A museum in downtown Cincinnati has renovated a space in the basement and turned it into a theater.
Thursday night, the Cincinnati Fire Museum shows off that space with a special presentation.
“We Are CFD” is an immersive video, filling the viewer’s field of vision with three screens.
Glenn Hartong of Chili Dog Productions says he came up with the idea for the film several years ago.
Hartong says he has about three hours of video of firefighters in action, including tape from a 360-degree camera mounted on a ladder truck, and drone footage on and above a fire boat.
“You have the option, anytime, to pan right, pan left, tilt up, tilt down, because you’re inside a sphere, you’re shooting a sphere, and you can do anything you want,” he says. “Some of the stuff on the fire boat, we’re looking straight down. It’s really cool.”
In another scene, a firefighter takes the 360-degree camera to the top of a fully extended ladder, around 100 feet in the air.
“I felt it was really important to make it exciting. So we mounted the camera on trucks, moving up the ladder. We’re going to go into a fire. We’re out on the fire boat,” he says. “We’re trying to put the viewer in the turnout gear; be where a firefighter would be. At the same time, I had to be mindful a majority of the viewers — or a large percentage — will be kids.”
("Turnout gear" is the term for firefighters’ coats, pants, boots, gloves and helmets.)
Hartong says he didn't use video from a real fire or crash scene, just training sessions. He says the shots from the trucks and ambulance are real responses. The production didn't put any fire apparatus or personnel out of service.
Museum Executive Director Sarah Strickland says the new exhibit fills a hole in their storytelling.
“One thing about fire museums is, obviously, the exhibits are all historical, and most of them are pretty static,” she says. “But we can change the way we show and display artifacts, and the history of the fire department. The one missing piece here was showing modern technology and the modern role.”
Hartong says there's enough leftover footage that could be edited in, or used to create a new version.
"We Are CFD" premieres Oct. 23 at the Cincinnati Fire Museum on Court Street.
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