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Dangerous Waters, Season 3 will feature the cinematography stylings of yours truly!

David.rhsc

David.rhsc

Hi fine folks of IT!

In what has to be one of the all time great "job that fell in my lap at the last minute" stories, I will be leaving for Inuvik, Canada on Friday morning to begin shooting season 3 of the show Dangerous Waters.

www.dangerouswaterstv.com

From Inuvik we ride the Northwestern Passages and finally exit on the NE side of Canada and cross to Greenland, then cross to Iceland, hit the Faores and Shetland Islands, and finally landing in London this fall. The trek is a continuation of the journey that started in Seattle, WA and attempted originally to trek to Japan via Russia, but they were detained in Russia for 6 days (despite spending thousands on visas and working with our Embassy there) and sent back. They decided to re-route, rode the other direction to Inuvik via northern coast of Alaska, and we're picking up where they left off last season. Right on the same beach. :D

We'll have Spot GPS tracking on the website so anyone interested can see where we are and read text updates.

http://www.dangerouswaterstv.com/track-trip.php

Obligatory social media links:

https://www.facebook.com/DANGEROUSWATERSTV

https://twitter.com/DngrsWatersTV

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The project started with just the explorers themselves and some handy-cams from Best Buy and has steadily grown from there. The goal is to circumnavigate the globe across several seasons. While, strictly speaking, not film, it is definitely an indie project that has gained some traction with both sponsors and viewers. And besides, it's an epic bad-ass adventure and who doesn't love those? Still, might be an interesting case study for anyone here interested in this type of work and how to get it off the ground.

For my fellow Americans, mavTV can be found somewhere on DirectTV if you want to check out earlier seasons. Global market has been good to them though, and the show's creator tells me it is doing well Down Under and a decent list of countries dotted on various continents.

I hope you guys will periodically check in on our progress on this epic journey.

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For the professionally curious; here are my hats:

DP, Camera Op, Field Producer, Audio guy, and Data Wrangler.

While riding backwards on a 165HP Jet Ski in the Arctic Circle.

Time permitting I hope to post up excerpts from my production journals ... somewhere. Come to think of it, "Time permitting I hope to be able to keep a production journal." :lol:

I'll try to remember to link them here if that plays out. There will be times when we have full communications access, and others where it's all sat-phone and GPS devices.
 
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Thanks Steve!

Fortunately the show's creator is pretty on top of the social media thing. He's a former advertising guy who rode a jet ski for the first time a few years ago (dry suits out past the Golden Gate Bridge, hell of a first ride!) and got hooked, put together a group to do the first run, bought some cameras to document it, and then managed to get enough traction and interest.

I get to concentrating on shooting, shooting, shooting: 12 x1 hour episodes and the editor is hoping for ~40:1 ratio from primary cams, so excluding go-pros, 480 hours (rounded out the commercial breaks and etc) of footage across 65 days (estimate, that was the duration of the season 2 shoot) is > 7hours of camera rolling/day. Hopefully things like time-lapses while we are at rest or stuck will help pad that a bit. Managing/sorting data is going to be one of the biggest challenges in a production sense - second only to getting good sound. ("Help me Alcove-Audio-Kenobi, you're my only hope!") For example, we have lav mics, but how do you lav mic a dry suit? If it is under the suit there's too much barrier and the sound is unusuable (they had problems with this in season 2, have not actually tried it yet), if it is over the suit then (guessing here) you get nothing but wind, water, and engine noise.

Naturally, I will be very, very, very challenged by the environment. I'm confident in my outdoors experience, but I have never been in A) Arctic conditions or B) on an expedition this long. Quite fortunate to be going with some very experienced explorers who do have experience in these conditions, so I will be deferring to their experience as much as possible.

As of this writing: 23 hours, 09 minutes, and counting.
 
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Good luck!

Good, Lord. This looks plum nutty! What a heluva adventure!
Hope you don't freeze off anything important.


What cameras will you be using, other than the GoPros?
 
rayw said:
Good luck!
What cameras will you be using, other than the GoPros?
Click to expand...

Ok:

Canon XF105 is the main camera, we have a backup for this, an older Xf100. Camera has grown on me, I'd spec it again for doc or similar work.

We also have 2 5d mk3's. One will live in the underwater housing (ikelite) with either a tokina 11-16 (which I can only use at 16mm I didn't spec the kit and would have asked for a prime instead) or a 28-75. Both have to stay wide because the lens is too long for the housing. Also have a 70-200 and 24-105. Both f4 L series.

Naturally the 5d will do time lapse duty, hero shots, beauty shots, and some wides on sticks while I run the xf. I added my 500mm t-mount to add to the 5d kit. Limited use, but during a ferry crossing on the way up I was able to set it on sticks and let it roll while I ran the other 5D from a monopod. Fun challenge to run multiple cameras solo.

What I miss most are filters. Seriously. Summer light up here is amazing, wish I had a grad set, a good pola, and nd. As it is, the 5d glass is naked and there is only a uv for the xf.

I have to say that the mk3 is a big improvement over the 2. Except the punch in for focus button. It's on the wrong side of the body.

A couple disposable tripods, my monopod for support. No erector set rigs.

A couple of Rode ntg2 mics and a pair of Sony lav kits. No external recorder, but as needed I'll run the spare xf with the lavs. One boom pole, but not enough xlr cable.

The boss wears an older canon consumer cam, and we have 2 Sony consumer cams left over from season 1 that will serve crash or emergency coverage duty.
 
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Dude, that's AWESOME! I'll definitely check the show out.

As for the audio concerns, I actually don't think it's THAT big of a concern (at least not with this type of show). The only time you really need good audio is during the interview/video-diary sessions, and those will all be set up at your convenience, no? During the on-the-water/action-y kind of stuff, I think the audience will expect audio that isn't so great (and might need occasional subtitles).

Best of luck, we'll all be rooting for you! :)
 
Bump. Long road to Inuvik. Multiple flats on the trailer on the way here. Broke the other trailer with our fuel boat on the Dempster hwy.

We hit the water in earnest tomorrow.

Edited above to list some gear .
 
U R here: http://www.milepost.com/highway_info/dempster_highway
dempster_hwy_locator_map_350.jpg
 
Hello from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut!

Can't describe the stark beauty of the arctic. A small cove called Nunuk (the Point) is now on my list of favorite places on earth.

Work is tough, but very rewarding. Had a little trouble adjusting from my hands off doc style to the interacting with the subject as the reality format requires. Still, we only shoot what happens and there is plenty happening.

Made it here in excellent time despite delays from weather, mechanical issues and other unexpected events.
Lots of amazing people, very helpful and friendly. Wish more of them would make the edit, but we'll see.

Nothing ever drys here. Ever. And we have not yet begun to be cold. We get our first real darkness since crossing into the circle a couple weeks ago, very soon.

I hope to return here again. Nunavut is a fascinating place.

@Cracker,

Interview sound is no biggie, we are geared for that. Stand ups I can sometimes find a good spot, but the wind is a huge factor. In the moment stuff is the hardest though, varying levels from a soft voice to an excited shout.

Fortunately riding levels on the XF isn't that difficult and doesn't completely blow the shot.
 
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This is an awesome journey. And an awesome final destination!

Are you allowed to post some snaps? Or is it all being kept under wraps? I'm always amazed that really remote places have internet access, but I'm even more amazed at having wi-fi on an aeroplane. I guess I'm just quite easily amazed.
 
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