Maho Beach St. Maarten. Blown Away: A documentary short at the intersection of art and foolishness.

September 3, 2013 - Posted by csandy

July, 2013, Maho Beach, St. Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands) – First off, we are not advising anyone try this.  Sandy Audio Visual LLC, SAV Productions, South Caribbean Media and all of its agents, assigns, owners, anyone that gives a hoot at all about us and our exposure to liability simply say “DO NOT TRY THIS.”  This blog post is not a “How to” but a “How WE did.”  You have been warned.  For those that think this is merely a dramatization to get more YouTube hits (you cynical bunch you), carefully read this warning sign posted by Dutch authorities.  Note the last word.  DEATH.  Anyone planning to take a visit to Princess Juliana International Airport and the adjacent Maho beach should heed the warnings.

That said, let’s walk you through the how this video was shot and what we’d do differently if given the time.

Three cameras were used for this shoot.  The main camera, or camera “A” was a GoPro Hero Black Edition camera with its stock waterproof case in a heavy aluminum Combat Cage by Wide Open Camera.  We also used the stock battery because we knew shooting time would be very brief.  We also used the stock Hero 3 wifi remote.  This was crucial in planning for this video.  The wifi remote was tethered to an iPhone 4S  using the GoPro app as a remote video.  While standing behind a jet airplane is not a clever move in and of itself, looking directly into the jet blast blast is even worse.  That said, the remote viewing was essential for being able to frame the shot (or attempt to frame the shot) and keep the sand blast and salt water out of the eyes while filming.  So the center shot was filmed with Colin’s back turned toward the airplane and the GoPro held over the shoulder.

For the GoPro shot, the main thing we’d change is putting the iPhone in a proper underwater case.  This was an oversight as we had an iPhone 5 with a case good to 60 meters below with us at the time, but decided to use the iPhone 4S instead.  The result was fairly bad with water and salt damage to the phone resulting in a short in the flash circuitry.  The short caused the flashlight to stay on – which is probably a built-in indicator of water damage.  Everything else with the phone seemed to work, but now the camera is toast.  So that was really poor planning – especially with the right equipment on hand.

The second thing we’d do is really take advantage of the Combat Cage’s grip options.  Because there are more 1/4 20 mounting options on the Combat Cage than you can count, a sturdier grip setup would have been designed should we ever attempt to shoot this again (we won’t).

Camera B was an off-the-shelf Sony handy cam.  It took that great close-up shot of the MD-83’s engine.  It really needed to be on a monopod.  But given the mayhem on the beach, any time of stick may have become a projectile or obstacle in the way of escape for the jet’s hot engines.  So the only real change to be made there would probably have been to run the footage through After Effects’ stabilization filter.  If you watch “Blown Away” on YouTube, you may wonder why the stabilization filter wasn’t simply used there.  We felt it would take away from the authenticity and mayhem of the moment.  Not quite Blair Witch or Cloverleaf, but you would not get the true sense of the motion dynamics of the event should it have been steady lock-down shots.

Camera C was a stock Canon Powershot Elph point-and-shoot digital camera.  Like the Sony, it was not in any type of specialized case.  Because Camera C’s videographer did not escape the direct jet blast, the camera was subject with strong winds, sand, and salt water.  Needless to say, the camera did not survive at all.  But the footage did.  And that’s what really counts, right?

The footage was edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.  I have to say while we’re not a big fan of renting software, the constant updates and improvements to the online version of Premiere Pro may be worth the price of admission.  The “create sequence from clip” option is a godsend.  The sync to audio feature is simply amazing for aligning multiple camera shots.  The footage from all three cameras came out looking really really good – so it’s likely they updated their compression algorithms as well.  It just looks great (watch it in 1080P on YouTube).  Given the time, we would have attempted to color match the cameras better.  The Canon tended to be very  much over saturated and made all the other footage seem undersaturated in comparison.

We were extremely impressed with the GoPro Hero 3.  Not just because it survived a very extreme environment, but also because of it’s remote viewing capabilities and the ability to change lens angle and aspect ratio in software.  You will see the GoPro in 4:3 mode at the beginning and closing credits, and 16:9 throughout the rest of the video.  The footage has great detail and resolution.

So, we hope you enjoy watch the mayhem of the jet blast as much as we enjoyed filming it.  Again, don’t do this – especially with the larger planes.  You’ll probably want to clear the beach if an Insel Air plane decides to blast the beach (and yes, the pilots know what they’re doing).  Also, if you have any type of corrective eye wear, you’ll want to leave it in the car or better yet wear safety goggles.  Whatever you have shielding your face, prepare for it to be pitted by sand when you’re done.  So don’t wear your fancy prescription eye goggles.  Better yet, don’t attempt to do this stunt at all (see the photo of the sign above for reference).

Also, the people filing this are, how to put this delicately… heavy.  If you weigh 125 pounds dripping wet – this is not the beach for you, and if you try fence surfing like the gentleman in the video, you will likely fly away and end up with a broken neck.  So avoid the broken neck and live vicariously through us and enjoy laughing at our folly.

 

This entry was posted in Education, Review and tagged Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Airbus A320, GoPro, Hero3, Jet Blue, Maho Beach, MD-80, MD-83, Multi-camera editing, Princess Juliana Airport, sandy audio visual, St. Maarten, Sunset Beach.