Teri Fikowski of Global Regina News was over at the Java Post Production office recently to interview our owner and certified UAV pilot, Jack Tunnicliffe, as part of her news series "The Rise of the Drones."

Here Jack shows Teri just some of the paperwork and flight plan diagrams that go into the aerial shoots we do with our "Javacopter." After proving ourselves over a number of individually-permitted aerial projects as safe and responsible UAV operators, Java Post Production was awarded a blanket permit from Transport Canada - called a Special Flight Operations Certificate, or SFOC - to operate UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, AKA "drones") commercially. Many people only think of these drones as toys, but to an operation such as Java Post Production, these are serious production tools, and they must be handled safely and responsibly.

With the Javacopter sitting on our boardroom table, Teri interviews Jack about Java Post's experience operating UAVs.

Jack expounds on the several years of experimentation, testing, and training that it took to get Java Post where it currently is with regard to flying drones. As we are a company of camera people to begin with, using a drone is just another way to position a camera to achieve the visual results we want. We think of it not so much as a remote-controlled helicopter...we think of it as a camera tripod or camera dolly that just happens to go a lot higher than normal.

To assist Teri as she recorded her on-camera promotion for her news series, we took the Javacopter over to the Global Regina studios. While Teri did her reporter stand-up to her usual ground-based cameraman, we circled overhead.

Jack (in the orange coat) pilots the Javacopter, while Trevor Bennett (holding the controller unit) operates the camera. Pilot and camera operator coordinate their respective movements to achieve the shots.

Teri later cut segments of our aerial footage into her news promo, which you can view here: http://t.co/IFKvzLHAfC

To watch a short sample of the aerial footage we took while Teri was recording her promo, click on the RELATED PROJECT video at the top of this post.