Since my arrival in Houston, and being exposed to the oil industry, I have always wanted to have the opportunity to work at an offshore rig.  Our recent project for Hercules Offshore Drilling allowed me that opportunity.  The project called for a medium length story based video that shows the pressures that an offshore worker and his family go through while offshore and how a distraction can lead to an incident that can dramatically change their life.

Just like any other project, the more prep one does, the better the chances for a smooth production.  However on an offshore rig there are so many other elements that our not in our control that can slow down or affect a shoot.

In the case of the Hercules shoot, we were assigned a rig that was not in drilling operations, so we did not have to work around their drilling schedule.  We were given access to most all the vessel and able to request crane operations or other things from the rig crew and we pretty much got them done right away.

On the other hand, being flexible in our schedule was a necessity in order to get the twenty plus scenes that we needed to get during our two days on the rig.   Two days of shooting might sound like a good amount of time on paper, but once you start calculating all of the time it takes to get on and off the rig and coordinating with rig personnel, time becomes a very precious commodity.

One day we drove off at 6 am from the hotel and arrived at the dock around 7 am.  By the time we boarded the crew boat, and then got to the rig, it was 9 am.  A Billy Pugh basket, which cranes up 200 ft plus in the air, is the only way of getting to the rig floor from the deck of the crew boat. 

After our rig orientation meeting, we were able to start our shoot. We started our shoot in the galley around 10am and had to be done with that scene by 11am when the rig crew was scheduled to eat lunch.

The rest of the day was very smooth.  We were indoors shooting all of the living quarters and meeting scenes. 

Day one we stopped shooting at 7pm and we accomplished everything that we had in our schedule for that day, except a couple shoots that we decided to do on day two.

Day two started at 5:30am with breakfast and then the remainder of our interior shots.  That involved shooting a pre tour meeting that also included some of the actual rig workers.  It is always interesting to see how people react to the work we do and how they are always surprised at the amount of work that goes into doing a scene and how every person in the crew has a specific responsibility.  All of the Hercules crew and employees were very cooperative and helpful.  Their cooperation was a major plus to our production and the end results.

After lunch we went outside to the rig deck and shot all of our work exterior shots and dialogue scenes.  It went fairly smoothly, but it was very hot.  Touching any part of the deck which is all steel for an extended period of time could definitely leave you a burn.  Day two was our last day on the rig and we were scheduled to get off the rig around 6pm.  The last part of our shoot called for a stunt scene which involved a piece of pipe being loaded onto the supply boat and through a series of distractions hitting our main character.

In any shoot, any scene of this kind takes planning and lots of safety. Doing this on a rig involving crane operators and very heavy equipment makes it a bit more complicated.  Prior to starting the work on the scene, we took all of our crew into the meeting room along with all of the Hercules personnel involved and went over the work to be done and how it should be done in order to make sure we did not have a real accident.  Because it was our last scene, and we were also going to take that boat back to shore, we also needed to plan for our load out and where everyone should be while we did the work.

Once again, thanks to good planning, and the cooperation of the Hercules crew, we were able to get it all done right and without any glitches.   We got done at 6pm and were on our way back home.  Looking back I once again appreciate the many opportunities I get while doing production work and was glad to have had the time to learn how other people do their jobs.  Working on a rig is not easy,  I learned that on this shoot and I have a new outlook on their lives and what they do for us to have the benefits of their work.

By: Carlos Arakelian