nachtjaeger wrote:I also seem to recall hearing that Duncan and his cameraman had to go after Kristine after she managed to get herself all the way under some impossibly sticky mud. Not something likely to occur in real life.
There have been a few close calls, or at least we thought they were, over the years. Yes, the most noteworthy and memorable was the aftermath of the Kristine white bra and panties scene. She went to come up but the stuff on top of her was like having had concrete poured over her. Droopy was right there with her and still unable to get her up. I was running the only camera and you can hear me utter a nasty expletive before flying past the lens and landing next to Droopy. Fortunately he had kept his head and excavated an opening over Kristine's face. She was laughing like a loon at the terror she had caused but it took some effort for us to get her out of there. Then it took more effort to get all three of us out of there. Really wicked spot. Never seen anything like it since.
Another such occasion was imagined on my part after Jenna West went under in the clay pit at Studio 588. I guess I was tired and when Jenna didn't pop right back up I gave the call for everyone to get her. As I recall Kristine and Robert were both right there in seconds to rescue a smiling Jenna from nothing more than my own imagination.
The clay was kind of thick the night we shot "Swamp Wraith" with Jessica Marsh and Sarai. By now we all knew what a proper submersion looked like without a second thought. This may have been Sarai's first submersion, I don't recall, but as she was going under I knew she was at a bad angle. Dave did too and we exchanged glances. I think I looked across the pit at Fred because he was catching it as well. It was interesting that all three of us registered a minor alarm without saying a word in the space of about a second. I had already laid my camera on the ground and was just about to move when Sarai came slowly back up. The nerve impulses to jump in were somewhere between my brain and my feet when I stopped them. Dave somehow could smell that and very shortly later told Sarai that she was just about half a second from having a lot of company. He was right.
Kristine and I swam against the current around the end of the levy in Chester once in order to avoid getting muddy again. It was a rough go and I was very happy to get a handful of rock at the end. Kristine has always made a point of having no great swimming ability and was next to me smiling through the whole thing.
Dave and I swam after my sandals that fell overboard while shooting at the MPV desert lake location. It was only about a hundred yards out and back but I got very tired. I don't know if it was dehydration or having not eaten or what but I could feel the energy level in my body going away like crazy. That's the biggest danger in swimming is feeling good when you begin and then suddenly when you feel like crap there's not a lot you can do about it. Dave was fine. He got the sandals and we turned back to the boat. Closer I got to it I started complaining about how tired I was. I was about to flip over on my back when Dave told me just to stand up. Water was about four feet deep where I was by then. Big laugh from Brittany and Tatiana in the boat.
Most of you have probably seen the video of Brittany becoming truly stuck up to her waist in real quicksand. She also did the same thing up to her knees in a prepared location at Studio 588. Getting her out was no easy task in either place.
As a result of this and a few other adventures when shooting I've never completely bought into the idea that sinking is without danger. I know that science keeps telling us that we have nothing to worry about and that quicksand is only the stuff of movies but I'm not buying it. In the wild and even in a prepared studio you are still submitting a human body to very imperfect and imprecise natural circumstances. Nothing is guaranteed so you have to be very careful. You get laboratory results only in a laboratory.
I was about a half-second from going in after Nyssa when she surfaced. She "wanted to make it look good." 
On set, Fred is 100% professional, and very safety conscious. 
Maybe as deep as mid-thigh on an eight year old. It was so loose, it only sucked a little on the legs. In any event, it was fun.