The Jackson Tornado

Last week  we helped launch  THE TORNADO, at Six Flags' Hurricane Harbor, a giant, blue and yellow, funnel shaped water slide, 132 feet long and 7 stories tall!

We were asked to create an HD B-Roll package for a press event announcing the opening of the ride.  Originally, we had a four or five days to shoot, edit and deliver the images in a variety of formats, but some rainy weather and minor construction delays forced us to turn around the project in about 12 hours.

Nothing new for this type of project.

Sarah, our assistant, Arion Doerr and I arrived in Jackson early so that we could scope out the best camera angles.  As the ride was not yet open to the public, only park employees were allowed to use the slide.  Angel, Six Flags' Public Relations Manager and her assistant Jenn, lined up a few dozen volunteers.  Unfortunately, they would not available until around  3:00 p.m. that afternoon.

The temperature had already crept into the 90s.  Sun block and water were the first order of the day.

We were happy to run into a friend of ours, Ron Wyatt who is responsible for much of the park's photographic needs.  Talented photographer great disposition.  An invaluable combination.
Check out his work at www.ronwyattphotos.com

Not until we got right up to it did we realize the immensity of this ride.  It was huge!  It was also very wet, so we made sure that most of our gear would remain outside the splash zone.

We had brought along two Sony XDCAM cameras, the EX1 and an EX3.  The EX3 was my primary camera fitted with a Sony .8 wide angle lens.  The lens is remarkably sharp and it allows you to use the entire zoom range of your lens.  The EX1 we placed in a Ewa splash bag to create some POV footage.

My biggest challenge was the position of the sun.  By the afternoon, the sun was positioned high and behind the opening of the funnel, putting the interior of the ride in shade.  There was plenty of light, but the contrast between the walls of the funnel and the hole at the bottom was extreme.  Putting the camera on automatic would compensate for the brightness, but doing that meant that every time I panned passed the opening, everything else in the image would become dark.

The remedy was to keep the lens on manual and slowly rack the exposure as the ride reached the end.  It was a bit clutzy at first, but after a few tries I found the rhythm of the ride and everything balanced beautifully.

The riders pick up speed while in the tube and with a sharp drop, fly out of the shoot into the funnel.  Fortunately, there is a small rush of water before the raft arrives so it was a little easier to track them.

We gathered footage from every angle we could reach on foot and ladders and then Angel handed me a harness and then took me up on a high lift so that I could get an arial view.   Very cool!

I had previously prepared all the elements for the release.  All that was needed when we arrived home was to load the footage into Avid and pull the best takes.  Much more time was spent watching files compress.

There is still much confusion when it comes to which HD formats television stations will accept and some smaller stations, are still not using HD at all.  Sarah prepared disks with a variety of formats so that there would be plenty of options for the editors.

She delivered the project early the following morning, to guarantee it's safe and timely arrival and we were delighted to see our footage show up on ABC's Good Morning America the following day.

Thanks Angel!

www.duckyou.com
Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideON

www.sixflags.com