Joe Jennings
| Joe Jennings | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 16, 1962 St. Louis, Missouri |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 📆 Years active | 1987-present |
Joe Jennings (born June 16, 1962) is an American professional skydiver, aerial stuntman, and skydiving cinematographer.[1] Flying camera with Rob Harris (skysurfer), Jennings is a two time world champion[2][3] and 1995 Extreme Games gold medalist,[4][5] and today his work is featured worldwide on TV shows, commercials, and in films including Charlie's Angels (2000 film), Air Force One (film), Point Break (2015 film) and San Andreas (film).[1] He also jumped with a 75 pound IMAX camera to film skysurfer Troy Hartman in the IMAX movie Adventures in Wild California[6], and again to film the Flying Elvi[7] skydiving team in the IMAX movie America's Musical Journey.[8]
Skydiving and camera flying[edit]
When Jennings started skydiving in 1984 he attached a small tape recorder to his wrist to narrate the experience. In 1987, with just over 50 jumps, he purchased his first helmet mounted 8mm video camera to film skydivers and tandem students on their first jumps.[9] Most of his 14,000 skydives were camera jumps, and today he primarily flies with a helmet mounted RED digital cinema camera.[10]
Championships[edit]
In 1991, Jennings teamed up to fly camera with Rob Harris (skysurfer) and in 1992 they placed first in the intermediate division of their first skysurfing competition together. Encouraged, they continued to train and in 1993 they took third place in the open division of skysurfing in the ’93 World Freestyle Federation World Championships held in Empuriabrava Spain.[11] In 1994 they surprised themselves and the skydiving community by taking first place at the ’94 WFF World Championships[12][13][14] and they went on to take first place at the 1995 ESPN Extreme Games[15][16] where Jennings also won a Sports Emmy for his work as an electronic cameraperson,[17][18] and first place at the 1995 World Championships in Amphing Germany.[19] On December 14, 1995, while filming a stunt in Canada for a Mountain Dew commercial, Rob experienced an equipment malfunction that prevented his reserve parachute from opening in time to save his life.[20][21][22]
Good Stuff[edit]
In 1994, Harris and Jennings began to film a skydiving documentary together, and in 2001, Jennings released the DVD version of "Good Stuff", a skydiving documentary shot on 16mm film, 35mm film, and multiple video formats that featured a variety of skydiving disciplines and stunts performed worldwide by skydivers, BASE jumpers, and stunt pilots including; Rob Harris (skysurfer), Patrick de Gayardon, Greg Gasson, Adrian Nicholas, Eli Thompson (skydiver), Troy Hartman, Olav Zipser, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, and George H. W. Bush on his first skydive as a civilian,[23][24] among others. The stunts in "Good Stuff" include; skydiving with cars and junk, skydiving without a parachute, a free fall living room, snowboard BASE jumps, and catching airplanes in free fall.[1][25][26]
Film, TV, and commercials[edit]
Films[edit]
Jennings coordinated and filmed skydiving stunts for a number of movies[1] including the opening scene of the Charlie's Angels (2000 film) where the Angels extract a terrorist from a commercial airplane in flight. In free fall, they disconnect and detonate the bomb in his vest, then open their parachutes and land in a waiting speedboat with the captured terrorist.[27] In Point Break (2015 film), Jennings filmed an aerial heist where two extreme criminals release and push two large pallets of cash from a C-130 airplane in flight. In free fall, they catch up to the falling pallets and cut them open to release all of the cash over a poor Mexican village before escaping into the jungle.[28] In the movie Don (2006 Hindi film) staring Shah Rukh Khan, Jennings filmed the aerial fight sequence where Don and a bad guy grapple in free fall over a single parachute system,[29] and in the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Jennings filmed the scene where three friends, played by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, and Abhay Deol, go skydiving together over a drop zone in Seville, Spain.[30]
TV and commercials[edit]
Most of Jennings' work is for commercials, and his resume includes ads for VISA, Budweiser, Peugeot, Energizer, Nescafe, Toyota, and Microsoft, among others.[31] Notably, he filmed two Super Bowl commercials; one for Chevrolet in 2015 where he filmed Chevy Sonics in free fall pushed from a C-130 airplane,[32][33] and another for Pepsi titled "Goose" in 1998 that took first place on USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter. In Goose, skysurfer Troy Hartman shares his Pepsi with a goose in free fall.[34] For a 2015 NVIDIA commercial, Jennings and his team built three entire living room sets designed to stay upright in free fall on 3,000 pound aerodynamic platforms. Each living room set was launched from a C-130 airplane with skydiver Jeff Provenzano strapped to a couch with Jennings filming as Provenzano casually plays video games in free fall.[35]
Jennings also coordinated and filmed skydiving for television programs including; MacGyver, Covert Affairs, Baywatch, Gray's Anatomy, Spy Games, Pretender, Monk (TV series), National Geographic Adventure, and others. In the first season of the US version of Top Gear (American TV series) in 2010, Jennings coordinated and filmed skydiver Jeff Provenzano performing a high-altitude low-opening (HALO jump) from 25,000 feet in a race to a ground based finish line against a modified Ford F-150 SVT Raptor driven by host and stunt driver Tanner Foust. In the MTV show, Senseless Acts Of Video,[36] Jennings worked closely with host and skydiver Troy Hartman to design, coordinate, and film a variety of aerial stunts that Hartman performed throughout the series.
Jennings is also featured in some of the shows that he films; the 1995 Extreme Games with Rob Harris (skysurfer), the 1996 X Games with skysurfer Patrick de Gayardon, and shows like Real TV, A Current Affair, Amazing People, To Tell The Truth, and MTV Sports "BASE" where Jennings is coached by BASE jumping instructor, Will Ox to ultimately make his first cliff BASE jump off Angel Falls in Venezuela.
Jennings is a member of the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) as a stunt performer because, in order to film skydiving stunts, he has to perform the same stunts with helmet mounted cameras.
Filmography[edit]
IMDB Film Credits[1]
- Charlie's Angels (2000 film) – skydiving cameraman (2000)
- Air Force One (film) – stunts (1997)
- XXX (2002 film) – stunts (2002)
- Management (film) – aerial stunts (2008)
- San Andreas (film) – stunts (2015)
- Free Fall (2009 film) – stunts (2009)
- After... – stunt double (2006)
- Don (2006 Hindi film) – skydiving camera operator (2006)
- Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara – skydiving cameraman (2011)
- Ninnindale – stunts and skydiving camera operator (2014)
- Dreamland (short) – skydiving cameraman (2004)
- Saint Bernard – parachuting photography (2013)
- Point Break (2015 film) – stunts (2015)
- Adventures in Wild California – IMAX camera operator (2000)
- America's Musical Journey – IMAX camera operator (2018)
- Good Stuff – director, skydiving documentary (2001)
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Joe Jennings". IMDB. Amazon. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ "World Freestyle Federation - 1995 WFF World Championships Amphing, Germany". Facebook.
- ↑ "World Freestyle Federation - 1994 WFF World Championships Eloy, Arizona". Facebook. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ Vercammen, Paul. "CNN Showbiz News - Extreme sports airs out over the airwaves". CNN. Cable News Network Inc. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ "Summer X Games Almanac". espn. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ "Adventures In Wild California". Adventures In Wild California.
- ↑ "Flying Elvi Skydiving Team". Flying Elvi.
- ↑ "America's Musical Journey - Skydiving with the Flying Elvi in IMAX Behind the Scenes". YouTube. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ "Joe Jennings began skydiving at". Photographic Vision.
- ↑ Gale, Lesley (March 17, 2021). "Catching up with Joe Jennings". Skydive Mag. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ↑ "World Freestyle Federation - 1993 World Championships Empuriabrava, Spain - Results". Facebook.
- ↑ "1994 WFF Worlds". Facebook. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ↑ "World Freestyle Federation - 1994 Skysurfing Competition Results". Facebook.
- ↑ Abrams, Michael (December 18, 2007). Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers. Crown. p. 214. ISBN 9781400054923. Retrieved September 19, 2021. Search this book on
- ↑ "Skysurfing - Notable Teams". Distributed Wikipedia.
- ↑ "Rob Harris and Joe Jennings XGames". YouTube.
- ↑ "National Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences". National Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences.
- ↑ Sandomir, Richard. "Most Exciting Part Of Extreme Games Is Extreme Coverage". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- ↑ "1995 WFF World Championships Amphing, Germany". Facebook.
- ↑ Thomas, Pete (June 19, 1996). "The X Factor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- ↑ Sandomir, Richard (June 25, 1996). "Taking Sport To The Extreme". The New York Times.
- ↑ Stein, Jeannine (January 22, 1996). "A Tragic Ending to a Daredevil Life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- ↑ "Parachutist Covers". United States Parachute Association. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
- ↑ "The time President Bush went skydiving in Arizona". pressreader. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
- ↑ "Good Stuff Trailer". YouTube. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- ↑ "Joe Jennings releases "Good Stuff"". skyXtreme.
- ↑ "Charlie's Angels Opening Scene HD". YouTube. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- ↑ "Point Break (2015) HD - Airplane Heist". YouTube.
- ↑ "Don's Plane Escape". YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ↑ "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Skydiving in Seville". YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ↑ "Joe Jennings from iStunt". iStunt.
- ↑ "IT'S NOT FAKE Chevy Really Did Drop This Car Out Of A Plane Just For Fun". Insider. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ↑ "Chevy Sonic Stunts Skydive". YouTube.
- ↑ "Ad Age 1998 Super Bowl XXXII Pepsi Goose". Ad Age. Crain Communications. January 25, 1998.
- ↑ "The journey of dropping NVIDIA SHIELD's living room from 10,000 feet". YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ↑ "Senseless Acts Of Video". IMDB. Amazon. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
External links[edit]
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