Emmy-Nominated & Three-Time POYi Award-Winning Drone Cinematography in Greenland for CNN

Emmy-nominated and three-time Pictures of the Year International award-winning aerial cinematography in Greenland for CNN’s Global Warning: Arctic Melt, filmed by drone cinematographer Lewis Whyld. Working with correspondent Clarissa Ward, the production travelled through some of Greenland’s most remote and extreme environments, using specialist drones and immersive 360° filming to document the rapidly changing Arctic landscape. Lewis captured extensive aerial footage of Greenland’s glaciers and ice sheet, including rare sequences of whales feeding amongst the ice - behaviour that has since become the subject of renewed scientific and international news coverage as warming waters and declining sea ice alter the distribution of baleen whales around Greenland.

Drone cinematography from CNN’s Global Warning: Arctic Melt, filmed by Lewis Whyld across Greenland’s glaciers and sea ice. The footage includes fin and humpback whales feeding among the ice, a young humpback appearing to learn feeding behaviour alongside an adult, and a long-range FPV flight through a crack in the Helheim Glacier — capturing some of Greenland’s most remote Arctic environments from the air.

Project Details

Client / Broadcaster: CNN
Production:Global Warning: Arctic Melt — [CNN Special Investigation]
Location: Greenland
Role: FPV Pilot, Drone Cinematographer & Videojournalist - Lewis Whyld
Filming: FPV, conventional drone cinematography & 360° immersive filming
FPV Flight: Long-range FPV flight through a crack in the Helheim Glacier
Wildlife Filming: Fin whales and humpback whales feeding among the ice, including a young humpback appearing to learn feeding behaviour alongside an adult
Key Locations: Helheim Glacier, Greenland Ice Sheet & Summit Station
Environment: Remote Arctic, glaciers, sea ice, extreme cold, altitude and high winds
Technical Approach: Specialist drone systems prepared for prolonged operation in severe Arctic conditions
Story Focus: Climate change, melting ice, Arctic ecosystems and the changing Greenland environment
Recognition: Lewis WhyldNews & Documentary Emmy nomination - Outstanding Video Journalism: News
Pictures of the Year International: Three honours for Global Warning: Arctic Melt, including recognition for Lewis Whyld’s multimedia and editing work
Specialism: Arctic / Climate / Wildlife / Long-Range FPV / Documentary / Broadcast / Extreme Environments

Rare Drone Footage of Fin & Humpback Whales Feeding in Greenland

While filming Global Warning: Arctic Melt for CNN, Lewis Whyld captured extensive aerial footage of fin whales and humpback whales feeding among the ice off Greenland. The sequences included a young humpback appearing to learn feeding behaviour alongside an adult, giving the aerial footage an unusually intimate view of how the animals were using the ice-edge environment.

From the air, the drone footage revealed the scale and movement of the feeding behaviour far more clearly than was possible from the surface, showing whales working through broken ice and concentrating around feeding areas.

The material has become more significant with time. Recent research into East Greenland has highlighted increasing summer aggregations of baleen whales, including fin and humpback whales, feeding in waters affected by changing sea-ice conditions and shifting prey distribution. Lewis had filmed these behaviours years earlier while documenting climate change in Greenland for CNN.

Long-Range FPV Through Helheim Glacier

One of the most technically demanding sequences for Global Warning: Arctic Melt was a long-range FPV flight through a crack in the Helheim Glacier.

Flying in this environment meant operating around vast walls of ice, deep crevasses and rapidly changing Arctic weather, with very little margin for error. The FPV route was designed to take the camera into the structure of the glacier rather than simply film it from above, giving the audience a far more immersive sense of its scale and physical complexity.

The result was a perspective that conventional aerial filming could not achieve: moving directly through the glacier itself, close to the ice, while maintaining the range, control and reliability needed for a flight in one of Greenland’s most remote environments.

Drone Filming at 10,530 Feet on the Greenland Ice Sheet

At Summit Station, Lewis Whyld was filming at approximately 3,200 metres / 10,530 feet above sea level, near the highest point of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The combination of altitude, severe cold and persistent winds made it one of the most technically demanding environments of the Global Warning: Arctic Melt production.

The crew were living in tents on the ice, so there was no conventional production environment in which to retreat, warm equipment or reset between flights. Everything — batteries, cameras, aircraft and personal equipment — had to be managed around the conditions of a remote Arctic field camp.

Cold had a particularly significant effect on drone batteries and available flight time, while the altitude reduced air density and changed aircraft performance. Summit’s pressure altitude can at times effectively exceed 13,000 feet, adding another variable to aircraft setup and flight planning.

Wind was an equally important factor. Long-term measurements at Summit show average winds of around 4.3 m/s, with recorded speeds exceeding 26 m/s / 59 mph. In an exposed environment with no terrain protection, flight windows could depend on relatively brief changes in conditions.

Lewis prepared and adapted his drone systems specifically for this environment, managing battery temperature, aircraft performance and flight endurance while operating thousands of kilometres from the kind of technical support normally available on a production.

Awards & Recognition

Global Warning: Arctic Melt received major recognition for its visual journalism, including a News & Documentary Emmy nomination for Outstanding Video Journalism: News, with Lewis Whyld named among the videojournalists on the project.

Lewis Whyld also received three honours at the 75th Pictures of the Year International awards, including recognition for Lewis’s multimedia photography and editing work on the project.

Recognition:News & Documentary Emmy nomination — Outstanding Video Journalism: News — Lewis Whyld, Videojournalist
Pictures of the Year International: Award of Excellence — Multimedia Photographer of the Year — Lewis Whyld, CNN
Pictures of the Year International: Judges' Special Recognition — Documentary Project of the Year — Global Warming: Arctic Melt
Pictures of the Year International:Award of Excellence — Online News & Issue Story Editing — Lewis Whyld, CNN
The AIBs 2018: Shortlisted — Short Documentary
2018 VR Awards / AIXR: Finalist — Social Impact Award
CNN Project:Global Warning: Arctic Melt

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Planning FPV or Drone Filming in Extreme Environments?

Through Whyldthings, I provide specialist FPV and drone cinematography for documentary, broadcast and productions working in remote, hostile and technically demanding environments.

My experience includes Arctic expeditions, active conflict zones, volcanic eruptions, glaciers, wildlife filming and other locations where conventional production methods are limited by weather, access, altitude or risk.

From long-range FPV flights through glacial terrain to aerial wildlife filming and high-altitude operations on the Greenland Ice Sheet, each project is planned around the environment, the story and the technical demands of the shot.

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