Feel the Fear: Production Experts Share Their Scariest Shoots
Nail-biting stunts, out of control stars, delicately balanced set ups that require the fates to look especially kindly on us… Some shoots are kind of scary, even for the most seasoned of producers and filmmakers. This Halloween, LBB brought together some of the industry's production experts to to tell the spooky stories of having worked on some hair-raising and nerve-wracking shoots over the years.
Sharing their frightening fables of particularly wicked projects - and how they pulled them off - are a brave party of producers and directors from the likes of Where The Buffalo Roam, Hey Wonderful, Raucous, Boomshot, Greenpoint Pictures, Gravy Films, Station Film, Park Village, World War Seven, Global Production Network, Grayskull, BONAPARTE and LS Productions.
"A glob of waste flew into the open mouth of our specialist..."
Nat Livingston Johnson, director at Hey Wonderful
For a Skype campaign, we were profiling people using the technology in unique ways, including a journalist covering climate change in Kiribati, a remote island nation about 2,400 miles south of Hawaii. Kiribati is unique because the international dateline runs through it—intentionally placed in the most remote area where no other land intersects—allowing you to step from today into tomorrow.
Needless to say, getting there wasn’t easy. With only one flight a week, logistics were a nightmare. To complicate things, our client left his luggage at the hotel and nearly missed the flight. From the start, it felt like a high-stakes game of 'Survivor'.
To ensure quality video skyping during live sequences with our journalist’s editors back in the States, we brought in a satellite connection specialist - a tricky operation that required the precision of a brain surgeon and the patience of a saint.
While Kiribati is undeniably a paradise, it presents other unique challenges. The country consists of coral atolls, and with limited land area, waste disposal is a significant issue—often meaning the ocean doubles as the local restroom.
While capturing B-roll footage, I accidentally stepped in human waste and tracked it onto the car mats — not my finest hour! We tried rinsing them off in the ocean, leading to a rather unceremonious scene of me flinging the mats onto the car hood. In a moment of misguided enthusiasm, I whipped them around so vigorously that a glob of waste flew directly into the open mouth of our satellite specialist.
His eyes widened in panic as we quickly rinsed his mouth out. Unfortunately, within the hour, he was hit with a wave of nausea that could only be described as a full-blown rebellion from his stomach.
What followed was one of the most heroic acts I’ve witnessed in production. Despite being sick and practically a human sprinkler, he dragged himself around the island, vomiting every few minutes while ensuring the connections were made and the shoot continued. To this day, he’s one of my best friends — though he still hasn’t forgiven me.
"We had dirt biking pros literally jumping through a ring of fire..."
Tatiana Rudzinski, executive producer at Greenpoint Pictures
A couple of years ago, when an Ogilvy brief came in honouring the heritage brand Zippo's 90th anniversary, we said, 'Yes!'. The platform they pursued was 'Live with Confidence', highlighting all the unique ways the trusted lighter could be used. It was a pyro-fuelled anthemic piece with an eclectic mix of adventurers and passions. Logan and Josh (ROOS) gladly signed up and took us on a BP-raising adventure in remote locations of the PNW, where we had an archer shoot a hot arrow with her feet while standing on her hands, a veteran flashback in the war-torn scene, a ballsy bartender serving up fiery cocktails, pro dirt bikers jumping through a ring of fire and more.
A few moments that stand out are when we asked one of our talents (an ex-pro snowboarder) to cliff dive 40’ down into the chilly Pacific Ocean. The challenge was to keep the takes to a minimum for various reasons, but most importantly, safety. From there, the challenge was to swoop our athlete swiftly out of the cold water while keeping the rescue boat out of the frame. The shot was executed in three takes with an FPV drone and underwater rig. The other tricky scene was the 'ring of fire', the hero scene for the client and agency, which had the biggest pyro SFX team. It was a rainy night, and we had dirt biking pros literally - yes - literally jumping through a ring of fire. It was a wild time for my team, who love a ROOS challenge.
"A misstep could have led to disaster..."
Hicham Hajji, producer and director, Global Production Network
I’ll never forget the tension. Over a thousand people stood silent, eyes fixed on the sky, as we slowly lowered a Land Rover Defender 200 meters down a canyon in Morocco. The mid-afternoon desert heat was unbearable, and every movement of the crane echoed through the gorge, amplifying the weight of the moment.
Months of planning had led to this - working with geologists to secure the crane, assembling teams, and hauling equipment into the remote desert. The risk was immense. A misstep could have led to disaster, with the nearest hospital four hours away.
The pressure was compounded by constant delays due to covid, stretching what was meant to be a three-month project into nearly a year. Yet, through stellar teamwork, communication, and the invaluable support of GPN’s global network, we pulled it off. Watching the car land safely behind the waterfall felt like a triumph against nature itself.
"We were stuck without a quick way out..."
Nico Kreis, director at BONAPARTE
We worked on the Nepal project to shoot a documentary about the Shey festival, a Buddhist spiritual event held every 12 years in the Year of the Dragon. The festival takes place around the sacred Crystal Mountain in the Himalayas, considered sacred in Buddhism - one of the most remote places on Earth, at 5,000 meters above sea level, where a couple of thousand people live without any reception. The client has been supporting the local community there for a long time, renovating monasteries in the area.
We endured a 24-hour car ride to reach the start of our hike, after which we had a seven-day hike with 20 mules carrying our equipment. Starting in tropical weather, it gradually became colder, windier, and more extreme. We slept in tents and even faced a snowstorm at 5,200 meters.
After days of exhausting travel, we finally arrived and began shooting the documentary, which turned out to be a magical and spiritual experience. But while planning the way back, we reached a point where we weren’t sure if we could make it down from the snowy pass. We were stuck without a quick way out.
After about five days, part of the crew managed to fly out, but the line producer and I had to wait. With more bad weather, the helicopters got postponed again and again, so we decided to hike back down, completing the journey in four days of hiking. We made it back with the material we shot, and despite the challenges, it was worth it.
"A logistical haunted house filled with customs brokerage tricks and practical FX treats."
Kat Garelli, head of Production at World War Seven
Last year, I helped to produce a home and garden spot shot in a studio in Sofia, Bulgaria, which ultimately turned into a logistical haunted house filled with metaphorical customs brokerage tricks and practical FX treats. Our first hurdle was designing a practically-built front lawn set that could fully tilt 90 degrees, allowing our talent to repel from the house and front lawn as if on a mountainside. This required harmonious coordination from all departments – stunts, G&E, and construction – to determine how to defy gravity with minimal VFX help. We decided to build our set on a massive hydraulic lift that could tilt as needed.
Next came the challenge of getting the star of our show – thousands of square yards of domestic American grass and sod – cleared through customs and into Eastern Europe in two weeks which resulted in a nail-biting photo finish. Days went by, and the product didn’t show, so our nightmares of a product-less shoot became more and more palpable. When it finally did arrive at the 11th hour, we laid it out on our hydraulic lift, only to discover that the sheer weight of the water-logged sod caused unforeseen technical difficulties – namely, the entire set collapsed the night before our shoot.
Fortunately, the ingenuity of our Bulgarian crew helped us find a solution that was, first and foremost, safe for our crew and talent while still allowing us to tilt the stage practically. We brought in a massive crane to pull the entire set up on one end to get the tilting effect. We breathed a collective sigh of relief when we got the first shot off – and we all compared grey hairs after wrap.
"We almost broke the camera a couple of times..."
Álvaro Priante Merino, senior executive producer at Grayskull
Even though we have all suffered the tyranny of a sport celeb or an eccentric client, the shot that freaked me out the most during prep and shooting was one we did with our friend [director] Alan Masferrer for BMW. I can’t forget the questions in the pre-production meeting about but how we would do this - and our poker faces like: 'We don’t really know'. We did have a very long call explaining the whole concept to our grip and FX teams, and I can still laugh thinking about our dear David Diez (production designer) sending me private messages like, 'what the hell??'.
We did tests in the FX warehouse, tests in the studio, we almost broke the camera a couple of times but finally, during a whole shooting day only with this F#@***%$ shot we managed to have a couple of great takes. Yippee!
"I had about six mini-heart attacks..."
Tim Pries, co-founder and EP at Where The Buffalo Roam
What happens when you lose a client, the DP, and your first AC in the middle of Cuba... on the first shot of the day... without cell phones... and any real way to contact anyone? Well, you leave them behind and hope all is well with them. That was six years ago, so I imagine they're fine. I’m kidding! But the first part was true for a piece we shot for Light.co camera.
Working in production in Cuba was a dream and quite challenging. We did indeed have a client not get in the van on the first set-up (found within the hour wandering the square) and lost the DP and AC when the old Chevy car they were filming in missed the cue to stop and drove off into the distance. It makes you realise how vital prep, communication – and cell phones – truly are! I had about six mini-heart attacks with three more days of filming without the advantage of modern technology. Plan, plan, plan… and all will work out.
"A private, queasy hell of an adventure."
Gregory Mitnick, director/DoP at Raucous Content
For a web series called Meet the Farmer (Supercell), I cast a fisherman named Moises from Guerrero Negro, Mexico. It was giant clam season wherein a diver walks the ocean floor plucking clams from the seabed, like carrots. The diver is attached to a long, flimsy, borrowed, oxygen tube for dear life. We head to sea in a tin dinghy, the driver wears a balaclava steering us willy-nilly like a toy in the bathtub.
I’m using my personal camera without support and I’m stuck straddling the rusted, sputtering air compressor that’s keeping the diver alive. My knees keep bumping into and getting burned by the machine's spinning belts, and I’m soon drugged dizzy from the fumes. I turn sea green but keep rolling, bearing down into a private, queasy hell - of an adventure. Later, I'm shown a picture and I see the name of the boat - El Titanic!
"Bone-crushing 20ft swells above razor sharp reefs..."
Adam Booth, managing partner of Park Village
We’ve become somewhat adept at shooting underwater… but not just underwater, that would be too simple, how about under a meter of ice in sub-zero temperatures in a lake in Finland? Or what about bone-crushing 20ft high swells, above razor sharp reefs in Tahiti? Our director, Ian Derry, is pretty handy in the water, which has led him down a path of shooting in some pretty extreme aquatic environments. As producers, we’re most concerned with safety, but when you're stuck on a boat, or on the ice surface, and your crew, director and talent are under water, the communication gets very patchy.
We've used underwater mics, red flags, dive ropes, safety divers, emergency decompression planning, but every time you're just left holding your breath, hoping that everyone comes to the surface in one piece.
"Collaboration dodged the horrors..."
Emma Hughes, senior producer at LS Productions
"The scariest part of a shoot can be a ticking clock," says LS Productions' Emma Hughes, as she discusses their servicing of Nike’s maddest ad yet with Man City's Erling Haaland, reliving the creative team's tales on a panel at CICLOPE earlier this month. Directed by Sam Pilling for Wieden+Kennedy and Magna Studios, the project had a hard deadline: the Euros. Couple that with getting time in with four of the globe’s most in-demand football legends - Haaland, Vinicius Jr., Mbappe and Ronaldinho - and Nike’s tagline really had to be taken to heart.
With the clock ticking, trust became a major player. Engaging those who had worked with Nike and Haaland before put some fears at ease, which included both LS Productions and Sports on Screen. "And, when time is against you, locations must work for you." This meant everything from sourcing an abandoned structure to build outlandish props within, to finding a forested area where young Haaland could run through a Norwegian wonderland. Collaboration dodged the horrors so that the only thing to fear was fear itself. And, maybe, any length of time sitting in Haaland’s ice sauna.
"The next morning, the brakes immediately failed..."
Seyi Peter-Thomas, director at Station Film
An example of how NOT to pull something off. Early on, I directed a reality TV pilot for a basic cable network. The premise was to follow a group of friends who are on a road trip. We staged the first trip for our pilot, shooting in January around NYC. Very low budget, minimal crew, etc. We rented my girlfriend’s old Saturn to use as the picture car. And, we had these 20-year-old actors driving around on I-95 and the Jersey Turnpike in actual, uncontrolled traffic.
Half way through the day, it started to snow big wet flakes - awesome! Looks great! At some point in the day, the actor driving mentioned that the breaks were rattling. We shrugged and shot the rest of the day… When I went to pick up the car the next morning, the brakes immediately failed and I got into an accident. The brake pads were completely stripped and it’s a miracle no one got hurt on our 'run and gun' production. Lesson learned.
"One of the tires almost fell off the vehicle..."
Krysia Johnstone, head of production at Boomshot
High-risk shoots are exhilarating and scary and make me breathe uneasily. And there is a huge sigh of relief once it is all done. For one of our most recent NASCAR commercials, we got to film at Talladega Speedway - if you don’t know anything about NASCAR, Talladega has one of the steepest embankments of any track, and if you attempt to walk up the sides of it, you end up leaning forward and sort of bending at the knees as if you are walking up a VERY steep hill.
We needed to film vehicles going not only around the track from behind but also zooming toward our Ukraine arm at high speeds. One can only imagine that attempting to have two vehicles speed towards each other and not crash would make you hold your breath. Good thing for stunt drivers, because one of the tires almost fell off the vehicle during one of these attempts, and had it not been for their expertise and knowledge, it would have been a lot scarier. We had to hold up the shoot for a period of time to make sure that this would not happen again, and it did cause some overtime. But ultimately it was a call about safety for everyone on set, and this felt like a good call to make.
The one thing that I can say is: Safety first on all jobs, not just the scary ones. Make sure you have the right people for the right job, that they hold current credentials, and that you have the right safety teams available, including medics and a hospital nearby. As a producer, we have to plan for the worst, so I tend to think of every awful situation and make sure that we are correctly staffed and equipped for it. Then, when nothing happens, we all get to have a sigh of relief.
"Try not to sneeze with a broken eye socket."
Brent Stoller, executive producer at Gravy Films
I had the privilege of working on a lot of TV and theatrical marketing earlier in my career, with one of the biggest highlights working on a stunt/prank-based cable show that turned into a cultural phenomenon. I learned a lot about myself during those days, notably my gag reflex and its tipping point. We once had a shoot in South Africa to support one of their feature films, and the principal talent, true to brand, did all of his own stunts. There were a lot of laughs and some pretty significant injuries, including a broken pelvis from falling out of a tree (on purpose) and a broken eye socket. Pro tip - try not to sneeze with a broken eye socket. It’s meant to hold eyeballs in. Big shout out to the medic and insurance broker on that job. They get all the credit!
"... some of the deadliest weather on earth."
Nick Martini, executive producer and director at Stept Studios
For our latest film with Arc'teryx, '109 Below', we highlighted a search and rescue team on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. The area is known for some of the deadliest weather on earth. During our production, the temperature dropped to -109 Fahrenheit with wind chill, and became the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America. A film crew operating in these conditions was terrifying and took a lot of safety measures to combat. Our DP was only allowed outside for three to four minutes at a time to prevent frostbite, and was checked by our medic after every exposure to the elements. 100+mph winds at the summit made loose gear a serious threat as well. All handheld equipment was tethered to crew members to avoid a loose focus unit crashing into someone's head etc. It was high stakes, but everyone made it out unscathed, and the film is something the whole team is really proud of.
