History Made Every Day™

Chainsaw Chronicles

The Front Line...
By: Sarah Whalen - Ax Men Series Producer

The filming of Ax Men is almost as dramatic behind the scenes as it is on camera. Our field teams generally consist of 4 people with each logging company: a field producer, camera operator, sound operator, and an associate producer. As the series producer, I'm in charge of all of them. One of my main concerns: Keeping them safe. In order to film the show, these crews are forced to endure the same brutal terrain as the loggers. In some cases, they have to move more quickly through the tangled brush to get ahead of the loggers so that they can be in place when the action happens. These field crews are some of the toughest in the business. Across the board, they say Ax Men is the most physically demanding job they've ever had. Every site is the size of a football field. A football field on the edge of a very steep cliff, that isn't where it pours rain most days. Accidents are inevitable. When looking through the camera's eyepiece while running over logs through treacherous blown-down timber, taking a tumble down the mountain is a certainty. Every person on the crew has wiped out multiple times. We've lost many a camera to the mountain. Bruises and scrapes are like permanent tattoos. But that's just the start. There have been other injuries: a broken hand, dislocated shoulder, head trauma, busted knee… and the list goes on.

Just getting to the job sites is a challenge. Crews start around 4:00am in the pitch black. They navigate winding steep gravel logging roads in 4x4 trucks. Having a head-on collision with an oncoming logging truck is a very real concern. Blind curves, blown tires, and testy car-to-car radios don't help the situation. Our crews regularly get stuck in muddy ditches on the way to and from the sites. One of our crew's trucks was hit by a logging truck that had fallen into an uncontrollable slide on its way down the snowy mountain. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Once crews get to the site, there's the matter of "getting the shot." Ever wonder how we have those high and wide shots that show the vastness of the site? Well, it isn't easy. Remember on the show how the loggers climb trees with spurs and ropes to top it or hang a block? Well, that's what our camera operators must do as well. They often climb 50 to 60 feet up a tree near the landing to set a camera. These are not your average camera operators.

And, like logging, this job in not without risk. We've had more close calls behind the scenes than we ever see in the show. Barberchairs, falling trees, logs slipping off the landing, snapped skylines, and falling carriages are just a few of the hazards on site. On one of my first days, I was almost plowed over by a loader that was hauling a 200-foot log across the landing. I had been watching the machine work for several minutes. It had consistently been moving logs to the right. So I decided to walk around to the left. Bad decision. As soon as I start making my way, the loader's giant arm swung around directly at me. A log was within about 2 feet of my head when the loader operator saw me and stopped. I was lucky.

But, it's all in a day's work for the hardworking Ax Men field crews…
Thanks for tuning in!