Combine Demolition Derby

          The Combine Demolition Derby pits giant farm machines against one another in an eerie spectacle suggestive of a sci-fi ‘alien invasion’.

          Producer Al Kahwaty was at the rural town of Lind, Washington – population 500 – to shoot the annual June event that began in 1988.   His challenge, in 2 ½ days on site, was to capture the derby, and its context.

          Lind makes a busy weekend out of it, with a car demo derby, truck races, soapbox races, parades, and a barbecue.  The derby itself draws a crowd of 5,000 to the Lind Arena. 

          “It’s all in good fun,” Kahwaty said.  “But economically times have been tough in Lind.  The town depends on the derby – it donates money back to the community.

          “I wanted to get a feel for the people in town and the event.”

          Interviews with the mayor, the head of the Lion’s Club, and a married couple who met at a past derby helped establish the scene.

Meanwhile, Kahwaty attached himself to “Team Jaws”, the combine crew of Matt Miller and Josh Knodel, seven-time winners of the event.

          In a specialty shoot inside the garage at Knodel’s farm, Kahwaty backlit the combine and shot through machine-generated fog.  Fog was used to make the combine “seem more ominous”, Kahwaty said, as it enhanced the lighting. The shoot went smoothly until Miller unexpectedly hit the gas pedal and the combine lurched forward.  The cameraman jumped to avoid being pinned against the garage door.

          Later, outside the garage, Miller drove the combine in donut patterns, as Kahwaty recorded it on his I-Phone.

          “I had no idea you could do something like that with a combine,” Kahwaty said.

For the derby itself, cameras were mounted on two driver’s helmets in two different heats and on a combine in a third heat.  Another camera was at the perimeter of the arena.

          “Safety is the first concern,” Kahwaty said. “You want to make sure the camera crew isn’t too close to the action.  You don’t want the cameras on the drivers’ helmets to obstruct vision.

          “The safety of the equipment is also a concern.  It’s a challenge to see that everything is on tight and nothing flies off when the machines slam into each other.”

          Kahwaty won’t say if one of his cameras was mounted on the winning combine – you have to watch E:60’s summer flight to find out.  But he did hint at the music: “I’d like to find something ominous-sounding to connect Jaws the combine to its namesake.”

Posted by Steve Marantz, June 24, 2010

Behold...Jaws!!!

Coming to E:60 this summer.
"Click here"

Mapping out stories for the summer run.

Phil Laak Poker Record Day 2 1/2

Friday June 4. 4:00 am. To celebrate the halfway mark, hour 40 of 80,
Phil Laak made a surprise announcement. With fans and fellow poker
players watching, Phil reached underneath the table and revealed a
stack of $100,000 in chips. He decided to up the ante in order to keep
up his energy and motivation as he enters the next phase of his
journey. Let's see if it pays off.

Submitted by Hillary Wasch

Phil Laak Poker Record Day 2

Slow and steady. That's how I would describe day 2 of Phil Laak's 80 hour attempt at the Guinness record for endurance poker. He finally climbed out of the gutter and is now showing a profit.
In 32 hours, Phil has only taken six breaks- five 5-minute breaks and one 20-minute break. He has consumed only 4 bottles of water, and has eaten only five small meals, all prepared by his nutritionist, All-American Dave.

Phil's girlfriend, actress and fellow pro poker player Jennifer Tilly has been stopping by, offering hugs, kisses and words of encouragement.

He is still coherent and says he is feeling great. His only ailment so far is his back. He is combatting pain with a sturdy seat cushion.

The Bellagio poker room is packed on a busy Thursday night. Fans are crowding around the table just to get a glimpse at the history-maker

Submitted by Hillary Wasch
6/03/2010

Phil Laak Poker Record Day 1

Phil Laak began his 80-hour poker playing journey today at 12 noon on the dot. He began with 4,000 dollars and was down 1200 in the first hour. He is wearing his signature grey hoodie and sunglasses, the uniform that gave him his famous 'unabomber' nickname. Laak has three staff members taking shifts to be with him at all times. They are logging his times and filming him nonstop for the Guinness book of world records.

There have been a few fans come to watch, and people are waiting in line to play at Phil's table.












So far I have seen him yawn twice.

Submitted by Hillary Wasch
6/02/2010

Corrective Rape

E:60’s piece on ‘corrective rape’ in South Africa wasn’t going to be like any other piece – producer Beein Gim and shooters Bill Roach, Joel Edwards and Jesse Edwards knew it from the start.

Corrective rape is rape of lesbian women by heterosexual men with the intent of changing their sexual orientation.  Its occurrence – believed to be on the rise - in South Africa’s black townships is under scrutiny because of the 2008 rape/murder of Eudy Simelane, a lesbian member of the South African national soccer team.

Gim’s crew wanted a look to suit the story.

“They said ‘we have a unique story and unique location – let’s do this differently,” Gim said.

Encouraged by executive producer Andy Tennant, Roach went after a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ look.  He opted to shoot in digital cinema – with a Panasonic P2 2700 and Canon 7D.

The piece is built around chilling interviews with two rape victims.  E:60’s usual production calls for three cameras and movement for an interview.  Shots of the correspondent, crew, cameras and monitors vie for attention.  Not this time.

         Correspondent Jeremy Schaap interviewed the two victims, Tumi Mkhuma and Mvuleni Fana, as well as the mother and friend of Eudy Simelane.   Little of Schaap was seen in the interviews of Mkhuma and Fana. 

“This was about the victims – the survivors,” Gim said.  “We put the camera right in their face – got them staring right into the camera.  So they were directly telling you their story – instead of the correspondent.   The idea was to keep the feel of a first-hand account as much as possible.”

The piece begins with the caveat: “The following segment contains images that may be disturbing to some viewers.”  But the candid accounts of Mkhuma and Fana were more “disturbing” than any images in the piece.  

“That was the most surprising thing to me,” Gim said.  “One thing we did was stop them from saying too much during the pre-shoot.  We wanted it to be fresh.”

Since no images of the actual rapes existed, Gim resorted to images of the locations where the rapes occurred, and abstract imagery – children, flowers, water dripping from a faucet, laundry, men in the streets, men and boys lifting weights.

         “The little girls and kids were images to contrast with a dark story,” Gim said.  “They represented beauty and purity and domesticity.”

“The guys lifting weights were men being as masculine as possible – guys being guys.  The little kids lifting weights showed kids mimicking what grownups do.”

To establish the homophobic attitude of men in South Africa’s black townships,  Gim’s crew approached them on their turf.  They rewarded her with unguarded expressions of prejudice.

“It was surprising to find guys who said those things,” Gim said. “In the U.S. people are careful about man-on-the-street stuff.  It was like they didn’t have a filter.

“Maybe they hate lesbians so much they couldn’t hold back.”

Posted by Steve Marantz, May 13, 2010