Swell

The last shot on Eco-Warrior.

At the end of the episode, our bad guys decide to ram the Eco Warrior with a freighter and sink it. So we need a shot of a big ass ship steaming menacingly at the camera. This I’ve got figured out. Big container ships constantly come in and out of the Verranzano Narrows. All we have to do is go to the Staten Island side, where we can get a clean shot out into the water with nothing but sea behind, and wait for one to come along.

So one fine day Chris and I drive out to Staten Island. We find a perfect spot to shoot from, out at the end of a jetty, and wait. There are several perfect ships at anchor in the area, but nothing’s moving.

Chris lasts about ten minutes before getting fed up and insisting “this is a clusterfuck.” I argue we should wait. “We could wait all fucking day,” is his response.

So we pile into the car and head for New Jersey where Chris thinks we have a better shot at it. As we’re approaching the thruway, we see a ship coming into the narrows. A big one, a perfect one. If we had waited another five minutes we would have nailed it.

We haul ass back to our spot, but the ship has passed the point where we can shoot it without seeing city behind it. The ship steams by, our opportunity lost.

I’m just sitting there, out on the end of this jetty, wondering what out next move is, when I notice the wake from the cargo ship coming our way, fast. And it’s big. “Ahhhh, Chris,” I say. He sees the huge waves rolling towards us and grabs the battery belt. I grab the camera and we run for it, on jagged, uneven rocks. We make it halfway back to shore. I look behind me and watch as the rocks I was sitting on a minute ago are completely engulfed in the wake. And it’s still coming for us.

We run, and make it to dry land as the wake washes over the entire jetty. If we had stayed another ten seconds, we would have been swept away, camera and all.

We’re relieved not to have drowned, but we still need our shot. Chris decides we should shoot one of the anchored boats, and just shake the camera around enough to it look like they’re moving. Yeah, right.

I gingerly go back out on the jetty, it’s now wet and slippery as hell. I get soaked, kneeling on the wet rocks, and frame up a shot.

I shoot it a couple of times, whipping the camera on and off it to try and obscure the fact that it’s anchored.

It sort of almost seems to work.

When the footage comes back, you can easily tell the evil cargo ship ain’t moving. But what the hell, the Koreans will never notice. And if they notice, what are they gonna do, let their economy collapse and not pay us?