AV News: Viral New Zealand Whale Video

If you’re like me, you enjoy capturing aerial footage with your drone because of the unique perspective. For this New Zealand drone pilot, this passion has suddenly made him an internet star. James Gunn is a freelance videographer with Southern Stringers, a video marketing company out of Dunedin, New Zealand. Despite being relatively new to drone piloting, a recent trip to St. Clair Beach has garnered international recognition. Gunn followed a tip from friends that two whales were near shore and headed out to the beach to capture the footage. When he arrived, he realized that the whales were befriending two surfers.

“So yeah we got out there and started flying the drone around and you can see in some of the footage the whales are quite close to each other, they were hanging around together quite closely in the morning and they seemed to be really interested in the one surfer that was hanging around in the water. Then we noticed that Sam was getting off his board and he was close to the whaling then he reached his hand out and touched the whale for seven seconds or so. Then the whale twitched and flicked his tail."

This rare footage quickly went viral, something Gunn wasn’t expecting.

"To be honest when I went out the hour, it was gonna be another news cool whatever and once I got the drone in the air and seen it from the perspective from above that I was looking on my live view it was completely different. I’ve seen these kinds of videos go big before — this was gonna go big, it has to go big. When I saw the surfers hanging around I thought alright I’m gonna get some really nice shots and see what happens. Sent it to a few networks you know they started cutting it down and editing it their own way. One news network posted it at 8pm at night had 50,000 when I went to bed, woke up at 10 the next morning 1.5 million views. It’s quite crazy but no I didn’t expect it to happen that quick."

From drone hobbyist to viral star, Gunn is getting used to the new found attention.

"Yeah most people you know as I sit here in this small town everyone knows somebody so a lot of people you know may pat my back or message me saying you know it’s really really cool, lots of comments on Facebook and things like that ... but you know I’m over it."

As of October, James footage has been viewed 1.5 million times, a number that continues to grow by the thousands. You never know when your signature shot may get picked up by a news cycle like his did. You could be the next viral star.

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