Blowdown Season II Canadian premiere: a film company’s quest to capture the ultimate implosion

As History Television prepares to air Super Stadium, the first episode of Blowdown Season II, Tuesday night at 7 p.m, here in house we’ve been talking about the groundbreaking triumphs – and inevitable agonies – behind the incredible shots that make these shows so undeniably explosive.

A high-stakes mission

After shooting, editing, and delivering eight episodes of the series, which follows Controlled Demolition Inc. as they tackle the world’s toughest implosions, I can say with certainty that there’s nothing like the rush we get when the crew returns to the production office after an implosion.

They may be on the road for weeks filming the prep work leading up to the demo, but everything rides on the footage they get on the last day, and there is little room for error and no do-over.   It is the ultimate life lesson.

We call it demo porn and we pour over the shots as they come in.

The money shots

When we filmed Blowdown II: Spyship – the sinking of the Hoyt. S. Vandenberg off the coast of Key West, Florida – we mounted recoverable cameras and harddrives that filmed her as she sank. Listen to the sound as one goes down: it is utterly eerie.

Blowdown – Unsinkable: camera rides the Hoyt S. Vandenberg down from Parallax Film on Vimeo.

In our mission to capture a potentially record-breaking drop for Blowdown II: Monster Tower, we mounted cameras on the top floors of the doomed Ocean Tower condominium project on South Padre Island. And amazingly, they actually rode the building down during the implosion.

We weren’t able to recover the cameras but here is the system we designed that protected our harddrives.

File 182

With the help of Controlled Demolition Inc. President Mark Loizeaux’s expert advice, it landed right on top of the rubble pile as predicted. And a 30-something storey drop later, the footage was all there. And it’s incredible.

File 181

Our ultimate challenge was Blowdown II: World Cup Demolition. We filmed the whole episode in 3D.

Sometimes, after all this amazing footage hits Parallax Film HQ, we don’t even know what we’re looking right away at and only piece it together as we unravel the story … the wonder of these discoveries is really satisfying.

Getting the goods

One of the big questions for crew is whether to shoot big wide shots that allow you to watch the whole thing unfold, complete with the amazing microsecond timing.  Or do you zoom in and witness the devil in the detail like the failure of expansion joints or payoff of pre-slicing concrete rings?

Sometimes it depends on the camera technology.  We’ve experimented with high speed cameras at 300+ frames per second, and found that it worked best for those tight shots, rather than the wides which you just want to let run.

Time to explode

We’ve done some amazing stuff with cameras in this series – things that, to our knowledge, have never been done before.

And the very best of these unparalleled visual experiences will be rolled out over the next few weeks on History Television.

Enjoy the ride, Canada.

We sure did.

–Maija Leivo, Executive Producer

@lostbraincells

Delivering a 3D documentary: what it takes to make the cut

Charting the course of a creative company means selecting projects that fulfill a collective passion for experimentation with cameras, visuals and story.

In the realm of innovation 3D fits nicely with these criteria …  so naturally we had to try it.

But to pick up a camera and start shooting was out of the question because there was nothing – absolutely nothing within our price range that we could carry around like an HD camera and meet broadcast specs.

We foraged ahead with Blowdown 3D and after six months of R&D, several camera systems, a month of production in Brazil and nine months of post we have finally delivered a truly groundbreaking 3D documentary.  

We met our creative criteria of keeping the 2D and 3D cuts identical and having an engaging, watchable show in both formats.   As well we gained stereography expertise and a full 3D production and post facility.

To succeed we needed to 4 key players in place.  A business partner who made sure capital was available; a broadcast partner who helped off-set some of the costs and commission a 3D version; a DOP to build and operate a 3D system and an editor who took on the head and heart ache of posting in 3D and edit a show, simultaneously.

Each partner went in blind, worked hard and remained unwaveringly committed – always moving forward despite the many, many set-backs.   I cannot overstate the massive technical obstacles that stood in our way – especially in post.   For a year it was one step forward, two back – not a terribly long time in the scheme of things for R&D and execution but the money was burning and we had to deliver.

On a larger scale the 3D film industry is hot … but there’s still a lot to learn. At NAB 2011 nearly every booth had a 3D camera system or monitor on display.   Unfortunately the consensus from my team that attended is that most of the stereo projects being generated are not visually interesting or executed in optimal 3D.

As far as 3D programming goes, the broadcasters are starting safe with lots of natural history. Over the next few years television is going to steadily move towards 3D penetration.  The consumer interest is too great for them too pass up the business opportunity.   But for now, I look forward to just seeing how Blowdown 3D is received around the world.

–Ian Herring, President

@ianherring