Cavan man helps shoot incredible airline advert

Emirates airlines posted a behind-the-scenes video showing the preparations behind perching a woman atop the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

Cavan man Liam Allen is the camera-carrying drone pilot behind the incredible new Emirates airline advert featuring footage of a woman standing atop the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

The new Emirates' ad sees Nicole Smith-Ludvik, a professional skydive instructor, dressed in a flight uniform, nonchalantly flipping through a series of message boards reading: 'Moving the UAE to the UK Amber list has made us feel on top of the world. Fly Emirates. Fly better'.

Liam, working for the globally-renowned Choppershoot Productions, was tasked with capturing the moment the camera pans to show Nicole perched on the Burj's uppermost point whilst expertly absorbing the awe-inspiring views of the Emirati skyline behind.

Subsequent to the ad release, and in response to a online commentary the footage simply couldn't be real, Emirates posted a behind-the-scenes video showing the preparations to ensure their stunt woman was safe and secure some 828 metres above street-level. It included building a mock platform at ground-level, with numerous run-throughs complete before they were totally comfortable and filming finally took place.

“It was really exciting to be part of a project like that, and of that scale,” says Liam, who grew up between Virginia, Ballyjamesduff, and was schooled at St Oliver Post Primary in Oldcastle, Co Meath.

Along with the Emirates airline ad, Liam has worked on the blockbuster Sonic the Hedgehog film released last year, starring Ben Schwartz as the voice of the Sega's iconic speeding blue hedgehog, and Jim Carey as his arch nemesis, Dr. Robotnik.

Closer to home meanwhile, his credits include working as a camera man on Philip Doherty's TV series, The Begrudgers.

See next week's Anglo-Celt newspaper for full interview.