Crypto Camerawork On MonsterQuest
There’s no easy way to break this news to you, so I’ll do it straight: Your mother lied to you. Back in the early days of your adolescence, as you heard those creatures go bump in the night and swore that you saw a tail slither under your bed, but your mother reassured you, “There’s no such thing as monsters!” Well, whether she wanted to admit it or not, monsters do exist, right in our own backyards!
In 1987, Doug Hajicek was the successful owner of a plastic and polymer injection molding company, but he was bored with his day-to-day operation. He had an idea for a TV show and decided to become a television producer. With fearless aplomb, Hajicek approached a local CBS affiliate with a pitch and the show was greenlit. Less than a month after the impulse, he was, indeed, a television producer. The show he created, which has become Backroads with Ron and Raven, is still on the air today, 21 years later. Since then, Hajicek has branched out and created a number of shows, including History Channel’s unusual science series MonsterQuest.
In 1991, Hajicek was, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere on Lake Selwyn, directly on the northern border of Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Northwest Territories of the Arctic, searching for giant trout. In a break between shooting, he stumbled on some very surprising tracks on a sandy beach.
“They were human-like footprints in a perfectly straight line, one print right in front of the other,” Hajicek recalls. “They were easily 16 inches long and not the tracks of any animal I had ever seen. We’re in the middle of nowhere, a three-hour plane ride to any form of civilization, and I come across this long line of footprints leading off into the forest. There was no way this could be a bear print, even if it was double stepping [putting his back paws in the exact footprint his front paws made]. These were bipedal prints with five distinct toes, just like a human. It was a discovery that shook me to my core. Although I tried to persuade the float-plane pilot to follow the tracks, he refused to believe I was serious and got angry that I was putting him on. I didn’t get to follow the tracks that day, but that discovery started me on an entirely new life’s track. Now I produce shows that primarily center on cryptozoology.”
Cryptozoology, the study of mythical and legendary creatures, is what MonsterQuest is all about. Moving into its third season, the show strives to use textbook science and forensic techniques to prove the existence of unusual creatures — from man-eating snakes to the Chupacabra, from Nessie and Bigfoot to the giant squid.
“When I was a child, giant squid were a legend — a total BS legend that I was fascinated with,” continues MonsterQuest creator Hajicek. “As an adult, I had a chance to produce a show about searching for giant squid! I came up with the idea of attaching a camera to a squid and seeing where it goes, a kind of Trojan animal, to help uncover what we couldn’t otherwise see. I used a well camera — designed for examining deep-water wells — which was small, had attached lighting and was designed for high-pressure environments. We attached it via harness to a live squid that we caught and released, and we wound up capturing that squid swimming by the largest squid ever recorded — estimated to be up to 108′ long! When I was a kid, this was a legendary creature, then 40 years later I wind up capturing evidence that they actually exist!” They aren’t always as lucky on MonsterQuest, but each show employs scientists and experts to examine any evidence surrounding a mythical creature. When they are dealing with sightings and experiences that took place in the past, Hajicek turns to director/cameraman Tom Phillips to produce dramatic reenactments of the eyewitness experiences for each episode, in addition to taking on select investigations.
Phillips got his start as a director/cameraman in commercials and music videos, and brings his experience as a hyphenate to the MonsterQuest production. “The show needs a certain look, they need to add the monster into the quest, and that’s where I come in,” says Phillips. “I add that sense of atmosphere. It’s all right up my alley. I love this stuff.” MonsterQuest shoots primarily with a Panasonic AJ-HDX900 and incorporates a Canon XL-H1 as a B-camera when necessary. “The HDX900 is a great camera. It’s a real workhorse,” attests Phillips. “When I originally started with the show, it was all shot with Canon XL-H1s, which are really nice — especially with the SDI output where you can record to a DVCPRO HD deck and bypass the HDV compression. For a couple grand, that camera makes beautiful images, and if you can bypass HDV, it’s hard to beat that price for that quality. During production on season one, we did an episode where we needed some digital video engineers as experts, and I got to meet some of the guys from Panasonic and see their gear. I really fell for the HDX900.”
The show is recorded in 24p 1080 on DVCPRO HD tape. Phillips admits to occasionally breaking out a C-camera. “I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have incorporated the Sony HDR-SR10 on the show a few times. It’s a tiny consumer camera, but it’s great for getting into tight spaces and for places where you don’t want to risk the larger cameras. I’ve put the HDR-SR10 into a plastic bag and dunked it into the water to create monster POVs — and it works great! It shoots 30p and is AVCHD, but once you convert that to DVCPRO HD 24p in post, the results are great from such an inexpensive camera!”
Onboard the Panasonic AJ-HDX900, Phillips often uses a Panasonic BT-LH80W monitor, a small 7.9″ LCD. “They’re great monitors,” he attests. “I love the built-in waveform. That’s an invaluable tool that I can’t live without anymore. When we do all the reenactments, you have to check your exposure, make sure you’re within legal limit and so forth, so having an onboard waveform is really fantastic.”
Phillips carries a small package of Mole-Richardson tungsten fixtures with him. Generally two 2K Baby Junior Fresnels, a 1K Baby Fresnel, and a small compliment of Tweenies (650W) and Inkie (250W) fixtures. The package is rounded out with a compliment of C-stands and various grip gear. “I have about 6,000 watts of lights with me at most times,” he says. “Pretty much all of the lighting I do is tungsten, just for the mere fact that it’s lighter, cheaper and easier to transport. I’d love to have a 4K HMI in the package, but we just don’t have the budget or space. Also, these Mole-Richardsons take a lot of abuse and they keep working. I’ve dropped a few down several flights of stairs and picked them up at the bottom and they light right up — amazing fixtures.”
“A lot of people don’t realize we’ve documented only 1.8 million creatures on this planet and that scientists estimate we have another 30 million yet to discover,” explains Hajicek. “In some instances, there have been well over 4,000 credible sightings of mythical or legendary creatures, and there’s a strong possibility that creatures we now consider to be imaginary will someday be discovered as new species. It’s the advent of digital technology and the refinement of storage techniques that will aid, considerably, in the discovery of new animal species. I spend a lot of my day coming up with odd ideas to incorporate new technology as evidence-gathering tools. People roll their eyes at me, saying, ‘You’re gonna put a camera on a squid?’ And I say, ‘You betcha!’ It’s often laughable, but these out-of-the-box ideas of how to incorporate new technology are what lead us to some really extraordinary discoveries.”
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