Event Reports > Filming of "Trapped"

The IAC North vs South competition have set the theme of “Trapped” for their annual competition and on Sunday 16th August 2009 three of our club members, Chris Abram, Peter Parker and Dave Weatherley took their life, and cameras, in their hands and ventured into the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay.

Bay Rescue Services of Flookburgh had arranged to stage an “incident” for us to film. This comprised of an unfortunate husband getting stuck in the notorious quicksand and the team, in their tracked vehicles, coming to the rescue.

The story line is that The Queens Guide to the Sands, Cedric Robinson, tells of the beauty and grandeur of Morecambe Bay and of the pitfalls and dangers due to fast tidal flows and the dangerous quicksand. A couple and their young son are seen walking across the bay when the father gets stuck in the quicksand. The emergency service is called and Bay Rescue Services come to the aid of the family.

Chris Abram had filmed the Cedric Robinson interview a few days before. Whilst Peter Parker & Chris Abram filmed the actors portraying the family walking across the bay and getting stuck, Dave Weatherly went off with the team to find a suitable place for the rescue sequence. The three cameras then went back to the Headquarters and filmed the crew suiting up, the rescue briefing, and then setting off at high speed into the sands.

It was a sunny day but very, very windy with lots of sand blowing into the cameras, and when the crew came to lay out their pneumatic pvc walkway to reach the casualty, it took off like a hot air balloon. By using three cameras we were able to get some unique angles, film most of this high tech rescue “on the run” and do it in far less time than the “Coast” team took a few weeks before.

We had to be quick because shortly after we finished Bay Rescue Services were on standby as hundreds of runners and walkers in four separate events were loose in the bay.

Chris Abram