JoeJ

Sweet! i will post videos on skydive.com - it makes sense... Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

Yikes! you'd better stay safe too or she'll be out here kicking my ass! send her a hug for me and tell her i didn't mean to get you hooked. thanks for the offer to help fill a bus - we're actually talking about doing it.... still in development and probably a long shot, but we might actually do a full sized bus. as for the beer, i'll take it! thanks! Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

now that you've told me i had something to do with your being in the sport, you'd better be careful!! - but i'm stoked to hear it. i'm going to be working pretty hard on skydive.com and hopefully build it into a site that promotes skydiving - your letter made me think i should post some video clips on the site, maybe to get potential jumpers psyched about making a skydive. i've posted some photos, but video might work even better. the base jump in norway is also one of my favorite moments in good stuff - the first shot looks like another view of the scenery, and then pushes in to reveal dave snowboarding toward the cliff. it really was sweet.... i fully intended to spend more time at that location, but my ambition to make good stuff 2 pretty much fizzled when we had kids - as they get older, i might do something like that again..... Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

sometimes i get on a roll with this stuff and my fingers race along about as fast as i can think. i almost started another article! if jumping with your friends helps you keep from burning, perfect. two rigs help too (long as somebody else is packing for you!). i'm entirely spoiled in the packing dept. these days, if i have to pack, i stand there with the lines over my shoulder trying to remember the next step! Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

absolutely - let me know when you're in los angeles! Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

my dad is an exceptional photographer. he films mostly nature and for the last 25 years the Missouri Botanical Garden has made their calendars from the photos he takes there year around. i remember when i picked up a video camera in highschool, back when it took two people to go around with one camera, one guy with the camera, the other hauling around this huge deck, cables dragging along between us. Something clicked - i really felt something special and shooting for me was a rush like hunting, only without having to kill anything. so of course when i got into skydiving, i started jumping camera at about 50 jumps and it didn't go over very well at the DZ. they gave me the boot, more or less, cause i didn't have enough experience. cameras were still pretty cumbersome at the time so i don't entirely blame the folks who thought i was black death, but having flown camera, i knew it was the only thing for me. over time i filmed students at different dropzones and became proficient. after a while, i started to burn out and almost sold my gear. then by chance i met Rob Harris who was just learning to skysurf and i followed him on a few jumps. chasing him around the sky felt like being a human jet - just trying to keep up. i was hooked all over again. to my great fortune, rob was extremely talented, a rare bird. i watched him go from flailing to becoming a world class jumper in about a year. i think competing with him opened doors for me as a cinematographer. when we won the world meet and then the extreme games, we got some great offers to film for commercials and tv shows. i was already into production work and film, so the transition wasn't too difficult, other than managing the additional weight of the film cameras. Rob opened doors for us both and working with him was wonderful. most skydivers know that he died on a project we were filming in Canada. God gives, and god takes away. i'm not religious, but i found myself thinking it again and again. but the doors he opened for me were still open. super talented skydivers like Patrick De Gayardon and Dale Stewart, Greg Gasson, Airspeed, Dave Barlia, the flyboyz, Omar Alhegelan and so many others contacted me about filming things together, and all that energy i put into training with Rob went to making Good Stuff. At the same time, i promoted my cinematography pretty heavily in productions guides. i got on a roll - sorry. long answer to a short question, but i really mean it about not being able to recreate the things that took me from filming students into filming movies. i hustled as much as anyone, but most of my success at this came from things i had no control over. still, there are some basics. film still beats video, so its worth learning to operate a film camera and to expose film. also, whatever special skills you have as a camera flyer, if you can put them on film and begin to build a demo reel of filmed stuff, you'll join a pretty small group. obviously you'd want to market yourself, and having a filmed reel is key to getting the attention of a director who uses mostly film. again, if there is something you can film better than us other cinema guys, you could find yourself selected for a project. none of us are good at everything. time and persistence helps too, and luck, but its do-able. i'm 44 now and not getting any younger. its true for me and most of us who do this. i'm working to build skydive.com partly because i know i won't be able to throw my body out of airplanes forever. if i get skydive.com rolling like i hope, it'll become my day job. so what i'm saying is that there will be a changing of the guard at some point. Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

not to mention - labor! there ain't no glamor in it, i promise! i haul three large pelican cases around with me at about 80 pounds each, pay excess luggage every time i fly, and spend time convincing the tsa guys that my gear is just camera equipment. then we drag everything to wherever we're jumping. but i'm not whining about it. i waited tables for eight years, double shifts, and dug ditches on construction sites. by comparison, hauling my gear around is easy.... Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

i could easily be 200 plus pounds if i ate all that stuff! Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

my pleasure!! it was a lot of fun to write... Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

I've been following the camera flyer's forum and didn't know there was also a post here. I'm glad i finally took the time to think through the process. There is more to doing a project than I'd expected, and i really couldn't include everything that came to mind without going too long. Some of the projects are stories all by themselves, and of course after 20 years in the sport, i have as many "no $#(T, there I was" stories as most jumpers. It's great to write something about skydiving for other skydivers.... Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

I think freeflydrew answered the SAG question better than I would have. i'll add also that the kind of representation that applies to performers doesn't include camera flyers. Drivers and pilots, for example, are represented by SAG as performers whether or not they are seen on-screen as long as some part of their vehicle appears on screen. Their collective bargaining power assured this a long time ago. There aren't enough of us flying for movies to push the same sort of change through SAG, so we're on our own. But the argument that we are performing along with the jumpers on camera is pretty straight forward, so most of the time we're able to work out fair SAG terms. Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

no doubt, i'll keep them coming as long as skydivers enjoy reading my stuff. in a way, writing is like filming. The positive feedback makes it worth the effort, so thanks!! And thanks for the offer to fly camera. I may take you up on it one day..... :-) Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv[/url]

My pleasure! I was surprised myself how many things came to mind as I wrote the article. I'm glad you liked it! Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv

Hi! just wondering if someone who lives in or near to London and has the Good Stuff DVD might do me a favor. i got a last minute call from a production company in London asking to view my dvd, but i'm away from the office and can't quickly send one. so i'm hoping to find someone who can send their dvd over for me. for what it's worth, i'd be happy to replace it with two dvds ("good stuff", and my demo reel). here is there contact info - in case i'm getting lucky here: Richard Stansfield or Kathrine Bancroft Creative Touch Films Ltd Unit 4, Calico House, Plantation Wharf, London, SW11 3TN Tel: +44 207 801 0707 i'm away from the office but will try to check emails in the next couple days. thanks!! joe jennings [email protected] Joe Jennings http://www.skydive.com http://www.skydive.tv