On Sep 10, 3:53?pm, Mr. Mike <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> I received the following very interesting e-mail a couple of days ago:
>
> My brother Irwin learned to fly helicopters with a fellow named Chuck
> Whiteman at Central Pacific Helicopters. (As Irwin's younger brother
> I was always hanging around hoping to get a free ride.) Chuck flew a
> fair amount of aerial photography, and was hired to shoot aerials for
> the opening of the show. (Bobby-something was the DP) Chuck
> described to me their concept of "dollying" the helicopter towards
> the balcony of the Ilikai Hotel where Jack Lord was standing. They
> tried for many days to shoot but it was way too windy to get
> anything. (I was also interested in photography and talked to Chuck
> after each day's shooting to see how it went; I even went down to the
> area and watched from below.) This was before the days of gyro
> stabilized camera mounts, most of which would not have fit in Chuck's
> Bell G-5 helicopter. The weather never did improve, and Chuck said
> they would have to use what they had because the show was about to
> air. Chuck did not feel good about what they got; he said that they
> did not feel good about it either.
>
> When I watched the opening of the show when it first aired, I
> realized that they used the shaky footage they got, and "stutter-cut"
> it to hide the shake; it was supposed to be a continuous scene, but
> the wind and resulting camera shake forced them to come up with
> something else. I knew little of editing back then, but realized
> and was impressed that they took what they had and "saved it in the
> edit." The characteristic quick-cuts-to-music that so stylizes the
> opening was the result of some really windy weather and some really
> clever editing.
Yup, cutting rooms can make or break a film, but it was an interesting
read. I never gave the opening sequence much thought, but always
figured it was a ground based zoom lense that grabbed that shot of
Lord.
|
