Jeff DePonte
October 3rd, 2009, 11:00 PM
Aloha friends,
I just got back from American Samoa, where I went to start work on a documentary about the closing of the Chicken of the Sea/Somoa Packing tuna canneries. *Well, you know what happened next: on Tuesday morning the earthquake and tsunami hit. Realizing that I was probably the only professional video journalist on the island, I grabbed my camera and started shooting. *This was made difficult by the rig I was using, a Canon XLH1 with a P+S mini35. *I did not take my Canon 20x or 6x with me; this was supposed to be a controlled shoot, with the mini35 along to allow greater control of the image. I was using a set of Nikon 35mm lenses, with a Sigma 17-35 vari focal. Add to this the Anton Bauer Dionic 90 and a Firestore FS-C, and you can imagine how big and heavy this beast was to carry. I shot virtually all of the disaster footage handheld.
But, who can complain about such trivial things when people are dying?
That afternoon, on the wharf in Pago Pago, I met an old man. *He saw what I was doing and approached me. *He told me: "You are the witness. *You make sure that people know what happpened here." *I finished up shooting the destruction there, and went home to start editing and uploading. *After making contact with the assignment desk at CNN International, the video started appearing around the world.
The next day, we went to Leone and Amanave villages. *They were hit hard! *I talked to Ropati Opa. *Despite losing everything, he said "I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have money. I lost everything yesterday. But thank God I am alive."
I have posted some raw, unedited scenes of what I saw in American Samoa. *You can see these videos at:
Jeff DePonte's videos on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/user1346247/videos)
All, I can say is, hug your kids, kiss your loved ones, live for the moment. You never know what may happen tomorrow.
Jeff DePonte
I just got back from American Samoa, where I went to start work on a documentary about the closing of the Chicken of the Sea/Somoa Packing tuna canneries. *Well, you know what happened next: on Tuesday morning the earthquake and tsunami hit. Realizing that I was probably the only professional video journalist on the island, I grabbed my camera and started shooting. *This was made difficult by the rig I was using, a Canon XLH1 with a P+S mini35. *I did not take my Canon 20x or 6x with me; this was supposed to be a controlled shoot, with the mini35 along to allow greater control of the image. I was using a set of Nikon 35mm lenses, with a Sigma 17-35 vari focal. Add to this the Anton Bauer Dionic 90 and a Firestore FS-C, and you can imagine how big and heavy this beast was to carry. I shot virtually all of the disaster footage handheld.
But, who can complain about such trivial things when people are dying?
That afternoon, on the wharf in Pago Pago, I met an old man. *He saw what I was doing and approached me. *He told me: "You are the witness. *You make sure that people know what happpened here." *I finished up shooting the destruction there, and went home to start editing and uploading. *After making contact with the assignment desk at CNN International, the video started appearing around the world.
The next day, we went to Leone and Amanave villages. *They were hit hard! *I talked to Ropati Opa. *Despite losing everything, he said "I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have money. I lost everything yesterday. But thank God I am alive."
I have posted some raw, unedited scenes of what I saw in American Samoa. *You can see these videos at:
Jeff DePonte's videos on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/user1346247/videos)
All, I can say is, hug your kids, kiss your loved ones, live for the moment. You never know what may happen tomorrow.
Jeff DePonte