Capturing motion images in rugged outdoor environments is a game of precision. Also helpful? Skills and a feel for logistics. For the action sports filmmaker Jon Riley, precision is typically delivered via a highly specialized rig called a Gyro Stabilized System (GSS), an image stabilizer that can be mounted to anything from a speeding truck chasing a moto in the desert to a helicopter soaring over Alaska’s peaks shadowing skiers. With Jon at the controls, a GSS ensures cinema-quality footage in dynamic and unpredictable situations.

“The GSS is built with NASA-grade technology,” says Jon. “It’s stabilized on six axes and can hold digital cinema cameras like a RED or an Arri, with a wide range of lenses—even the highly sought after Canon 50–1,000mm cinema lens. The weather-sealed gimbal works to deliver perfectly stabilized footage from helicopters and ground- and water-based vehicles.”

Jon’s career in aerial cinematography started with Todd Jones and Teton Gravity Research (TGR), a legendary action sports production company out of Jackson, Wyoming. His time spent learning to capture shots from helicopters in Alaska gave him the foundation to eventually take the leap into owning and operating his own GSS.

“Working on ski films is where I honed my skills,” says Jon. “Flying around, figuring things out on the go, and learning how to communicate with a pilot, all while operating this equipment. It was a steep learning curve, but working alongside Todd at TGR was invaluable.” That partnership led Jon to some of the most challenging shoots of his career, including HBO’s Edge of the Earth series, which brought him back into the fold with TGR. His experience would be put to the test in the most remote corners of the planet, capturing skiers, climbers, and other action sports athletes in environments where the margin for error is small.

Here’s how he got the shots, in his own words.

“There was no margin of error in that last part of the climb and the descent. We captured it smoothly. Full 360-degree panoramas as they hugged and celebrated at the summit. We had just enough time to capture their descent.

I focused on maintaining a calm voice over the radio to keep the athletes informed as the entire production crew worked through a carefully calculated action capture process. Filming this type of skiing in dangerous snow conditions on a peak with potentially fatal consequences is always going to be challenging. But the professionalism of the team made it feel like just another exciting day in the mountains. Everybody on that shoot was top notch.”

“The next challenge with Edge of the Earth took me to Kyrgyzstan to capture the climbers, Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger. It required even more problem-solving.

We couldn’t get a helicopter for that segment because of insurance and geopolitics. So we rigged the GSS to a little Euro-style flatbed truck. It was just me and the truck owner, who didn’t speak English or really understand what we were doing. He just smiled encouragingly as I rigged and figured out the electrical issues. We rigged it using local pipe, ratchet straps, and suction cups I brought along. It was what we call a shitty rig. DIY sounds better. But it worked.

The goal was to capture Emily and Adrian as they traveled through the markets and local towns. But for realism’s sake we had to do it in such a way as to not draw attention to them. The telephoto lens inside the GSS was crucial for that. It allowed me to film from a distance while Emily and Adrian interacted in a natural way with the locals at the market. That’s so much better than having a camera in someone’s face.” 

“We were rolling into these towns in the truck rigged with the GSS, and it started to draw some unwanted attention. The equipment looked like military hardware to many of the locals. 

Our fixer started having high level security talks with us every day. As we got closer to the climbing area, we stayed in a place that we called the compound. We pulled our gear through a maze of walls into a little room. 

The next day, after capturing some culture footage of Emily and Adrian, me and Todd and the fixer went out to get some B-roll by an old aqueduct. That’s when we were pulled over by multiple local law enforcement vehicles. They took us to the local police department. 

I found myself in what to me looked like an interrogation room, separated from Todd and the rest of the crew. This was exactly the situation the crew was told to avoid in the safety briefings earlier that day.

The situation was tense. The guys with me weren’t exactly friendly. It went on for about half an hour, with people coming in and out, asking questions. Eventually, they warmed up to me, though, and we started using Google Translate to chat. By the end of it, one of the guards was joking about wanting to come back to America with me.”

“Although we were eventually let go, the authorities warned us not to go to the climbing zone.

Our fixer had a much deeper grasp on the geopolitics and cultural complexities of the region. We had full faith in him and he had faith in taking us through the conflict area and to where our objective was. We were able to continue on because of him.

I still don’t know for sure who the main guys we were talking to were, but Kyrgyzstan has deep political ties to Russia, so their law enforcement has connections to the Russian FSB—the modern KGB. And that’s who our fixer said we had been dealing with.  

I continued on to the trailhead and filmed that part of the journey before saying goodbye to the athletes and crew. They still had a big job to do to capture the main climbing objective, and I needed to get to work on the next episode in South Africa.

I left Kyrgyzstan before the final climbing segment, but the experience stayed with me.

My parents and fiancée would be more comfortable if I didn’t go to conflict zones anymore. But Kyrgyzstan is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. When you read about places like Kyrgyzstan you have a picture in the mind’s eye that isn’t the same as being there. 

Sure, we were playing it fast and loose with a suspicious looking piece of equipment mounted to a truck that looked like it didn’t belong, but it was an incredible experience. I hope to go back one day and reconnect with our fixer.”