At first we entertained the idea of carrying crew and gear up the mountain with a packhorse train as well. Everyone seemed to be up for the adventure, but ultimately, speed and efficiency won out, and we opted for motorized transport. For shots of the Fosters on the mountain trail, we sent a small crew up in advance on ATVs, gear strapped onto and hanging off of each four-wheeler like a junkman's cart.
But for the majority of the filming, we used a helicopter from White Saddle Air Service, which happened to be headquartered at Bluff Lake, an hour's drive from the ranch. They shuttled us up and down daily over the course of our schedule, as well as sling-loading the majority of our equipment into the heights.
In addition to their chopper, a Bell Long Ranger, we brought in the same kind of aerial photography rig we used in Texas: a Eurocopter A-star with a Stab-C gyro-stabilized head mounted to the front. Even though our crew was smaller here - just 10 people - with our two helicopters ferrying us around, we felt like we'd hit the big time. (Speaking of aerials, the shots of the Fosters stringing pack horses across a river mouth and traversing a mountainous ridge were breathtaking to execute and equally amazing once we had them back in the editing room.)
Perhaps as a reward for our struggles in Texas, this shoot progressed beautifully. The crew stayed at the White Saddle bed & breakfast, ate our meals around a huge table carved from native pine, drove to the Foster's or made a much shorter trip to the helicopter landing pad, and commuted to our locations almost like sane people going to work. The sun rose later and set earlier, keeping the working days shorter, and the weather held.
We dodged, literally, several bears relaxing in the Foster's road, but they were more afraid of us than the other way around. The mosquitoes in the mountains, cloud-like during the scout, were knocked out by early autumn frosts by the time shooting began. And despite all the helicopters and 4-wheelers, our only mechanical troubles were a few flat tires on the trucks.
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