We Got The Shot: Black Thoughts On A Black Texas Night

WE GOT THE SHOT
(Episode One Black Thoughts on a Black Texas Night)

(Most DVDs now have a behind-the-scenes section. Many people like seeing what really happened to get the shot. Everybody likes aerials, usually shot from a helicopter. But behind the scenes of those beautiful floating shots are some dangerous maneuvers. This is the first part of a story about one of our aerial film shoots filming the Apache helicopter, with flash-backs to the high-speed, dangerous moves the helicopter takes to film a cruise ship in the deep dark Caribbean an hour before sunset in golden hour.)

It was a moonless night. I was in a helicopter over a Texas forest.

I was in one of those moments where it doesnt matter what time it is, what day it is, what year it is.

We had finished a long hard day of filming helicopter aerials of the U.S. Armys Apache helicopter. We were headed for home but there was just one more shot to get.

I was scooted over as far as I could in the seat of the Bell Long Ranger, which is the helicopter of choice when shooting aerials. I was fully against the left door, watching the pilot not watching where we were going.

Why was I pressed so firmly against the door?

It was as far as I could get away from the certain danger I was in.

I looked through the Plexiglas window of the flimsy door and saw the dark pines of Texas drifting by silently down below in the pitch-black night.

About a three hundred foot drop, I thought to myself.

If I open the door quickly, unsnap my harness and jump I might.no, that wouldnt work. The helicopter weighed much more than me so it would pass me on the way down. And the spinning rotor blades were the real danger, as I learned on a helicopter shoot at Lake Powell.

FLASHBACK TO LAKE POWELL SHOOT - We were shooting aerials for a brilliant Italian director, Roberto del Orto. The shot was for the helicopter camera to rise up rapidly in a narrow canyon of sheer rock walls on either side of us. We were doing a rapid ascent to reveal two stunt people playing tennis across the canyon gap. But any gust of wind, any updraft could easily buffet us into the rock wall, snap the rotor blades and we would be a quickly dropping projectile down to the icy black water below.

If we hit the wall, dont jump out til I tell you, Rod, my helicopter pilot, told me as we entered the canyon. The canyon walls pinched in closer and closer until we had about three feet of clearance.

If we go down, Ive got to lay the helicopter over to bust off the rotor blades on the waters surface. So dont get out until I tell you theyve snapped off. Well still have a minute or so to get out before it sinks. Ill try to lay it over so your side is up. Ill swim out underneath.

That was way too much detail for the twenty seconds it took to say. But my helicopter pilot always cut to the chase. He was on borrowed time. His doctor told him he had cancer. Rod walked out of his office. That was eight years ago.

This would be the fourth film shoot Id put my life in his hands. The first time was shooting a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The maneuver was for him to fly the helicopter sideways at the cruise ship, which was cruising at us about 18 knots. We would come in low over the water so the cruise ships bow looked huge in the frame, then, Rod would pull his collective and wed rise up like an express elevator, just missing the bow of the ship.

At this point, my doorway would start to facing down as we passed quickly over the flying bridge (where the white uniformed crew were standing), then over the smoke stack.

Now, the chopper would be virtually laying on its side, my camera door pointing down. I would slide out if it werent for centrifugal force.

Then, the helicopter would rotate 180 degrees and start to fall toward the back of the ship but would level off before we hit the water. In the camera frame it would appear that the ship had rotated in the frame, spinning on the center point of the smoke stacks, then sailed away into the distance.


The first flyover was a test.

Hmmm. I reviewed how much I was getting paid for this gig.

It didnt matter because Id never get a chance to spend it. We raced back out past the ship to get at our start point again. In the business we call it back to one as in back to your start position.

There was the ship. White. The ocean. Dark blue/black. 10 miles to shore. A long swim. Sharks?

Roll Camera, the director yelled over the helicopter noise. My thumb punched the trigger on the camera.

The second rehearsal pass begins. The bow of the ship is coming at us, closing speed about 120 knots. It looks a lot closer in real life than through the wide-angle lens. Will we pull up in time? Whether my lights went out or stayed on would be determined by the timing of Rods pull up. It was all in Rods hands.


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