My first shoot in Alaska was nearly a complete disaster. I had been warned that Alaskan summer weather was extremely unpredictable. Of course, the winter weather is very predictable—cold as hell with occasional huge storms. But nobody takes a cruise to Alaska in the winter so we were filming onboard the Island Princess as she made her way north from Vancouver to Anchorage in mid-September. I had been told that was the most optimum time to get sunny weather. And sunny weather is what you really need to get those classic Alaskan shots of dark blue water, green-green trees, white snowcapped mountains and clear cerulean skies. None of those shots have disclaimers on them that say “your Alaskan experience may differ” but they should.

Overcast Alaska

Not that the summer weather is particularly fearsome like the winter. The little precipitation that falls is usually pretty light. The temperature is moderate. But it can be overcast for days without a glimpse of the sun. Normally, this doesn’t spoil things for the typical vacationer. In fact, it might add a little “atmospheric moodiness” to the experience. But it’s absolute death on film. If you are trying to make a movie of Alaska’s fabulous beauty and unbelievable scenic wonders, clouds just kill it for you. And that’s exactly what we had as we made our way up the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska.
We had brought along a “focus couple”, two models who looked like all the would-be voyagers on a Princess Alaskan Cruise wished they looked like.

No Sun Required

The models were game as we took them from place to place with their parkas and umbrellas. They looked like they were having a ball in Juneau, watching the salmon jump up a fish ladder and then eating them at a native barbeque; visiting the old brothels along Creek Street in Ketchikan and strolling the picturesque promenade or riding through the Gold Rush town of Skagway and taking a helicopter trip up to walk on a glacier. They really did their best to sell it, and honestly, it wasn’t bad. It looked like they were having a good time. But as we started sailing across the Gulf of Alaska to Seward I knew I didn’t have enough for a good film. Without those clear blue skies and majestic snowcapped mountains I had a pretty dreary looking picture.

Overcast Gold Panning

I was just about to call the folks at Princess to tell them that we just didn’t have the goods when a miracle occurred. It was the last day of our cruise, and at exactly twelve noon, as we made our way across the Gulf, the clouds which had dogged us constantly for six days suddenly gave way to the most dazzling blue sky you’ve ever seen. The water sparkled and came alive, the entire mood soared up into those blue, blue skies and we scrambled to salvage the shoot. With the wardrobe girl frantically changing outfits at the speed of light, we shot our couple enjoying a stroll on the deck, sitting in lounge chairs pointing at the passing forests, looking with binoculars at the scenic wonders of Alaska (which we purchased and edited in later), and in general enjoying the sunny, warm Alaskan summer from the deck of their gleaming white ship. We sailed into College Fjord, which has some of Alaska’s most spectacular tidewater glaciers, and we rolled and rolled. We sailed through narrow inlets with tree covered islands so close it seemed you could touch them and our models paraded gloriously along the rail, smiling and laughing and pointing out one beautiful scene after another. And the best part was that it did not start to get dark until 11pm. We actually shot right up until midnight.

Midnight in Alaska

We had four or five hours of “golden hour”, that magical time when people, scenery, water, ships, (anything really) looks absolutely fabulous. (Even I look good in golden hour light). So we shot and shot and shot some more. One of the nicest scenes of all was our models in formal attire walking into a blazing Midnight Sun. At the end of that long and fantastic day we had shot three times as much film as we had the previous six. And I knew I could now make my movie. By judiciously editing the sunny shots in with the overcast ones, we made it look like the weather for the cruise was mostly brilliant sunshine with brief interruptions of drizzle which only made the adventure more fun and “authentic”. And all those glorious shots of snowcapped mountains rising from forests so green it hurt your eyes made an ocean voyage up the coast of Alaska seem like a visit to Valhalla itself. Whew!! Thank you weather gods! You certainly made me pay my dues but you came through in the end. See The Midnight Sun

Venice, Italy

One of the perks of being in the Cruise Line Video Production Business is lunch. Sometimes this can be a hurried sandwich grab and some chips, but not usually. Not if you time your shooting script right. Everyone has heard stories of fabulous wrap parties where tables full of food and drink get consumed and everyone has a real good time. Well, some of those stories are true. I always used to give my crew the best wrap dinner I could, and since we were often in some exotic port or city there were usually plenty of choices. Once I treated them to a “wrap spa” overnight experience in Nagasaki, Japan, including twenty-course gourmet dinner, bottomless Sake cups, massages by blind people and soaking in the natural hot springs of a three hundred year old resort. But that was just taking our reward for a job well done. Easy to pull off. A great lunch in the middle of a shoot in the middle of the day is a much more subtle and refined art. Possibly the best one ever was the Thousand-Dollar Lunch in Venice, Italy.

Grand Princess in Venice

We were in Venice shooting the Maiden Voyage of the Grand Princess and we had a cute model couple who tootled around with us while we videoed their every move. The way I had come by this couple was a story in itself. The girl, Lisa, was an ex-model and was working in a top talent agency in Miami. I had used her to cast several models I used on a Caribbean Cruise for Celebrity Cruises and in the course of the casting I had gotten to know her quite well. Lisa had told me she was getting married shortly and the honeymoon was all set for somewhere in Mexico. She was marrying one of the models in her company’s stable named David. When I finished with the Celebrity shoot, Princess called and wanted us to cover the Grand Princess Inaugural Cruise in the Mediterranean (See previous article titled Midnight Express-Oh!). They wanted to cast two models to be the focus couple. I called up Lisa and started her casting for this couple. I asked her how her wedding went and she said it was great but the Honeymoon fell through due to something or other with the resort. That’s when I got this great idea. “How about a two week Honeymoon on a luxury cruise in the Med, I said, all expenses paid!” Well that wasn’t too difficult to sell. She and David were thrilled with the idea. I knew they would be a good addition to the crew. (Not always the case. See previous article  “Smooth Shooting on Rough Seas”). The fact that I would be saving lots of money on models fees didn’t hurt. So off we went to Europe, and to this day David and Lisa get out the video we made of the trip and play it on their anniversary. Probably the best Honeymoon Video ever made. And that brings us back to the Thousand-Dollar Lunch.

David and Lisa

Venice is probably the most photogenic city in the world and we “shot the sh@t out of it” as they say. We shot David and Lisa in a gondola, David and Lisa in St. Mark’s Square, David and Lisa in a vaporetto on the Grand Canal. We were being escorted around in a beautiful vintage motorboat with a lovely Italian guide, all courtesy of Princess Cruises. When it came time for lunch, the driver of the boat said he knew just the spot. Yes he did.

We tied up at a picture perfect Italian Trattorria right on the Grand Canal. Grape vines were hanging over the trellises, the waiters were all dressed up, it was something right out of a promotional video. Hey, wait, we’re shooting a promotional video! So we just kept rolling. The Maitre’ D graciously opened the gate leading to the patio for our couple. They were given a romantic table right on the canal, they had pasta and wine and desert all served by the waiters out of Central Casting and we rolled on the whole thing. Of course, we all had lunch right next to them, just out of camera view. And what a lunch!

How Much is this Costing?

Unbelievable pasta and seafood and wine and it just kept coming. I’m sure we were there for nearly three hours. When we finally got the bill, it came to a few million Italian Lira. We really couldn’t figure out exactly how much it was, but we knew it wasn’t going to be cheap. When we finally did the math it came in at just over a grand. But we were in high spirits (not to mention the wine consumption) and we had gotten some absolutely gorgeous shots of the couple having a romantic lunch on the Grand Canal in Venice. “Come on”, I said to Jack, our Princess chaparone, “look at it as a location fee.” And that’s just how it appeared on his expense account. To be honest, shooting a similar scene in Venice, California would have cost twice as much and we wouldn’t have gotten lunch!! And really, if you are going to set a record for most expensive location lunch ever (this was just a crew of five) what better place to do it than Venetia! Molto Bene!  Here is a video clip of David and Lisa in Venice.

On Location, St. Thomas

When you are shooting on location you must always be open to the serendipitous event. (This applies to any vacation as well as filming on location.) By this I mean: have a definite plan, but be alert for those golden opportunities that might present themselves along the way. The key to this openness is to be absolutely locked down in your prep. Only in this way can you have the freedom to know how much leeway you have for “audibles”, those deviations from the plan that sometimes yield the best shots in the film. This prep often includes a scout. I do this whenever possible. If there is one thing I’ve learned about locations, it’s that nothing is ever what you expected it to be. The idea is to be prepared down to the last detail and then be completely flexible. I learned about these two seemingly contradictory things on my very first major film shoot. This was a promotional film for  Princess Cruises to be shot mostly in the Caribbean, starting with the major port city of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.

Cha-Cha

We arranged to scout this island and arrived looking for a place to rent a vehicle. As we walked off the ship, we were greeted by the usual mob of teeshirt-selling, wildly gesticulating locals all vying for our tourist dollars. One guy separated himself from the pack and somehow got our attention. “What you need, mon?” he asked. I tentatively muttered something about a place to rent a scout vehicle but all the while I was craning my neck trying to find the “authorized” Princess tram into town. “No problem,” the guy said gesturing to his vehicle, “get in the Jeep.” Wondering how much this was going to cost and exactly where we would be taken I stalled, looking around for something a little more conservative. But this was Cha-Cha (we learned later) and he didn’t suffer foolish tourists well. “Get in the F—ing Jeep!” he commanded, and we had to obey.

Riding into town we explained to Cha-Cha why we were there. He turned out to be a goldmine of information and, as promised, took us right to the best Jeep rental place in town. Cha-Cha pointed out some of the better spots to shoot on the island and told us about some of the pitfalls to avoid. He turned out to be a very cool and intelligent guy who aspired to be a standup comedian and worked the comedy clubs in town at night. He was also no stranger to film production. I arranged with him to help us when we came back to shoot and to transport us around St. Thomas at that time. He promised to meet us with his cousins and plenty of vehicles.

Three weeks later we were back in St. Thomas with a couple of models and a full shooting crew. Sure enough, Cha-Cha and his cousins met us at the dock and we were off on a very full schedule of filming all around the island. Thanks to our previous scouting, we knew exactly where to go and in what sequence to shoot in order to maximize our time. By early afternoon we had captured all our necessary shots and even had time for a nice Caribbean lunch. (See a similar article, “The Thousand Dollar Lunch”.) Since I had the leeway, I could shoot an unscripted idea I had to utilize Cha-Cha and his unique barkering skills to start off our film. If I could capture on film my own fears when Cha-Cha first approached us, I could effectively contrast this with the comfort and security of a Princess Cruise. If it worked, great. If not, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Cha-Cha at Work

The final result was actually better than I expected. Using his innate acting skills, Cha-Cha terrorized our dazed and confused model couple and whisked them off to a broken down motel in the middle of nowhere. This dramatized the danger and uncertainty of a “land based” vacation in a very funny way. When contrasted in the film with the same couple enjoying the luxury and ease of a Princess Cruise, the comparison was easily and humorously made, and the audience put in just the right mood. Cha-Cha turned out to be the best thing about the whole experience (if not the film!) and for years travel agents referred to that Princess film as “the one with the laughing cabdriver”, even if they remembered nothing else about it. So thanks, Cha-Cha, wherever you are, for helping jump-start my career. I hope people are still getting in your F—ing Jeep. I’m sure glad I did! Here is a link to a video of Cha-Cha Doing His Thing 

My First Gig

I don’t consider myself a great photographer or cinematographer. My technical knowledge is very limited and my professional training is only one step away from zero. Still, I’ve made a living shooting films and videos and stills for a variety of clients, mostly travel related, for nearly thirty years. How have I done it? There is a secret to getting great location pictures that I learned from a real Pro at the very start of my career. This one tip let me shoot with confidence and make a career out of location photography. It was something I learned on my first professional shoot and never forgot.

My First Professional Photo Shoot

In 1979 I became a salesman for a small production company which specialized in multi-projector slide shows. These were very popular back in the day to communicate a corporate message. Sometimes as many as 32 or 64 projectors would be used to display the shows on a large screen. Almost immediately I sold a job to American President Lines located in Oakland, California.

Part of the job was taking aerial photos of their loading docks on the east side of San Francisco Bay. One problem, we didn’t have enough money to hire a helicopter or even a proper plane. Somehow we convinced the owner of a yellow WWI biplane to take us up in exchange for pictures of his biplane that our company photographer would take from another plane this gentleman owned. We would then be able to take aerial photos of the docks from the biplane. But, we only had one photographer in the company and he had to get really good shots of the biplane to justify our free ride! To save money it was decided that I should be the second photographer and take the shots of the docks. I could use a camera, but I wasn’t sure I was up to such a pressure packed job with so much riding on it. That’s when the Pro from our company let me in on the secret that gave me the confidence to do the job.

The Secret

“There’s really nothing to it,” the Pro said. “Anyone can take professional looking pictures. There isn’t any particular talent involved or that much technical knowledge.”

Seeing as how this guy had made a living as a pro for many years, these were comforting words. I felt better immediately. Still, how could I make sure I came back with shots we could use? “Two words,” he said, “Blam Away!” “When you are up in the plane, film is cheap. Just shoot as many shots as you can with as many different angles and settings as possible. One or two are bound to be good!” We went up and, though the wind caused my eyes to tear so badly I could hardly see, I shot and shot and shot some more. Of the three rolls of film I used up, maybe six shots were really good. The rest were not so good to terrible. “Two good shots a roll,” the Pro said approvingly, “not bad at all.” Those six shots were all we needed. I was a hero! Moreover, I decided then and there that this was what I wanted to do for a living. It was so simple once you knew the secret.

You may not become a professional, but now you can shoot like one! With today’s digital equipment the same philosophy is even more true. When you’re in that special location or event, don’t be shy. Remember the words of the old Pro. “Blam Away”! You’ll love the results.