September 2002
September 30th
With a good week and a half off since the Reno shoot, I've had time to recover and work some jobs to keep our house. With our trip to Kitty Hawk coming up, Kevin calls and informs me he cannot go due to prior commitments. Hallie now imprisoned back at college, also cannot go. My crew now consists of just Heather and I. I do a quick producer scramble and come up with Jeff Sefcek. Jeff has run audio on numerous jobs and, like Kevin, is handy when it all come tumbling down.
October 4th, Friday
Now the crew is down to three. With Autumn being so lovely, and our bank account being so low, I elect to drive to Kitty Hawk. The trip only takes 11 hours or so. With Heather and I having driven to Reno last year, 11 hours seems like a short hop. Unlike the Indy show, I've scaled down my gear enough that a trailer wasn't needed. Hopefully this wouldn't come back to bite me.
October 5th, Saturday
The three of us scoot down five miles from our hotel to Nags Head State Park. We are the only ones at the park. The day before, Nick Engler assured me that they were still going to fly today. I wasn't nervous yet. Jeff and I began assembling our gear while Heather scouted the place out. Finally, folks started rolling in. The format was much looser than what we've grown accustomed to. No lines. No tickets. No concessions. Just some crazy folks gathering to chuck a glider off a sand dune. And we were with them all the way.
We traversed the dunes to their base tent. Nick and his clan have set up most of their Wright kites and gliders inside a canvas tent on the dunes. History Channel and PBS are also there. They pay us no mind until we pull out my Arri SRII. Then we all look at each other suspiciously. Finally, History Channel's DP and I start chatting. In spite of what anniversary we were approaching, I never saw anyone else shooting film or hi-def throughout our travels. History Channel and PBS were all shooting DVCAM. Oh well.
Jeff and I shoot the historians and restorers as they prepare for flight. We do a couple of impromptu interviews. Then, we sit. There isn't enough wind. Actually, we sit for the better part of 8 hours. Everyone finally calls it quits. We'll try again tomorrow.
That night Heather and I meet up with Todd, a friend from high school and his wife Sky and do what the other tourists do. Have an ocean side dinner and go look at the surf. If you've never been to the NC Outer Banks, I highly recommend it. I especially recommend it when we went, late September/early October. The rates are low and no one is there. The weather is still warm, also. Jeff went body surfing that evening. The waves were a little high, but it was otherwise nice. His bruises healed.
Later that evening, we meet up to break into the Wright Brothers Memorial for a sunset/magic hours shot. We hop a low fence and jog through a cactus field (something not to do with sandals) to get my shot. I later found out that we broke into nothing, the place was still open.
All through the night I can hear the wind building up against our patio doors. perhaps there would be flying tomorrow.
October 6th
We are greeted that morning with blustery winds coming off the ocean. Everyone assembles back at the park for what we hope will be a good day of flying. Our time was running out. As just another gamble during this whole independent filmmaker thing, we only have enough time to spend two days at the Outer Banks. All three of us had to get back to our "real" jobs in Cleveland.
Nick and the pilots pulled the '02 glider out of her shelter and then took wind readings. Too much wind would render the glider uncontrollable. Nick has decided to give this day a try.
We all hike around a mile to the top of the smaller dune at the park. It doesn't sound like much, but you should try slogging along in loose sand carrying a movie camera before you judge. The restorers and pilots carried the glider the same distance on their shoulders. The History Channel guys have a 4-wheeler. We eye them with temporary hate.
As we approach the top of the dune, my DAT recorder starts having a stroke: intermittent power. Jeff trots off to the visitor center to perform emergency surgery on it while I begin to shoot.
As the '02 crew perform their first, and awkward, flights of the day, Me and the other media folks begin to deal with our own devil. Sand. Blowing sand. Nick had enlisted his friend JT Anderson (storyboard artist for the Cohen Brothers) to shoot for him. His mini-dv camera soon went south. I offer to help and find the mechanism is filled with sand granules. I offer them the use of my footage when we get back to Ohio, which cheers them up some. Nick is too busy to really pay any of this any mind.
Speaking of my footage, after shooting out two mags, I retreat back t base camp to reload. Jeff has the DAT working somewhat and heads up the hill to get some "nat" sound of the proceedings. After downloading my shot film in the dark, I examine my mags to find they are completely coated on the inside with fine sand granules. Oh, shit. The seals on the mags were not keeping the sand out. What was worse, sand could be on every frame of the film, scratching it with every movement. I clean them out as best I can, load them and head back up the hill. Perhaps the lab can clean the debris off before running the film through the soup.
Back up on the hill, the pilots have gotten better at controlling the craft. I get some good stuff including good off-speed footage. After 6 hours of flying, they finally break the glider for the day. I have been told this was common for Orville and Wilber as well. The pilots and restorers carry the ailing glider back to the main tent. We gather up our gear and head back to the hotel. Nick is still too busy to give us an interview. We'll have to try to get one tomorrow.
October 7th
Time is not on our side today. With a 12 hour drive ahead of us, we show up at the park that morning early. The trouble is, no one else has. We found out that Nick and the pilots had a demonstration planned at an area school, so they were late. We set up and waited. After a while, everyone showed up, but Nick was still in his mobile home. He apparently was doing work on his web site. My crew and I stared at our watches and waited. Finally, Nick exited his RV and gave us our interview, which came out great. We hastily shook hands, wished everyone well, and tore out of there for the highway.
In spite of all the sand in the mag, all the footage came out fine. Actually, it was some of the better footage in the film. The lab was scarred of the footage. They didn't want it in their precious machines. I sent it anyway. They can be such children.
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