American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 28

Shooting Specters
By Kelly Brinker

It all started in an apartment near
Detroit. Zak Bagans, then a film student at
the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan,
had a ghostly encounter that sent him on a
quest to prove the existence of the paranormal.
Teaming up with camera operator
Aaron Goodwin, Bagans set out to investigate supposedly haunted locations throughout Nevada for the 2004 documentary
Ghost Adventures. Shot with a Panasonic
AG-DVX100A and onboard lights, the
documentary won the Grand Jury Prize for
Best Documentary Feature from the New
York International Independent Film and
Video Festival in 2006 and first aired on the
Sci-Fi Channel the following year. Travel
Channel then commissioned a weekly series
of the same name. Bagans continues to
serve as the executive producer, director and
lead paranormal investigator for the show,
which is currently in its 12th season.
Each episode of Ghost Adventures is
presented as a short documentary focused
on a single location. The first half of the
episode covers the history and eyewitness
accounts of the location's hauntings, with
on-site interviews, re-enactments and b-roll
footage; the second half comprises the
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April 2016

footage captured by Bagans and his team
during their overnight investigation.
Under Bagans' direction, the series'
style and production value have continually
evolved. "Each location we investigate has
its own unique story and energy that I
absorb," he explains. "I then interpret that
experience into the tone of each episode.
For the first half of the show, the re-enactments create the mood and buildup. Then
we take the viewers on the 'lockdown' with
us, as we share our passion for the raw,
bare-bones investigating of the paranormal."
One of Bagans' chief stylistic inspirations is director Terrence Malick's The Thin
Red Line, shot by John Toll, ASC (AC Feb.
'99). "Malick took scenes of brutality and
then hit you with a contrasting philosophical
narration over long, drawn-out shots of
Mother Nature," Bagans describes. "These
narrations with the visuals metaphorically
speak to the deeper spirit of life, no matter
the situation. So when I'm at a location and
I'm hearing that 200 people died from
tuberculosis in this sanatorium, I'll stop for a
moment and do these shots of Mother
Nature, the trees swaying, the overcast sky.
We assemble these images together to
convey a philosophical thought through a
very moody, tonal narration so the audience
can really feel what I'm feeling and see what
American Cinematographer

I'm seeing when I'm there."
Every location presents a unique
story that thrusts the crew into a rigorous,
fast-paced, run-and-gun production schedule without a script to serve as a guide.
Bagans first receives a one sheet from
researcher Jeff Belanger with a brief description of the location and the names of the
people he will interview. From there, the
story is developed once the crew arrives at
the location.
The production is divided between
two crews. Bagans runs the A crew -
which focuses on the interviews and the
"lockdown" investigations - with cinematographer and audio-visual tech Jay
Wasley on A camera, Goodwin on B camera
and Billy Tolley on C camera. The B crew is
led by one of four producer-editors, working
alongside cinematographer Mike Stodden,
who operates the main camera for the B
crew, and Louis Zieja, who handles the
second camera. The B crew focuses on reenactments and b-roll footage.
The A crew and the producer arrive
at the location first to conduct the interviews for the top of the show. Goodwin and
Wasley each operate a Canon Cinema EOS
C300, recording to CompactFlash at 23.98
fps and 1920x1080 resolution, and paired
with a variety of Canon L-series zoom
lenses. When needed, they light the scene

Ghost Adventures unit photography by Ashley Wasley, courtesy of Travel Channel. Additional images by Aaron Goodwin.

Right to left:
Executive
producer Zak
Bagans,
cinematographer
Jay Wasley, and
operators Aaron
Goodwin and
Billy Tolley
investigate
allegedly
haunted
locations around
the world on
Travel Channel's
Ghost
Adventures.

American Cinematographer - April 2016

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