24HR ULTRAMARATHON
A 30 minute Documentary about Marcus and Charlie’s attempt to run 75 miles (123km) in 24 hours. No small feet and my hardest filming challenge to date - not in terms of technicality but in terms of keeping good coverage over 24 hours as a solo camera man. I made sure to be well prepared for the longevity of the filming task.
MAKING THE DOCUMENTARY
I had an early start - up at 1am for a 3:30-4am arrival to give me time to get setup and have a breath before they set off at 5am.
The main focus of the whole time was to keep up the coverage. I wanted to capture the beginning well but I also needed to capture the ending just as well, if not better! So I would need to pace myself and any rests or pit stops would need to be in the middle of the race.
The 24 Hours
Filming them well relied on keeping track of their gps location live. I had the route on a map app and then their location with mine. I would look at spots to camp out at ahead to a them. Sometimes I would use the gimbal and other times I would shoot handheld. It wasn’t possible to get the car close enough much of the time so I would park up and ride my bike to catch them. Then I would head back to the car and put the bike back and drive to the next point.
Between Check Point 3 and 4, I had a bike crash. As I was racing ahead to get a lovely lake shot with them passing, as I changed gear, the chain slipped and my foot slipped off the pedal and as I put my hand holding the camera down the handle bar, it also slipped off and hit the deck hard! - I bashed my elbow hard (somehow I didn’t break it), scraped my knuckles, hand and both knees, bruised my leg, and ripped my trousers.
I wish I had a count for calories burnt because over the course of the 24 hours, there was much running and cycling! The rain kicked in as it got dark and I dug in to continue following them on the map, cutting in and capturing their journey until the bitter end.
My stats
Miles Driven:
Miles Cycled:
Steps Run:
Hours Awake:
282
30 (est)
20,000+
38
The Interview
There was a very short window, the weekend after to capture the interview - it actually ended up being about 10pm in my small living room with some irritating background noise and not enough space. I used a small projector to colour the wall and a single soft box for the key light. I felt the single light was enough and I wanted to keep the interview shots fairly moody.
The Map
I made my own map graphic to a degree using a few Google Map customisation services, html iframes and large screen screenshot plugins and the route plan GPS data from Strava.
Behind the Scenes Gallery
