Construction workers are used to getting their jobs done in all kinds of conditions—rain or shine, light or dark, cold or hot. When filming on an active site, not only do I have to plan for the usual on-site challenges, but I also have to consider ones that are specific to my equipment. Wiping rain off my lens is one thing, but I’ll never forget the time I discovered that my camera box could be an attractive nest-building site for hornets.
Facing Gusts with Gusto
Rich Hoffmann
Getting a close-up of a concrete pour means my camera might catch a bit of the splatter.
The Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, began an expansion this year that is expected to be completed in 2029. Builders LF Driscoll presented me with a fun late-night assignment: filming a concrete pour with a camera suspended directly above the site. While this is a great angle to see the whole procedure, I suggested installing some secondary cameras in other places around the pour to give us a greater variety of footage to work with later.
As it turns out, this was not only a good idea for creative reasons—it was also an essential backup when disaster struck.
At night, floodlights keep the construction site safe and also provide great lighting for my cameras.
Shortly after the shoot began, wind gusts blew the main camera out of place. There wasn’t a clear path back to the rooftop while the pour was in progress, so I had to wait a few hours for a break to reposition my camera. Unfortunately, this meant that it captured only the first hour and last two hours of the pour.
The rooftop camera was safe from concrete splashes—but, unfortunately, not the wind.
But thanks to the secondary cameras I’d set up, we still had more than enough footage to put together a great clip. In fact, the final version felt more visually interesting to me than the original vision because of the variety of angles involved, but you can see for yourself!
After a long night, it was great to see the sun peek over the horizon.