"The dream shot scenario was when it snows, we could get the boys to go to an outdoor natural hot spring at night, under the stars while the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) dances in the background or we could get shots with my drone over the volcano, Bardarbunga, while it's spewing out its contents. When I had finally got to Iceland it was, 'Yeah nah'."
Mr Jonathan said producer Alex Behse helped him settle in on the first week of arrival into Saudarkrokur, Iceland.
The general manager of Agust of KS, the meat processing plant in Saudarkrokur, still hadn't given him permission to film the Kiwis in the slaughterhouse over the next two months.
"Before I arrived, Alex had sent a number of emails outlining our intentions for the documentary. We soon learned that a year or two ago, another film crew had made a documentary and the result of that documentary, Agust was not at all happy about. So our chances of filming inside the plant were slim," he said.
"But because it is just me as the one-person crew, I was able to go into the plant for the workers' induction and hang out with them for the day. I met with Agust and this guy is your straight-up hard man that shows no emotion.
"I let him know my intentions and that I am here for the whole two months and that I'd love to film the boys working inside.
"I took some aerial photos and video[s] of the plant with my drone and gifted the footage to Agust and then said, 'give them two weeks and you can come into the plant'. I could've kissed my drone," he said.
"The next challenge [was] to get the boys used to me filming them, I'm supposed to be like a fly on the wall. I'm 6ft (1.8m) and 117kg, that's a pretty big fly.
"And the key to filming these sorts of documentaries is to keep filming people till they forget that you're there. The boys were really good actually and were always giving when it came to filming or interviewing them."
After each day of filming, Mr Jonathan would log the footage, then digitise it on to drives which would take at least four hours after filming.
"So a certain amount of discipline [was] needed to take place to prevent footage mix-up or the worse case scenario, deleting footage by accident.
"Iceland has to be one of the most picturesque places I have been to in the world. There are pockets of Iceland that look like the South Island and then some landscapes that look like no other place on Earth.
"I'm humbled to have had this opportunity to film with the Kiwis on this trip and a real documentary that represents the hard work these people do that make them some of the best in the world."
Freezing Works is available to watch online at www.maoritelevision.com
