Ellen Braunstein
Dave Freedman explores the world through new and unexpected angles: His company, Elevated Film Productions, creates agile and captivating scenes using drone technology.
“We’re elevating viewers to new perspectives and creating films that tell stories,” Freedman, 38, said.
His film production company was launched through a Tribe 12 entrepreneurial fellowship. The nonprofit organization offers leadership development opportunities for Jewish professionals in their 20s and 30s.
“It really took off as a business because of the Tribe 12 fellowship,” said Freedman, who lives in Northern Liberties. He credits the fellowship program for helping him design a website and logo for what he describes as his “passion project.”
Freedman, a 2013 graduate of the University of Toronto architecture school, is also an architect at Foster + Partners. He had a lead role in designing a new inpatient facility for the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The project brought him to Philadelphia from New York City in 2016.
In 2021, he started working on PGA Tour Studios, a 165,000-square-foot facility in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, which is near completion. Now his main project is an expansion of the Mayo Clinic hospital campus in Rochester, Minnesota.
He got his start on imaginative 3D renderings during the Penn hospital project.
“I created virtual reality, fly-through videos so the client could better understand the spaces that we were designing,” he said.
Those skills naturally translated into the creation of artistic drone films.
“That’s how Elevated Film Productions was born,” he said.
As an architect, Freedman better understands film composition.
“I’ve developed an eye for what I think looks good and what I think is a captivating way to view things whether it’s a building, person or object,” he said.
His drone cinematography doesn’t just replicate helicopter views.
“It can be at eye level, and it can quickly transition to something that’s dozens of feet in the air and it can seamlessly make that transition. You forget that the camera is there,” he said.
One of the more artistic films he produced involves a drone circling a dancer, Asya Zlatina, on an abandoned industrial bridge.
“I thought it would be interesting to see the combination of the beauty of her dancing on a bridge that was dilapidated. We could reach new camera angles that a regular handheld camera couldn’t. It could be one continuous shot that tracks all of these different permutations and angles,” Freedman said.
He gets the most satisfaction by collaborating with other artists. He created a music video for singer/songwriter Rory Michelle Sullivan.
He is producing neighborhood videos for Realtors. He also creates interior fly-throughs for houses going on the market.
“You have the opportunity to see how the house flows through one continuous drone film. You can find the best angles to really show off that property,” Freedman said.
Elevated Film Productions operates with two drones — a small one for interior filming and another that is bigger and more cinematic — for capturing large atmospheric projects.
Freedman is originally from Canada where he had a Reform Jewish upbringing. He grew up in Kingston, Ontario, and attended Shabbat services every week.
“Through my grandfather, we developed our Jewish identity. All the holidays we would spend at his house. It was important to him because he was a survivor of the Holocaust,” Freedman said.
Since moving to Philadelphia, Freedman has rekindled his interest in Judaism through the many connections he makes in the community.
Freedman connects with The Chevra, a Jewish community organization that offers social and educational experiences for people in their 20s and 30s.
Freedman also attends events sponsored by the Old City Jewish Art Center, an organization that builds Jewish community through the arts. Rabbi Zalman Wircberg, the co-director, became the officiant at Freedman’s wedding.
Freedman met his wife, Marisa Rosenberg, on Hinge, an online dating app. She is a safety scientist at a cancer drug and immunotherapy company.
Freedman’s most meaningful Jewish experience was a trip to Israel sponsored by The Chevra/Philly Israel Fellowship during the summer of 2019.
“It was nice to feel part of the community. We are all coming from the same place,” he said. “We all have the same goals, and we can understand each other.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
