Sky high ambitions for media production firm harnessing drone technology

A business idea started in a bedroom to harness drone technology with creative marketing has developed into a video and content production operation with a newly completed studio facility.

Josh Hill, from York, launched Skyward Media Productions by using savings from a job in retail to buy his first drone, become one of the UK’s first licensed drone pilots and turn a hobby into a business.

He has now set up a studio facility to provide an enhanced suite of creative services to clients.

Located in Harrogate, the Skyward studio contains advanced editing suites, a fully equipped podcast studio, an infinity curve used for fashion shoots and music videos as well as meeting rooms.

Hill said: “I am really proud of what I have achieved with the business and the studio which I believe it is one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the region.

“I have largely built it by myself without any loans or borrowings but by continually reinvesting my profits into the business.

“It enables me and my network of specialist consultants to create innovative, high quality and high impact video content for clients as well as animation,  brand and design and web development.

“However, I also want to make the studio available to other creative businesses who may not have this level of facility themselves.”

Many of Skyward’s clients are national and international but it also has two long-running National Trust projects in Yorkshire – recording the changing seasons at Fountains Abbey, the World Heritage site near Harrogate and the multi-agency, Skell Valley Project to develop a sustainable future for the river and its landscape.

Hill added: “Of all the places I have been on assignment, filming at four o’clock in the morning in an eerily silent and deserted Fountains Abbey was magical and an absolute privilege.

“Moments like that live long in the memory and remind me why I love this job so much.”

Hill has been engaged on drone filming, video and content production assignments in the Carribean, on board luxury yachts in the Adriatic, for sports events in Malta,  as well as working in Italy, the French Alps, Belgium and Sweden for clients in the travel, tourism,  sports, fitness, environmental and construction industries.

He said he now aims to develop a network of Skyward studio facilities around the country to support international brands with their content needs.