Tuesday 22 January 2013

Mountain Excitement

After the heavens had closed, the sun began to shine.

Just two days after Northern England had been awash with flood water, we found ourselves in the almost spring-like English Lake District filming a mountain bike sequence. Once again in ultra-slow motion. 

I'd scheduled a shoot with a posse of mountain bikers mustered and led by Andy Smith of Cactus Creative in nearby Kendal. Andy's a keen outdoor enthusiast and he had lined us up with a spot-on location via his Lakes Locations agency. Unfortunately, this was a trek over hill and vale, and too far for the small mountain of filming equipment we had in tow. However, Andy had also arranged what looked like the kind of vehicle Batman would have if his cave was situated near Kendal.
Andy had sent me a photo of it whilst we were shooting the kayaking sequence the day before, and on my phone it resembled a sort of DIY Tumbler. In camo-green. That is if it had been constructed from the left-over parts bin at Go-Karts-R-Us and gene-spliced with a Fly-mo.

On the route out I was convinced Andy was going to press a button (there weren't many of them to be fair) and the whole thing would convert into a two-wheeled off-road dragster bike. Andy would have been happy, but the rest of the crew would have been walking.



The location was perfect. Offering us lots of potential for the selection of shots we wanted to slot in between the kayaking sequences. Loads of drop-offs, loose gravel and tree runs. Not forgetting a stunning Lakeland backdrop.

After DOP Steve Nelson and his assistant Dan had the descent shots in the can it was over to Joe 90, so-called as he's usually spotted biking off 90 degree vertical cliffs on his downhill machine.
These shots would be inter-cut into the final film and juxtaposed with Steve Edmondson’s kayak plummeting into the River Swale. Joe Lethbridge made light work of the jumps we had at hand and before long we were on the home stretch. Just in time for the December 'magic hour'. As the sun glinted through the trees and photographer Henry Iddon was able to capture the moment perfectly.





On reaching the 'Tumbler' I decided that our final shot of the day should be of the biking posse cycling through a perfectly still puddle framed by the whole of the Kentmere cirque in the evening sunlight. We fired-up the 'Tumbler' with Steve Nelson perched in the back for an impromptu tracking shot. A reluctant driver, but with new found off-road skills, I had Producer's perogative to play with the toys. So I put pedal to the metal as the cyclists got within a nose of the back of the vehicle which provided our final shot. 


As the London-bound camera crew hit the M6, Henry and I joined the Team Cactus posse at Wilf's Cafe in Staveley Yard for a sandwich and a well-earned brew. Concluding a hectic, but brilliant two days of filming.

The final film will be released shortly. In the meantime you can check out the behind the scenes video of our shoot...

David Jinks
Producer & Director

Fridge Productions Limited

Tel: 0845 604 3582

Monday 21 January 2013

Water Logged

Shooting kayaking in one of the UK’s worst periods of flooding was always going to be a challenge. Especially using a camera last used in Turkey on the dry and dusty set of Skyfall.

I had been considering shooting a number of action sports in a truly cinematic style for some time. Desensitised to the ubiquitous GoPro miniCAM videos, endless tracking shots and the like, I’d been thinking of other ways of showing sports and perhaps capturing something that isn’t often seen: true, ultra-slow motion.

In December I assembled a crew to film a couple of outdoor sports which would look good in slo-mo. One of them being white water kayaking.
I first considered using slow-motion whilst developing some ideas for the Kendal Mountain Festival in the Autumn of 2011. Inspired by the Film Four idents I suggested we shoot a number of sports to open the individual special evenings in the festival programme. This didn’t happen, but my idea lingered.

12 months later I mentioned these ideas to my regular DOP Steve Nelson. We discussed possibilities and we made some investigations into the Phantom Flex and more manageable Phantom Miro ultra-high speed video cameras. However, apart from some specific plus points of using the higher speed Phantom we decided that 300fps (frames per second) would be enough to capture slow motion sufficiently for our purpose. We settled on using the Red Epic camera, shooting log, and equipped with some nice lenses to conduct some tests. After all, a moving kayak isn’t a bullet, even if it has been launched down the River Swale in full flood.

What I needed now was bad weather and a river in full flood.
What my crew needed was dry weather and a nearby pub.
A compromise was required, as well a man with a kayak.

Fortunately Andy Smith at Cactus Creative introduced me to Steve Edmondson. He had what looked like a kayak shaped satsuma , and a thorough knowledge of white water, and more importantly the skills to navigate it. We discussed the project and he suggested options. Producers like options.

The time I don’t spend flying a spreadsheet and juggling budgets, I spend switching between weather forecast websites.  Fortunately I could see a storm was brewing. Returning from my recce with Steve late on the evening of Saturday 2nd December, the first spots of rain began to fall.  It would continue into Monday.


With the rain still falling, I was on the mobile directing a Nissan Navarra on the M1 out of London with a camera crew and equipment whilst in a meeting with an illustrator about another commission. I then received a telephone call from my cousin who lives 4 miles away from our chosen shoot location. She was speaking from the side of the road in Swaledale having driven her BMW 5 Series through a flood and was now waiting for an AA man with engine draining capabilities. I still had to collect a hard disk drive to copy all of the lovely 5K HD video and get myself into the now rain sodden Dales. With the rain bouncing off the windows of the office Teesside and the rest of the NE was beginning to resemble opening scenes of The Day After Tomorrow. Things weren’t looking good.

Fortunately, my crew had decided to drive up the M6 and approach the Upper Swale from Kirkby Stephen having shot up there many times before and were familiar with the high moor roads.
Although the closest to the shoot location all main approaches from Teesside were now under water. Fortunately I was able to pick my way through County Durham and up in the Dales from Barnard Castle. My Camera Assistant stuck  in Newcastle-upon-Tyne wasn’t so lucky.

At 11:00PM we were all drinking Black Sheep whilst dusting off the Red Epic video camera on the kitchen table after its return from shooting behind the scenes on the set of Skyfall.
Before bed, as if by magic, the rain stopped. Just as the weather forecast the previous Thursday had suggested. Our weather window was just about to open.
My location recce with Steve Edmondson the previous weekend paid off, as we were able to quickly set-up for our first shots as planned. We had selected a two-stage waterfall to maximise our shooting opportunity. We knew that the water level would steadily drop throughout the day and that we had to move quickly and systematically before the falls became unnavigable for Steve.
We began shooting some wide shots from a high vantage point to enable us to gauge movement and speed. It also enabled us to shoot some establishing shots, general views and long shots. Before long we were amongst the action, with Steve Nelson perched above a raging torrent of peaty water capturing Steve Edmondson in his inflatable LiquidLogic satsuma plummeting down into the foaming mass of water. Photographer Henry Iddon was also on hand to capture that equally important action in freeze frame. My job was to keep the shoot moving. Nelson and his assistant Dan having been briefed earlier about the imagery I wanted just needed to keep shooting. Between pulling the kayak out of the river and hauling it up out of the steep ravine ready for the next take I was able to film the action on our in house HD cameras. As well as managing the backward facing GoPro Hero2 camera I’d mounted on the front deck of the kayak.

After more than half a dozen attempts and a quick review on the monitor I called it a wrap and Team Fridge retired to the Farmers Arms in Muker for a well-earned round of Black Sheep, toasted sandwiches and chips.

Back at the cottage we transcoded the Red Code into a more manageable video format on Steve Nelson’s mobile studio and reviewed the days footage on the monitor. An evening meal in the CB Inn in Arkengarthdale was next on the cards in reparation for our shoot the following day over near Staveley. This time mountain biking.


David Jinks
Producer & Director
Fridge Productions Limited
Tel: 0845 604 3582