Well, we're glad you got usable footage... but much more glad that everyone is now on the ground safely.
I hope in hindsight now that you've tried it that it doesn't seem like we were quite the "prognosticators of doom" that we might have appeared before the shoot.
I think the lesson to be taken from this is "compromise." If your director had continued to unwaveringly insist on the original gear (DSLR with a 70mm lens) and original shot plan (long continuous panoramic sweeping shot leading to a spiraling closeup of the talent), the cursing would probably
still be going on. Fortunately you were able to radically upgrade your gear, overcrank to smooth the bumps, and change the edit so that short little shorts would work instead of one long one.
One bit of after-the-fact and now-useless advice... pilots tend to be a fairly fearless group (except me, I'm a pretty chicken pilot). If your pilot said you "cheated death" to get the shot... you can believe him. I wouldn't recommend doing that again, no shot on any project whatsoever is worth that. I've known a few who've taken that gamble an lost. And they don't let you play again.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
