a big deal, is all I'm trying to say. Patrick Weir (01:17) site but yeah. It's really neat that you have this like going in Vancouver in in person and kind of bi weekly thing. I think it's I think it's really cool what you guys are doing for the industry. So thanks for having me on. Mark Masterton (01:26) Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we've met some very, very interesting folk along the way and I'm very excited to dig into drones in the movies with you. Um how did you find yourself as the uh premier drone pilot in Vancouver? 'Cause you're top of the tree really. And how how did it all begin? Did you start off as a young boy wanted to be a a drone filmmaker? How did you get to wherever you are? Patrick Weir (01:49) W when I was younger the drones weren't they weren't around so I kind of it really like a lot of it was timing. Yeah. Um I started out um working in like reality television. Um so my big break, my first big thing that I did was Gold Rush. Um and I joined that show like right at the end of season two. Um and basically Mark Masterton (02:13) Sorry, forgive my yeah, my ignorance. What was gold? Patrick Weir (02:15) So Gold Rush is a reality TV show where a bunch of guys go looking for gold and they can't find anything and they've they've been doing it for like twenty years now. and they and they just keep doing the kind of running the same storyline over and over again. But what's really cool about it is it's um you know, it's an interesting story told well um through through the cinematography. So they um they take a really boring kind of subject matter um and just make it look as cool as it can. Um And so I joined I joined that show kind of in a temporary role, uh, doing minicams, so doing GoPro stuff for them. Okay. Kind of put GoPros in really kind of extreme places around heavy machinery. Oh, cool. So it's all it's all like goal like, you know, big excavators and dump trucks and that kind of stuff. Yeah. Um, and uh so I started out in that role with them and then kind of got really into the DP role with them, which is different. It's a British production company that films up in the Yukon. Um Mark Masterton (03:11) Okay. Patrick Weir (03:13) And they have a totally different kind of way of doing DP and director. Yeah. Mark Masterton (03:18) Different hierarchy. Patrick Weir (03:19) So they they rotate DPs like all the time. Um like every couple weeks, sort of thing. Um, so I'd go in and and do some of that stuff and we would use um what are they called? Like a cherry picker. Like a a genie lift. yeah yeah. so I'd put like the camera on a genie lift and it and and be trying to get these shots around wash plants and around big heavy equipment machinery. um And in the background I was flying, you know, single blade, remote control helicopters just for fun. So that was like just a hobby that my brother was into. So I was into it. My older brother did it. So I wanted to do it. And um and z when the drone thing came, I watched a video from Tab Furchau, who's the um the founder of uh Free Fly now. Oh, cool. But he he put out a little video j just showing how you could shoot like through trees and how you could fly kind of slowly through like a snowy forest. And I was like, Well, okay, that that's me. Um and so the guy that I was kind of filling in for doing the minicamp stuff brought the like the first drone that I'd ever seen to set on there. Mark Masterton (04:28) What was that? Patrick Weir (04:28) ah it was called the eighty A D eight. and it was Mark Masterton (04:34) Pre DGI times. Patrick Weir (04:35) yeah, yeah, yeah, pre DJI. Um and it was probably well, I mean DJI was around, but they weren't making consumer stuff yet really. Yeah. Um Mark Masterton (04:44) What could you do with that? Patrick Weir (04:46) And so well he he brought it in and he crashed it on the first day that he was there. which really opened the door for me because I I you know, and you could tell like it broke his heart because you know, he'd invested all of his money into it and and and went down this rabbit hole of like getting into drones. And this was like super early days where they had this different flight mode on there. It doesn't exist anymore for a good reason. Um And I can't remember what it was called, but basically like it's like it drew like a grid in front of you and behind you. And so forward was always forward on that grid and and sideways and left was always that way on that grid. But when it which is fine if it's facing you in a certain direction. Okay. But when it would go behind you, it's now no longer like relative to the position of the craft. It's relative to like where it took off from. Okay. And it just gets super disorienting, obviously, and doesn't worked very well. So yeah. So I don't I don't like fault him for like crashing with that. But you know, like basically on his first day that happened and I was like, hey, can you rebuild this and put this flight mode on it so that I can try to fly it like my single blade helicopters? And he did. He took a huge gamble on it. And um then we had like a two week test with Gold Rush and that turned into like just the rest of my career basically from from then on. It just sort of spiraled. Mark Masterton (06:04) No way. So the the it was a broken drone and then you came in with a different idea to sort of fix it and then Patrick Weir (06:11) Yeah, it was just like can we just fly this thing manually? Yeah. And have it be like a normal flight control. Is that a possibility? And and it was. So he was trying to it was like a it was supposed to be an easier way to fly. Um and it just it wasn't it doesn't Mark Masterton (06:26) So you were like in the perfect place at the perfect time. You had all that single blade experience and you brought it to your cinematography and then and also unique that it was like a different hierarchy on set where by they s switched by the D switched out the DOPs. Is that not the usual case? Patrick Weir (06:41) Uh well it I mean here like, you know, if if you're working on a big movie or a big T V show, you got, you know, one maybe on a big TV show you'll have like a couple DPs that that work. Um Gold Rush is way more just kind of cycling through every six weeks. They would they would bring on n a whole new crew. Wow. Um and I was living up there in the Yukon at the time. I moved up there to just kind of stay with it. Um so I ended up staying the whole way through the seasons. So I did like four or five seasons like that where I was just like living full time in the Yukon, which was actually the perfect training ground for learning to fly drones. Um, because there's nobody there. So if something goes wrong, nobody's gonna see it. Um you're in the middle of nowhere you can't really hurt anybody 'cause everybody's in a big metal steel cage and there's just rocks around. Yeah. Um and you got big subject matter to to shoot. So like big rock trucks and big excavators is like a cool thing from a drone to start with. So we really and also there wasn't there's no it's not a narrative. So there's no um you know, there is a storyline, but our job was just go get cool shots and then they put it together later in the edit. And so you know, every day for ten hours we'd go and shoot all of our batteries and just keep shooting, shooting, shooting and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Mark Masterton (07:54) my god, that's like the perfect playground to learn how to play a dr Patrick Weir (07:57) Drone and then early on we we picked up a DJI sponsorship right when they came out. Uh-huh. and they it was like a just a gift from heaven because we didn't have a lot of money. We weren't like the a big company that was doing this. It was literally just the minicam guy who invested in it and then and and they didn't have like huge rentals at the time. So we weren't really making money. We couldn't really afford to be crashing and you know, and it was expensive at that time to keep it running, keep it going. Yeah. But when DJI through us that sponsorship, they just gave us two of everything they made and every time we crashed they sent us another one. So we just had like an unlimited playground to learn, which was cool. Mark Masterton (08:37) You're like the Tony Hawk of drones. Patrick Weir (08:39) Well, Mark Masterton (08:40) So I'm I'm likening it to a sponsorship, but Patrick Weir (08:43) Well it was just yeah, they g I we're not sponsored by them anymore, but it started becoming not as good of a deal later on, um, when they wanted us to just make like, you know, Osmo mini videos and stuff. I was like, Okay, I really don't want to do that but Mark Masterton (08:54) That's that's amazing. What a trajectory. Um where do you think drones belong in um in movies? They've uh I mean everybody's kinda used to it now. They they see a big establishing shot in a in a show and years ago that was like, Whoa, and now it's like, Okay, yeah, we're in Bangkok. Yeah, cool. That's a awesome shot. But um where do you think drones belong in in movies? Patrick Weir (09:20) They definitely yeah, they they've definitely secured their place. I mean, it's it's rare that you'll find a movie or a TV show that doesn't use drones now. They use them differently. Um there are people who there are shows and productions that are much smarter with their drone units. And then there's kind of the more traditional way of using them, which doesn't really fit as much. Um so basically And I think TV's ahead of movies this way. Like I I think the big the big TV shows have figured this out. Um how to use them. Um but you know, you'll have a hundred and twenty people on set, hundred and fifty people on set, and they're all working towards making three or four minutes of of TV. Yeah. And then they'll send us off with a car and, you know, a couple stunt drivers and a stunt coordinator and a locked area, and we'll make six minutes of TV in the same day. So they understand that Hey, we can get way more out of this. Yeah. Um, the movies, especially the big movies, it's still it's still like very much a grind um where you're just you're basically like D camera. Like you're you're you're lowest on the totem pole. Don't get anybody else's shot. Just do the big high wide thing. Yeah. Um every now and then a a movie comes out and wants to take a big chance and do something really cool. Um, and I love those those those opportunities, but I find them happening more in the high budget T V. Mark Masterton (10:49) Okay, interesting. Interesting. And is there um dangers that they help to um avoid on set? 'Cause set's gonna be such a dangerous place. We have to get insurance all the time all the deal and especially the shots that you're doing are really quite quite risky. But are there are there things that have become safer with in the world 'cause of drones? Patrick Weir (11:09) Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. um A big stunt sequence used to be you know uh well b Peacemaker Phoneworks started as an ARM car company. Um I joined them later on. Yeah. but Mark Masterton (11:25) Based car for anybody who might not know. Patrick Weir (11:28) Yeah, so an arm car is like a they have an SUV with a big crane on the top of it and they put themselves right into the mix. so they shoot most car commercials, car chases and that kind of thing. It's a very expensive specialty piece of equipment. Mark Masterton (11:39) They're fully like blacked out, aren't they? So they can be in the background. Patrick Weir (11:42) Yeah, they look super cool. Um, and they're and they're, you know, they're A Cam when you're on set. Like that's definitely like that's that's where the A Cam focus puller is going. That's where all the big big dogs are in that car when they go. And when that thing's on set, it's priority. Um, and it used to be that that would be the best place to get a stunt from. Um, but it's dangerous. You got five people in the car, um, and something goes wrong and it and it goes really wrong in that in that car. Um, so you've got the best people in the world that are like operating that machinery, but it's still a risk. And as a result, you're still ten feet ten, fifteen feet further back than the drone is. Right. Um, to the explosion or the car flip or whatever. The safety. You know, so the the the the drone can get in there, um and and be somewhere that a human just can't, which is cool. Mark Masterton (12:30) Super useful. Um so now watching TVs and movies, do you do you watch them slightly differently? I mean Patrick Weir (12:39) It's really hard for me to watch TV. Mark Masterton (12:42) um we've got quite a few filmmakers in our team and we're always like watching it and be like, how did they do it? But for you you must see an established screenshot be like, huh. So which which camera did they use? Which drone did they use? What how was it like for you now watching like White Lotus or something? Patrick Weir (12:58) I love white lotus. It's great. Yeah. White lotus is well. Mark Masterton (13:00) Or or any show in general. I mean, they're so ubiquitous now, aren't Patrick Weir (13:03) Yeah, I don't know. I mean, for me it's like um I mean it's so cliche, but the whole like story is king thing, um it doesn't like apply as much in my world. Uh it's for me it's really just people like to look at a pretty picture and it's up to the director to put some story in there that makes sense. Um and but we're we're trying to make it look as beautiful as possible. When I'm watching T V I'm looking for the strongest story possible. When I'm consuming it myself. Um, and when it's just beautiful and those and it doesn't have that, I just fall asleep. Like John Wick and stuff, like it's cool, it's awesome, but I I get halfway through and I'm asleep on the couch and my wife's waking me up to go to bed. So it's not like I don't know, it doesn't it's Mark Masterton (13:53) That's that's me when Patrick Weir (13:54) really hard to watch T V. Yeah. Mark Masterton (13:55) Yeah. Yeah. I I feel your pain. I feel your pain, especially when I'm watching like the big like action sequence in a Marvel movie. Patrick Weir (14:03) It's cool and everything. Mark Masterton (14:05) I'm out. Yeah, it's it's amazing for like two minutes and then I'm like, Okay. Yeah. They've done that for five minutes now and I'm asleep. Um Yeah. Um I mean you alluded to earlier with the how you got into the industry. It was through uh an accidental crash um from your colleague there. You with at Peacemaker, you're throwing incredibly expensive bits of gear in the air, red cameras. I mean red cameras probably not even the most expensive gear you're throwing up. But has there been a learning uh Would you be daring enough to share any times where it's the riskier ones or learnings on the way? Patrick Weir (14:42) It's interesting, like of the incidents that I've had on set, and there have been a few, you know, it you do this long enough, it's it's just gonna happen. Yeah. Um, but the incidents on set that I've seen have been almost entirely technically technical glitch related. Yeah. It's not really like it's not the stunt that goes wrong. Yeah. Ever. It's it hasn't yet happened in that way. Um it's it's you know Some return to home function didn't work properly and you know, and and it's like or some communication error with the drone or something like that that's that's gone wrong. Yeah. And and honestly, it's been again, uh a while since those problems have have crept into what we're doing. Um, but you know, it's salt water in your GPS puck that resets it or something like that you can't predict problem, you know? Like a drone when your drone flying on set, it's it's all problem solving. Yeah. It's like you're you you have this objective, this goal to get a cool shot, but your job is really to solve all of the problems in the way of getting to that cool shot. And with drones it's just multiplied. Like you have to be a really good troubleshooter. Mark Masterton (15:52) Can you explain a little bit about the the preparation that goes into the incredible shots that you make? Not only are they safe, but they're also incredible shots. How what's the process from idea to the great things that you make? Patrick Weir (16:07) Yeah, and it again, it totally varies from show to show how much preparation there is. You know, a lot of the time I'll do a car commercial and there's no scout and we just show up and what are we doing today? You know? And it and on big movies sometimes too. That's the way it is. And then on other shows they they get right into it and and we previs everything and go right down the rabbit hole. Yeah. Which is the way I like to do things. Um I've got a whole uh process that I do that not a lot of other people I think are doing. Um with that, and I use um a piece of software called Google Earth Studio. Oh, cool. Um and what it lets you do is basically use Google Earth, but um you can put keyframes in the way that you would with After Effects. Mark Masterton (16:52) wow. Patrick Weir (16:53) Um and then you can you can put different lens widths in. So you can have like a, you know, you can match you have to look it all up. It's all kind of like janky. You don't, it's not like, oh, put a 24 mil on. It's like you know, your field of view that you have to calculate with your sensor size and all this stuff. Yeah. But you can basically um, you know, pre-vis a drone shot in an area that's been like 3D mapped with a city. Wow. Um and that's my favorite way to go about it is to like if somebody's willing to sit down with me and go through that process um for half an hour, then then we'll we'll make some really cool stuff on the day. And obviously we can change it on the day you get there and something's a little different. The lights pinging off this window and it looks better that way. So you change it up. But I really like going in with a previs that's based on like the actual reality of the place. Mark Masterton (17:37) Yeah. Yeah. Um it it reminds me actually of when we were doing uh drone footage for the vertical that we shot um crossing the street. Our drone pilot Ron we I was just chatting to him about I I think you could take off here and I think I think maybe we could land there. And he was like, uh hold on, let me just pull up Google Earth and got on Google Earth and then started looking at three D map. I like, Yeah, that's exactly the car pack. Yes. Yeah. Uh it's so it was so useful and so like um took all the anxiety out of it 'cause we knew exactly what the plan was. We're gonna go around that way and do this and Yes. Great to be prepared for those for those kinds of things. Patrick Weir (18:10) Well, like and and those are the kind of things that can really like prevent a huge incident or something on set too. Um you know won't say the name of the movie it was, but working on a very large movie a couple of years ago and we didn't go through that process. And you know, you've got quite literally like a thousand people watching that come because there's some big star there. So they're and they're all blocked off on a certain area of road and the cops are holding them back and the drones up in the air. And it's downtown and it's you know, and then over the radio comes like, go back further, go back further. And you're like, Well, now I'm over. If I do that, I'm here. I've check made it. So we can't. Yeah. And then trying to work through that problem is like an unnecessary one because had we just looked at it, yeah, we would have been able to set that lock up a little differently and and prevented that. So I'm always a always a fan of looking at those kind of things ahead of time. Mark Masterton (19:07) Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, I've got utmost respect for how you can pull off these shots in like downtown Vancouver and these highly populated areas as well. It must come from years and years of training knowing that you've got this. Patrick Weir (19:21) Honestly, like if you start thinking about it too much, it just do it all comes unglued. Like you have to just kind of take it like you know, it's like a bandwidth problem. You just if you try to like look at it all at once, it's it's not gonna it's you're gonna stress yourself right out. But if you just slow down for a second, take it piece by piece and analyze each request before doing it, then you can usually end up in a place where it works for everybody. But you have to take that time. Mark Masterton (19:52) Yeah. I think one of the initial um problems that I encountered when flying a drone to make my own films was that I was the one guy flying it and then also trying to compose a shot and that led to, you know, incidents and stuff. Um the way that you guys work is it with the multiple, it's uh you have a a DOP and then you have a pilot as well working alongside. How does it work? Patrick Weir (20:15) Yeah, so I work with um primarily well, I work with two camera operators most of the time, Tommy Douglas and Chris Wiseman. And um and I've worked with many other awesome camera operators in the past, but but today that's mostly who I'm working with. And they they only do that. So they're even more specialized than me 'cause it's like they're you know, they're the camera on the drone side of things and they're and they know what they're doing. in a big way, but it's really a it's a dance between the two of you to figure out what the best shots are. So I've got my FPV monitor that I'm looking at, um, but I also have the the shot. And so a lot of the time I'm looking for I'm trying to figure out how to put the drone in the in the best place possible. Um one of the things just a bit of a sidebar to that that like frustrates me like crazy is everybody has a drone that single up drone that they can use now. And so like a lot of the time on these scouts, we won't go because of whatever they don't want to pay or whatever. Yeah. Some locations person will come out and use their drone, which is cool, to get a shot. But then all of a sudden all the storyboards, everything gets around built around that style of shooting. Right. Instead of the dual style. Yes. Mark Masterton (21:30) Yes. Patrick Weir (21:30) And so like, yeah, I really feel like where we differentiate ourselves is like having that dance with the camera operator. Yeah. Where we're you know, trying to both do something. You know, I'll be like yesterday I was like weaving um car two two cars going quickly this way and I'm like trying to weave around it and do like an Sor keep banging the mic trying to do like an S band around ah you know two two cars that are racing but like the camera's gonna be orbiting and landing on like the front windshield. And if you try to do that with one person, you're hitting something for sure. Yeah. You know, you're you're not gonna do that. So I really think that like That style of shooting is what means that like every camera operator can't just bring a drone out and do it. You have to like have that knowledge of how two work together. Mark Masterton (22:17) Absolutely. And you you're able to push the boundaries too, not just wet what's safe and what can I do within my abilities. Like you you pros, you've been doing this forever and you can figure out much cooler shots, I'm sure. Um the the world of drones, it's it's changing all the time. There's new tech coming in, every new production, there's a there's a new lens, there's a new a new design. Um what bit of tech has changed since you've gone into the drone space that's excited you the most? or that's pushed pushed it forward the most. Patrick Weir (22:49) Well, the two drones that I fly today mostly are the Free Fly Alta X, which is the for the heavy lift, and the Inspire three. And both of those when they came out, like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty-ish, um, were like groundbreaking. They both they both provided two totally different things. What I love about the Alta X is is its flight dynamics and characteristics and obviously it can lift all the heavy stuff. Yeah. The big cameras. So but I really ex it excites me how that thing flies. Um Mark Masterton (23:19) In what way? Patrick Weir (23:21) It's kinda so when you're flying a Mavic or something like that and you're flying full speed this way, um, you hit the brakes and it's gonna it's gonna stay level. Um and what that does is it increases your braking distance from the thing that you're going to. And if you break and go up, you're still increasing that braking distance. It won't it won't leverage the this plane of like a Mark Masterton (23:51) Yeah. Patrick Weir (23:52) Yeah. And so basically, um, you know, the the X flies a little bit more like a wing. Um so when you're chasing something that's going really fast and something un unscheduled happens and you need to get out of there, yeah, you can pull back and it'll lift up like a plane. Oh wow. Like and and and stop really hard that way. Like in you know, if you're if you're both going a hundred kilometers an hour, the X will stop like three times faster than the than the fireball. Mark Masterton (24:20) Game changer on set, I imagine. Patrick Weir (24:22) Yeah. Big time for me, for what I'm doing. Yeah. but the inspire has like really cool stuff that that doesn't. Like you know, I'm mostly flying line of sight. When I'm flying the Ulta X, I'm almost I'm almost always just looking at the drone. Right. I've got an FPV feed and I have my backpack that has the other feed as well and Mark Masterton (24:40) I've seen that backpack. Very cool looking, you look very space age. Patrick Weir (24:43) I use it but like honestly like I'm mostly just looking at the drone and where it is. Yeah. Um where the Inspire three I'm flying it in a totally different way. You know, I'm all cross eyed looking one at the FPV screen and one at the other one and and I'm mostly just in the monitor because it's got such a rock solid video link. Wow. Um that just yeah, that excites me. It's cool. Mark Masterton (25:03) Yeah, I watched uh a very cool breakdown of the drones that you fly with with Peacemakers um on Instagram. Very, very interesting. how they all are fit for different purposes. And then you alluded to like how flying in Vancouver is a constant challenge with the weather. Yeah. Uh the rain. I mean, we've got lots of studio space here, but when you are shooting outdoors, rain is rain is an issue, but not when you have a rain spinner. Patrick Weir (25:28) That we've actually moved away from rain spinners and and into blowers. So we've Mark Masterton (25:34) Okay. Patrick Weir (25:35) got new new tech there. Um the people that make the rain spinner are from Germany and they have a worldwide patent and it is super expensive. Uh it's eleven thousand dollars for a rain spinner and a piece of glass is like three grand or something like that. Wow for the spinning glass that goes on the front that we have to buy all the time because they get pitted up with rocks. So it just and it and and it does it honestly doesn't work that well. Um and we've tried building our own and they're just they're really hard about their patents. Um so we we have the entire industry has moved over to blowers now. Thank you. So it's like a air knife, basically. It's um Mark Masterton (26:13) Sounds cool. Patrick Weir (26:14) Yeah, so they have like a it's like a small little motor that uh like a little mini compressor onboard basically and it and it shoots air in front of the lens and to just keep it clean. Mark Masterton (26:24) God. And and is that doing that on a timer or constantly? Patrick Weir (26:28) On all the time. We got a remote, you can turn it on or off, but we just leave it on if it's raining. Wow. Mark Masterton (26:32) Yeah. And and what that allows you to go up in the rain and not worry about anything on the lens. Patrick Weir (26:39) Yeah. You still like bag the camera and you still have to, you know, make sure that you're not gonna destroy all the stuff. But um but yeah, it's it's it's really cool tech. It works really well and everybody's moved over to that. Like nobody's using the spinners anymore, which is pleases me. Those guys were gouging way too hard for what it was. Mark Masterton (26:57) It force you to innovate and look at you now. Drone as the future is made in partnership with Drone as a service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with droneasaservice.com. Let's let's take a look at your resume. It's stacked. You've been on all these amazing films, Ghostbusters, Sonic, Deadpool, uh amazing movies. Um what what's been One of your most favourite projects to work on and and why was it so fun to work on? Patrick Weir (27:32) Well, Peacemaker has started doing our own little short film not short films, full scale films. Cool. And and we've been partnering with other production companies to do them where uh it's a small little unit and we we basically do the second unit, but we handle the whole thing. So we're not just it's not we're not just the director or the D P, we are also like the whole production company behind it. Wow. So and and splitting it up. So the narrative goes to those guys and we do this side of it. And we've been doing a few of those lately that are super fun because then we just get to party the way that we do things. And the owner of the company is the Ryan Ennis, he's the director of these of these things. And it's really um just like a totally different way of shooting. You know, we got so much done in a day and we've done some really, really cool stuff. Mark Masterton (28:28) Um are they like storylines that really utilize drones in in a in an interesting way? Yeah. Force it into the story even more. Patrick Weir (28:33) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we're we're really early on in the production with it. Yeah. Um we just completed one that I don't know what the name is gonna be of it yet, because it's just a code name. Okay. Mark Masterton (28:47) That's fine. Patrick Weir (28:47) But we did one. There's a scene in that with um with uh two drones. Like the drone is like a character in in the movie. Um and we were flying like an older Ulta Six, um, because we have a bunch of them. And so we were just like, how are we gonna How we're gonna use these and and rally with them. Yeah. but we did uh the drone is like a an enemy drone that's like trying to take these guys out on on a dirt bike or something, little ATV thing. Wow. And they're ripping through the woods and and we had two drones kind of chasing each other at night with lights on So Mark Masterton (29:22) My god. Patrick Weir (29:22) like a drone with a light, filming a drone with a light, um so that you could see the drone with the light. Wow. And and and just Shredding like FPV style through the forest. So that kind of thing is just like that's where I that's like the most fun, you know. And it's and it's just us. We're in the woods. The owner of the company is the director. So if you crash, whatever, you just pick it up, the other one, and go. And you know, like, and we actually crash one like on purpose for that in that show. Yeah. So it's he like throws a stick at it and it falls out of the sky. So that kind of thing is where I have the most fun. That and then like I have a lot of fun on episodic TV that has taken big Chances with us. They know us now, and they basically let us go and do that. So Mark Masterton (30:02) Amazing. Patrick Weir (30:03) a lot of the medium-sized things. We used to do a lot of tracker when they shot here. So that was like one of our main things that we were doing. And we were doing the whole second unit basically. Like every time he's in a car or doing any kind of action, anything, like that was us. And um, that was a lot of fun too. But th those types of projects are are almost more fun than the big movies. I always say like I like the big movies, but the reason that I like them is because they get me everything else. Yeah. So I do the big movies because it gets me the other stuff, but it's not actually as much fun. Right. 'cause you're part of a way bigger machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and you're doing you're doing one thing in a day, like one shot. So slow. Mark Masterton (30:48) So much money. Uh as Clooney would say, one for them, one for one for me. Um yeah, um, so how how does it uh work when say director what's how does the process start? Director wants to include a drone shot in their movie, do they reach out to you? Um do they ideally do a Google Earth walkthrough? Um what's the step-by-step process into I'm I'm a director and I want a drone shot in my movie. I I think he should be cool. Um ha what is that? Patrick Weir (31:22) Yeah. I mean a lot of the times it's kinda written into the script now. A lot of the writers are uh writing that in. Right. Um swooping aerial or whatever. Right. And and then that just ticks a box, the production manager gets that. Mark Masterton (31:34) It's like a stone sequence, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Patrick Weir (31:36) So like yeah, exactly. Like and and we'll just we'll just get that call usually from the PMs that are kind of booking it in advance, making sure that we're available so they'll hold us like way far out for because they know that on that day there's gonna be like a swooping aerial shot. Right. And then um we go on a tech survey. So ideally we'd go on a tech survey and look at look at it in the flesh and then in a ultra ideal world we'd do the Google map thing as well and look through that. Um But yeah, it really it really varies from set to set and D P to D P. It's a lot of working with the D P right um to come up with the best the best way to do things. Mark Masterton (32:16) Who's who's your favourite D P to have worked with in the past who's who's really fun to who gets what you're going for? Patrick Weir (32:22) Hmm. Just worked. I'm I have like a bit of a goldfish memory for names and stuff. So it's usually like in recent memory. A Mark Masterton (32:31) It could be the mortal. Patrick Weir (32:32) lot of really cool DPs. Like a lot of really, really cool DPs. Um that that totally get it. Um Paul Mayers, I think his name is the last name. Paul Mayers. He got it. He really understood. And he wanted to do heavy lift. Um, so that's why my back's all messed up, because we just did a big heavy lift job with him and it was on a car commercial. Cool. But it's like we just knew he just knew how he knew not just how drones work, but the difference between the heavy lift and the inspire. And he wanted the heavy lift and he wanted that style and he pushed that style to to its limits, which was cool. Nice. So I really like I really like it when we do work with those types of people. Mark Masterton (33:13) Is there um a particular shot uh on a drone in in cinema that you've seen that really inspired you and you thought, yeah, that's pushing the story forward. I really like that. I I hope we in as John cinematographers can head in that direction. That's cool as adding to the story. Totally. Is there in a shot like that that jumps out at you that you've seen in recent years that you thought, yeah. Patrick Weir (33:36) Yeah, for sure. There's I mean, there's a bunch. Um but Children and Men was a huge one. I remember watching that in theaters and being like, Whoa, when that shot came and just noting how long it went on for um the way they come out of the woods or whatever and run and attack the car and stuff. And then and I remember like when that BTS dropped, I was like, No way, they're actually gonna tell us how they did it? Like, no way. That's cool. Like that's that got me into like the BTS side of things too, 'cause it's like It's really cool when they when a when a show does something really hard and then just spills all the beans and tells you how they did it. I love that. Yeah. You know, we do it all the time on Instagram but we kinda get in trouble for it sometimes. Mark Masterton (34:15) No, I love that. I I think I almost enjoy the BTS more than the actual movie sometimes. Uh it it happened to me recently when we were watching Adolescent. Patrick Weir (34:23) Mm. Mark Masterton (34:24) I thought the way they captured that was just staggering. Uh and then obviously where they got that drone handoff shot at the end of I'm not sure which episode it was, but um yeah, just amazing storytelling, so so cool. And then it was filmed where I come from in England. When I was listening to a podcast with Roger Deakins and they're talking to the people who pulled it off, I'm like, yeah. Go. Patrick Weir (34:45) Nice. Mark Masterton (34:47) Um but yeah, it was you've you've done that too, the the the passing off the gimbal to the drone. How does that work? How do you do that? You did it further. Forget Patrick Weir (34:55) think we did it first, yeah. Mark Masterton (34:56) adolescence. Patrick Weir (34:57) I don't know. No, I mean I don't they did a great job with it and they and and that's what it takes is like a director or a DP to like decide we're doing this and they have to know that it's possible. Mark Masterton (35:07) How does how does it work on a on a set? I mean, it it looks very complex when you see it happen. Patrick Weir (35:13) Um yeah, so basically um you've got a guy that is gonna ruin his back. Um holding holding a Movi. We we do it with the Movi and Alta eight because it's a little lighter. Yeah. Um it would be too hard with the Alta X setup to do that, uh holding it up above your head like this for that long. Mark Masterton (35:35) How much does that weigh the the the thing altogether? Patrick Weir (35:38) I mean fifty five pounds. Yeah. So it's it's heavy. Um but the uh Alta eight's a little lighter um and gets a little more done with a smaller package. So we we use that a lot of the time to um to do those shots. But basically we've got a movie on a ring, um and and then the drone can either be off of it and then we clip it on or on it and then we clip it off, or we just leave it on. And yeah, a lot of the time I find it's better to just leave it on. The guy carrying it not so much. But I like to just leave it on. we've done a few of these. We did um we we we did a big one for a Netflix show recently and um just tons of rehearsal, getting it to that point and and then like you know, you lift off at the end of it and try to have it be one big go. Yeah. But yeah, it's you know, it's you just have a guy under there who knows how drones work. Because you know, you can you fire the motors and and it takes a second for it to actually get lift. Yeah. And it's like a real dance with that person. Um, because they're holding it and they have to let go of it. But if they let go of it too soon, it'll fall on them. Um and if you let go of it too late, it'll j it'll jump out of their hands. Right. Right. So you have to it's really like that you have to find that yeah, that that motion that just works perfectly and that a lot of that just, you know, comes down to doing it ten times in a row and then doing it for real. We just whenever we do it on set, we'll we'll say, Okay, we need to we'll be in the spot and I'll just go up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down a bunch with the with the guy who's doing it and make sure that it's and we got good comms, he's got a helmet on, gloves. Yeah. You know, do it s safe as possible. Mark Masterton (37:24) He you guys are the absolute experts coming in and doing that under pressure for the take. I was in awe of that those adolescence people thinking that they did two takes the whole day and then it was like take two I think the drone one worked better let's go with that one. I was like my goodness me after shooting for an hour get that right I'm like Patrick Weir (37:45) Did one for like a French internet company. Um, and this was like the hardest, craziest one that I ever pulled off. But it's like, I don't think I ever posted it, but we posted like the BTS from it. Um, but it it it's like a wide shot of a neighborhood. Um, and then it like rushes up to this garage that's like opening, and then there's like a person like working in their home garage. Um, and but to to pull it off, we actually had Ryan, the owner of Peacemaker, was on a segue. uh rig and he's like shredding in behind it at like thirty K. I'm in a car behind it and and following it in and then would like catching it moving was like crazy. And then goes into the into the park into the garage. It was nuts. Yeah. And I was just like, yeah, having that timing that out was crazy. Mark Masterton (38:37) Wow, committed to the cause, shredding on a segue, thirty kilometers an hour. That's Patrick Weir (38:42) The guy who started Peacemaker as a stunt guy, he's been doing it for like thirty years or something and he's uh you know, been in like several crazy car crashes on set and flips and motorcycle stunts and you know, all the big all the big crazy movie stunts. So he's got a couple screws loose and whenever we need to do something really hard like that, I'm like, how about you catch it? Mark Masterton (39:02) Mean when that guy's your bus, I mean the world's your oyster. Um, people often brag about uh locations that they go to on this podcast through their drone piloting. Um, what's the most cool place you've been with a drone and Patrick Weir (39:19) Yeah. It's definitely like one of the best parts of the job. For sure. Yeah. You end up in, you know, beautiful not not just you're in a beautiful place, but you're there with beautiful weather at the perfect time. Yeah. Like you're there has to be. You're there at sunset. You're there when it's like just perfect. Yeah. Um but yeah, I mean, I used to do a lot more international travel when I started because it was like way more of a niche thing. Yes. Um and so, you know, they just didn't have Drum pilots like anywhere in Africa. Like when I started, it was just not there was not a single person on the continent doing it for a very long time. Wow. For like the first five years. So I got um in the early days, I got to go to some really cool spots. I did when I first started dating who's now my wife, um, it was like really complicated because I was like, I'm gonna be in Guyana next week. So we'll gotta hang out now. And then um, I'm coming back, I'm gonna go to Alaska. And when I'm done with Alaska, I actually have to go to like the north. hole for a little while and then I'm gonna go to Tanzania. But wait for me, I'll be back, I promise. Mark Masterton (40:20) Your calendar must have been a nightmare. Yeah, it was Patrick Weir (40:22) It was wild, but I've gone really far Mark Masterton (40:25) Gifts though. Patrick Weir (40:26) I think I think that the f as annoying and cold and and miserable as it is up there, like the farther north you go, the really it gets super cool up there. You know all those little like islands at the top of Canada where there's like nobody knows where they are what they what's on them? Like they're really cool. Um they're just gorgeous. The next time you're flying to the you know, to the UK or whatever, like look look out the window when you're going over that. Yeah. It's crazy down there. It's another world. So I think that's probably top of the list for cool places. And there's just like all these unexplored hidden treasures over there. I was doing a show called Arctic Secrets. Uh-huh. And so we got into go look at a bunch of the cool stuff. One of them was like this ice cave that um is a glacier and there's a river that goes through it in the summer. Um and it's like eight kilometers long ice cave that you go in. So Mark Masterton (41:18) My god. Patrick Weir (41:19) we'd go in the at the top of it and it's pitch black and we just walked all the way in and it's like, you know, you're in the high Arctic. This was Devon Island. Um and you're under like a thousand feet of ice. Like it was like it's crazy. And you're in the in this thing that's in this tunnel that's like just like head high. And um You go you just keep going and going and going. And then you get to like bigger cavities. And that's where you could fly the drone in was in these like little bit bigger cavities that are in this thing. And um in the ice in these places, there's there's like it's been frozen for thousands of years. And there's plants that are behind the ice that you can see that have been frozen in situ. Like green white green water ice. It's it's so weird. You know, you're like you just feel like you're in a time capsule. You're like, this is like Whoa. That is Oh. Mark Masterton (42:16) Staggering. Wow. Patrick Weir (42:18) So that was pretty cool. Wow. Mark Masterton (42:20) That that yeah, that trumps all the other answers we've we've had. I I've gotta say that's that's amazing. Um can we talk about how you wound up filming The Pope? Patrick Weir (42:29) Hmm. Yeah. That's a fun one. Um, I got a phone call from through Instagram, really. Like Instagram, I've I mean, it's kind of n a necessary evil now. I used to use it a lot more in the early days to promote what I was doing. I got a kind of early traction with that. DJI helped with that, like because I was getting reposted from them and doing a lot of stuff through them. So um but yeah, like basically I got a phone call one day from um the Hatum, the owner of Chopper Shoot, just out of the blue, really just called me up and was like, Hey, I'm gonna be buying a uh free fly Ulta X and or Alta 8. I think I guess it would have been an eight at that time. And he's like, I I need somebody to come and train my guys how to use it. We only use the inspires right now. I need we need somebody to come and train me how to how how to use this. And by the way, we're filming the Pope. Um so can you do that as part of the shoot while you're here as well? And I was like Am I the cover guy for like this was the first time the Pope had ever been to um the Arabian Peninsula uh in the history of the Pope? So it was pretty, pretty cool uh opportunity going to check it out. But it was definitely um just the highest security profile thing that I'd ever done in my life. I mean, it was wild. The security level there was just, you know, guy comes up to you, takes a picture of you, um, and he's like, and I'm like, who are You. What's going on? What's going on? I need to know who you are. Like I need to like look up there and there and there. And there was like the flashes from the scopes up on the sea up on the buildings that were all around it. And I'm like, we need to know who's allowed to fly drones here and who isn't. Wow. I was like, I'm allowed to fly drones here. This is me. This is what I'll be wearing on the day. Mark Masterton (44:17) Wow. Patrick Weir (44:18) Yeah. Mark Masterton (44:19) It's normally uh never good luck drones either when you're in these situations going through passport control and stuff. Yeah, I'm the drone guy. Uh Patrick Weir (44:27) Yeah, and it was like all day. So we just flew like um we had a we had we just up down, up down, up down and and kept it in the air the entire time. So it was like six hours of just uptime. Wow. Especially flying over all those people and something goes wrong. Thousands of people. If you're gonna be on the headline of every newspaper in the world if something goes wrong there, Mark Masterton (44:49) And Patrick Weir (44:53) you know. Mark Masterton (44:54) Well, you made it out. Um Do you have any advice for anyone who's getting into the business? Uh a young, aspiring pilot who wants to get into the get into drones in Patrick Weir (45:09) It's it's it's an awesome job. And there's so many different like avenues that it can take you. So, you know, learning how to fly a drone for cinema might be the goal, but surely there's there's a million other places as you guys have explored where where that can take you. So definitely if like you're if you're into it, do it. Um when it comes to like film, make sure you're in it because you want to do it for the shots. Right. Like if you're if you're in it because you have You want to make cool shots and that's like you're dedicated to that. You do that long enough and you'll you'll find a home. But it's really like it's really hard uh at times. it's really it can be like really, really mentally difficult um to make it through the challenging personalities on film sets. Yeah. they're everywhere. I'm probably one of them. And it's just like you just have to keep your head down and just focus on making cool shots. Cause if it's if it's about money or if it's about like fame and glory and that kind of thing. Like it's you're just not gonna last. I've seen a lot of people kind of come through and end up not loving it anymore and and leaving it. It's really gotta be about making those cool shots. So make sure if you're doing it for film, make sure that that's the focus. Um 'cause it is it is kind of difficult in that world. But also fly F P V 'cause everybody should fly F P V. Yeah. So fun and so cool. Mark Masterton (46:28) I was gonna say FPV is really like becoming more and more a part of movies now. Why why is it such an exciting realm to be in? I I've seen the one you got of like the the the classic where it's dropping down the side of a shiny skyscraper, and I didn't realize that drops so fast because it's just gravity. It's crazy. Patrick Weir (46:49) It's so fun. Like, I mean, FPV is is if you wanna have fun flying and you wanna like you know, I always tell peop when people are like, what drone should I get as a first drone? Like, well, what are you doing this for? Do you wanna get cool pictures on your holiday? Then don't get an FPV drone. But but if you wanna if you if you wanna fly and you wanna like make cool shots, then get an FPV drone and learn how it works and figure it out because you got that's just it's so fun to fly. And I think everybody should. I came from skateboarding and snowboarding and Extreme sports, like I was always way more into that than I was like any kind of group sports or team sports. I love like individual action sports was my thing. And there's nothing that comes anywhere close to FPV flying for that. You it's your brain's doing the same thing as if you're going off a big jump or something. Like it's the same sort of feeling. You feel like you're there with the thing. You get to leave your body for a little while, which is really cool. When you come back, it takes you a second, take the goggles off and you just you know. But it's like Something you can do when you're eighty, you know. You can just keep doing it forever. And it's not that expensive. I mean, it's expensive, but not compared to golf or something. It's you know, it's not that bad. So I think I really feel like everybody should if you want to get into flying drones, you should learn to fly FPV. Not because it's gonna be used on set, actually, to be honest, it's less and less. Right. It used to be like it was like all the craze a few years ago, it was really getting a lot of traction. Yeah. And I feel like now it's a little bit of a tired look. Mm-hmm. 'Cause people are back to wanting two cameras and right. You know, like the the dual pilot thing. It just you can do more. Mark Masterton (48:23) Um, dr drones are getting smaller and smaller. Uh are you seeing them used inside more? Does does does how much of your work is inside now? Patrick Weir (48:33) it's still like ten percent. Yeah. But yeah. I mean we do we do in studio stuff, you know, we did um yeah, I've done stuff inside big film studios fairly often. Um, fly throughs and that kind of thing too, like where if they want to go really mini with it. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, you know that like bowling alley shot that everybody yes references like a million times? Um it's a sick shot. I think it's Super cool. Not to take anything away from that. It's just that like so many directors and DPs have come up to me and said, have you seen this shot? Like I wanna do I'm like, Okay, cool. Well, this is how they did it with a tiny little drone and a stripped down GoPro. And this is what we're the we're using. Like, no, no, we're gonna like a hundred and fifty thousand dollar camera on it. It's just big and it's like Okay, well then we're not gonna get that shot. Mark Masterton (49:15) That's not gonna work. Patrick Weir (49:18) We tried to go down that road a little bit and build something kinda like a ducted fan thing that could have a dual camera thing that could be used for that type of thing. Um but by the time we got it working the fad was over. A little bit. Mark Masterton (49:31) Well, you're you're you're prepared for all eventualities, uh all the drones that you can fly, I think. Um what would you like to see most from uh from a drone going forward? Um camera wise, flight wise, in the near future, what how would you like it to to develop? Patrick Weir (49:48) There is a company. they're called Utopia Labs. And it's I'm I love it. They're like six guys. They're in Palo Alto. They've got a blueprint grant for 150 grand. And they've made something that is like straight out of my six year old imagination. I remember when I was little, I would go on road trips down to um Florida from Ottawa and driving forever. And you're looking out the window, and I used to think of like, Little plane or this little thing that's like flying around on the side of the road. Yeah. Now it's like it's weird because that's kind of what I do. I stand in the back of a pickup truck and I fly this drone on the side of the road. And and it's like, weird. That's like what that was. Um, but these guys are building what I actually kind of saw, which is like this, it's uh using electric jets um instead of rotors. Oh um and and then uh thrust factoring to to control its direction. So yeah, look up. You uh you should try to get on the show. They're they're awesome. Utopia Labs. Utopia Labs, yeah. Mark Masterton (50:57) Just in a in a nutshell, what does it do? Patrick Weir (50:59) So basically what it is like uh it's an A frame uh aircraft and they're they're making it for to carry a person um in. Um but they have ducted jets, electric jets that shoot out the back and then they use some physics law to to to bend the air down. Right. With with a little um they basically take a at the end of the jet there's like a bendy piece. moves and that can change the vector of a jet. And and and that's how they're like landing rockets and stuff. Um but but they're using that same technology. So basically you can have these electric jets that push forward with a wing um but also can take off and land vertically. So Mark Masterton (51:46) Wow. Patrick Weir (51:47) when yeah, so a V toll. So V Toll I think has a lot of meat left on the bone. Yeah. Um I think that V toll is is is really like where we're going. There's a speed limit is the problem. With drones. There's a there's a natural speed limit that happens with the speed of sound. The blades, when they get too small and they're moving so fast, huh, then eventually they break the speed of sound with how you're moving, and then it can't go any faster. With an electric jet, you get around that. And um I've I've I want faster drones. They don't go fast enough. But everything everything I fly tops out at like a hundred, hundred and ten kilometers an hour. and this thing goes two seventy. Wow. Yeah, it's a totally different world. And I think that that's what I want to see more of is like just I feel like the propeller I feel like just straight propellers has reached a pinnacle. Uh-huh. I don't think we're gonna get much more out of it other than maybe battery tech that every couple of years, you know, somebody comes around and says, like in a few years batteries are gonna be totally different. Mark Masterton (52:53) That's so interesting. You kinda just get you kinda just narrow your mindset when you think of drone, you think propeller and then nothing more and that. But that is very interesting. Patrick Weir (53:02) Yeah, you should have these guys on. They're really cool too. And they're and they're and they're like so committed to not going military. Um, with everything that they're doing, they're very open about it. And they're very like, No, we're not doing that. We're building a flying car for people. It's gonna be cool. Um, and they're very open with their failures. They post their failures, they show it crashing and they show it but what they're doing is the right path. Mark Masterton (53:23) Nice. Yeah. Nice. And in terms of uh for the planet, not just in in movies and your dreams of going faster, but for the planet, what do you think drones would be best used for? Patrick Weir (53:33) Hmm. I mean, it's hard, right? We have to be careful that there isn't just drones in the sky all the time delivering packages and pissing everybody off. Cause that's it's annoying. And I get it. I'm a drone pilot. I've made my entire career off of it. But when I'm on vacation, I'm at the beach, it's like get out of here. Like don't don't be that guy. You know, like I just it's hard. Like it's like you don't you don't want them necessarily to be everywhere, but at the same time, they can do things that people just can't. You know, they're saving lives literally. I mean, yeah. You guys had on the search and rescue. Um and and and that was so cool. Like so inspiring to see people doing stuff like that with it. And I think that um just definitely like expanding that footprint is is where we should be going with it, unless package delivery. Maybe maybe package delivery for like, you know, hard to get to places. I think that could be really neat and and an interesting concept if you can make it, you know, part of but I don't think anybody wants them. Over their house all the time. Mark Masterton (54:32) Yeah. I've seen people pranking each other by sending potatoes and bottles of water to each other. I don't think that's a real efficient use of the tech. Um in the future do you see drones having cameras attached to them separately, or is it all going to be one part of the same thing? Patrick Weir (54:47) Yeah, I mean, I guess that's where Free Fly and DJI took totally to two two totally different approaches. Yep. the all in one system of the Inspire 3 is hard to ignore. It's really good. And once they've got it past quality control, they put a lot of money into getting it like Netflix approved and getting it on, you know. I think I've even done stuff that's end up on IMAX with it. So it's it's still like it's still like it's eight K. It's it's a great camera. Yeah. You know, but at the same time, it's like you just get kind of bottlenecked into like that's the only look that you can get out of it, where with the X you can get you can put all kinds of different lenses and different cameras and do really cool stuff with it. Um so I hope to just be able to continue doing both. Yeah. Yeah. I like the challenges of both. Like I like I like trying to find the limit with I think the problem is I think we're starting to find the limit with the inspire. Think we're almost there. Right. And uh I don't know if they're gonna put another one out because the whole US thing where they blocked DJI. So I don't know when the Inspire four is gonna come out and I'm not even gonna take a wild guess. Yeah. 'Cause Mark Masterton (56:00) Yeah. But GoPros are getting even tinier and smaller and cinematic and they can be attached to drones as well. I I don't know, you're the expert. I I'm not gonna tell you what's coming down the pipe. But um it's been wonderful having you on. Yeah, thank Patrick Weir (56:13) Yes. Mark Masterton (56:13) you. thoroughly, thoroughly excited for the the projects that you're making at Peacemaker with Filmworks. That sequence with the drone chasing the drone in the forest is giving me Star Wars andor vibes. It's pretty cool Patrick Weir (56:24) Cool, yeah, it's pretty fun to say. Mark Masterton (56:26) for that. Um but yeah, thank you so much for Patrick Weir (56:28) No, thanks for having me. Mark Masterton (56:29) Lifting the lid on the industry. It's very, very cool, and I'm excited to see what comes. Patrick Weir (56:33) Yeah, any time guys. Thanks. Mark Masterton (56:35) Drone as the future is made in partnership with Drone as a service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with drone as the service.com. Patrick Weir (57:12) Such an insightful guest. I was curious if there was a movie scene that you'd want to recreate with a drone, which one would it be? Ooh, good question. Do I have the Mark Masterton (57:28) Hold it up. I think that guy needs um needs a c a cough. Swede. He's got a sore throat. Patrick Weir (57:35) Something that I like a like a drone shot that has been done already that I wish I was a part of. Um was definitely the drone the drone work in nineteen seventeen I'm pretty jealous of. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Uh would have loved to be in that hot seat. Mark Masterton (57:51) Hey, who knows what's coming in the future? Patrick Weir (57:53) Yeah, that one that one was neat and then uh the Mission Impossible where he does the big bike jump too. Mark Masterton (58:00) yeah. Patrick Weir (58:00) That was one where I was like I think that was helicopter girls that pulled it off and and yeah, I was like, I wanna be there doing that one. Mark Masterton (58:07) You've had a pretty good run. You've had a place to all river. But yeah, who knows what's coming in the future. Thank you. This has been the Drone as the Future Podcast. Today's episode has been produced by Ryan Witten, junior produced by Juan Gutierrez, filmed by John Rawlinson, and features original music by Josh Santos. Thank you very much for tuning in, and if you'd like to follow along our journey, fly over to that subscribe button wherever you're listening so you can be updated to hear what flies ahead.