BUNGEE JUMP

On Saturday I went on my first professional shoot in...12 years. I have been on a few, but this is the first one where I was actually hired to do the shooting. This was for a very small segment in a two hour documentary I am editing for Discovery. We were filming bungee jumpers as part of an experiment. Now, the place we went for this was north of Azusa CA in the San Gabriel Canyon...along the San Gabriel river. The location was a bridge that is no longer connected to a road. The bridge was built in 1936, and the road that led to it was washed out by a flood in 1938. Just to get to the bridge we needed to hike 5 miles along the river, mostly over uneven terrain, and along cliffs and parts of the mountain where the path is always temporary, because it consists of falling rock. And we had to cross the river 8 times.

ANYWAY, it was quite a hike. And being the camera guy I was the one carrying the camera...my HPX-170. Not only did I have that, and two 16GB cards and two 8GB cards...I also had a microphone and cable and batteries and my laptop...just in case I needed to offload footage on location. My backpack weighed about 15lbs. All I have to say is that I am REALLY glad that the camera weighed as much as it does, just under 5 lbs. I bet if I had the HVX-200 that extra pound would really be noticed. And forget the larger cameras like the HPX-500 or Varicam. I pity the fool who'd have to trudge to this location with either of those cameras.

I got some great footage. Then the jump masters asked...nay, INSISTED that I jump too. And...well, I did. Not once, but twice...second one wasn't shot as the producer didn't realize I went again. Please excuse the exposure...my producer wasn't the best camera guy, and the bridge was in direct sunlight and the river was in complete shadow. And we didn't bring along the big silk to bounce light down there. VERY fun.