Film production story from author Ben Bryant’s “Circumstances Beyond My Control”

My embryonic

film production

career got another boost from its source in the early summer of 1973. Here’s and excerpt from Circumstances Beyond My Control:

“Once again my next job came from Cobb (In case you missed it or forgot from Book 1, that was one of Bob Collins’ other nicknames along with BC and Collie.) Anyhow he was hired by Honda to shoot coverage of the International Six Days Trials, sometimes called the “Olympics of Motorcycling”. The event was being held for the first time outside of Europe, in Dalton, MA late that June.

“The Honda Company was interested in entering the event and wanted to have a look at it so our job was documentary in nature. This time I was working as Bob’s assistant and second cameraman. I was excited about learning to actually shoot film and my teacher was one of the best. We rented two 16mm cameras, appropriate tripods and a variety of lenses from Tony at Camera Service. BC rented a station wagon and we were on our way to Pittsfield, the nearest decent sized town a few miles from Dalton.

“The ISDT comprises around 200 motorcycles varying in size from small to huge. The event attracts national and factory teams from as many as thirty-two countries. Over the six days and upwards of 1,250 miles, a rider must contend with strict rules about time allowances and restrictions on mechanical replacements, carrying out his or her own motorcycle repairs etc. The Sunday night before it starts and after each day’s run, all the bikes are impounded and guarded so no one can mess with them. BC and I were there the afternoon before the first day getting our credentials, maps and generally checking out the scene. We shot a little bit of footage of the crews and riders preparing the bikes for the first day.

“Monday morning we were up at five, hit the donut shop on the way to the site and were ready to shoot the start. They started each day shortly after dawn in waves, smallest bikes first and the last finisher usually came in by four or five in the afternoon. What a racket those motorcycles made; it was bedlam. It’s too bad we weren’t recording sound.

13 BC Crop

Director of Photography Bob Collins circa 1974

“Some of the course (which changed daily) was on roads but most was overland. I made a real rookie mistake by wearing my cowboy boots, not appropriate footwear for climbing up rock-strewn gullies and down mountainsides carrying heavy gear. By lunch my feet were a mess and I could hardly walk. We got a lot of good footage and quit in mid-afternoon. By that time I was useless, so we went to a store to get me a pair of comfortable  hiking boots.

“One of the benefits of shooting on locations with BC was his love of good food. We were in the Berkshire section of Massachusetts and fine restaurants were rife. Every evening we dined gloriously on first-rate cuisine. In the morning it was donuts and coffee made more delicious by flavor enhancing imported reefer. Bob liked to smoke dope and, with him, I smoked more in that week than at any time past or future. (Possible exception a disastrous shoot in Jamaica in the 80s. Stay tuned.)

“This was a fun shoot for more reasons than that. First of all I was working with my longtime best friend but in addition to that we had no boss or clients telling us what to shoot or where or when. We’d go over the maps with our coffee and pick out likely scenic spots. Even though this film was simply to show the event to the Honda folks, BC was an artist and always wanted his footage to be beautiful and unusual.

“I do not recommend smoking dope on shoots. The ISDT job was very atypical. It was more like a couple of buddies having a good time hiking and taking pictures of motorcycles than a real job. A near disaster that occurred due to our mutually altered states of consciousness was that one day we couldn’t locate the 9 mm (extreme wide angle and extremely expensive) lens. We had used it the day before and it seemed to have vanished. Late that afternoon we were driving on a curvy road and kept hearing a clunk when we went around bends. We stopped to inspect the car. On top of the station wagon there were rails on each side and in the back. Sitting face down on its front element cover was the missing lens. It had been riding there, sliding back and forth and held by the rails (and stayed overnight) since the previous morning. BC inspected it and found no damage and we heaved great sighs of relief. Young filmmakers, don’t smoke pot on jobs.”

Buy Circumstances Beyond My Control

Tags: , , , ,

Comments & Responses

Comments are closed.

2024 © InkThemes. All rights reserved.