Netflix The Ripper
Play filmAerial filming in West Yorkshire
This high-profile Netflix documentary series, The Ripper, was filmed extensively across West Yorkshire, with Halo Vue commissioned as an independent drone unit to provide aerial cinematography.
It was another incredible two-man shoot, taking us from the centre of Leeds and Bradford out to Bingley and the Aire Valley, over city streets and open Yorkshire countryside, by day and by night.
Despite challenging conditions and the emotional weight of the subject matter, the experience was a rewarding opportunity to contribute to a major Netflix production, showcasing Halo Vue’s ability to deliver high-end aerial cinematography under demanding creative and technical requirements.
Over 12 hours in the air, day and night
Working as a two-person drone crew, we operated the DJI Inspire 2 equipped with the X7 camera system, filming in CinemaDNG for the highest possible image quality and dynamic range.
To enhance the visual tone and maintain a cinematic texture consistent with the series’ style, we utilised Pro-Mist filters throughout the shoot. The filters were chosen to match the ground cameras, so that the aerials carry the same soft highlights and gentle bloom around streetlights and windows as the rest of the series, and cut in without the viewer noticing the join.
Our team flew for over 12 hours in total, capturing both day and night sequences across multiple filming locations in and around Leeds and Bradford.
Shooting CinemaDNG RAW on the DJI Inspire 2 and X7 was for the same reason: to match the ground cameras. RAW gave the Netflix post-production team the full dynamic range of the sensor, so the drone footage could be graded alongside the main unit pictures and hold up in low light, at dusk and under streetlights.
The project demanded precision planning, close coordination with the production team, and careful adherence to flight regulations within complex urban environments. Every location was surveyed and risk-assessed in advance, with the right permissions in place before we flew over streets, rooftops and open ground.
Night flying over a city is some of the most demanding work a drone crew does. It needs a clear plan, a secure take-off point, good communication and the discipline to fly the shot that was agreed and nothing else.
A Yorkshire story, told with care
The Ripper is a four-part Netflix documentary series about one of the largest criminal investigations in British history, and about the women and the communities at the centre of it.
Released worldwide on Netflix in December 2020 and directed by Jesse Vile and Ellena Wood, the series looks back at the years between 1975 and 1980, when thirteen women were murdered across West Yorkshire and Manchester and a whole region lived in fear.
It is told through the people who were there: survivors, the families of the victims, journalists and the detectives who worked the case. The series is as much about the time and the place as the crimes, examining the mistakes made by the investigation and the attitudes towards women that shaped it.
It also tells the story of how the women of Leeds and Bradford responded, including the Reclaim the Night marches that began in Leeds in 1977.
The landscape is part of that story. The series needed to show West Yorkshire as it is: the terraces and mills, the city centres, the valleys and the moors beyond. That is where our aerial filming came in.
Leeds, Bradford and Bingley: city and countryside
We filmed around Leeds, Bradford and Bingley, moving between dense city streets and the open country that surrounds them. In West Yorkshire the two are never far apart.
Leeds gave the series its city: the skyline, the arterial roads, the railway and the River Aire running through the centre, and the long streets of red-brick terraces that climb the hills around it. From the air you can read the whole shape of the place.
Bradford is a different kind of city, built of honey-coloured stone in a bowl of hills, with mill chimneys and church spires still standing above the rooftops. It photographs beautifully from above, especially in low light.
Bingley sits further up the Aire Valley, where the canal, the river, the railway and the road all squeeze through together between wooded hillsides. Beyond it the land opens out quickly onto farmland and the high Pennine moors.
That contrast is what the aerials are for. One slow shot can travel from tightly packed streets to empty moorland, and it tells the viewer more about West Yorkshire, its scale and its closeness, than any amount of narration.
West Yorkshire is our home. We are based in Calderdale, a short drive from Leeds, Bradford and Bingley, and we fly for film, television and streaming productions across the county every week. If you are planning a documentary or drama in Yorkshire, we would love to hear from you.
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