Presidential Election 2008
September 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
In the Fall of 2008 and in the heat of the presidential election Yahoo! News produced a slate of original content. Some of the standout pieces were our interviews with all the candidates, an interview with President Bush, and an interview with Secretary of State Condolezza Rice.
Production Notes: Pulling off these groundbreaking interactives required a huge team of people. For more details and behind the scenes notes follow the links to: George Bush Exclusive, Democratic Debate Mashup, Republicans Up Close and Personal, and Condolezza Rice Exclusive.
Yahoo! News Underground
September 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Yahoo! News Underground was a regular Yahoo! News feature series that explored fringe culture in America with reporting brought to life with original songs and music.The series included produced video, photo and written reportage, and made in-roads in the social media space with user generated content and interaction. Here are just a few of my favorite clips from the series.
Production Notes: The majority of this show was produced by myself and the show’s creator, Brad Miskell (yes..2 people and one big budget… we got to know each other well).
Rwanda with Daryl Hannah
September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Richard Bangs and company made our next destination the cloud forests of Africa, trekking into the mountains to meet the mountain gorilla – and taking along actress Daryl Hannah for the journey. But Expedition Rwanda wasn’t just about the “charismatic megafauna,” but the remarkable turn-around in Rwanda’s national self-sufficiency in the wake of its tragic civil war of the mid-1990s. So we undertook a new kind of mission, based on what we came to call “adventure with a purpose” – to seek out stories of people who work consciously to improve their lot, and the world as a whole. (In association with the Gorilla Organization.)
Production Notes: One of the goals of Richard Bangs Adventures on Yahoo! was to bring a sense rawness and immediacy to our audience of armchair adventurers. We did this by delivering at least one webisode (and in many cases 2 or 3) per day. The idea was that the audience would return each day to the site; essentially following along the adventure. This deliverable schedule required a well oiled field production machine consisting of producing, shooting, and editing within extremely short time frames. Turnaround time from from rolling the cameras to delivering a finished piece was anywhere from 4-12 hours depending on how much hiking, driving, swimming…etc…
Bosnia: Rebirth of a Nation
September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The rugged interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina was isolated from the tides of time by the Iron Curtain, but with the lifting of trade barriers during the 1990s, and following a disastrous civil war, a new threat emerged to the country’s natural heritage: development. With Bosnia: Rebirth of a Nation, we journeyed from the capital Sarajevo to the old bridge in Mostar, up the course of the Neretva River into primeval, old-growth forests, at last to one of the most remote villages in Europe. Along the way, we discovered the wisdom of its traditions. (In conjunction with Green Visions.
Filming on the Eiger
September 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment
For our premier adventure, the RBA media crew joined forces with a crack team of mountaineering filmmakers from MacGillivray Freeman Films to cover a dramatic and life-fulfilling expedition in the Swiss Alps with Expedition Eiger. Our focus: John Harlin III, whose father died trying to climb the 5,960-foot (1,800-meter) rock wall of the North Face of the Eiger. Four decades later, Harlin made the attempt himself, while his wife and young daughter looked on. The result was the first RBA production, and the centerpiece of the IMAX film “The Alps.” (More about the movie.)
To view the video, please click on each thumbnail below.
Secrets of the Sea Gypsies
September 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The day after Christmas, 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a natural disaster in which nearly 200,000 people throughout Southeast Asia lost lives and several million their homes. But in the midst of this catastrophe, on a small archipelago in the Andaman Sea, a tribe of several hundred villagers escaped almost certain extinction by a simple precaution: they listened to the prophetic dreams of their elders. With ex-pat John Gray, we searched for the secrets of the sea gypsies on Expedition Thailand: Survivors of the Tsunami.
On Annapurna with Ed Viesturs
December 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
There are only 14 mountains in the world above 8,000 meters (26,000 feet) and only a handful of people have climbed them all. Until May 2005, no American had achieved such a feat. Ed Viesturs had 13 of them under his belt and was saving Annapurna for last. As a professional mountain guide and climber, Viesturs, like many others, finances his climbs through sponsor support as well as book and movie deals, and working the lecture circuit. Viesturs chose msn.com as his online partner for the Annapurna climb, which was great for me, because it meant I was hired to field produce (produce, shoot, edit, transmit) the online coverage of what was predicted to be a historic event in mountaineering history.
Extreme Australia
December 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Episode # 7 in the Richard Bangs Adventures series on Yahoo took place in Australia with extreme as the theme. Australian native and well known adventure photographer Jonathan Chester was our guide for the episode and we followed him across the continent. Our ultimate destination was the Phillips Island nature Preserve where Chester would photograph the littlest penguins as they came ashore under the moonlight.
Hands down this was one of the most fun shoots I’ve ever done. We posted our itinerary on Yahoo’s trip planner. The highlight was heli-rafting the raging Johnstone River. As you might imagine a helicopter brought us in and took us out, but the most awesome part was filming the rafting action from the chopper. The canyon was pretty tight but the pilot skillfully manuevered the chopper to get me close into the action. With my headset and boom mic on I would communicate to the pilot things like, “cruise medium speed up to that rapid timing it so we arrive right as the boats are in the middle, then rotate 90 degrees to the left and dip slightly to get a top shot of the boats.” Or calling audibles during the filming like, “ok, follow that raft keeping the bird in the same position.”
Climbing Everest with Blind Climber Erik Weihenmayer
December 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
On May 25, 2001 I stood on the summit of Mt. Everest with Erik Weihenmayer and 9 other of my good friends. As everyone was high-fiving all I could think about was my job. I had a seemingly simple job; shoot some publicity photos of Erik and the team on top with the sponsor banners. There was one problem. I had arrived on the summit later than everyone else and as I was gearing up for the fastest shoot of my life my climbing partners were ready to head back to Camp 4. Generally speaking, the top of Mt. Everest is not a place where you chill out and have a tea party (although I’m sure it’s been done by now). You get up, check out the view, shed a few tears if you can muster up the emotion through the altitude induced narcosis, and then get the f$@k down.
For the full report check out the near daily dispatches with photos from the expedition at http://www.2001everest.com/
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