Film crews converge on lava spectacle
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — Film crews from around the world are rolling into Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park for that red-hot shot of lava oozing into the ocean from Kilauea volcano.
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Since the so-called "Banana" flow began pumping lava into the ocean on May 31, film crew activity at the park has picked up noticeably, said ranger Mardie Lane.
Steam and spray rise from the ocean as a lava river about 10 feet wide enters the Pacific at the northeastern end of the "Banana" delta.
Crews from San Francisco, Australia and the United Kingdom are expected this weekend. They'll be interviewing rangers and hiking around the flows for the best angles.
Monique Wright, a reporter for Australia's top-rated morning show, "Sunrise," planned to make the hourlong hike to the lava activity today.
Wright said she has been riding mules on Moloka'i and dropping in on other attractions around the state to gather footage for a "Sunrise" program that will be produced from Hawai'i in a couple of weeks.
"We couldn't go past coming to the Big Island to look at the volcano," she said.
"Us in Australia — that is just beyond anything we can imagine."
Standing toe-to-toe with molten lava will be a new experience for everyone in the three-member crew, she said.
Crews working at the volcano have shot segments for productions ranging from the educational "National Geographic" to the game show "Wheel of Fortune" to dramatic backdrops for rock stars' music videos.
"I think it's just such a great opportunity to tell Hawai'i's story, to highlight a place that is so well known throughout the world," Lane said.
The film crews coming into the park, estimated at 80 annually, reach billions of people, she said.
"The potential for extending the park outreach, for promoting the island in the most sensitive ways, is occurring every day through the film industry," Lane said, "and it's a clean industry."
Marilyn Killeri, Big Island film commissioner with the Hawai'i County Department of Research and Development, said the film crews' output has its main influence is on the travel industry.
The small productions are the bread-and-butter of the Big Island's film industry, which injected about $10 million into the local economy last year, she said. But more important is the enormous exposure those productions offer in national and international media.
As a rule, Lane said, the crews are given the same access to the lava flows as the general public, but parks officials try to minimize any disruption of the regular traffic of visitors into and out of the lava viewing area. "Our best case is that most visitors will not know that four crews will be filming this weekend," she said.
The crews also have strict instructions not to alter the natural environment.
"If there's a funky-looking tree fern hanging down in the way of their shot, the tree fern has the right to be there," Lane said.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
