American Cinematographer - January 1986 - 61

The Rockies

provide
spectacular
backdrop for the
12th Annual Hang
Gliding Festival.
a

Opposite page: From
Icarus to the present
time, the myth
becomes

would

move

to

cable network

previously

act as producer. The
natural choice for the job
Scott Ransom, an eighteen-

WTBS.)

most

This is one assignment
that does not require cinematogra¬

was

pher Scott Ransom to get out of
bed before dawn. Hang-gliders de¬
pend on "catching a thermal" in
order to soar to heights of 16,000
to 20,000 feet, and you don't get
good thermals till about mid-day

dent of

here. Still, the call is for breakfast
at

8:00, at which time Ransom

lines out the day's shooting with
his crew. He is acting both as di¬
rector of photography and pro¬
ducer on this piece. The subject is
the 12th Annual Telluride Hang

Gliding Festival.
The idea

to cover

the fes¬

tival

came originally from a pro¬
posal by associate producer Dan

Eitemiller. Eitemiller is a Denverbased freelance documentary film¬
maker. He was very pleased when
the National Geographic accepted
his proposal. However, since this
was his first experience with the

Society, they preferred to have
someone they had worked with

documentarist, a resi¬
Telluride, Colorado, and,
besides, he had filmed this festival

year veteran

before.
Ransom filled out his
with people he has worked
with for years, in most cases. His
first assistant cameraman and
sometimes production manager
crew

was

Kanter, who also lives in

Ron

Telluride. On this shoot his main
function was to rig various hang

gliders with cameras for some pre¬
dictably spectacular footage. Ran¬
som's second assistant was Tony
McNamara. McNamara started

his

in

filmmaking in the edi¬
Two years ago he
traded in his bench for a changing
bag. On the last day of the festival,
career

ting

room.

Ransom added
team

-

a

third

camera

Edgar Boyles and Allen

Becker.
The last-but-not-least
member of the crew was sound¬
man Scott Terhark. Terhark has
been with Ransom long enough to

develop
January 1986

a

reality.

relationship. Ransom explains: "If
watch Scott, he and 1 work
with a system that requires him to
watch me all day long. If I see
something that 1 think is part of
the story (and if it is up to me to
decide), then I'll just turn the cam¬
era on and start filming it. So in¬
stead of saying 'stand by' and
'sound ready,' I just start shooting.
He's obliged to be with me. When
we're through, we put a tail slate
on it." Spontaneity is very impor¬
you

Ransom. He feels that the
best technique for a documentary
filmmaker is to get the shot while
it is happening rather than asking
tant to

to repeat themselves.
On this expedition, there
is a third way to get a shot. Be¬
cause of the subject matter and his

people

previous experience, Ransom de¬
to mount 16mm war-surplus
gunsight cameras directly on the
hang gliders. The camera rigging is
literally a delicate balance. To
keep the gliders stablized every ad¬
ditional bit of weight has to be
cides

counter-balanced. Each

camera

rather unusual working
American

Cinematographer

59
American Cinematographer - January 1986

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