SET- UP | TAKES FROM THE BUNKER
can afford to pay and we leave money in the business for the lean times, though we now seem to be out of the loop. On the face of it, freelancers are being taken care of, but what about the businesses that employ these people? They’re not entirely being looked after. DEF: Is there a right answer or solution? JB: It’s unprecedented and for the government it’s very hard to try to make it work. There is no easy solution. They’re trying their best, but I would like to see some more indication that small businesses are and will be helped.
DEF: Your company has a fleet of grounded helicopters and heavy
JB: Negotiations are happening all the time, but some of our finance
side of things, we’ve had ideas that we’ve had for a while that we’re now able to work on and see if they’re viable. The downside of this is that if we have an idea for something, it always invariably takes cash to make it work. If we have enough cash, then I’m sure we will have opportunities to make some of those ideas come to fruition. DEF: What else are you focusing on other than the company? JB: One of the nice things to come out of this is spending time with the family. A lot of us who are in this industry travel and spend a lot time away from our families. It does make you think that there’s more to life than working. But we’re not all about to give it up and sit on an island. This is giving us time to re-evaluate a lot of things. I hope that some of the positives will stay with us.
lift drones. You have to carry this huge expense, which must be more difficult for your company than one person and a camera, how are you managing this?
companies are being very accommodating. If we wanted to take payment holidays, we haven’t had to ask, they have volunteered. Our insurance companies, aviation and equipment are also looking at reducing our cover from worldwide to premises only. My main concern is the people; I want the people to be looked after so that if we can ride through this, the people will be there for us after. As without the people, if we get up and running with all our hardware, we still need the people to be around to operate it all. DEF: What are you doing to stay busy during the lockdown? JB: It gives you a lot of thinking time for sure. I know that our engineering side of things is always busy and they’re always coming up with ideas. On the drone
This is giving us time to re-evaluate a lot of things. I hope some of the positives will stay with us
ABOVE Helicopter Film Services shoots an aerial 4K night sequence over London
08 DEF I N I T ION | MAY 2020
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