Avatar came out while my wife was on a trip to Haiti, and since I promised to see it with her, I waited. And waited. It was an epic adventure that rivaled the movie itself. Well, maybe not, but it was hard waiting. It had been out almost two weeks by the time I saw it, not to mention the time we went to the theater with her family over Christmas. [edit: the shorter version is now in the player above, if you want to see the longer version of this video goHERE Thanks!]

My wife and I were the first in line of our family to buy tickets. I had the tickets in my hand! That was a done deal! I was going to see Avatar finally! BUT, I had purchased the last tickets so the rest of her family wouldn’t be able to go. So I held back the tears as I got a refund and thought, I’m never going to see this movie. My commitment to family was really tested that night.

Well, the time came and we eventually saw it. My palms were so sweaty during the flying scenes I got dehydrated! Or it could have been the fact I refused to drink water until the family agreed to go back and try and see it again? Anyway, I knew that I had to do a spoof video related to hang gliding. It was just too perfect.
-

You're going down Scott - I pretended he had to land because I shot his glider, but really he had to land because . . . it's a glider. I think I started to like the costume too much at this point.

-
But it was one of those thoughts you have and think I ‘should’ do that. Like checking your oil when filling up at the gas station but you’ve just bought two delicious ice cream snickers bars while your car was filling up and your brain can’t fathom putting them down for something that you ‘should’ be doing. Well, my ice cream snickers bars this time was my apathy towards the effort it would take to create such a video, but I sat it aside like two melting ice cream snickers bars on a hot summer day and I went for it and I did what I thought I ‘should’ do, and I made an avatar spoof (confused yet by the metaphor? me too, I just like ice cream snickers bars).

If I could just wrastle some more help from my friends Scott and Eric for another video endeavor I thought “I could do this.” With Eric’s horrible acting skills, Scott’s ability to paint my face, and their combined experience and expertise in making fun of me, they were perfect for the job. And lucky for me, agreed to do it.

-

Eric (left) and Scott (right) were really commited to this job. They even put in overtime and kept making fun of me after the shooting for the video was done. Now that's commitment! But what are friends for? No, seriously, what are friends for? I'm beginning to think I have a distorted definition of friend.

-
Normally, I will storyboard something out and get everything just right, but in that area I picked up those ice cream snickers, devoured them, and threw the wrappers on the floor. I took a different approach so the footage might seem more natural. I had a general idea of what I wanted the outcome to be and a couple specific references to the movie, but other than that nothing was written out so everything would seem more natural. Scott and Eric did a good job playing along considering I didn’t really fill them in a lot on all my ideas.

One challenge was giving it that documentary and ‘The Office’ -look with only three people because the camera would be stationary on the tripod any time we’re all three in the shot. But it seemed to work out and get that natural feel as we traded off each being cameramen so we’d get that little camera shake.
-

Me jumping on Eric's glider. This was one of those shots where you only have one chance to get it right and we were lucky enough to do just that.

-
Getting the costume together was half the battle. I had to go buy the longest wig I could and braid it myself. My wife called while I was doing it and I couldn’t pick up the phone. That was one of the weirdest excuses I’ve ever had to miss a call. Oh, and don’t ever expect to find blue lipstick anywhere if it’s not halloween, I probably visited like 5 different stores and couldn’t find it. I actually made an iron-on tshirt that says “Let’s make Tsahaylu under the Tree of Voices,” with the image of the movie poster below that. My character was going to wear that, but I scrapped it at the last minute because I thought it would clash with trying to look nerdily identical to the real movie characters.
-

We shot this in my front yard (thanks for Kurt's help too). My Vietnam vet neighbor thinks I'm crazy now though.

-
All in all it took about 4 or 5 hours to film and a little over a full day of editing to put together. I’m going to make another short little video of outtakes and other funny stuff I didn’t use too. I’m hoping this video will garner a lot of views, a similar Avatar spoof video got 800,000 views in it’s first week. I couldn’t imagine getting that many views, but you never know. Pass it around to friends and family and it might get there, you never know until you try.

So put down whatever your excuse is for that project you’ve always thought you should do, and go after it! You just might want to avoid that project involving having your friends make fun of you or you might end up in tears that are soaked in blue body paint running down your face. I mean, I’m just saying, not from experience or anything, just a word of caution.

But seriously I think it went great and appreciate everyone’s help from Eric and Scott, to Kurt, Rex, James, Mike B, Jen, and George for showing their support (James had that cameo at the end, hope your eye is better . . .) to the guy who took a picture of me on his cell phone as he drove by to let me know I was doing something special. And thanks to my wife who not only puts up with these random ideas but supports me. So share this video around to everyone you know, I’d really like to see how many views I can get out of this thing, and I think it is an interesting way to expose people to the sport of hang gliding who might not every look for it.

(Everything was shot on my trusty Canon 7D)
Don’t forget to check out my photoblog: http://lucasridley.tumblr.com
And the new clothing I started making: http://borntofly.spreadshirt.com

Oh and if you do the Digg thing too, then Digg this video: http://digg.com/movies/Avatar_Goes_Hang_Gliding

And most definitely subscribe to my Youtube videos!

If that’s not enough . . . don’t forget to brush your teeth either!

In the end, Nick chose 11 of the 20 photographs I sent him, but he might use the others individually later on. One image I have saved for a while is of Eric Donaldson diving the ramp at LMFP. I have saved this image just for the magazine’s photo gallery and didn’t even post it to my blog when I took because I wanted it to be fresh when people saw it. But . . . Nick didn’t choose this one to go in the gallery so I’m posting it here. I’m also posting a couple others that I like that weren’t in the gallery either.

When I took the picture of Eric I tried to time it just right, and I was frustrated I missed the moment. I cut off Eric diving the ramp. Then the image grew on me, and I’m glad I missed the “picture-perfect” moment for the one I took. I like how he’s just hanging there in the corner of the frame with hardly any one on the ramp knowing what is going on looking in every direction.

Eric diving the ramp. This is one of my favorite hang gliding pictures I've taken since I've started flying.

Eric below me, with Terry way below us - crossing over Nick-a-Jack Lake on a day when we flew from LMFP to Hensons, and Terry and I landed only a few thermals short of making it back to LMFP.

Break down area, fire-pit, and pavilion porch at LMFP. Don't whack or you'll have to kiss the cement goat all the dogs pee on.

Scott on his bag. I was surprised this wasn't included in the magazine since it was the only paragliding shot I had.

]]> http://lucasridley.com/2010/01/12/blog-ushpa-gallery/feed/ 1 http://lucasridley.com/2009/12/05/new-video-coming-blog-update/ http://lucasridley.com/2009/12/05/new-video-coming-blog-update/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:22:20 +0000 Lucas http://lucasridley.com/?p=556 Yesterday was an absolute blast, we got some great footage thanks to Scott filming and Eric G. flying the tug! Thanks guys. And a big thanks goes to Eric and Pablo as well for their help (see Eric in the pics below flying with me).

The pictures below are taken from yesterday’s footage for an upcoming video I’m doing for the Nikon Festival, and I couldn’t be more excited about the footage and film I’m making. I just hope I can put it together correctly. For the shots from the tug I used the Canon HF100 instead of the Canon 7D because it has a greater zoom and it would be easier for Scott to handle up there, especially with gloves (see pic of the camera with the gorillapod to help balance it).

Flying above clouds is like another world. You can’t describe it really, it feels like you’re in outer space, very surreal. The experience I had yesterday just epitomizes the sport for me, what is so beautiful about it and the perspective it gives you. I had a huge grin on my face while I was flying that is still on my face – incredible! I love hang gliding! The USHPA has a new website up too, so if you’re interested in the sport it’s aimed at you, check it out: http://www.ushpa.org/

I have a ton of footage to go through so I have to get back to work! The video should be done by the 15th so stay tuned here to see it and vote for me if you like it so that I could win the Audience Award! Thanks!
-

Me, sandwiched inbetween cloud layers.

-

Sunset behind me, still above the lower layer of clouds.

-

Thought these lines were pretty.

-

Eric (above me) and I cruising through the valley.

-

Eric doing a wingover, me in the background.

-

Coming in for a landing.

-

Eric nailed his landing, right on the cone (and Xmas tree sticking out of the cone).

-

I bent the gorillapod this way to counterbalance the camera, since its screw in point is so far forward and it provided a good pistol-style grip to help stabilize shots - Scott did a great job with it, as you can see above!

-

This is from the Canon 7D this morning from it snowing last night, the dogs loved it.

-

Taken with the 7D

It was great air today, pretty smooth. It got a little better later. Early on the majority of those that launched sunk out, but later it became ridge soarable. This never gets old! I had a blast today: my feet being lifted and feeling weightless as I ran off of the mountain and the incredible feeling of having control over a passive machine that can cut through the air and carry my body along with it while responding to my control inputs. Can’t wait to do it again!

The new iMac just came out and I’m thinking of getting the i7 quad-core version and get Final Cut Pro to start learning that, since that seems like it’s the industry standard these days. If you have any thoughts or advice on that please make a comment below.

_

I noticed this bus just in time to race it a bit. It only lasted a few seconds before the road peels off to the right, but for that time I was keeping up with the skool bus. It would have been a cool way to catch it if I was late for skool.

_

Several pictures put together of Eric climbing out

_

The view

_

James in his Wills Wing

_

Eric grinning about his new glider.

_

Eric ready to launch his new WW T2C

_

Carl is below me on the ridge and Eric is in front of us just above and to the left of launch a little bit. It was fun cruising around with other people today.

_

Sunset Nov 19

]]> http://lucasridley.com/2009/11/20/slow-mo-launches/feed/ 5 http://lucasridley.com/2009/11/15/a-soaring-life/ http://lucasridley.com/2009/11/15/a-soaring-life/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:11:40 +0000 Lucas http://lucasridley.com/?p=332

This was my entry into the Stella Artois Short Film contest. While I didn’t win that one I did place in the TOP 10 which was a huge accomplishment. Among the judges who viewed my work in this video was Kevin Spacey, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lawrence Fishburne, and Judy Dench!

This was an amazing opportunity that I came very close to winning. I enjoyed the entire process and it was a great learning experience for me.

Thanks to Eric Donaldson for letting me film him and John Heitzenrater for doing the music.