The Green Lantern

Last we Sarah and I helped launch another new coaster at Six Flags: The Green Lantern!

This ride has two minutes of the usual spine-chilling climbs, loops and corkscrews, all performed at a lightning speed.  The difference here, is that the rider is standing.

Our job was to work with Kristin, the park's PR manager to film the ride, create and duplicate a video press kit in a time frame of less than 48 hours.  

Weather was not on our side, either.  It had been pouring for the last few days and we had a limited window of opportunity to pull this off, the press launch could not be moved and was now or never.
     
A local weather report indicated some clearing was heading our way, but, for now, it was still raining.

We arrived a 9:00 am.  Our first task was to mount a POV (point of view) camera on the front of the ride.  After which, we would need to reverse the camera and film a crew of brave riders.

We've mounted cameras on dozens of coasters over the years and still our deepest concern is safety.  Rigging used to take hours and often required mounting large cameras and portable tape decks.   Everything had to be taped and bungeed into place.  A loose part becomes a missile at 60-80 mph, endangering riders and anyone on the ground.  We also take into consideration that this is a multi-million dollar ride that they are letting us play with and we want to leave it just as we found it.

Although mounting a POV camera has become a much easier affair with the introduction of miniature, light-weight cameras like the Go Pro, everything must be secured and safety checked by the ride park's engineers before we proceed.

Carefully covering the ride with gaffer tape to prevent scratching the paint, Sarah and I used a Manfrotto maffer clamp and Magic Arm to secure the camera to the front panel of the ride.  Amazingly, we were able to immediately view the test results, get our client's OK on both angles and move on to our ground shots.

I was fortunate to have the loan of a Genus shoulder mount for this shoot.  In the past, I found it difficult filming rides using my Sony EX1 and EX3 cameras.  The EX1's LCD viewer sucks in daylight and the EX3's shoulder mount is both clutzy and difficult to hand-hold, especially when you are trying to follow a high speed coaster car around a steel pretzel.

The Genus consists of a hot-plate,  rails, a shoulder pad and counter-weight was quick and easy to balance and it fit very comfortably on my shoulder.  That's pretty much all you want to say about a shoulder rig, except this one was designed to be used on my tripod as well, so with a simple click, it was in place and no time was lost changing mounts.  Simple, perfect, sweet.

The rain cleared long enough for us to shoot, but, care had to be taken to properly show off the ride against the bright white skies.  The best camera's can be pretty dumb at times and seeing all that brightness, the camera's internal metering system would change that white sky to 18% grey for very unpleasant results.

After a late night edit and a few online approvals the job was delivered with 18 hours to spare and the Green Lantern press event (this time with sunny skies) was very successful.  Go Kristin!  

Check out the ride:  The Green Lantern Ride film
Other links:
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Chuck featured on Sony's VideOn site

The Genus Rig

Getting Back to Business

I've received dozens of inquiries as to why I had not been keeping my blog up to date.  In fact, I heard from people all over the globe that I had no idea were following my ramblings and often, reading all the way back to my first entries.  I was chuffed.

Well here's the deal...

I put away my writer's cap for a few months, because I began to feel that I was talking more and doing less.

It's not true, really.  I'm just kind of tough on myself, which is the result of being self-employed for 30 years.  None the less, I felt I had to stop writing for a while and get out into the field and do more doing.

Fortunately, in the last five months the studio has been jammed with new projects, acquired several new clients and purchased a state-of-the-art camera.  Sarah and I are moving forward and making significant progress in a very sluggish economy and I am truly thankful for the blessings bestowed upon us.

Best of all, we have found a great deal of joy and artistic direction in filming New York City.   Getty Images has proven to be a decent stock footage partner.  We now have hundreds of video clips online and our images have been seen on everything from CSI to CNN to SNL.

Even more important than finding the time to do all this new work, Sarah and I have gone out of our way to find the time to enjoy each other and our beautiful daughter, Ellie, who just last week, celebrated her 2nd birthday.  What an amazing thing that is!

                      (Sorry Eric... I couldn't help myself.)

At a time when most workers and business owners are looking toward retirement, I am more stoked than ever about the type of work we do, the people we work with and some of the brilliant and talented professionals that I have had the great honor of swapping industry stories with.

I look forward to more!

Chuck's Bio on Sony's VideOn Network

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