Filming In Saint John for CBC's Race Against The Tide

Drone Shoot For CBC’s Race Against The Tide

In August we got the call from Marble Media to provide drone coverage for a new TV show filming on New River Beach, just outside of Saint John, New Brunswick. The show, being produced to air on CBC, is a reality competition series featuring 10 of the best sand sculptors in the world.

From marblemedia:

“We are thrilled to have RACE AGAINST THE TIDE – a premier sand sculpting competition TV series – underway, expanding the marblemedia slate of content that will appeal to worldwide audiences of all ages” said Matt Hornburg, executive producer and co-founder of marblemedia. “We have brought the best in class from around the world to create more twists on the ever-fascinating spectacle of sand sculpting. As the highest tide in the world, we couldn’t think of a better place to produce this series than the Bay of Fundy.”

Filming During A Global Pandemic

We’ve provided drone coverage for dozens of films and television shows over the years, but this one felt different. We were 3 and a half months into a global pandemic and needed to travel out of Nova Scotia to live and work with mixed crew from Ontario & New Brunswick. As you can imagine we had dozens of questions for production before committing to a gig like this, but the team at Marble Media / CBC went above and beyond to keep everyone safe and comfortable before & during the entire production. The Crew from Ontario quarantined in a separate wing of the hotel ahead of time, food was served was at a distance and delivered in disposable containers, daily temperature checks were required before being permitted on set, crew operated in small break-out units of 3-5 people and masks were required at all times on set (even while outside).

After the first few days everyone quickly adjusted to “the new on-set normal“. The precautions may have slowed us down at first, but after a few days some of the changes actually made life easier.

Staggered crew lunch breaks were put in place to limit crowding, this meant filming could continue in smaller crews throughout lunch hour.
Communicating with directors & DP’s solely by walkie-talkie meant they could stay closer to the action/talent and communicate what they wanted in more detail.
On set bathrooms were SPOTLESS
Communication, deal-memos, logistics and payments were all paperless to avoid contact. This saved hours of paperwork and PA’s/producers running around on-set tracking people down.

There were countless other efficient practices that I’m hoping will stick around long after this pandemic is over. I can’t give the production crew at CBC / Marble Media enough credit for keeping everyone safe & comfortable during the RATT production!

RACE AGAINST THE TIDE is executive produced by Matt Hornburg and Mark Bishop of marblemedia; series producer and writer is Carly Spencer and Donna Luke of marblemedia serves as Co-Executive Producer. Co-produced with Hemmings House. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports; Jennifer Dettman is Executive Director, Unscripted Content; Alexandra Lane is Senior Director of Production; and Ann-Marie Redmond is Executive in Charge of Production.