Updated: Oct 8
For this Montana drone cinematography production, the AIRWOLF team traveled across the state to provide aerial coverage for Boot Barn’s 250 Strong campaign. From athletes and horses in action to the vast Montana landscapes surrounding them, we captured cinematic aerial imagery designed to showcase both the scale of the locations and the powerful stories behind the campaign.
To mark America’s 250th anniversary, Boot Barn launched 250 Strong — a campaign honoring the strength, determination, resilience, and endurance that have helped define the nation over the past 250 years. The campaign connects that history to the present through a group of athletes who embody those qualities today.
The 250 Strong campaign features professional basketball player Bruce Brown, rodeo athlete and rancher Catherine Edwards, professional football player Jarquez Hunter, Mason Reiger, College Tennis Player Elise Robbins, and Olympic swimmer Alex Walsh. While each comes from a different competitive background, they share the grit, work ethic, and determination at the heart of the campaign.
Montana Drone Cinematography with the Inspire 3 and X8 Cinelifter
Our primary aerial platforms were the DJI Inspire 3 and our custom X8 heavy-lift cinelifter carrying a Freefly Ember cinema camera.
The Inspire 3 gave us the ability to move quickly between locations and focal lengths while maintaining the image quality needed for a national commercial campaign. Once again, our favorite lens ended up being the Viltrox DL 90mm. We've become huge fans of longer lenses for aerial cinematography. Rather than relying on the traditional ultra-wide drone perspective, the 90mm compresses the landscape and pulls distant backgrounds toward the subject.
In Montana, that meant being able to place athletes and horses against huge mountain landscapes while still creating an intimate, cinematic frame. We also brought out our custom built X8 for a very different type of shot. We flew our Freefly Ember with a Cooke SP3 18mm cinema lens.
Between the custom aircraft, cinema camera, Cooke glass, video transmission, batteries, and supporting equipment, it's an expensive package to send into the air — but it's also exactly why we've continued developing our heavy-lift platform. It gives production another option when a shot needs the movement of a custom drone while maintaining a cinema-camera and cinema-lens workflow.
The Challenges of Montana Drone Cinematography
Montana gave us incredible images, but getting them required a lot of work behind the scenes.
The days were long, the temperatures were extremely hot, and locations could be separated by significant drives. That meant constantly transitioning from filming to packing equipment, driving, unloading, rebuilding camera packages, checking aircraft, and getting everything ready for the next shot. Then there were the horses.
Working with animals changes the entire rhythm of a production because you can't count on unlimited identical takes. Our time with the horses was limited, and there were situations where the first pass needed to be the shot. Before they started moving, we needed to know our aircraft position, lens choice, framing, flight path and timing. There wasn't always an opportunity to watch a rehearsal and figure it out afterward. When everything was ready, you committed.
That pressure becomes a little more noticeable when you're flying an Inspire 3 — and considerably more noticeable when you're sending a Freefly Ember and Cooke SP3 into the air underneath a custom-built X8.
STILLS OF OUR SHOTS
Rodeo athlete Cathrine Edwards celebrates America’s adventurous spirit for USA 250. Rodeo athlete Cathrine Edwards and basketball player Bruce Brown share an American adventure for USA 
Riding together in celebration of America’s adventurous spirit for USA 250. Toward the next horizon, together. Celebrating USA 250. The spirit of adventure rolls on. Celebrating USA 250. Rodeo athlete Catherine Edwards rides into the USA 250 celebration.
An Incredible Crew Behind Boot Barn's 250 Strong
None of what we captured in Montana happened in isolation. This was a production where every department had to work together, especially when locations, weather, animals and daylight dictated how much time we actually had to get a shot.
The production was led creatively by Creative Directors Brodie Sweeney and Laura Hill, with Clifton Askew producing, Kyle Frey managing production, and Sarah King overseeing creative operations. Production Assistants Megan Hansen, Dylan Woodford and Fabian Larrea kept an ambitious schedule moving across Montana, with Jimmy Beckland supporting the crew as Medic.
On the camera side, Cinematographer Taylor Finlay helped shape the visual language of the campaign alongside 1st AC Eric Gauntt, while photographers Dana Pennington and Jerry Serpell-Morris captured the campaign from the ground.
For the aerial work, Aerial DP Rob Watt worked alongside drone pilot Wolfgang Weber, using the DJI Inspire 3 and our custom X8 cinelifter to translate that same visual direction into the air. Having that communication between the cinematography and aerial teams was especially important when we were working with horses and sometimes only had one opportunity to capture a particular movement. Janae Gonzalez handled social content throughout the production, while Stylist Madeline Hansen and Assistant Stylist Delan Murillo helped create the look of the campaign in front of the camera.
It was a true team effort, and that became especially apparent during the final hours of the shoot. After days of extreme heat, long drives and constantly moving between locations, we lined up for the very last shot of the production. We got the aircraft in position, captured the shot and landed. Then Montana decided we were done. Almost immediately, the wind picked up and rain began moving across the location. After spending the production working around tight windows with athletes, horses, locations and weather, we had managed to get the final shot just in time. It couldn't have been a more fitting ending.
The Boot Barn 250 Strong campaign is ultimately about strength, determination and the people who embody those qualities. From our perspective behind the camera, it took an incredible group of people working together to bring that idea to life.
And that's probably what we'll remember most about Montana.
CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDEO
Follow @airwolf_drones and @boot_barn_official for more behind-the-scenes content, exclusive footage, and future collaborations that continue to celebrate the real American grit behind the lens.
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