November 18, 2011

Two to three weeks ago I worked on a Got Home Alive shoot on location at the San Gabriel River above Azusa.  The segment was about a fisherman that got his leg stuck under a rock in a river and I was fingered to be a ranger on camera since I was already working for the show as water safety/medic.  It was a very cold day in the water, but at least it was a sunny and warm.  Temperatures have dropped a lot since then, with nights getting into the low 40s.

Day One on set. The DP that day, Kevin O’Brien, thought it was funny when I pulled a GoPro out of my pocket and started shooting him. Then he paused and said “Hey, send me a copy of that!” Photo: P. McCurdy

This segment was cursed from the start.  When they scouted the location the water was perfect.  When we showed up for the first day of shooting the water was way down.  When we came back a week later the water was way up and continued to come up throughout the day to the point of being dangerous.  We did the best we could but missed some of the underwater shots of the leg, the fisherman struggling to get free, and the key shots of the rescue device which was a red balloon thing that inflates under the rock to free the leg.  I’ve heard rumors ever since that the senior producer on the show wanted to send a skeleton crew back to get the missed shots.

I worked for the show Monday through Thursday this week and yesterday a field producer confirmed they wanted me back today, Friday, to shoot the missing shots because 1) my ropes and gear were part of both the safety rigging and the faux on-camera rigging for the original shots, and 2) I’m stupid enough to hang off cliffs, wallow in mud, chop poison oak, or…spend hours in icy water for this show.

David (Director and Director of Photography), Lee (Producer and Assistant Director), and I (Sorta Stunt Dude, Stand-in Fisherman, Person Foolish Enough to Freeze His Nads Off For A Stupid TV Show) show up this morning at the luxuriously late hour of 10 a.m. to cloudy skies, cold weather, and decidedly frigid water in the river.  Things went downhill from there.  Numerous small but important things were forgotten at the office and the “rescue balloon” we were given was a cheap K-Mart inflatable raft.  We made do as best we could, but spent the next three hours in the water freezing our asses off to get not just the one missing shot, but the seven shots the senior producer decided at the last minute that we needed to get.

Finally, shivering uncontrollably and barely able to move our limbs, we exited the water and prepared to move back up the riverbank to our vehicles.  David placed the camera, in its waterproof housing and containing every bit of footage we shot in the previous three freezing friggin’ hours, on a washing machine sized boulder near the water.  As we dried off and gathered our gear – I swear I am not making this up – we heard a loud crack and the boulder on which the camera was sitting split in half and the camera disappeared!

We all stared in disbelief and Lee said “WHAT just happened???”  David, stunned, mumbled “That boulder split in half!”  Lee says “WHERE is the camera???”  David:  “It’s gone!!!”

Several minutes of searching turned up the camera, none the worse for the wear, in the water and wedged under a chunk of the boulder, but what are the odds of that happening?  I decided we needed to get off that river as soon as we could.  Before lightning, or earthquake, or biblical flood did us in.

I’m working Monday for the show on a shoot with a Western Diamondback rattlesnake.  I ain’t gettin’ anywhere near that snake.  No way!