Chicago & Phoenix Director of Photography, Cinematographer, Drone Pilot, and Video Production
AGCO Tech Days | Steadicam, Drone & Field Video Production
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Project at a Glance
End Client: AGCO Corporation
Contracting Client: Soaring Badger Productions, Chicago
Location: Salina, Kansas, on location at a working farm
Production Days: 3 days
Jamie's Role: Director Of Photography - Steadicam operator, Commercial photography, drone
Additional Crew: Jake Sloan (Alaska) — drone and photography
Subject: AI-integrated farm equipment demonstrations for investors
Audience: Investor-facing event requiring content communicating innovation, scale, and credibility
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AGCO Corporation makes some of the most advanced agricultural equipment in the world. Their Fendt and Massey Ferguson machinery is at the leading edge of AI-integrated farming technology, with autonomous operation, precision sensor arrays, and data-driven field management built into equipment that looks like it belongs in a different era than the farms it works on.
Tech Days was AGCO's opportunity to put that technology in front of investors on a real working farm in Salina, Kansas. Three days of live equipment demonstrations, field-level product presentations, and a CEO interview, all produced for an audience that needed to understand not just what the machines could do, but what it meant for the company's position in the market.
Jamie Link Photography was hired by Soaring Badger Productions, Chicago, to serve as Steadicam operator, Director of Photography, photographer, and drone operator across the three-day production.
Steadicam: Moving With the Equipment
Agricultural equipment at working scale does not sit still for the camera. The Fendt IDEAL combine, the autonomous Fendt tractor, and the Massey Ferguson sprayers were all in operation across multiple fields throughout the production. Getting footage that communicated what these machines actually do required a camera system that could move alongside them at field speed, hold a clean frame on equipment that was generating significant dust and vibration, and reposition quickly between demonstration locations spread across a large working farm.
Steadicam and gimbal operation on a utility vehicle provided the mobility the production needed. Rather than planting a tripod at the field edge and shooting at a distance, the camera could ride alongside the equipment, track the autonomous tractor's sensor array at close range, and follow the combine through active harvest with the kind of coverage that puts the viewer inside the operation rather than watching it from a distance.
Drone: Demonstrating Scale From the Air
The combination of Steadicam ground coverage and drone aerial coverage gave the production the full picture the investor audience needed. Ground level shows how the technology works. Aerial shows why it matters at scale.
The drone footage of the AGCO Tech Days event captured the simultaneous operation of multiple pieces of equipment across large fields, the layout of the demonstration area, and the active harvest sequences that showed the Fendt combine and Fendt tractor working in coordinated formation. The combination drone and ground coverage approach meant the final content could move between intimate close coverage of the technology and wide aerials that communicated the scope of the operation AGCO was demonstrating.
Jake Sloan, a filmmaker from Alaska brought in for the production, handled additional drone coverage and photography across the three days working alongside Jamie.
The CEO Interview
The field interview with the AGCO CEO was produced on the fly with working equipment and the AGCO signage visible in the background behind the subject. The interview was initially canceled due to time constraints and then re-added with only 10 minutes notice to prep for, so we quickly employed a two camera setup with a lavalier on talent to give the edit clean audio coverage in the middle of an alfalfa field with high winds and lots of background farm equipment noise. Initially we had planned to deploy a boomed mic with a blimp for this CEO interview, but given the last minute changes and narrow window to execute this interview, we ultimately settled for the lav setup.
Conducting an executive interview in a field environment with active equipment operating nearby introduces audio and logistical challenges that a studio interview does not. Wind, equipment noise, and the physical distance between the interview position and the demonstration area all require production decisions that need to be made on location in real time. In this case, additional complexity was added due to the added and unexpected time constraints of working withe a busy CEO on a razor think schedule.
Equipment and Technology Documented
The production covered multiple pieces of AGCO's AI-integrated equipment across the three days. The Fendt IDEAL 8T combine was the primary harvest coverage subject, operating in active wheat harvest conditions with the autonomous grain cart tractor running alongside it in coordinated formation. The autonomous Fendt tractor with its sensor array visible on the roof was shot at close range both from the Steadicam on the utility vehicle and from drone altitude to show the technology in context.
Massey Ferguson sprayers were also part of the demonstration coverage, with aerial footage showing two units operating simultaneously across the field. The range of equipment demonstrated gave the production content that spanned precision planting, autonomous operation, harvest, and application, providing coverage of AGCO's full AI-integrated platform rather than a single product.
What This Production Demonstrates
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Steadicam and gimbal operation on location across a three-day field production
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Mobile camera platform operation in agricultural and outdoor environments
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Drone coverage coordinated with ground camera operations across large areas
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On-location executive interview production with two camera setup in an uncontrolled outdoor environment
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Multi-day brand production for a global agricultural equipment manufacturer
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Investor-facing content requiring precise communication of technological differentiation
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Crew collaboration on a remote production with additional specialist camera operators
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Nationwide production availability, Chicago-based
Planning a Field Production or Brand Equipment Demo?
If your brand or production company needs Steadicam, drone, and field camera coverage for an equipment demonstration, investor event, or agricultural brand production, contact Jamie Link Photography to discuss your project scope and crew requirements.
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