An Epic Hike...for an Epic Shot.

Alan: "For our May Premier intro video, I want to do an epic crane shot of the video team atop Kokohead with sunset in the background."
Video team: "Oh cool, but wouldn't that mean we'd have to--
Alan: "Yes, carry the crane up the mountain."
Video team: "Are you serious??!!"
Alan: "Yes. We're gonna do it."

And so it was decided. A few days before our May Premier, Alan, the video crew and me (Reese), made the epic trek up Kokohead with over 200 lbs of crane rig sections, tripods, and cameras. I came along to document the crazy event with photos (as you will see in this post) and also to work the crane, since all of the video guys had to be in the shot.

We started hiking just about half an hour before sunset, so we had to HUSTLE to get to the top with all the gear in time for sunset...

Be sure to click "Read More" to check out the full post!


-Reese (blog, photography), Alan, Jack, Trevor, Michael, Glenn (videography)

starting out...Trevor is all smiles...for now hehe.

Long way up...

And then the hike got steeper...

setting up the crane at the top...

exhausted.

Model status

Then, we realized we had forgotten two vital pieces for the crane -_- You should've heard the groans from everyone lol. Long story short, the crane was useless without the pieces (one of which connected the boom to the tripod mount). We all frantically tried to find screws and bolts to improvise, but nothing worked. Then, we figured out that if a few people manually held the boom on the tripod, the crane would work! Luckily for us, several hikers who had reached the top around the same time as us agreed to help us. They ended up saving our butts! 

Nothing like strangers helping out in a great time of need :) We were so grateful, and invited them all to our Premier. And they came :)

We started doing the crane shots from this vantage point, then ended up moving the crane to the platform that Trevor was on the in the photo above. The final shot (as well as footage from the epic hike up) can be seen at 2:08 of the May Premier intro video below...