by Mike Schnitzel
That's the story of a typical worker helping to rebuild the Gulf Coast oil industry after a summer that hit the oil industry like it's never been hit before. The workers¹ experiences are captured by "Oil, Sweat, and Rigs," a documentary series on the Discovery Channel that Valley Stream native and Central High School grad Frank DeMita, Jr., 47, lent his vision and technical expertise to last fall and winter. Teams of two headed to the Gulf Coast with Sony Z1 handheld cameras to capture the chaos and aftermath of the summer calamities. "We just went out and filmed everything," said DeMita.
The project started almost immediately after hurricanes Katrina and Rita ‹ storms which damaged thousands of offshore oil installations and completely destroyed more than 100 of them, not to mention killed thousands and left thousands more homeless. According to DeMita, the six episodes that comprise the series were organized thematically, illustrating tasks in the process of repairing damaged oil installations.
"We looked for major aspects of the reconstruction to focus our episodes on," said DeMita. "There was damage to sea floor pipelines, oil rigs that had strayed from their bases and needed to be secured. The effort is so massive that nearly every piece of ocean-going equipment in the world related to the oil industry is being used for the next several years to help [the rebuilding effort]."
One episode dealt with an oil company drilling rig that had sunk to the sea floor. DeMita and his fellow crew members documented the work of deep sea divers who were charged with salvaging the drilling rig and repairing damaged pipelines. Living in pressure-controlled diving bells and working for months on end, the divers traveled to depths of up to 500-feet-below-sea-level, where they performed intricate repair work and attempted to salvage the drilling rig that Mother Nature had claimed, said DeMita.
Travelling the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama through Mississippi and Louisiana to Sabine Pass, Texas, DeMita saw scenes of destruction, the likes of which he had observed only in the movies.
"I saw a mall with the roof peeled back like a tin of sardines, power boats sitting on top of trees, and cars upended in mud," said DeMita. "This was three months after the hurricanes had hit. I'd never seen anything like it."
DeMita said that one of the most impressive sights along the way took place during a helicopter ride over the Gulf of Mexico. "Looking down at these oil installations from a helicopter, seeing some of them spewing flames into the air ‹ they looked like waterbugs," said DeMita. "It was amazing."
The series was produced by Mentorn, a London-based production company where DeMita has worked for the past four years. After the filming, DeMita and his colleagues had 700 hours of footage to sift through to make the six one-hour episodes that comprised the series. DeMita cites his brother Mike as his filmmaking inspiration.
"He's a director of photography and he's the reason I got into filmmaking," said DeMita. "Everything I know I learned from him."
Visit www.discoverychannel.com to find out when the series is airing.
Comments about this story? Mschnitzel@li-herald.com or (516)569-4000 ext. 265.
