{"id":40314,"date":"2022-02-09T12:55:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T12:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=40314"},"modified":"2022-02-09T14:57:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T14:57:20","slug":"catching-up-with-norman-kent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/catching-up-with-norman-kent-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching up with… Norman Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Norman Kent is a cinematographic legend. He\u2019s been taking beautiful images and making amazing movies through decades of changes in the sport. We loved chatting to him. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Norman Kent
Photo by Craig O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Norman, how important do you think the camera is to the skydiving world?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The importance of the camera and the cameraman is that our beautiful world gets funneled through our lens. It\u2019s a translation of what we see, that we share with the general public. Because we are jumping from high altitude the public can\u2019t see most of our sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, I started a personal movement to indoctrinate my helmet into the International Skydiving Museum<\/a>. They want it to appeal to the general public. What was going to be a \u2018Museum\u2019 has been renamed the \u2018Skydiving Experience\u2019 \u2013 focusing on the sensations of skydiving with virtual reality, immersive experiences etc. Without cameras none of the items in the museum would exist \u2013 or even the museum itself, not the way it\u2019s been designed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the principle is I always felt I had a relationship with this entity that almost had a life of its own – the Helmet. It\u2019s important to understand the dynamics and the physics of the helmet and respect it as its own entity. Rather than thinking you put it on and it becomes a part of you. It does not become a part of you! (laughs). It wants to go in a completely different direction, it has a life of its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on physics, you have to understand that to successfully survive it, and to use it as a proper tool. It\u2019s like shopping in a supermarket in a cart where all four wheels turn. If you fill the cart right up with beer, you\u2019re going down the aisle and you want to turn into the next aisle, you can\u2019t just turn the cart because it goes straight on. You have to get around the cart and steer it around the corner, because of the weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the same with the helmet, sometimes it wants to be faster than you and sometimes to be slower. You have to do this dance with it. So if you want it to go in a certain direction you have to get around it and bring it over. I\u2019ve developed a technique to deploy safely, which is to get underneath the helmet as the canopy deploys. Because of its weight the helmet wants to keep going while you\u2019re slowing down. If you just deploy in a flat and stable position, then your shoulders will be pulled back in the opposite direction the helmet wants to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deploying the canopy when you carry so much weight on your helmet needs a special technique
Photo by Craig O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Do you ever talk to your helmet? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I talk to the helmet. When it\u2019s all assembled, like say for Willing to Fly with the full set-up of 35mm film. I would walk by it and go \u2018No way\u2019 (laughs). Especially if I hadn\u2019t jumped it for a while. I\u2019d start conversations like \u201cplease don\u2019t be angry\u2026 sorry I haven\u2019t been with you. I\u2019m not abandoning you. I love you… we will dance again in the sky soon\u201d\u2026 And then I\u2019d make a request, \u201cPlease don\u2019t hurt me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it have a gender and a name? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a girl. But it doesn\u2019t have a name. I could never come up with the right name. But sometimes I call her \u2018baby\u2019; or \u2018honey\u2019 \u2026 I think I\u2019d better give it some affection because if it\u2019s pissed it might hurt me. People would look at me talking to the helmet and think, \u2018What is he doing, is he crazy?\u2019 But I really have a relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give me an example how this \u2018relationship\u2019 with your helmet works<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We were shooting for Willing to Fly, we had a mount on the strut with a movie camera, it had been set up how I\u2019d asked for it. We were walking to the plane and I looked at the camera. I felt a disconnect. I felt there was something wrong, so I walked to the camera, while the engines were running. I touched it and all of a sudden I knew it wasn\u2019t working. I turned to my crew and said, \u201dThis camera is sick\u201c. They took it out and, sure enough, the lens had become loose, so it was not working properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the crew were asking, \u201cHow can a camera be sick??! And how did you know that?!!\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know how to explain it, I just have this relationship with my camera… It looked sick. I don\u2019t know why”. That\u2019s when I realized I was treating the helmet and all my cameras as if they are alive.  I kinda like that better than treating them like an object… They thought it was hilarious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of the camera and the cameraman is that our beautiful world gets funneled through our lens<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Close-up of Norman in freefall during his 60 Cycles birthday event
Photo by Craig O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What was your favourite movie project and why?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Get Smart movie was one of the most beautiful projects for me. Because I am a cinematographer \u2013 a director of photography \u2013 at heart. I have always been in love with that and passionate about it as a form of expression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons I love this project was we negotiated with Warner Brothers to be a splinter unit. We were totally detached from the studios and unions. There is the glamour side of being in Hollywood\u2013 wardrobe, catering, assistants, hair, make-up. You\u2019re fed well, you get paid well and you don\u2019t work very much. But you don\u2019t get a lot done! For example there was this instance in the set for Drop Zone movie. It was a beautiful day, we had the airplanes, the pilots, the camera team and the people to skydive for the scene. But there were no goggles or helmets or jumpsuits because the wardrobe department had worked late the night before. They take the gear away at night because that\u2019s their job\u2026 so there we were sitting on the ground for hours doing nothing \u2013 because of course we couldn\u2019t take care of our own goggles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s why it was fun doing Get Smart \u2013 it was great going back to being skydivers on the dropzone, doing the jumps, coming down, improving things, going straight back up and making things happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Midair tussle from Get Smart
Image by Norman Kent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How did Warner Brothers direct your work from a distance?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I had the conversation with the director of photography, my superior, I asked what sort of film he wanted me to use. He said, \u201cWell I\u2019ve heard a lot about you, so I was hoping you would tell me what to do.\u201d So I said \u2018ok\u2018, thinking that’s cool, and suggested the type of film and some settings and explained why, gave a strategy. He said \u2018you sound like you know what you\u2019re doing, I\u2019m going to let you do your thing.\u2019 It was very rewarding to feel that this major film director gave me the ball and let me run with it. Every time I sent film there to discuss it, all I got was, \u201cJust keep it coming, you\u2019re doing amazing.\u201d We would have ideas in addition to the shots they wanted, so we\u2019d take them and do our own little edits to show how we thought the shot would fit in. Most of our extra elements were used. We\u2019d think of ways to tell their story that they\u2019d never have imagined, because they weren\u2019t skydivers. Working closely with Guy Manos, we turned their plan into something even better. It was a big creative process, really rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Filming the Get Smart movie \u2013 Guy Manos in the background as ‘the babysitter’
Photo by Caroline Prevost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Were there any downsides to this independence? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My biggest concern was, when you\u2019re just on your own, if something goes wrong it\u2019s your unit that screwed up. There\u2019s nowhere to hide. Instead of me thinking just about the shooting I felt responsible for the results. I had better deliver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scary part is, we were dealing with the hidden rig for the Secret Agent 86. We were a splinter unit on a small budget. We couldn\u2019t hire Jake Brake or Shoobi, the experts, who always had the most beautiful hidden rigs, very safe and very small. They seem to know how to distribute the material around the body, so it doesn\u2019t look like a parachute. We couldn\u2019t afford that luxury. We had our own design, modified from a UPT<\/a> Vector. It was more like a regular rig. Any time you start testing that sort of thing you are playing with fire. It\u2019s someone\u2019s life. The rig was built into the jacket \u2013 you un-velcroed the jacket to reveal the rig, and part of the deployment was part of the jacket. It was always a concern. At the beginning when the rig wasn\u2019t performing like we wanted we contemplated shutting down. Then we made some mods that made the rig work very efficiently and so we kept going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rig was built into the jacket, you un-velcroed the jacket to reveal it, and part of the deployment was part of the jacket
Get Smart movie, photo by Norman Kent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How did you feel when Get Smart was released?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was really, really happy. When you have to step up because the director says, \u2018ok we\u2019re gonna do it your way\u2019, now you\u2019re in the spotlight and you\u2019ve got to do it right. It was nice to be validated by the top filmmakers in Hollywood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of a trailer with pieces of the film, they just showed one clip \u2013 ours! I had never seen that happen before. It was virtually our clip in its entirety for the whole 7-minute segment. I think it was a very risky idea because you\u2019re giving away a whole chunk of the film. But a beautiful brave marketing approach, and with it being our clip \u2013 our little splinter unit \u2013 it was that much more rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the trailer here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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