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Doug Armknecht is just too modest to brag about being a filmmaker. His background is as a pc scientist and software program engineer – however when he received into movie about 5 years in the past he utilized the identical scientific mindset to his artwork.
He initially started by filming the wheat harvest at his father-in-law’s farm, the place his spouse drives a mix throughout the season. Back in 2014, his father-in-law, Jhan LaRosh purchased him a drone; and since then the harvest has by no means been extra lovely.
“The wheat harvest has always been a focus for me,” says Armknecht. “When you’re in it, it’s hot and sweaty and dirty – but when you are above it, it’s totally different. The aerial perspective adds a whole new dimension.”
As a manned plane pilot, Armknecht already understood the airspace and received his Part 107 license simply. He is on his third drone now, upgrading because the expertise improves and honing his abilities as a pilot. “They’ve all survived,” he laughs. “I ran one into a barn, but other than that I haven’t had any mishaps. I was getting some great beauty shots and I tried to get a little bit closer, but I lost visual distance and heard that awful sound of the blades hitting the side of the barn.”
Filmmaking is “not my day job but something that I do for fun, and do enjoy… I put a lot of time into it,” he says. That time has paid off. He spent two years studying filmmaking earlier than getting a drone. Those years of creating abilities are necessary, says Armknecht: “If you have no background of photography or video or film, it’s much harder,” he says. “At the end of the day the drone is just a video camera that you put up in the air.”
Armknecht has achieved wheat harvest movies yearly on YouTube, however this 12 months determined to make the leap and enter a movie pageant. He edited his movie and received the farmer, father-in-law Jhan LaRosh, to do the voice over. The movie was accepted into the distinguished NYC Drone Film Festival and InterDrone. “I thought that InterDrone would be a good fit because they are focused on the industrial and agricultural use,” he says.
When “Beauty and Bounty” was named a winner in it’s class, Armknecht satisfied his household to come back with him to Las Vegas to be a part of the pageant. “It was definitely an honor to be there,” he says.
Jhan LaRosh was there with him to see his farm on display. When the movie took the Grand Prize, Armknecht says, “He was shocked and surprised… I had to convince him to come on stage with me.” While the movie abilities are Armknecht’s, he offers the credit score to father-in-law LaRosh. “He’s the real star of the show, I just document it,” says Armknecht. “It’s great to be part of the family operation. It’s great because we get to show that even though it’s a large operation, it’s really a family coming together to bring in the harvest.”
With his success at drone movie festivals, Armknecht’s taken on some extra business drone work. He lately was requested to do some drone filming for Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: a documentary for Discovery Channel that premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January and confirmed on the finish of August. “It was exciting to be part of a larger film project,” he says. “My wife and I went out to Sundance to see the premier in January… The atmosphere is pretty exciting, and to see your work on the big screen is awesome.”
Asked what aspiring drone filmmakers may do to enhance their work, Armknecht has easy recommendation: “Dedicate yourself to going out and learning,” he says. “If you take some time to find out what the best settings are, how to get the best color profiles, how to I get the best cinematic movements – you can increase your quality ten-fold.”
“Learn everything you can,” he says.
