Professional Drone Operators

Christiaan Cloete     cloete@flyingfishproductions.ca

UAV Pilot / Camera Operator / Crane Technician

Christiaan was born in South Africa. At age of 19 he left his home country to explore the world. Because of is love for nature and adventure he pursued a career as a diving instructor and underwater camera operator in Israel, Egypt, and Mexico.                                                               Christiaan also had a love for technology and decided to return home to continue an education in IT, subsequently working in the UK for 2 years. Serendipitously landing in Canada Christiaan decided to strengthen his skills and joined the Toronto Film School where he graduated with honors. He then went on to complete a commercial diving program and started working as an underwater camera operator for feature Documentaries.

Expanding his technical abilities and camera skills he saw an opportunity to provide a unique perspective with emerging aerial technologies in cinematography.  In 2011, Christiaan started Flyingfish Productions to combine the specialized knowledge and passion necessary to operate in the air, on land and underwater. Christiaan was invited by the CBC and Global news to discuss UAV/Drone Safety.                                                 He was the first to create an educational Drone Program for an Ontario College, and continues to promote UAV safety to other educational facilities.

Because of his expertise in operating UAV’s, Christiaan was the first member to be accepted by local film union IATSE 667 as a UAV Pilot. Christiaan is also an IATSE 667 Crane technician and operator and works part time with Filmotechnic “The Russian Arm” operating their Academy awarded gyro-stabilized camera crane.

Since the start of Christiaan’s film career he has worked on feature films and feature documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic, History, BBC America, GlobalTV, Oasis and more.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3270378/

Qualifications:

ATSE667 Union Member - UAV Pilot, Crane Technician and Stabelized Remote Head Tech                                                                                               Toronto Film School - Film Production (Diploma)                                                                                                                                                                 CTI - Computer programming (Diploma)                                                                                                                                                                           Delphi Occupation Diver – Seneca (Diver Certification Board of Canada)                                                                                                                     IANTD - Extended Range Trimix Closed Circuit Rebreather Diver (100m)                                                                                                                         TDI - Full Cave CC Diver PADI/CMASS - OWSI InstructorVHF Marine Radio Operator

Christiaan speaks fluent English, Afrikaans and conversational Dutch, Spanish and Hebrew.