I’ve travel quit a bit for work in the past few years, but this trip tops them all. I had a great opportunity to travel to Hawaii for 19 days to shoot 11 different commercials for 11 resorts across the Hawaiian Islands. I worked with Pure Imagination based out of Batavia, IL and Trip Television.
The first task was to travel with gear compact enough for several plane rides. We needed to get steadicam shots, jib shots and dolly shots. We managed to have everything packed into 3 cases!
We first arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii’s tourist destination. It was a beautiful view. We had four resorts to shoot in Honolulu. It was a tight schedule but we shot from sunrise to sunset for three days and got everything on our shot list.
This was also the first day we set up the jib. I was so happy with this jib. It was so compact and portable that we often carried it with one person. And the counter weight was water so we kept refilling it as needed. No need to carry big weights around.
One of my favorite locations in Honolulu was this one. The first steadicam shot in the same location the shot the last Pirates of the Carribian film. This was also the first time we got our go pro camera in the water for some slow motion footage.
And then the helicopter shot. The scariest thing I’ve done in my life. I’ve shot in Helicopters before but never with the door open and hanging off the side. The camera was always mounted, but this time I was holding it in my hands. We ended up stabilizing the handheld footage in Final Cut that night and had some awesome shots. It’s hard not to, everything was so beautiful. My favorite was the Pearl Harbor fly over.
There was another fancy tool we used in this shoot. This was operated by a guy from L.A. Pretty amazing little device and all hand made by the operator.
Next location was Maui, the one island I was looking forward to seeing the most. I was blown away. We took a small jet for a 25-minute flight and as soon as we got to our first destination, I felt like I was in another world. Honolulu was a lot like Miami. Although it was unique, it felt familiar. Maui was a different story. I never seem anything like it. Here are a couple of shots right outside of the first resort. Another great shoot.
On the last day of the shoot, I got the film the most beautiful sight I’ve ever witnessed. Haleakala which was a 3 hours car ride from the resort was probably my favorite moment in the entire trip. We left at 2:30 am to make the 6:00 am sunrise. Here is the snap shot from my phone. There is no way I can justify what I experienced there through photo or video, you have to see it for yourself.
After Maui, we went to the Big Island. We took an 8 seater plane and still managed to fit all our gear and the crew. I sat directly behind the pilot.. It was interesting. There was no lines, no TSA, no secrity check. This was my least favorite island. Very different than the first two. It was mostly natives and we were warned by several people not to travel to certain locations. It seemed they didn’t like tourists around here. We had a two days shoot here and headed out. And it seemed we saved the best for last.
All I knew about Kauai is that they shot Jurassic park there in the 90s. Our first destination was the most amazing, secluded resort I’d ever seen. Here it is.
We got some beautiful shots here. If you like nature, this is the place to go. The population for the entire island is about 15,000. Most of the locals knew each other. And the views are stunning. We traveled to the gates of Jurassic park by jeep and shot time-lapse of clouds forming in the mountain. Turns out that this is the rainiest point in the world.
I can write about this for days, but I think I’ll let the footage do the talking once the editing is complete. I want to thank everyone involved for this one of a lifetime opportunity. I’ll be telling my grandkids about this shoot.
