COOL STUFF: Time In The Pines

Sometimes, it takes a community to help an individual realize his passion.

I’ve written quite a bit about the importance of personal projects. I’ve also written a bit about the strong creative community in South Lake Tahoe. And at the intersection of these two things are when one of my friends needs help to achieve his personal project—or vice versa. Whether folks come out to help me, or I’m helping them, we all pitch in whenever possible.

Dane Henry, Deep Roots Media filmmaker, and Sean Haverstock, at Sky Point Visuals, are two of my very close friends and they have been working on a joint personal project, “Time In The Pines,” a video series showcasing some of the boulders and boulderers in the Lake Tahoe region.

Their most recent segment held a rather ambitious concept. They wanted to shoot someone climbing at night, and light up the boulder using LitePanel LEDs. They wanted to capture sophisticated time-lapses of star trails. And they wanted to use Kessler sliders, jib arms and MOVIs to create sexy camera movements.

Bringing this level of production value to a shoot, of course, takes a small army. Personal projects aren’t about money. It’s about doing something cool, flexing our muscles as filmmakers, practicing our crafts, helping each other out, and honing our skill sets. When Dane and Sean called me up and asked if we could pool our equipment and manpower to make this idea happen, of course I said yes.

We were joined by a number of folks in our creative and outdoor community, including Bligh Gillies, from our office. Chris Stamey came on board to run alternate camera angles. And local climbers Noah Napier and Brad Perry volunteered to help lug gear and provide support to the climber/athlete, Jesse Bonin.

The boulder location was about a quarter mile from the car: not a terribly long hike, but far enough that it made carrying 500 pounds of gear quite taxing. We brought the following:

•     One 33-foot jib arm, and one 18-foot jib, with ballasts as couterweights

•     RED Dragon with Leica Lenses

•     Multiple Nikon D4s

•     Kessler CineSlider and elektraDRIVE motion control system

•     Freefly Systems MOVI: M10 and M5

•     A bunch of LitePanels, including: Solas, Hilios, and Astras.

•     SmallHD monitors: DP4, AC7

I had a flight to Europe the next morning, so I couldn’t stay out all night. This was my time to shine as a focus puller! Aside from carrying equipment, this was my main contribution.

I helped out until about midnight, but had to head home to catch four hours of sleep before my flight the next day. I’m happy to see the final cut and the BTS video. Great work, Dane and Sean, for these visuals. Looking forward to teaming up again real soon!