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A Dream Come True

Posted on April 24, 2012 in Glenn Tupper   

Somehow I was invited this past weekend to take part in one of the craziest, fun filled, epic events that has ever gone down in the history of extreme paintball wars. If you don鈥檛 know who Devin Graham is by now, you must be living under a rock.

Devin is a youtube video producer of the most blockbuster kinds. I have been following his videos ever since he started producing, before he was well known. I admire his work and his cinematography. Anyone can pick up a DSLR camera that takes 1080p video and shoot, but this guy takes things to a whole other artistic level. Watching his videos is inspiring but being there and seeing him think about every shot, setting everything up, making the world his 3D canvas was truly inspirational. I can鈥檛 thank him enough for trusting me in this shoot to put on a good show, allowing me to be a part of the video and giving me some great tips that I hope to use in some of my future videos. The title says, 鈥淎 Dream Come True鈥� because Devin made me feel like I was some sort of Hollywood action hero on set and that is something we all dream about when growing up watching our favorite action movies.

A little more about the shoot; I showed up thinking I was going to provide a few aerial shots, shoot some pictures from my aerial platform called a paramotor, maybe get some film with my Canon 5D Mark II, but that is definitely not what went down. Devin had something else in mind, he wanted me to be a huge part of the film, flying with a paintball gun and shooting people from the air. The extra aspect in my opinion added just one more depth of field to the action. In addition to the people running around, jeeps with mounted guns and electronic triggers, smoking hot paint covered females hanging off an 800 horsepower NITRO CIRCUS baja race truck, dirt bikes with gun touting operators, and mountain boarders鈥� there was also a fighter pilot paramotor buzzing people鈥檚 heads raining down a barrage of green paint. It was truly a sight to see and I am pretty sure that I had the best viewpoint of all the action. Flying around low with a paintball gun required immense flying coordination, I was constantly making adjustments with my breaks and switching back to the gun for some low pass strafes, weight shift was key as well. It was difficult but hopefully the video that Devin produces will show some crazy paramotor scenes. With a bit of luck this video may put paramotor a little more into the mainstream as well. The possibilities are endless here with this sport; the type of flying we can do is just like no other aviation aircraft in the world.

Besides all the crazy flying action, it was so awesome to see such a huge group of people passionate about what they do. After all, in life if you have no passion about something, nothing really matters. From Devin and his crew all the way down to the mountain boarders, every single person was passionate about what they were doing. Everyone was ecstatic just to be a part of what Devin and his crew had organized, smiles everywhere and with the sun shining bright over Salt Lake City, it was a couple of days that made you sit back and say, 鈥淭his is what life is all about.鈥�

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