If you haven’t seen the latest kayak video “Dream,” don’t miss the boat:
//player.vimeo.com/video/94027221
Produced by NRS Films, directed by Skip Armstrong, and starring none other than flamboyant kayaker Ben Marr, it’s part kayak vid, part “Where the Wild Things Are” meets “Alice in Wonderland,” all on the water. With camerawork and other help provided by the likes of Erik Boomer, Eric Parker, Matt Baker, Chris Korbulic, and Rush Sturges, the short clip traces Marr from unconfident rookie into the dream world we all have of being a kayaking star.
How did we get here? GrindTV.com talks with director Skip Armstrong and gets behind the scenes.
“… and starring Ben Marr as the ultimate n00b …” Screen grab from video
Pretty wacky plot with the dancing bears and all. Who thought this up?
I’d been wanting to do a fun and creative piece for a while, something that was joyful, weird, and decidedly different. This is what arrived to me. On the first night of our shoot, our production coordinator, Jay Gifford, mentioned that he had a Sasquatch suit. As the words came out of his mouth, our entire team got excited. Jay’s suit actually was never found, but fortunately Portland, Oregon, is nearby and you wouldn’t believe what kind of props you can find. We were very close to having Big Bird, a unicorn, and a giant frog in the film too.
A veritable animal house. Anything funny happen during the filming? And who is that nailing that back flip in the Sasquatch suit?
Honestly, it was all fun! Eric Parker actually took quite a digger doing that back flip in the Sasquatch suit. He definitely was coughing up blood when he came up (sorry, Eric’s mom—we kept a close eye on him). The party scene was also a lot of fun to film. One time Benny came cruising by all the cameras laughing hysterically because he couldn’t see anything as he was paddling downstream. It was a good time.
How’d he swim with that suit on?
Eric had a drysuit on under the Sasquatch fur, but he definitely forgot to zip up his relief zipper. So it was a pretty cold swim for him.
Any other boaters or passersby see the guys in the suits?
Nobody else saw us out on the river because of the weird hours we filmed. But we made up for it by driving around Portland with the suits on.
Where’d you get them? And did the rental company bum out that you returned them all wet?
Yeah, we rented them. And yes, they were returned a much darker shade of earth color and quite wet. Fortunately, we didn’t incur any extra fees. The ladies were awesome at the store! They loved what we were up to.
Just 150 feet of LED lights and some packing tape, really. NBD. Screen grab from video
How’d you do the lighted boat shots?
We fastened 150 feet of waterproof LED lights to the bottom of the boat with clear shipping tape. I built two circuits that were each powered by lightweight lithium-ion batteries. Benny kept the batteries in a drybag in his boat. All the parts are available on Amazon and are quite affordable. I had to bust out my Boy Scout soldering skills and there was quite a bit of trial and error in the beginning, but we loved how it turned out. We had to re-tape the lights after each night. It’d be cool to figure out how to keep them more permanently attached without creating too much drag on the bottom of the boat.
How about shooting with all those fireworks?
I signed an agreement when I bought the fireworks in Idaho that I wouldn’t ignite them in Idaho. I can honestly say that I honored that agreement. Originally I had envisioned a fancy detonation system that was wireless and perfectly synchronized between the two sides of the river. In the end, we did it the old-fashioned way. Chris Korbulic and Eric Parker used cigarette lighters and lit them by hand. They then filmed Benny running the drop from the top of the waterfall. If you watch closely you can see Eric behind the firework as Benny goes off the drop in the final piece. Not the prettiest way to detonate fireworks, but certainly effective.
What’s next? Next stop Hollywood?
A six-episode expedition series for NRS is in the works and I’d love to dream up some more creative and silly projects. My personal dream is to one day shoot narrative fiction as a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
More from GrindTV
Are drones the future of action-sports films?
SUP athlete sets 24-hour record in nasty conditions
No comments:
Post a Comment