Operation Video at Cape Horn
The film crew from TV Production company 47 North has
already left for Cape Horn in order to take exclusive footage
of the leading boats in the Vendée Globe passing Cape Horn,
the mythical rocky tip of South America. The director of 47
North, Michel Horeau, responsible for the audiovisual
conception of this race since the first edition, is interviewed
about the operation to capture unique footage at Cape Horn.
"There are two teams involved. The first are responsible for
making a recky of the landmarks and negotiating with the
Chilean military, to evaluate and prepare what means are
needed. They arrived on Thursday morning at Punta Arenas,
the maritime quarter of the Southern province of Chile. From
there, they travelled to Puerto Williams, the last Chilean
marine base, from where all the surveillance and rescue
ships patrol the Horn.
"The second team arrived on Sunday at Ushuaia, where they
made a rendez-vous with ‘Darwin Sound’, a 71 foot ketch.
This boat is skippered by Yvon Fauconnier (winner of the
single-handed English Transat in 1984), who happens to be
in the middle of his own circumnavigation.
"From Ushuaïa in Argentina, they left for Puerto Williams the
same evening, the other side of the Beagle Channel, in order
to complete Customs formalities. Finally they set off for Cape
Horn on Monday at midday. The first team, meanwhile, left
Puerto Williams on board a military vessel and an army
helicopter, heading for Cape Horn with all the equipment
needed to survive for ten days on the island.
"Every piece of equipment is in double. There are 2 DV
cameras, two cameramen, a numerical editing suite, an
editor, two Inmarsat B satellite transmitters, through which we
can send compressed files as the skippers do on their boats.
Also everything you need to keep this equipment running:
generator, emergency batteries etc.
"The index objective is to film the first eight boats rounding
the Horn, including interviews with the skippers. The
secondary aim is to recuperate the on board footage the
skippers themselves have taken with their DV cameras, which
means everything since the Canaries.
"When a skipper approaches Cape Horn, the film crew
embark on ‘Darwin Sound’ and take themselves to the
shelter of the island to the North West of Horn island. They
wait for the boat to get nearer to Cape Horn and then they
descend perpendicular to the competitor’s route, and filming
starts as they draw near the boat and pass onto starboard to
make sure they get the Cape in the background.
"As soon as the filming is over, the production boat leaves to
the East of Horn Island and returns to the lee of the East
coast of the island. The zodiac takes these images to the
editor and in theory two hours after each boat has passed,
the film is in Paris. They should then be on your television
screens for the next news programmes.
"This kind of operation costs around 500 000 French Francs,
including the transport, chartering and provisioning ‘Darwin
Sound’ for 15 days, production and post-production, satellite
transmission, equipment and accessories."
Interview by Christophe Guigueno
Translated by Mary Ambler
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