Kane says: "It's about weighing up how remote you want to
be. There are glaciers we can drive to or others that have
landing spots for the helicopter. I can also tell you every
mail plane, charter operator and planes with
skis that can, land on glaciers up high in the
summer."
On Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,
Kjartansson and his team managed to
get out to Greenland to do some splinter
(second unit) work. "It's like no other place
in the world with these massive icebergs.
The vastness in wintertime is unbelievable.
We flew out, then took boats and used drones
to get in between the icebergs."
But actually basing a production in Greenland would be a
lot harder in terms of logistics, access and costs. "You're
gonna put three zeros at the end of your budget at least,"
says Palmer.
Getting to some of these locations can also be treacherous.
Says Kjartansson, "We had to shuttle crew out from our
bases in Reykjavik and Dalvik to the more remote locations
for True Detective: Night Country and the winds were so
strong that we saw coaches on their sides."
Palmer insists though that "remote locations don't
necessarily have to be more difficult or expensive, they can
be easier and cheaper with efficiency. The key is talking to
locals and dealing with closed roads."
Equipment
As for transporting the equipment, the large majority will
be placed at the main camp/production base. Then for the
more remote, challenging environments, it's about packing
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light but sensibly. "The more stuff you have, the more things
will get buried or freeze up," warns Brooker.
"We tend to avoid big lamps on the glacier and never
use a 12K because getting a generator up there is a
nightmare," explains Cassata. "We are limited with
what we can take on the snowmobiles, but we can bring
technocranes because they have the gators on the belts."
It's the same with camera equipment. "You use softer cases
instead of metal ones and picking the right cameras is key,"
says Cassata. "We had a fancy new one for a shoot with digital
displays made of liquid crystal, but it froze. One of our operators
managed to take it apart and convert it back to analogue," says
Brooker.
"Having new tech at our fingertips is great for checking weather,
getting better shots, communicating with satellite phones,
checking the internet and heating clothing, etc., but it can also
be far more complicated and things go wrong," adds Palmer.
There are some tricks
of the trade, though,
especially for protecting
the equipment.
"Condensation on the
glass can be a problem
because productions go
from the freezing cold to
the hotel where it steams
up and then go out again
and it freezes. Instead,
we tell them to leave the
cameras and lenses in the
truck outside overnight.
Just plug it in and put a
Matt Palmer/LMGI
Matt Palmer/LMGI, The Last of Us, Waterton National Park
