Journal #7665
Posted 12 years ago2012-03-06 20:37:36 UTC
I was at a hostage situation today. It was at Diageo bottling plant, just 10 mins from my house and the alarm bell went off at 10am sharp, shortly after I had arrived. There was a police armed response team, two fire engines and two ambulances on the scene within minutes and CCTV footage captured the gunman (an employee at the plant) throwing around another employee at gun-point because the other employee had allegedly slept with his wife.
Why was I there? The CCTV footage was mine, prepared last night in After Effects.
It was a big corporate training exercise - none of the staff had been told it was happening and I, along with three other camera ops were hired to film it all and I was also asked to make the aforementioned CCTV footage. The plant was evacuated and the management team were driven to an off-site location several miles away to go into action-meetings (Which I was also filming). They had liasons from all the emergency services and the entire event was treated as a real incident, so everything was by the book and entirely serious. There was something very cool about filming a meeting in which terms like "flank routes" "choke-points" and "structural integrity" were thrown around without a hint of irony.
Also there's just something awesome about filming police in full tactical gear.
The gunman was detained at 13:35 and there were no serious casualties. The hostage was treated for minor injuries sustained during the police raid.
Why was I there? The CCTV footage was mine, prepared last night in After Effects.
It was a big corporate training exercise - none of the staff had been told it was happening and I, along with three other camera ops were hired to film it all and I was also asked to make the aforementioned CCTV footage. The plant was evacuated and the management team were driven to an off-site location several miles away to go into action-meetings (Which I was also filming). They had liasons from all the emergency services and the entire event was treated as a real incident, so everything was by the book and entirely serious. There was something very cool about filming a meeting in which terms like "flank routes" "choke-points" and "structural integrity" were thrown around without a hint of irony.
Also there's just something awesome about filming police in full tactical gear.
The gunman was detained at 13:35 and there were no serious casualties. The hostage was treated for minor injuries sustained during the police raid.
22 Comments
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Also, I'm a bit confused as to the CCTV footage; It was made last night, but the drill was today? How would it help the response team if it wasn't live feed? Was it just for background on the incident, so they knew what they were negotiating?
Another example of these events (which none of the people involved know will happen and therefore have to react fluidly) would be that during the police raid, a tank of whiskey was ruptured by gunfire and presented a massive fire risk due to the thousands of gallons of flammable liquid that poured onto the plant floor.
I can't show any of the footage, sorry
I'm not sure I understand. Were you hired as an actor to perform in front of the CCTV system for someone to record and replay the next morning?
Were there real bullets being used, and purposely shot at whiskey tanks for the sake of the exercise? Or was it just someone saying it happened so that those that didn't know would act accordingly?
Anyway, definitely sounds like fun.
Also, what Luke said
No. I was a camera op and a VFX guy. I shot two people performing it in front of a greenscreen and put them in existing CCTV footage. Then I was camera op throughout the actual day.
"Were there real bullets being used, and purposely shot at whiskey tanks for the sake of the exercise?"
Of course not. This is not southern USA.
Fixed that for you.
The whole point of a green screen is that you don't need to roto it :P.
"So you helped make the footage, which was used as part of a training exercise for the police?"
I did the CCTV stuff entirely, the stuff filmed during the exercise was more for Diageo employees than the police.
"zomg so you mean they thought they were being helf[sic] hostage for real?!"
They were never held hostage. There was one man held hostage - he was one of about 3 employees out of ~400 who knew it was staged. The others were just evacuated and then the rumour of what was happening was purposefully spread to cause panic which the management team had to deal with.
The armed police knew it was a drill to prevent accidents and did not have live ammo, but the other emergency services were responding to what they thought was a genuine call.
Apparently these large scale drills happen every three years, but never at the same time of year.
I think your situation was cooler, though.
Arhcine: when you said "hostage situation" i thought you meant HL:HS
You somehow need to get the angle right. Too bad you can't show.
Still has nothing to do with roto, though :3
this