VLOG TV Commercial Production in a Swamp

The Phillips Petroleum spot directed and shot by Don Guy in June of 1979 was the most logistically intensive shoot for a single thirty-second

TV commercial production

I was ever involved in. Stories such as this one explain the title of my TV commercial production book, Circumstances Beyond My Control.

The subject was reflection seismology, one of the the techniques used for oil exploration which had replaced the wildcatters’ gut instincts as to where oil may be found. This technology is used by geophysicists to map and locate potential petroleum reservoirs.

There were three locations: two in the southern Arizona wilderness and one in a Louisiana swamp.

The crew was a mix of LA guys and New York guys.

The first location in Arizona was about eighty some miles east of Tucson past the old town of Tombstone, made famous in Western Movies. Another twenty miles down an unpaved road is the “town” of Gleeson, which (at that time) consisted of a general store/saloon/post office and a stop sign. Our location was in the badlands another ten or so miles from there, near the Mexican border. No roads at all. Obviously we were using four-wheel drive vehicles. How we found and how Don selected this spot I no longer have any idea but find it we did.

The first setup was a dawn shot so we had to navigate this wasteland – which was crisscrossed with gullies and dry stream beds – in the dark. Anticipating this I had gotten some fluorescent orange ribbons like surveyors use to mark our route into the site. We tied strips to bushes and cacti as we made our way back out to the dirt road.

The next morning (if you consider 3:00 AM morning) our sizable caravan bravely set out for the serious boondocks. When we reached our jumping-off point near Gleeson it was still dark, of course, and we discovered that our marker ribbons were considered a delicacy by some of the local fauna. At least half of them had been eaten but fortunately the beasties were unfamiliar with knots and enough remnants had survived for us to, with considerable difficulty, make it to our chosen spot barely in time to get the sunrise shots.

After a mid day siesta we shot sunset and wrapped at dark. By then what had remained of our markers was long gone and we damn near didn’t find the road.

This brief summary and the video barely scratch the surface of this job. For the full story (half a chapter) and it’s many ridiculous twists and turns plus many other hilarious tales of TV commercial production, click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.

Save

Save

Tags: , ,

Comments & Responses

Comments are closed.

2024 © InkThemes. All rights reserved.