Extended moments of flow through Nature. Astral archetype Benny Marr on the Futaleufù River, Chile.
ASTRAL // Filming an almost half hour shot in one go is tough, no matter where you are! Tell us what specific challenges the Futaleufu Valley presented to you?
GONZALO // I had been thinking about taking a shot like this for a long time, and Futaleufú was the perfect place, since the road runs alongside it the whole time and doesn’t stray too far, However, there was one major difficulty: the drone’s signal. Between the road and the river, there were areas of very dense forest where the signal was lost, and we had to raise the drone so as not to lose the signal and ensure a continuous shot. We did it once and were able to identify where the signal was lost and had to raise it a little. The second time, it came out perfectly, and that is the shot you can see. I spent a long time thinking about this shot.
BENNY // We were on the Bridge to Bridge / Casa De Piedra section of the Futa so the proximity of the road to the river gave us the opportunity. The challenges were: time of day for light in the rapids, driving and flying to keep signal between drone and controller, Patagonian weather, and time consumption per attempt. The drone battery was perfect for bridge to bridge it was a bonus to also include Más o Menos and Casa.
ASTRAL // Who all was on the filming crew?
BENNY // Mirko Moreno and Gonzalo Robert were in the truck while I was on the water. Mirko has been on this river for 20+ years so he knows the section, the speed, where the kayaker will slow down speed up etc. he also flies drones and loves a challenge. Gonzalo and I had spoken about doing something like this before so I was pumped when he brought it up as something we should try to do during the week.
ASTRAL // Gonzalo, have you ever shot with a drone for that long / continuous before?
GONZALO // First time I’ve flown so far, and I even had to land halfway because I only had 5% battery left.
ASTRAL // Did you have any communication with each other once Benny was on the water?
GONZALO // We had a radio, but Benny couldn’t hear it because of the noise from the river, so in the end we had no communication at all.
BENNY // I had a radio so I knew when they were ready for me to start. We did front end communication, I knew they would start me and that I would see them at the takeout.
ASTRAL // What type of drone / gear did you use to film?
GONZALO // I was using the DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine, which is an absolute beast.
ASTRAL // Benny, you didn’t stop paddling. On a scale of 1 – 10 (10 being gassed af) how gassed were you by the end of this section?
BENNY // We had great flows, the river was moving pretty fast so I tried to keep moving on the flats but let the river do most of the work. I kept it all simple applying effort when needed to try and stay smooth and upright. We did 3 one shot laps and they didn’t gas me individually but they absolutely contributed to me being very spent at the end of the week out there. We didn’t know, on the first go, how long it would take so I needed to push a bit – an active paddler is better to watch as well. Those were fun laps.
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