First freefall video (vidiot)?

The plane your refering to was a Coursair. It was like the ones you saw in the TV series Baa Baa Blacksheep The camera was an N-6 gunsight 24 volt 16MM that was installed after taking out one of the four machine guns. It had acartridge that you sent in for processing ,and you got to see it in a week or two. that was if the projector was availble etcetc.. I have two in my garage The original power system was a pistol belt like those for shot guns a "D" cell battery was put into the pouch with a wire soldered to the top and bottom, a total of 16 were required then, wired in series eventually to the camera to an on/off switch. the sight was a bent coat hanger in the shape if a crude rectangle bolted to a beat-up motorcycle helmet. I took my first photos with a Brownie Hawkeye with the spring wind up model. It was sewn on the top side of a glove,all you did was reach across and push the button ,got three or four shots easy on every jump I had amotorized Nikon-F it only weighed 14 lbs but you got up to 36 pictures on 35MM film . The thing on Bob Boquor was that he was shooting a 35MM movie camera. He didnt drown but drifted into the ocean slumped in his B-4 harness with a broken neck.

I came across this thread the other day. These two photos are of a video rig I jumped in Florida in the late 70's/early 80's. The camera was a Panasonic Industrial model with a seperate VCR and Camera control unit. I was working with a small video production company that had access to the 3/4 inch Sony U-matic recorder shown in the photos. It was strictly a record only deck (no playback feature) and as I recall it weighted about 45 lbs. When I first tried jumping it front mounted even a monster sized Silly Suit with balloon suit type vents wouldn't allow me to stay with the average Deland jumper of the day. Once I mounted it below my rig it was like jumping with nothing extra at all!

(Photo by Charlie Case)

Dave you have seen some of what we have on the JSM DVD, that was shot from 66-68. The camera was carried most of the time but Ive seen some of the footage where it was mounted. Remember, its the footage with Raquel Welch at 22 yo when Jerry helped with her movie Fathom?

But I am sure that was not the first, and it was not video but I think it was 16mm?

That was Jerry Schrimsher and John Burke.

BTW you ole farts had balls of steel back then!! I salute you all!! Crazy f$%#s

what about Carl Boenich? when did he start videoing.. early 60`s?

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As I remember Lew Sanborn shot the first real skydiving free fall film for the movie short of "A SPORT IS BORN" in 1959 or 60. It won the academy award for short subjects.

Correct.
Here is a a picture posted on Flickr by Lee Guilfoyle, D-50, of Lew with the camera he used to shoot A Sport is Born. It was nominated for (did not win) an Oscar in 1961 for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects.
The camera was a wind-up model; the thing on side of the helmet opposite the camera is (I think) a counterweight; it's not a battery.
Produced by Paramount and Sports Illustrated, A Sport is Born was filmed between July 12 and 20, 1960 at Orange, MA; the jumpers were Dusty Smith and Steve Boyle. It was widely shown as a short subject in movie theaters and provided most Americans with their first exposure to the thought of jumping out of airplanes for fun. For years, it was shown to every first jump course at the Parachutes, Inc. centers.
Just before the first freefall sequence, Chris Schenkel, the narrator, says "You won't believe what you are about to see, but there is no fake or trick photography here." And at the end of the first freefall sequence, he says "Four baton passes in 30 seconds of freeefall -- a new record."
It was shot in Cinerama or some other early variant of wide-screen technology, and required an anamorphic lens on the projector.
Lew Sanborn has donated a large amount of really interesting old stuff to the National Skydiving Museum; most is currently in storage. I was talking with him last week about some of it, and he told me the movie camera was owned by Parachutes Incorporated. He has no idea where it is now. The original freefall footage seems also to have disappeared sometime after Parachutes Inc. closed in the early 80s.
I have searched far and wide for a copy of the 16mm film, with no luck. There is a video tape version floating around; the copy of the film from which it derives is in tough shape but it's still fun to watch. As it is, the video makes people and airplanes look horizontally squished because of the anamorphic lens, but I have put it into Final Cut Pro and fixed the aspect ratio so it looks about right. Maybe some day I'll figure out whether/how it can be shared. Meanwhile, here are a few screen grabs.

HW

Howard, I do believe you are correct about the counter weight. I would bet that is what it is. My father and John Burke did the same thing, I think we still have the helmet, I know we still have the Nikon he used for still shots, damn thing still works. he had it mounted on his white Bell with the box on the opposite side as counter weight,

Hi howard,

Re: A Sport is Born was filmed between July 12 and 20, 1960

Are you sure about these dates? If my memory serves me correctly ( and it does not do so well these days ), I recall seeing the movie when I was in Basic Training which began 26 Dec 59 and went to about mid-March 1960. I have a memory of seeing the film at a theater on Lackland AFB.

Just wondering,

JerryBaumchen

PS) If your dates are correct, then I would have to have seen it at Edwards AFB and I have no memory of that.

The exact dates I cite come from a "trailer" of sorts which precedes the video copy. It concludes with crediting "The American Museum of Sport Parachuting" for the "rescue" of the otherwise-lost footage. I infer that means it came from Bill Ottley, who used that term for his dream of a museum and who is likely to have gotten those facts correct.
That aside, the Orange Sport Parachute Center opened for business May 2, 1959, and I think it's highly unlikely that a film which includes exensive shots of student training, jumps into The Inn at Orange, etc., would have been shot, completed, and distributed in theaters in the time frame you remember it. Also the Oscar nomination was in 1961 -- it's not likely it would been for a film distributed in 1959,
If I saw it at that time (and I don't really remember) it would probably have been in the Post theater at the Presidio of Monterey, just a couple of miles from the Bear Flag Inn on Cannery Row -- where PCA headquarters was located. A guy in my barracks kept his rig in his locker, and I saw my first skydives ever at the Laguna Seca race track at Fort Ord, but didn't make my first jump 'til 1965
But I'll ask Lew next time we talk.

HW

I was acquainted with Carl and did some filming with him in the 70's. He was a real quality person and as nice as anyone I've met in the sport. As far as I know, he didn't work with video. His focus was a more artistic representation of skydiving. Early video systems lacked the quality of film and professional video editing facilities were quite expensive at the time. (The 3/4 inch system in the photos I posted was actually acceptable "broadcast quality" though just barely and none of the consumer systems were.)
Another important advantage of film was the ability to "overcrank" the camera (i.e. shoot the film at higher than normal speed to achieve smooth slow motion when projected.) Carl usually used the N-9 gun camera which could be fitted with a 100 foot film magazine and could shoot at frame rates up (I believe) 64 frames per second (fps). Normal 16mm projection speed is 24 fps so shooting at 64fps would give almost 1/3 speed slow motion when projected.
The "Holy Grail" for freefall film was the Photosonics 1-VN which could shoot up to 200 fps (again, to the best of my recollection) and yielded ultra smooth, ultra slow motion. Carl had a 1-VN on order when he died (There was quite a long waiting period for them) and the production company I worked with in Florida bought it from Jean when it was delivered. I jumped it several times and it was such a magnificient piece of equipment that it was like driving and working on a Ferrari compared to the N-9.

Bill

Hi howard,

I would appreciate your keeping me posted on what you find on the dates. As I have said numerous time, my memory is not what it once was.

Also, if nominated in '61 would that not mean a release date in '60? At least that is how I think the Academy works.

JerryBaumchen

PS) I got an old service pal who is a movie nut-type, I'll see what info he can find.

Hi howard,

Heck, I just went to the Academy Awards web-site and it lists the film as 1960, produced by Leslie Winik (yes?).

Just the facts, ma'am.

JerryBaumchen

The 1960 Academy Awards were presented April 17, 1961 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. "A Sport is Born" was among the nominees.

It is listed as a 1960 film in IMDB, the internet movie database, where there is the following comment:

"This rare documentary film short is about the birth of Sky Diving, i.e. Non-emergency Parachuting, now practiced as a sport in the United States of America, circa 1960. The film was produced by Leslie Winik and directed by Lew Sanborn, Parachute Club of America license D-1 who, along with Jacques Istel, license D-2, was also an actor, without stunt men, in the film. The film featured the first live air-to-air movie sequence of a sky diver during free fall ever captured on film, and was an Oscar-nominee in 1961. Among the sequences featured was a heart-stopping view as seen from inside the jump plane's cockpit from which the exit door had been removed. At jump altitude, approximately 12,000 ft. ASL, the camera first pans inside the aircraft cockpit, catching a view of the pilot, his controls and instruments. Then the camera follows Sanborn as he directs the pilot on final approach to Sanborn's intended exit from the plane. The camera then follows Sanborn as he motions the pilot to cut the aircraft's power. Clad in white coveralls and helmet, black boots and gloves, goggles, two parachutes, altimeter and stopwatch, Sanborn begins his exit from the cockpit. He moves through the open doorway onto the precariously-placed man step outside the open doorway. With the wind blast tearing at his face and clothing, the camera follows his exit. Sanborn carefully positions his gloved hands along the wing strut, then moves his feet, first one, then the other, onto the narrow step below. With the slipstream viciously tearing at his body, he calmly gestures 'Goodbye' and thrusts himself gracefully spread-eagle out and away into the bottomless blue. The camera pans slowly downward as Sanborn's white figure slowly disappears into a bank of cumulus clouds below. This never-before filmed sequence was the first of it's kind ever witnessed by US movie-goers.
"This precedent-setting, history-making film (now rare) should be made accessible, in HD DVD format, to the public, to high schools, universities, museums, libraries as well as other institutions."

I suppose if it had been released early in 1960 it could have fit your time frame. But I still think you're wrong.

HW

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But I still think you're wrong.

Neener, neener, neener.

The old mind is not as gone as I thought it was.

JerryBaumchen

I jumped a Sony AV-3400 Video Unit August 17, 1973. It was for some 30 way attempts in Sylvania Georgia.. Attempts being the proper word Terry McDonald had set up the camera on a regular Bell Helmet Side mount, the recorder was mounted to my Guardian piggy back on Front mounted D rings like a belly wort. I think Terry worked for UF and had it was on loan for some school related function. I remember Terry telling me "Please don't go in this thing costs a fortune." He really knew how to build confidence. This unit must have weighted 50lbs.
I had borrowed the biggest jump suit I could find way to big to jump and when I put it on it had this huge cable coming out the back of the camera wound around inside my jumpsuit a couple of times then out a hole I cut for the recorder. But it worked which was a real surprise., well sort of. I was able to get about 5 or 10 seconds of good video before I went screaming by the formation and I mean i went so low that at break off the jumpers looked liked little ants tracking off. Scared the crap out of me. i didn't jump it much....Like never again..

But it worked which was a real surprise., well sort of. I was able to get about 5 or 10 seconds of good video before I went screaming by the formation and I mean i went so low that at break off the jumpers looked liked little ants tracking off. Scared the crap out of me. i didn't jump it much....Like never again..