Thom Cammer
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FUTURESHOCK: COMET IMPACT
Futureshock: Comet Impact (aka Impact Earth) is a Sci Fi adventure story from prestige UK production company, Darlow Smithson. The story centers around two devastating comets on a deadly collision course with Earth. After the first comet hits, releasing massive natural disasters, our band of hero's struggle amidst chaos and social anarchy to find a way to divert the second, bigger comet and save what remains of Human civilizations!
UK Line Producer Geraldine Hawkins, working this time with the highly regarded, London-based Darlow Smithson Productions, once again assembled a crew of extraordinary artists and technicians, many of whom had worked together before. It is really great when there is a feel of professional family on the set! The production was shot primarily in and around the Phoenix, Arizona area, with many locations being within 50 miles of the Central Phoenix area. Later in the shoot we moved to Tucson, Arizona for some more rugged, outdoor shooting.
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Among the wonderful artists and technicians that I worked with was my new pal make-up artist Debra Schrey. The job that we had before us on Comet was no small task. But thanks to some great teamwork we managed to wrangle quite a big cast in some really challenging situations!
Comet co-star, spandabulous UK Actress, Singer and Songwriter Kirsty Mitchell and I during a break in shooting in the desert sunshine on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, AZ. She's a doll and a very talented actress.
One of the coolest things that happened during the filming of Comet was that several small aircraft were hired to fly a skeleton crew to Meteor Impact Crater near Winslow, Arizona, to do the big money shot for the piece. Now, you see, back in the day my father, Howard Cammer, was an air traffic controller and a private pilot.
We grew up taking many family trips in his airplanes just as some folks take the family roadster to their favorite holiday spots. Being back on-board a small aircraft, flying below the clouds and being able to see everything that lay before us with such vivid clarity brought back many thrilling memories for me. I'm glad I got to share the experience with such great people!
Above: Our rock star plane set to take us to Meteor Impact Crater, Our fearless director, Keith Boak, our Dashing 1st AD Robert Fabbri.
Above: Coming up on Meteor Impact Crater. That little white speck is a huge State Park Facility they built. The crater is really big! The speck in the middle of the crater is a full-sized pump house or fuel house, or something. It was created and used for the only other motion picture ever allowed to shoot at the crater, that being Starman with Jeff Bridges. The only road into and out of the crater itself is called Starman Road, because it was created specifically for that production. I felt very fortunate to be able to get so close to a natural phenomenon like that!
Actors Christian Solimeno and James Wilby were real troopers! This scene involved them flying around in a helicopter then dashing out to inspect the damage at the crater site. They handled their stunts with ease and made for a great shot in the film! You can't beat mother nature as an art director!
Watch for this action-packed adventure on UK Channel 5 and the Discovery channel.