A High Fall and a Helicopter

jodymichelle

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A High Fall and a Helicopter

Written by Todd Grossman



It was 5AM when I got the call that by some miracle the helicopter was a go. I looked at my watch and thought, ‘The stunt men have a call time of 6AM. I guess I’ll have to re-write the shot list on the way to set.’


When I was graduating from film school (the University of Southern California), I knew that the most common clichéd phrase, perhaps only second to ‘we’ll fix it in post,’ was the ever-important, ‘it’s who you know.’


As a kid from a small town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I have to admit I had no connections in the film business. In fact, I thought the idea of ‘who you know’ was all about being grandfathered in; like that moment when Pacino tell’s Sonny Black that Donnie Brasco is “a friend of mine” and suddenly he’s a connected guy.


I think I almost gave up a few times when I’d meet kids whose uncle was a producer, or mom a casting director. In time, I learned that it’s the connections you make from the first day on a set, even a set built off an ad on Craigslist, that ultimately become who you know.


I arrived at set and checked my watch, a few ticks shy of 6AM. I had a new shot list in hand, coffee in another, and the crew was beginning to stir. My producer and DP were incredible; they had arranged with a prominent Hollywood pilot, Cliff Flemming, to fly past our small independent shoot on his way home from a big movie set. We’d pay for his gas, and he’d give us 1 hour of his time to hover, maneuver, and basically get the shots we needed. We had two 35mm film cameras, 1 helicopter in route, and a couple of stuntmen willing and able to leap from the roof of a 3-story building. The only question remaining was, ‘How are we going to get it all in just 1 hour?’


Filmmaker Rob Cohen first hired me to document the making of “xXx,” starring Vin Diesel. It was a lucky break and I wound up documenting the making of many big summer films. Considering that action movies bring out all the toys, all the tricks, and all the tech, for their high price tags, it wound up being a sort of hands on grad school.


For better or worse, gone are the days of not peeking behind that mysterious curtain. Whether it’s online or on a disk, any one of us can now view the detailed process of how a $200 million movie is made. We can learn from their successes or failures, see their tricks for efficiency, gloss, and content, and if we’re focused and clever, apply those techniques to smaller productions, to give them that million-dollar feel.


The city of Los Angeles had cleared our permits to bring a helicopter in to a parking lot. We placed a camera on top of the roof and one below on the ground; both with lenses ready to go. The stunt team new exactly what to do as they waited near the edge of the roof, wearing the wardrobe of the lead actors. The crew was standing ready and eager when the thwapping of a distant rotor suddenly grew in the horizon. It was time.


We radioed to the chopper and positioned it over the airbag only to realize the downwash from the blades was too much; it was compressing the airbag making it unsafe, or worse, useless. We made a quick judgement call – we’d hover the helicopter 100 feet back for the top shot, and use a long lens to compress the distance so it would appear as if the stuntmen were jumping right at it. Cliff maneuvered back, the stuntmen climbed onto the perch high above the now fully inflated airbag, and we lined up the shot as the precious minutes ticked by. It was now or never, and with everyone in their place, we rolled cameras, called action, and the men ran full tilt up to, and over, the edge of the building.


The first lesson I learned on action films was safety. It can sound a bit trite until you see something bad happen to someone you know. A lot of people will tell you that one of the best elements of filmmaking is its diversity. You get to explore new places, new stories, and essentially new worlds on every project. This can also be its greatest danger. The ever-changing environment leads to countless variables that are always shifting. What was safe and worked on one project suddenly doesn’t apply.


I remember hearing a rumor when professional skateboarder Danny Way first attempted to jump the Great Wall of China. He was on a ramp he was very accustomed to, and yet it went very wrong when he came up very short. Though he did climb up top and to do it again (this time a 360 none the less), it was thought that the extra humidity in that climate might have increased the resistance causing him to not travel as far and thus land short of his landing. Everchanging.


The stuntmen landed in the airbag perfectly, just as rehearsed, only without the helicopter close by. The shot was unreal. The compression had worked like a charm, and it appeared as if they were jumping right at the chopper.


With the fuel burning fast, we radioed up that we got it and were on the move. My DP, Richard Merryman, and I raced down the building to the 2nd set up below. We decided on this one that we would have to composite the helicopter in later. So, the stuntmen reset, we rolled cameras, and they jumped again. Watching playback, we marked on the screen where they had been in the air, then our team all laid on the airbag for safety as the helicopter hovered above at the exact spot where the stuntmen had reached. We rolled again and got a plate shot of the helicopter hovering alone on its mark.


I checked my watch and what felt like 10 minutes had been an hour. Time was up. Via radio, we said our good-byes, and enormous thanks, and the helicopter was gone as quick as it came. We had the shots in the can; none of which were exactly as we’d planned to shoot that day. But, considering the helicopter all but fell into our lap, we were pretty happy with what we got.


We knew that in the end, the final shots would cut in nicely and work well for the movie. In fact, everything we needed was there, except for one shot that we’d now have to fix in post; the low angle of the high fall and the helicopter.




Todd Grossman has shot, edited, produced and directed numerous documentary making-of’s including GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Stealth, SWAT, and the Vin Diesel-starring xXx. Grossman recently directed the Maloof Money Cup, Behind the Taurus; and numerous commercials. www.toddgrossman.com
Follow IG @tgfilms

(A High Fall and a Helicopter)

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