Coronavirus: Documentary captures Portsmouth's journey through Covid pandemic so far

The ‘uplifting’ movie charts the ways the city and its residents have responded to the challenges of 2020.

Filmmaker and professional drone pilot Mike Woods, along with his Solent Sky Services team, have been hard at work on the documentary for most of the year.

Clocking in with a run-time of just over two hours, ‘A Different Perspective of Portsmouth’ features footage from more than 25 interviews, and plenty of Solent Sky Services’ signature cinematic aerial shots.

Discussing the documentary, Mr Woods said: ‘In March, when the first lockdown came into effect, we started capturing aerial photos of the eerily empty streets.

‘Before the pandemic, our social media feeds were already spaces for beautiful aerial photography. Under lockdown, those kinds of pictures became a form of escapism for people.

‘When we noticed more and more comments from followers saying they couldn’t wait to get back out to the places we’d shot, our work started feeling weightier.

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‘Then, on the night of the first Clap for our Carers applause on March 26th, I decided we were living through history that needed to be documented.’

Solent Sky Services funded the making of ‘A Different Perspective’ via a crowdfunding campaign and have now released the documentary for free online via YouTube and their own website.

You can watch it by clicking this link here.

Mr Woods added: ‘Every person who contributed to the ‘A Different Perspective’ crowdfunder aided us in telling our city’s tale,” Mike added. “They helped our family and our employees.

‘Now we’ve released the film, that cycle of giving back has come full circle.

‘We’ve no plans to profit from the documentary.

‘It’s been a way for us to gift something back to the people in our city, our community — many of whom helped our business survive this year.’

You can watch ‘A Different Perspective’ on all computers, tablets, phones, and TVs with a YouTube app.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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