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Cinematography

It’s Hard to Stop a Trane: Shooting Action Sequences

Shane Hurlbut and team filming action sequence
Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Director Mike McCoy and Shane Hurlbut planning out a shot

“It’s hard to stop a Trane.” That was the tagline from the agency. Director Mike McCoy and I collaborated on a series of spots for Trane Air Conditioning. The location was a dry lake bed near Baker, CA with which I am very familiar. I shot parts of Act of Valor there, as well as the Keith Urban “For You” music video, and a variety of photo shoots when I was lighting for Herb Ritts in the late 1980’s. Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Most of the shots for this concept involved complex stunt and practical FX work, so proper planning was paramount. The Elite Team was strategically placed for maximum coverage during each action sequence using 17 cameras: 2 Arri Alexas, 8 Canon 5D’s, and 7 Canon 7D’s. The Arri Alexas shot 120 FPS from a safe distance while the 5D’s and 7D’s were put into Pelican crash housings and placed in harm’s way. You can read more about the crash housing here.

Here is a break down for two specific spots.

Extreme heat:

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Mike McCoy filming the C130 fuel dump

This spot involved a C-130 plane dropping 3,000 gallons of simulated flammable liquid on a Trane Air Conditioning unit. It was then ignited with a flare gun by one of our Trane Endurance Engineers. We set up 4 crash housings with different wide focal lengths along the path where the C130 would drop the gasoline. Elite team members Jose De Los Angeles and Bodie Orman were tasked with placing the cameras, hitting record and running out of harm’s way before the plane flew over.

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Elite Team members Jose De Los Angeles, Derek Edwards and Bodie Orman with crash housings

We also had an Arri Alexa inside an Eclipse head mounted on a helicopter to fly along the C130 to capture the “fuel” dump from the air.

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Arri Alexa on an Eclipse head

Elite team member Mike Svitak was inside the C130 and shot all of the plane’s interior shots. Dean Mitchell, Marc Margulies, Mike McCoy and I then shot from cameras on the ground. Special effects coordinator Dan Cangemi triggered the pyrotechnics, and here is the end result.

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Belly flop:

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

This spot involved the Endurance Engineers jumping a remotely controlled bus over a ramp on top of a Trane unit. Considering the damage the bus would undergo, this was another one shot wonder. Elite Team member Dave Knudsen rigged the bus with five cameras: above the driver’s seat, on the front of the bus, on the passenger’s side, in the back seat, and one on the outside near the back right tire. Then two crash housings were set on the ground near the Trane unit where the bus was landing.

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

The RC controls of the bus

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Canon 7D rigged in the back of the back of the bus

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Canon 5D rigged on the outside of the bus

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

21mm Zeiss ZE prime on a Canon 5D rigged to the front of the bus

Trane Cinematography filmmaker film movies tv shooting DP lights

Education was another important aspect of shooting these spots. I blasted Twitter asking for interns to come out and learn from my team. Three interns were selected and rose to the challenge of camera interning: Arjun Mano from Toronto studying at Centennial College, Peter Johnston from North Carolina studying at UNC Wilmington, and Joshua Ledlow, a shooter from Phoenix, Arizona. They all did a great job assisting in keeping our cameras up to speed running cards, lenses, and gear back and forth.

From left to right Joshua Ledlow, Peter Johnston and Arjun Mano.

From left to right Joshua Ledlow, Peter Johnston and Arjun Mano.

Drinks with the interns after a long shoot day

Drinks with the interns after a long shoot day

Thanks to Jamie Thalman for the BTS stills.

Take a look at the behind the scenes video shot by Nick Kramer and Corey Jennings.


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June 1, 2012/by Shane Hurlbut, ASC
Tags: Behind the Scenes, Canon, Canon 5D, canon 7D, Cinematographer, Cinematography, Cinematography Online, commercial, Configuration, Director of Photography, Film Education Online, filmmaker, filmmaking, Trane AC
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https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CJ4C6119-1.jpg 683 1024 Shane Hurlbut, ASC https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Filmmakers-Academy-Filmmaking-Courses.svg Shane Hurlbut, ASC2012-06-01 10:45:152022-08-05 18:17:13It’s Hard to Stop a Trane: Shooting Action Sequences
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29 replies
  1. Matheus
    Matheus says:
    June 1, 2012 at 11:59 AM

    Awesome…. I love it.

    • Matheus
      Matheus says:
      June 1, 2012 at 12:12 PM

      Shane, how do you deal with correct exposure the scene at time of explosion to keep all detail on the big fireball ?

      Thanks,
      Mateus

      • Merwen
        Merwen says:
        June 1, 2012 at 12:27 PM

        Good question :-)

  2. Elias Markkula
    Elias Markkula says:
    June 1, 2012 at 12:09 PM

    Hi,

    What pelican case are you using for the crash cams? The model?

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 5:27 PM

      We use Pelican 1300 cases.http://pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1300

  3. Joseph
    Joseph says:
    June 1, 2012 at 1:48 PM

    Hi Shane, just out of curiosity I noticed you never use the Canon 60D in any of your shoots. Isn’t the 7D and 60D almost identicle except the 7D is more geared for photography and cost more.On top of that you have an articulated screen on the 60D.

    • Paul Bryant
      Paul Bryant says:
      June 2, 2012 at 3:46 PM

      I can’t speak for Shane of course, but we’ve shot extensively with both the 7D and 60D, and can confirm that the 7D outputs a better-looking video file, especially above 640 ISO. On paper the cameras are very similar, and can only guess the reasons for the difference, not knowing any Canon engineers personally! (: The only spec I can see that would make any difference is that the 7D has dual DiGIC 4’s, whereas the 60D has a single processor. I’ve heard that the second DiGIC 4 in the 7D is used to reduce noise/preserve detail, which would make sense given what I’ve seen coming out of the cameras.

      Cheers!

      • Joseph
        Joseph says:
        June 3, 2012 at 8:15 PM

        Thanks Paul, I own two 60D’s and rented a 7D for a job awhile back and used the 7D as the A camera and 1 60D as the B camera and when I took the footage into post, I didn’t notice any real difference. Your right on the processor and it would make perfect sense that having two processor are better than one and to be quite honest my shots were well lit, so I might have seen a difference in a low light situation.

      • Dimitri-Ajith
        Dimitri-Ajith says:
        June 5, 2012 at 11:26 AM

        Can’t speak for Shane either… maybe of the weather sealing of the 7D and the compatibility with accessories. (form factor / memory cards) Just a guess….

  4. Ron
    Ron says:
    June 1, 2012 at 2:18 PM

    Lot’s of fun. Thanks for posting. Well done as usual. BTW, Trane is a great product.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 5:24 PM

      Thanks for the support Ron

  5. Oli Kember
    Oli Kember says:
    June 1, 2012 at 7:43 PM

    That looks like a blast. Thanks for sharing.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 5:23 PM

      Thanks for the support Oli

  6. Saad Ansari
    Saad Ansari says:
    June 2, 2012 at 10:45 PM

    Hello! This looks awesome, but I was a little confused. The cameras were mounted onto the bus for extra angles but I did not see these shots in the videos posted above, are there more Trane promos coming?

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 5:23 PM

      Hi Saad with action sequences like this its always best to get as much coverage as possible to have more options in the edit bay.

  7. Paul Bryant
    Paul Bryant says:
    June 7, 2012 at 9:30 AM

    Just noticed the fist-bump left hanging… Hilarious. :)

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 7:47 PM

      Paul Bryant. Hahaha I love that moment as well.

  8. Karl Stelter
    Karl Stelter says:
    June 8, 2012 at 2:16 PM

    Very cool – love the angles and and in depth explanation of how it was actually done! Also the end where the guy goes for the “fist pound” and the other scientist doesn’t notice is brilliant LOL. So funny.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 11, 2012 at 5:15 PM

      Thank you for the support Karl

  9. J.Molina
    J.Molina says:
    June 12, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    this is just plainly amazing. Want to get to that level! Where I can explode stuff.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 26, 2012 at 4:12 PM

      J.Molina.Thanks for the kind words and support.

  10. David
    David says:
    June 14, 2012 at 2:28 PM

    Hey Shane,

    Very happy to find your posting. I was the editor on this Trane campaign and a blast working with Mouse putting them together. Very nice job on your coverage. At last count I think my assistant said you had 15 DSLRs and two Alexas (she had a lot of sorting to do when it came to organizing the dailies). Just talked to Jon and Jeff from the agency a few days ago and they said everyone (including the client) is extremely happy with the spots.
    Hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to repost this article on a blog I’ve recently started.

    Great job.

    Best,
    David Henegar

  11. Jeremy Bernatchez
    Jeremy Bernatchez says:
    June 18, 2012 at 1:00 PM

    Nice!
    Just want to say a props to Arjun Mano for representing Centennial College! (I’m a grad from near 10 years ago :)

    Always love how much you share about the work you do Shane, & many thanks from all of us who visit your posts!

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      June 26, 2012 at 3:57 PM

      Jeremy Bernatchez. Thanks so much for the kind words and support.

  12. Paul
    Paul says:
    July 17, 2012 at 5:28 AM

    Shane, what a commercial. I was wondering was that truck that was following the bus the chase vehicle? And who was the remote driver? This is a very cool commercial.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      July 25, 2012 at 8:09 PM

      Paul, yes that was the RC operator. I am not sure about who was the remote driver but he kicked ass.

  13. Mike
    Mike says:
    November 4, 2015 at 1:25 AM

    wow! I am grateful to the director and coordinators for that shooting. It was incredible! But I would like to know how the fire is explode.

    • Shane
      Shane says:
      November 8, 2015 at 6:31 PM

      HA HA, Mouse McCoy is a very talented director. The Special Efx coordinator Dan Kanjemi is one of the best in the business. That was a long trough of gasoline that he ignited like a napalm run.

  14. Preston Kanak
    Preston Kanak says:
    August 31, 2016 at 6:06 PM

    Shane,

    Well shot. I don’t totally understand the concept for the spot though? Assuming an agency thing. I understand it likely has nothing to do with your team but just trying to wrap my head around how the client bought into this. Is it showing that if it is set on fire or squished that it will fail – otherwise it won’t? For the fire spot, would have loved to see a burnt unit still standing in working order – the audience will understand its fake but I think that would roll better. For the bus scene, showing the bus coming to a screeching hault with the front pounded in feels like a better fit. Again, not the client or agency but still wrapping my head around this one a touch. Great work as always.

Comments are closed.

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