Neil Smith is CEO of Rift Valley Studios based in Los Angeles, California. Neil is a FAA Certified drone pilot and VR expert with over twenty five years in the IT and filmmaking industries. Neil returned to school in 2000 to catch up on his reading and whilst studying Psychology and Neuroscience at USC (University of Southern California) he also started making HD documentaries on Neuroscience and became fascinated with the technology and workflow of digital content creation. After attending many of the classes run by the USC Cinema School he soon realized that Hollywood was about to go digital and would need IT expertise to complement traditional filmmaking skills. Since 2005, Neil has owned and managed a post-production and systems integration business in LA focusing on providing state-of-the-art digital technology and services to filmmakers and digital content creators. Having already been involved with VR IT projects during the 1980s, it was only natural that his interest should be piqued once the next-gen VR technology driven by Oculus Rift started to bubble up during 2013. Since 2013, Rift Valley Studios has been experimenting with different Drone and VR cameras rigs and workflows in order to optimize the production and post processes involved in shooting, stitching and delivering aerial and 360 VR digital content for industries like Real Estate and Media & Entertainment.