A visiting network or production company filming in Hawaii needs a local partner who knows the islands and owns the gear. Malaʻe Productions has been that partner since 2003: a Big Island crew with RED, Shotover, DJI and Nauticam packages, boats, trucks and FAA Part 107 airspace approvals, serving productions for PBS Nature, National Geographic, Discovery, ABC, NBC and CBS.
What a visiting crew gets is a turnkey Hawaii field unit: a RED package waiting on arrival, operators and cinematographers who have worked the lava fields, summits, surf zones and open ocean of every island, and the vehicles and boats to reach them. Every piece of equipment rents with or without an operator, so a production can bring its own camera crew and rent only the drones, housings or gimbals it lacks, or hand the whole shoot to us.
Access is the hard part of filming in Hawaii, and it is where local knowledge pays off. We pre-fly locations to document access points, lighting windows and conditions before a crew arrives, run UTVs and 4x4 trucks with production storage into remote terrain, and operate channel-crossing fishing boats from Keauhou Harbor and Kawaihae on the Big Island and a 14 ft McKee in Kaneohe on Oahu, with a Zodiac inflatable for the surf zone.
Our aerial work is flown under FAA Part 107. We handle airspace authorizations, LAANC approvals and restricted-zone waivers, including coastal airspace, so the production is compliant from day one, and Autel thermal drones are available for wildlife surveys, low-light scouting and search and rescue support.
Credits with visiting productions
Our broadcast credits include PBS Nature's Sharks of Hawaii (co-producer and Directors of Photography), National Geographic's Wild Hawaii: Secrets of the Deep and Wild Hawaii: Land of Fire, Discovery Channel's Sharkcano, Sharks of the Fire Goddess and Deadliest Catch: Bloodline, National Geographic's World's Most Dangerous Sharks, and equipment and stock footage for PBS and IMAX's America's National Parks. On most of them we supplied some combination of cinematography, drone work, underwater work, equipment rentals, location scouting and stock footage to a production that arrived from elsewhere.
Logistics across the islands
Rental pickup on the Big Island is coordinated at Keauhou, Hilo or Waimea, with delivery across the island. We regularly move packages to Oahu, Maui and Kauai, coordinate transport for larger gear packages and plan multi-island productions; send shoot dates and islands and we arrange the logistics. Price match guarantee: bring a quote from any Hawaii camera or production equipment rental house and we will beat or match it, from a single lens to a full production package.
If the shot already exists
Before flying a crew in for an establishing shot, ask. One of the largest private 4K and 8K Hawaii stock footage libraries in existence covers lava, tiger sharks, humpback whales, the Nāpali Coast, Mauna Kea and more, and a licensed sequence can replace a day of travel.
Bring your production to Hawaii
Send your shoot dates, islands, locations and an equipment or crew list. We reply with availability and pricing, typically within one business day.
Related
- Equipment Rentals — Rent RED cinema cameras, Shotover gimbals, DJI drones, Nauticam underwater housings and full production packages on the Big Island, with delivery statewide and a price match guarantee.
- Equipment & Production — Broadcast-grade production equipment based on the Big Island of Hawaii and available statewide, operated by crews who know the islands.
- Aerial Services — FAA Part 107 licensed aerial cinematography, thermal survey and location scouting across the Big Island and all Hawaiian Islands.
- FAQ — Answers to the questions we hear most from production companies, networks and independent cinematographers planning shoots and equipment rentals in Hawaii.
- Natural History Video Production
- Hawaii Video Production Company
- Contact — Tell us about your production, rental or stock footage needs anywhere in Hawaii. We reply with availability and pricing, typically within one business day.