{"id":163392,"date":"2024-08-23T06:04:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T12:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=163392"},"modified":"2024-08-23T09:37:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T15:37:56","slug":"when-things-go-wrong-while-filming-a-movie-commercial-on-antelope-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/23\/when-things-go-wrong-while-filming-a-movie-commercial-on-antelope-island\/","title":{"rendered":"When Things Go Wrong While Filming A Movie\/Commercial On Antelope Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

When horses are involved, things can go wrong very quickly.<\/p>\n

After 15 years of visiting Antelope Island regularly, I rarely see anything completely new. But very early yesterday morning I happened to be in the right place at the right time to document something unexpected and unique.<\/p>\n

When I took the first seven photos below I had no idea what hundreds of people and vehicles were doing in at least three of the parking lots and near the shore of Great Salt Lake so very early in the morning. But later that morning, while visiting with three State Park officials, I learned that they were filming a movie or commercial. One of the officials said it was a movie and the other two said it was a commercial. I still don’t know which one it was but the film crew seemed much too large to me for it to be just a commercial. What do I know?<\/p>\n

The photos below are presented in the order they were taken. In many of them my subjects were more than a quarter of a mile away and it shows in their image quality.<\/p>\n

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The first unusual things I noticed were a 4-horse trailer in one of the parking lots and dozens of people carrying various types of gear as they were making the long trek to the shore of Great Salt Lake. The equipment they were carrying included at least one boat.<\/p>\n

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Suddenly two beautiful dark horses that I hadn’t noticed before started running back in the general direction of the parking lot where I was. They had obviously escaped their handlers. Here we see one of them. They were running full bore, to where I didn’t yet know.<\/p>\n

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The three guys on the left seemed wary of the charging horses but the one on the right walked to his right and raised his arms in an attempt to stop or turn the running horses around.<\/p>\n

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But both horses avoided him by running around him as they passed him and…<\/p>\n

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then turning sharply to their right.<\/p>\n

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By the time this photo was taken, both horses had turned again and were heading toward the horse trailer in the parking lot next to me. At this point they were so close I could only fit one of them in the frame.<\/p>\n

Dang, they were handsome beasts. Both of them.<\/p>\n

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The horse trailer was their obvious intended destination. I knew there was at least one other horse still in the trailer because I’d been hearing it while I’d been photographing the runaway horses. Here we can see the right nostril of a horse in the trailer through one of the small rectangular openings. Friends.<\/p>\n

I could kick myself for not having the presence of mind to switch to another camera with a smaller lens so I could fit more of the scene in the frame. But in all the excitement, that included whinnying, excited horses and the clomping of their hooves on pavement, I just didn’t think of it. This photo is full frame (uncropped).<\/p>\n

At this point I knew that the horse’s handlers would soon arrive and attempt to capture the escapees and I figured that my presence might make that process more difficult so I decided to leave the area and look for birds. It was during those wanderings on the island that I ran into the three State Park officials that told me that a movie\/commercial was being made.<\/p>\n

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48 minutes after I left the horses in the parking lot I returned to the area and documented some of the pre-filming activities occurring on the faraway shore of the lake. By then they had everything under control again, including….<\/p>\n

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the runaway horses. It would be interesting to know what they were using the drone for.<\/p>\n

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I suspect that these two fellas, a man and a young boy, are actors in the movie\/commercial. And these must be the horses that were inside the trailer when the runaways ran back to it.<\/p>\n

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Apparently, they were planning on doing some of the filming from out on the lake while looking back at the island. I’m damn glad it wasn’t me that had to carry that boat motor all the way to the lake.<\/p>\n

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I suspect that views like this one are part of the appeal of filming on the island. Yes, all those tiny dark specks on the water are birds.<\/p>\n

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I’d estimate that there were about 80 vehicles packed bumper to bumper in the primary parking lot the film crew was using and some of them spilled over into at least two other parking lots, including the lot the horse trailer was in and the faraway marina parking lot. No, I don’t know the significance of “BOOM” on the sign.<\/p>\n

I did spot, and wave to, Antelope Island Manager Wendy Wilson amongst the crowd. Presumably she was monitoring all the activities. I believe that’s her, in the dark shirt to the far right in this photo. Hi Wendy!<\/p>\n

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This is the adjacent ‘spillover’ parking lot that I photographed the runaway horses from. That’s the horse trailer that apparently hauled all four horses to the island. This photo, taken with a more ‘normal’ lens, should give you a feeling for how far away I was from the lake.<\/p>\n

Well, there were no birds to speak of today but I thought my readers might be interested in something new. It was an experience that certainly made me sit up and take notice. Especially those charging runaway horses.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When horses are involved, things can go wrong very quickly. (14 photos)<\/p>\n

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