Last Blast For "The Grace"
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After standing tall in the Charleston Harbor since 1929,
one of the last chunks of the bridge came down in the largest
demolition explosion in Charleston's history. This video was
shot on May 16, 2006, from Remley's Point. Don't forget to
watch all of this clip, because it was shot with two cameras, and
the close up is last. What made this blast different from the
rest, is that the span and under-truss both came down. The
remaining two trusses of the Pearman, and Grace will lowered
with cranes, as they are over a marina populated with boats.

"Marina Saver"
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Yeah! Our friends and oldest client say they have
a new product they need a video for. We love it
when Danielle calls. Floatation Solutions is one of
several companies owned by Keith Rogerson. This
time he's manufacturing and installing floats to level
sinking docks.

This was a fun project because it incorporates 3-D
animation, various effects, a boom and Glide Cam.
Let's see what else? Oh yeah hanging out with divers,
underwater shots, and bouncing from window to win-
dow, trying to shoot from Keith's plane. I'm telling
you, these guys are fun! Big thanks to Keith, Dan-
ielle, and Tim.


o

"One Wild Ride"
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Marian Burkhardt from the Outdoor Life Net-
work called At Will Productions to say that
Steve Onuska in Charlotte recommended Joe
Schmitt as a camera operator. Now, Joe can
add Professional Bull Riding to his resume. The
PBR came to Charleston for two days, and kept
the sold-out Colliseum crowd on the edge of their
seats with the excitement of watching Chris
Shivers set an all time 3 million dollar career
earning record. But before that, they held their
breath witnessing injuries like broken jaws, collar
bones, and concussions. Here's a clip of Trey
Traweek getting dragged around by a bull for
almost twenty seconds. Fortunately, he walked
away from his ride. Others weren't so lucky.

There's no doubt that these guys are tough as
nails. Just the travel that these men endure from
event to event would be enough to leave the average
person weary. Then they hop on 1,500 pounds of
raging fury every weekend.

Special mention should be made for the true heros
of this sport, the bull fighters. Not the guys that
run around with fancy knickers, and red capes.
The three guys who throw themselves between
the riders, and the bull have the hardest job of them
all.

An Earth Shattering Kaboom!
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Smaller Version

I was told there would be no good place to see the
big chunk of the Pearmon Bridge come down. Well
that's just like telling me that something can't be done.

See the previous posts for the telling of the tale of the
opening of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. In a nutshell,
the old bridges (Grace Memorial, and Silas Pearman)
must be demolished in order to make way for the new
superliner ships that hopefully will come to our port.

Needless to say, I, like hundreds of other Lowcountry
residents, went to Patriot's Point to view the blast.
Thinking I would be better off on the Yorktown, I de-
cided to stay on the ground and BS with some of my
old news friends. The longer I stayed, the more I
realized I made a great decision, because I was 30 feet
from my truck. This made it easy to set up three
cameras to document the historic bridge come down.

Oddly enough, At Will Productions was not hired to
tape this event, so the video is still up for grabs. Can't
wait until the next blast scheduled December 6th.

At Will Joins The Corridor

After Steve deGuzman told me about the Charleston
Digital Corridor, I knew I wanted to meet with Ernest
Andrade. I believe that Ernest has a brilliant idea in
gathering small companies together to make people
aware of the technological goods and services that are
in the Lowcountry.

Ernest was very pleased when I showed him the quality
and speed with which his video could load. Enough so that
he called a meeting. By this time, I had experimented
with new ways to make our video much bigger, and play
more efficiently.

So Mr. Andrade challenged us to put his six minute DVD
on the web. This was a lot tougher than the thirty second
commercial I had finished. Here's the end result . And
Ernest seems very pleased.

US Women's Soccer In Charleston
Soccer season closed in the Lowcountry with an
exciting match between the US and Mexico. The
Americans took an easy win with a 5-0 final score.
Nothing suprising there, but the amazing thing was
that soccer was televised from Blackbaud Stadium,
and it didn't rain. Not even for strike.

Special thanks to my friend from The Family Circle Cup,
Bill Evans, for crewing me as a camera op.

Have A Blast!
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Thanks to our website, HDR Engineering
hired At Will Productions to document some
of the demolitions of the old Pearman (and
hopefully the Grace) bridges. Now that the
new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is fully oper-
ational, the old bridges must come down, and
come down with a bang. I was very fortunate
because I was on the ship with the demolition
crew. They even let two little boys trigger
the explosives. How cool is that?

I was definately nervous when the one minute
warning came and went, and the ship was still
coming about. As I was preparing to to grab
my camera, and tripod and run for the bow,
the engineer leans over and tells me "If you
move you'll miss it." Good thing I listened.
I got the shot, but my footage would've came
out better if the boat would've been still.

Lou Holtz In The House! Play Video

At Will Productions was contracted by
DBS to light, and shoot the former coach
of the Carolina Gamecocks for ESPN News,
and Sports Center. Coach Holtz was in the
hotseat for over four hours. The producers
were very impressed with "the set." It's a
good thing too, because Chris Simmons' fiancee
probably wasn't as impressed with us re-
arranging her living room in Snee Farm to
accomodate my creative flare. Fortunately,
Margeret smiled and kindly asked us not to
break her china plates on the wall.

When I offered the coach a kleenex to hold
for wiping sweat off from hot lights he
responded "No thanks, it can be hot as blazes
and I won't perspire." Needless to say I didn't
believe him, but he was right. With over 3000
watts of lighting on, or around him, the coach
stayed cool as a cucumber.

Big And Rich Perform On ESPN Click here to watch a clip.

Talk about a fun gig to work! Double M Productions
crewed me, Joe Schmitt, owner of At Will Productions,
to work an ESPN show in Columbia, SC. I love working
for ESPN, even when it was explained that a camera-
op was not needed for the game, but for the "College
Game Day" and concert stage. Did you say concert?
Nice! Although, I didn't know of Big and Rich, I was
very excited to work a music event.

When I showed up, I thought I was at a family reunion.
It was a perfect crew of so many friends of mine. We
wondered who was working the game. I was blown
away by the coverage. With a crew of one hundred, we
used four hard cameras, two jibs, a steadicam, and two
hand-helds to cover both stages. We had feeds from
the front-of-house audio techs, and a jumbo-tron for the
crowd to watch. We even had what seemed to be an end-
less supply of yellow jackets (cable troughs). I really
enjoy working ESPN events, because they always have
top notch productions.

I was hoping to operate the hand-held camera on the
stage. Our director, Jay, asked me to be "in the pit." I
had forgotton that this is one of the best camera angles
to operate. So I went back and forth between the news set
(I was getting crowd shots) and the concert stage during
breaks.

Big, Rich, and Cowboy Troy were excellent show-
men, who imediately figured out how to play to the cam-
eras and follow the tally lights. Since they performed
the customized version of "Coming To Your City" for
ESPN's "Gameday," I'm sure you'll be seeing this footage
a lot. Although I didn't get to meet Cowboy Troy, Big
and Rich were really nice guys. Big even corrected me
politely when I called him Rich. Yeah, I felt like a real
moron. Later, I caught him as he left our truck compound,
to apologize again, but he said there were no hard feelings,
and he "Liked my energy with the camera."

All in all, it was really hot, and the post-game teardown
lasted until 2:30 am. Who cares... My camera work was
all over "Sports Center," and I had a blast working the
concert. By far, one of the best gigs I've ever had the
priviledge to be a part of. Big thanks to Melinda, Jack,
and Jay.

Since I really like working with ESPN, and hope to con-
tinue doing so, At Will Productions is NOT taking re-
quests to purchase this video. I recorded it off-air, just
like anyone else with a VCR could've.

At Will On ESPN Classics


DBS Productions contracted At Will Productions
(Joe Schmitt) to operate a camera for an interview
with Mike Veeck, owner of the Charleston Riverdogs.
(Thanks Chris!) The ESPN folks recorded two segments
for "Classics Now." In one segment, Veeck comments
about being on the board for the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Click here to watch the Mascot Hall of Fame segment.
The other segment celebrated the fifty-four year
anniversary of a promotion his father, Bill Veeck, devised.
Click to watch this segment. As always, Mr. Veeck was a
true pro, serious when he needed to be, and very humorous
when you didn't expect it.

On a personal note, Mr. Veeck was kind enough to hook
my son up with two tickets, and a goody bag. At the time
I didn't understand the request, but Mr. Veeck (not "Sir")
made it clear, that Will had to go to the window, and ask
for the tickets himself. Only the brilliance of Mike Veeck
could spontaniously devise a life lesson for a six year old
at the ballpark. After explaining the situation to my son,
he bravely walked up to the the "Will Call" window, and said
"My name is Will Schmitt, and Mr. Mike Veeck said he had
some tickets for me. May I have them please?" The nice
lady at the counter handed over two tickets. She waited just
a few seconds, as she watched my son's delight, saying, "Mr.
Veeck also left this for you," and handed him a Riverdogs
goody bag. Needless to say, Will went nuts! He was so excited,
and felt like the king of the world. I was so proud of my son.

Normally, I wouldn't put personal stuff on the business blog,
but I felt this story should be told. Mike Veeck, thank you
very much for giving my son the royal treatment. I assure
you, it was a day neither of us will never forget.

-

What's All That Noise About Cousin Arthur?

Play Video
The opening of the new bridge, that's what! Charleston
spent a whole bunch of money to contract the legendary
Zambelli family to shoot off one of the biggest fireworks
displays in the Southeast. Thousands of people gathered
from Patiriots Point, downtown, to Sullivan's Island just
to witness this spectacle. None were disappointed. With
three barges, and waterfall effects from the center span,
people "ooohed, and aaahed" for a full thirty minutes.

Aboard the Yorktown Play Video

If you were one of the thousands of people who
witnessed the incredible fireworks display to celebrate
the opening of the "New Bridge", then you probably
saw the USS Yorktown lit up, courtesy of PDA. Once
again, Jeff Nickles and his crew passed with flying
colors. As you can see in this video clip, the tower was
elaborately lit with patriotic red, white, and blue.
These guys worked a very long day, setting up in the
brutal heat, and winds that swept a tent overboard.
The beauty here is that you could easily see the
illuminated carrier from across the harbor. For $200
a plate, you enjoyed free cocktails, a front row seat for
one of the biggest fireworks displays in the state, and a
new appreciation for lighting. Once aboard, guests
enjoyed the ambience that PDA set. They featured the
tower, flight deck, and several of the vintage aircraft.
Once again, these festivities lead up to the grand opening
of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC.

Don't forget to check out
atwillproductions.com

Got A Light?

Play Video

Jeff Nickles and the PDA crew did an incredible job
lighting the largest cable-stayed bridge in North
America. Jeff contracted At Will to document some
of the festivities associated with the opening of the
Arthur Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC. Citizens
had the opportunity to taste the finest foods of
Charleston, and absorb the breathtaking views
stretching from Folly Beach to Isle of Palms. Thanks to
lighting from PDA, this is truly a unique site.
Great job Jeff.

For more information about At Will Productions click
atwillproductions.com

At Will Productions To Document New Bridge

Take a quick look at the new Arthur Ravenel Bridge.
Production Design Associates has contracted At Will
to video the grand opening of the largest cable-
stayed bridge in North America. Video from the
bridge itself will come later. Don't forget to check
out our site for more information about At Will
Productions.

atwillproductions.com

Play Demo
At Will Productions "Video Demo"

Charleston, SC based video production company.
Commercial, corporate, & promo video. We offer
Beta sp, dvc pro, dvd authoring, animation,
professional script writing, high-quality web video,
and voiceover services.
Call At Will Productions at 843-744-8203.

Wild World of Will
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Smaller Video

Remember "The thrill of victory, and the
agony of defeat?" Well, there's no way in hell
our seven year old does, but if you're "old" like
us, you might. So we're working on the family
video, and my lovely wife is going through our
library and says, "Good, I thought we had Wild
World of Sports." I chuckled at the idea, and we
had a blast with it. Hope you enjoy this clip, and
have a Merry Christmas!

Joe & Lona Ann