My XL-1 Footage on America's Most Wanted...
 

Hi, All.

I was contacted last Tuesday, Aug 24, by the producers at STF Productions - Los Angeles, to provide some B-Roll of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Helicopter. STF Productions produces America's Most Wanted and they were airing an episode on Saturday, Aug 28, about the two camp counselors who were shot on the beach up here in Sonoma County, CA.

They asked for a specific clip - the Sheriff's helicopter "Henry 1" taking off in a cloud of dust - that they had seen previously on my website. I figured I'd give them a little more choice and spent almost 9 hours scouring my DV archives and editing 10 short sequences. I transferred the clips and title boards for each sequence from my workstation back to a miniDV cassette and packaged it to send FedEx Priority Overnight. It was 2 AM when I finally made it to bed.

I really expected most of it (if not all) to end up on the cutting room floor as is usually the case - but I was pleasantly surprised to see they used what they asked asked for (the episode's opening shot) and just about everything I sent them: exterior and interior helicopter shots and beach scenes.

I posted the episode at www.henry1.com.

High speed users can click on the photo for the stream, or Right-Click to download to your computer.

Moral of the story:
1. Shoot everything no matter how mundane. Someone might need it some day.
2. Give them more than they ask for. They might actually use it.

Congrats
 

That sounds good, did ya make any moola? If not you should atleast have put a repeating single frame subliminal message in there advertising your skillz. Either way, that soulds exciting.

Moral of the story
 

"Shoot everything..."

No kidding. Last year during the fires in Colorado I took a few minutes to do an interview with a helicopter crew. My assignement editor thumbed her nose at it. Two days later that same helicopter and crew went down.

You guessed it... $$$

BTW, Eric: I used to be a fireman in Healdsburg

Great work Eric. I hope you got compensated well for that footage especially if they now own the absolute rights. Don't ever feel sorry for these networks or production companies. They have plenty of money and will pay up if they really want the footage.

Im impressed.

Great website too.

How did you land that great job?