MATT JOHNSTON BIO

In 2002 at 20yrs old - Matt wanted to be a rally car driver. Working 3 jobs to build and prepare a car in the street of his rental apartment. He won the 2WD National Championship 2 years later in 2005.

 

After running out of money while attempting to run the World Rally Championship in 2006/7. Matt decided that filming rally cars was pretty much just as fun as driving them. This started him down a path of media production in the motorsport, aerial and automotive space that started with rallying and eventually included all major global motorsports, new vehicle releases for major car companies, international events and major viral films.

 

Matt built his company Specialty Field Production from a single man operation in the small office of his and his wife's condo to a multi million dollar small enterprise with 7 full time staff and over 50 annual contractors sharing the load. He's won an Emmy award for outstanding aerial cinematography, as well as 2 additional Emmy nominations. Billions of Viral views on films like the Ken Block Gymkhana Series, Multiple addy awards and 3 overall wins at the London Motor Film Festival.

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In addition. Matt was at the forefront of developing aerial camera systems. Now called drones. In 2008 he built a custom quadcopter to fly cameras. In 2010 he developed a vibration isolating gimbal system that worked so well he was soon working with National Geographic, PBS and regional agencies to capture groundbreaking aerial footage. Eventually, Matt was required to get a private pilot certificate to meet the needs of the aerial operation. This was before the development of FAA Part 107. During the process of getting his PPL - He felt it made sense to buy an airplane. And a nice Grumman Tiger was purchased to finish the PPL and eventually transport Matt, crew, and gear all over the east coast for commercial filming jobs.

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In 2022 Matt got his Seaplane rating in leu of a biennial flight review and from the first takeoff in the Piper Super Cub Amphibian - he was hooked. Flying low at 1500ft over Michigan lakes and waterways was unlike any adventure yet. Within 6 months Matt had purchased his first seaplane. A searey flying boat. Economical and fun to fly, Matt put over 100hrs on it that first short summer season.

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It wasn't long before Matt began leveraging the seaplane to produce additional social content for his personal Instagram account. He had already been posting piecemeal updates from life on the road with the Grumman Tiger, but the seaplane was really the moment where Matt decided to turn the camera around and work on his own social presence. The first year of seaplane flying garnered approximately 3.1M views on IG and TikTok.

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In Social Media, Matt strives to tell the story of seaplane and general aviation adventure. Specifically how it can be more fun, and more accessible than most people believe. Using a quirky flying boat as a main character and the awe inspiring Great Lakes region as a backdrop, Matt has garnered hundreds of millions of unique views, millions of likes, and hundreds of thousands of subscribers across Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Facebook.

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