ACTION FILMMAKING
straightaway there aremany ‘scene’ issues to overcome. I happen to have been privileged to photograph some of the world’s greatest tennis players inmy time so I knowwhat I’m looking for. Much of the battle is in finding the right models, whowill have towork hard to build up the sweat and to look as though they’re really playing their hearts out. Sometimes they swear, sometimes I do, rigs get hit hard by balls and sometimes it’sme in the firing line. Just last week a powerful tennis player performing a running backwards smash that I had served up hit me square in the forehead at 65mph+ fromfive metres away, which stung a bit! It all goes with the territory: I’ve lost a kneecapwhile filming snowboarding, have crashed into a car in a paraglider and displaymany scars and other injuries all in the pursuit of high- end action footage. Let’s not even get started on howmany teeth I have left! Sowhat happens when perhaps things occur that you can’t plan for? A recent shoot with a polo teamserves as a good example of how things can gowrong if someone doesn’t perform their role to a high enough level. I had the idea of sitting in the back of a 4X4with a climbing harness on, speeding across the pitchwith all the ponies riding behindme and one of the players swinging and hitting the ball. You can imagine this wasmet with a slightly stony silence, but everyone agreed to give it a go. I explained the shot andwhen the day arrived briefed the driver and he duly tried to keep the ponies in the sweet spot for filming. Except that it turns out he hadn’t really been listening –he even ran his tyres over the ball on one run, burying it below the pitch– and four live runs later the ponies were foaming up on a very hot day and the riders were getting pretty angry. We had no choice but to abandon and I left with nothing. Luckily I was able to reschedule with a better driver, but was told I would get one run only. This is when the heat is on, and I had one chance only to keep the gimbal smoothwhilst accelerating and getting the transition and flow right. In these moments you have no choice but to remain calm, any nerves, any heart rate, anything other than calmon the inside will start decreasing the success level in incremental percentage terms. Thankfully with the extra planning it all came together like a dream and the day was saved.
create a believable scene that will look natural; that’s not an easy thing to achieve. It’s important that the crewbelieves that you knowwhat you’re doing, otherwise things can swiftly unravel. Your talent will lose their enthusiasm if all their efforts and sweat are amounting to nothing. Then the rest of the teamwill start giving a few telling sideways glances, people will go off the boil, their adrenaline levels will dip and the high intensity energy and enthusiasm that’s needed to achieve action filmingwanes. There’s also the fact that there’s inevitably a lack of atmosphere around a manufactured event. There’s no adoring crowd singing an athlete’s name or a cup final to be won, so our job is to create the believable out of nothing. Without creative and thoughtful direction it’s difficult for someone (who isn’t a top flight model/ actor) to find these depths of emotion; one giggle from the crew as the sportsmodel celebrates to an empty stand or one cross or disappointedword from the director when something goes wrong, and the whole scene can come crashing down. Once yourmodel feels this way, about a situation that should be under your control, you’ll not get the best out of them that day ormaybe ever. Let’s take a sport such as tennis to see how the logistics work out. You’re up against it from the start since no tennis court will ever look as wonderful asWimbledon in the summer. There’s no crowd to enliven the set and no grass court anywhere else in the worldwill be as well manicured, so
ABOVE Shooting winter sports is challenging when you need to capture moving footage, as a film camera and all the other equipment can be heavy and difficult to transport.
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WINTER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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