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Kelowna production company keeps filming through COVID-19 pandemic

DCD Productions uses drones so crew can keep their physical distance
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Many businesses have come to a halt, but not Kelowna-based DCD Productions.

Carey Missler is the production company’s founder and CEO and he said he’s thankful they can still keep busy.

The company uses drones to shoot their videos, which allows crew members to be spaced apart and isolated from clients. After the videos are edited, Missler said they send the finished products via email.

“I think I’ve just been lucky that I’ve been able to keep busy even with COVID-19,” Missler said.

“Of course, (the pandemic) has slowed down a lot of our operations. We do a lot of luxury real estate filming as well, but that’s slowed down… but our drone is still really busy because we don’t actually have to interact with people. We go to the location and film and leave.”

One of the things that have kept them busy is producing the second episode of their show “Beefed Up”, where older vehicles are “beefed up” to extend their capacity.

In the second episode, Missler said they took a 20-year-old Campion Allante sports boat and upgraded its functions to be a foil-surfing boat. They finished filming on March 27, but he said that they only had to film one last interview on that day. He added they were lucky to have finished the bulk of the episode way before COVID-19 broke out.

“Because it was 20-years-old, it needed a lot of work and we had to make sure we can actually foil surf behind it,” he said.

“We worked on the aesthetics first to make it look awesome, we added new audio components, lighting, we did a full custom antique-style vinyl wrap job as well. And now the episode’s done and we’re about to release it online.”

Missler said the timing lined up well, as those self-isolating would be looking for new online content.

“It just seems like a good time to put it out now, especially with what’s going on, so people can think about something else other than the pandemic for a bit.”

To watch the episode, visit Beefed Up TV’s YouTube channel.

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Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
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Twila Amato

About the Author: Twila Amato

Twila was a radio reporter based in northern Vancouver Island. She won the Jack Webster Student Journalism Award while at BCIT and received a degree in ancient and modern Greek history from McGill University.
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