SKYDIVING STUNT COORDINATION AND FREE FALL CINEMATOGRAPHY

Hello!  My name is Joe Jennings and I’m a skydiving stunt coordinator and free fall cinematographer in Los Angeles, California.  Basically, I help my clients to coordinate locations, aircraft, pilots, skydivers, riggers, equipment, pretty much anything that’s needed to tell the story. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY
My career started in 1995 when my skysurfing partner, Rob Harris, and I won two world championship titles and first place at the ESPN XGames. As a competition camera flyer, I was obsessed with framing, stability, and three dimensional flight, and I trained until these skills became part of my natural muscle memory. As a skydiving cinematographer I learned to focus on storytelling and on capturing the director’s vision, and that’s what motivates me today. On every production, I want the shot as much as anyone on set, and getting the shot is my greatest reward.

WHO AM I?  I have a unique skillset and lucked into an extraordinary life.  Flying camera, I’ve won 4 world championship titles and dozens of awards including two Emmys only to look in the mirror and realize that I’m still just me.  I was born in the midwest and raised back east, including about 4 years on a commune, and when I was 19 I flew to California and I’ve been here ever since.  My wife’s family escaped Iran during the Islamic revolution and they moved a lot when she was a kid, so when we bought our first house to start our own family we decided to do things differently so we raised our kids in one house until they moved into their own apartments.  They are two incredible young men and I’m beyond proud of them, so it feels like we did a good job.

HOLLYWOOD!

I’ve had a terrific career.  In 1995, after 4 years of training, traveling, and competing with the world’s best skydivers, Hollywood opened up, and I remember wondering how many lives it would take to get this opportunity again, so I went for it and my life became an adventure I couldn’t have imagined as a kid, and I get to work with extraordinary people who also placed their bets on skydiving.

My background is competition skydiving, so skydiving to me is like surfing or skiing.  Ultimately, when movie makers learn to see skydiving as a sport; like surfing, skiing, or even baseball with all of its positions and specialties, and not just as a “stunt”, then we’ll begin to see skydiving’s best athletes in the movies, and that will be a game changer.

We’re headed in that direction already, and it’s an exciting time to be a camera flyer!  Here is some of my WORK, more to come!