Drones for Video Production: Uncle Toad’s Selected as Official Production Partner for Natural Selection Tour

Uncle Toad’s Selected as Official Production Partner for Natural Selection Tour, highlighting the teams creative use of drones for video production.

By DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Award winning production company Uncle Toad’s Media Group, known for their live sports and entertainment broadcasts, has been selected as the official production partner of the Natural Selection Tour as part of a three-year partnership deal. Uncle Toad’s will lead the event’s entire production, including a comprehensive production for the live broadcast, offline content creation, vendor selection, drone development, graphics, technology, staffing and logistics. The Natural Selection Tour will be available to stream live for free beginning January 23 at NaturalSelectionTour.com. The YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole contest window is open from January 25 to 31, 2022.

“This is exactly the kind of project that Uncle Toad’s excels at: producing a first-of-its-kind action sports event within a challenging and remote location,” said Uncle Toad’s CEO Jordan Velarde. “We’re building on the innovation from last year and looking forward to helping Natural Selection showcase the talented riders with unique camera angles and technologies that provide an authentic and dynamic viewing experience for fans.”

Founded by professional snowboarder Travis Rice, the Natural Selection Tour, now in its second year, is where the world’s best snowboarders, ranging from contest medalists to big mountain icons, compete in iconic natural(ly) enhanced venues. The event begins with the YETI Natural Selection at Jackson Hole, a live competition that will see invited riders go head-to-head, combining big mountain knowledge with freestyle tricks. The tour carries on with stops at Baldface Lodge in British Columbia, Canada at the end of February and in the Tordrillo Range in Alaska at the end of March. The Baldface and Alaska stops will both run as two-hour shows following each event.

This is Uncle Toad’s second year partnering with Natural Selection. During their first partnership, the team developed and deployed a first-of-its-kind camera angle – a live stabilized Racing Drone, or First Person View (FPV) Drone, used for primary coverage, in partnership with world championship racer Gabriel Kocher (Gab707). Uncle Toad’s and Natural Selection Tour were bestowed a Bronze Clio award for the event production.

“We’re excited to work with the Uncle Toad’s crew again this year to produce this incredibly unique and challenging to produce event,” said Liam Griffin, COO of Natural Selection Tour. “Pulling off an event of this magnitude from the side of a rugged mountain and broadcasting it live, while making it all look good is no small feat. This level of production and attention to detail puts the viewer right in the action, creating a connection with these special mountains that we all love.”

For this year’s event, Uncle Toad’s will bring exciting camera angles and audio. All event participants will compete while equipped with microphones in order to provide viewers with a dynamic and immersive experience. The Tour will be produced in 1080p progressive format rather than traditional interlaced format to provide a higher quality viewing experience

In addition to producing the live broadcast, Uncle Toad’s will provide all video services for the event, with branded content pieces for Natural Selection partners Backcountry, the Tour’s Official Outerwear and Retail partner, Red Bull, GoPro, Fuel Off-Road, Visit Jackson Hole, Thule, Burton, Fast, Conservation International, Pacifico, BetterHelp, DraftKings, Carnal, Ski-Doo, Oakley, Dakine, TAE and Rocky Mountain Yeti, along with host venues Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Baldface Lodge.

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.