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Norman A. Kent
Norman Albert Kent (born August 23, 1956) is an aerial cinematographer and skydiver best known for his aerial videography in films such as Cutaway, Drop Zone and Terminal Velocity. Childhood Born in El Paso, Texas, Kent grew up in Mexico City. His interest in photography developed as a young teenager after an excursion into the Mexican jungle when he was so taken with the beauty of the experience he wanted a way to share it. Aerial photography When nineteen, Kent made his first parachute jump and found skydiving to be an opportunity to fulfil his passions for both adventure and photography. While still relatively inexperienced Kent had a photograph published as the centrefold of “Parachutist” Magazine which led to offers of commission to shoot for movies, television and various print media. His first skydiving film was entitled ''Ride a Cloud'', and Kent went on to make numerous films targeted at the skydiving fraternity, such as ''Kinisthesia'', ''Wings'', ''Willing to Fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El Paso
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the sixth-largest city in Texas, and the second-largest city in the Southwestern United States behind Phoenix, Arizona. The city is also the second-largest majority-Hispanic city in the U.S., with 81% of its population being Hispanic. Its metropolitan statistical area covers all of El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas, and had a population of 868,859 in 2020. El Paso has consistently been ranked as one of the safest large cities in America. El Paso stands on the Rio Grande across the Mexico–United States border from Ciudad Juárez, the most-populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua with over 1.5 million people. The Las Cruces area, in the neighboring U.S. state of New Mexico, has a population of 219,561. On the U.S. side, the El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both List of U.S. states and territories by area, area (after Alaska) and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Houston is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas and the List of United States cities by population, fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most pop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skydiver
Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For human skydiving, it may involve a phase of more or less free-falling (the skydiving segment) which is a period when the parachute has not yet been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity. For cargo parachuting, the parachute descent may begin immediately, such as a parachute-airdrop in the Troposphere, lower atmosphere of Earth, or be significantly delayed, such as in a planetary atmosphere where an object is descending "under parachute" following atmospheric entry from outer space, space, and may begin only after the hypersonic entry phase and initial deceleration that occurs due to aerodynamic drag, friction with the thin upper atmosphere. History Common uses Parachuting is performed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other arts, the definitions of amateur and professional are not entirely categorical. An ''amateur photographer'' takes snapshots for pleasure to remember events, places or friends with no intention of selling the images to others. A ''professional photographer'' is likely to take photographs for a session and image purchase fee, by salary or through the display, resale or use of those photographs. A professional photographer may be an employee, for example of a newspaper, or may contract to cover a particular planned event such as a Wedding photography, wedding or graduation, or to illustrate an advertising, advertisement. Others, like Fine art photography, fine art photographers, are freelancers, first making an image and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cutaway (2000 Film)
''Cutaway'' is a 2000 American action television film about skydiving, co-written and directed by Guy Manos. The term "cut-away" is used frequently in the film, in reference to parachuting and also in reference to life in general.Buchanan 2003, p. 93. ''Cutaway'' stars Tom Berenger, Stephen Baldwin, Dennis Rodman, Maxine Bahns, Ron Silver, Casper Van Dien and Thomas Ian Nicholas. This was Rodman's third film. It aired on the USA Network on October 3, 2000. Plot When U.S. Customs agent Vic Cooper's personnel file is reviewed, it shows that he struggles to disassociate his undercover identities from his real one. Despite the file's recommendation that he not return to active duty, he is cleared for work by Lieutenant Brian Margate. His first action back is a raid on a Bimini-based seafood importer, who Cooper believes is smuggling drugs. He is embarrassed to find only shrimp on the aircraft, and the pilot goes free. Because Cooper personally witnessed drugs being loaded onto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drop Zone (film)
''Drop Zone'' is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by John Badham, starring Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, Yancy Butler, Michael Jeter, Sam Hennings, Luca Bercovici and Kyle Secor. When a U.S. Marshal has to break up a drug smuggling gang, he has to take to the skies. ''Drop Zone'' was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on December 9, 1994. Plot Aboard a commercial Boeing 747 airliner, U.S. Marshals brothers Terry and Pete Nessip are escorting computer expert Earl Leedy to a high-security prison. When an apparent terrorist hijack attempt blows a hole in the airliner, Terry is sucked out falling more than 30,000 feet to his death, and the terrorists parachute out of the same hole, taking Leedy with them. Ex-DEA agent and renegade skydiver Ty Moncrief is the mastermind behind the attack, which culminated in the first ever parachute jump from a commercial jet at 30,000 feet. Ty plans to use Leedy to hack into the DEA mainframe computer in Washington, D.C. so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terminal Velocity (film)
''Terminal Velocity'' is a 1994 American action film directed by Deran Sarafian, written by David Twohy, and starring Charlie Sheen, Nastassja Kinski, James Gandolfini, and Christopher McDonald. It follows a daredevil skydiver (Sheen) who is caught up in a criminal plot by Russian mobsters (Gandolfini and McDonald), forcing him to team up with a freelance secret agent (Kinski) in order to survive. It was one of two skydiving-themed action films released in the fourth quarter of 1994 (the other being Paramount Pictures' ''Drop Zone''), and received mostly negative reviews from critics. Plot About to leave the country, a young Russian woman is ambushed in her Tucson apartment after calling her contact about a Boeing 747 she witnessed landing in the desert. The lead assailant, Kerr, tortures her for information about her roommate before drowning her in an aquarium. Former Olympic gymnast-turned-daredevil skydiver Ditch Brodie participates in an illegal BASE jump off of a skyscrap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliffhanger (film)
''Cliffhanger'' is a 1993 American action thriller film directed and co-produced by Renny Harlin and co-written by and starring Sylvester Stallone alongside John Lithgow, Michael Rooker and Janine Turner. Based on a concept by climber John Long, the film follows Gabe (Stallone), a mountain climber who becomes embroiled in a heist of a U.S. Treasury plane flying through the Rocky Mountains. The film premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, and was released in the United States on May 28, 1993, by TriStar Pictures. It earned $255 million worldwide. Plot Rangers Gabriel "Gabe" Walker and Jessie Deighan are dispatched to rescue their friend Hal Tucker and his girlfriend, Sarah, after Hal suffered a knee injury and stranded them on a peak in the Colorado Rockies. As they try to rescue Sarah, part of her harness breaks. Although Gabe is initially able to grab her, her gloved hand slips out and she falls to her death. Hal blames Gabe for Sarah's death and Gabe is overcome wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eraser (film)
''Eraser'' is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, and Robert Pastorelli. The film follows a U.S. Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $242 million against a budget of $100 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, but they praised Williams's and Schwarzenegger's performances, the action sequences and the visual effects. It was released in the United States on June 21, 1996 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing in 1997. It was also one of the first major films released on DVD, being part of the Japanese launch lineup of Warner Home Video's debut of the format on December 20, 1996. A direct-to-video reboot of the film titled '' Eras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Get Smart (film)
''Get Smart'' is a 2008 American action spy comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember and produced by Leonard B. Stern, who is also the producer of the original series. The film is based on Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's television series of the same name. The film stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin, with Terence Stamp and James Caan in supporting roles. Bernie Kopell, who played Siegfried in the original series, also appeared in the film. The film centers on an analyst named Maxwell Smart (Carell) who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy. The film was released in North America on June 20, 2008. ''Get Smart'' received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, earning $230 million on an $80 million budget. Plot Maxwell Smart, an analyst for the top secret American intelligence agency, CONTROL, yearns to become a field agent like his idol, Agent 23. Despite top scores in the acceptance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extreme Ops
''Extreme Ops'' is a 2002 action thriller film directed by Christian Duguay, written by Michael Zaidan, Timothy Scott Bogart, and Mark Mullin, and starring Devon Sawa, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Rupert Graves, and Rufus Sewell. The film's plot centers around a commercial director and three extreme sports enthusiasts who go on their trip to the Alps for a seasonal practice and stunt filming. They are unaware that they are filming on the same location which is actually a hideout of Serbia's most wanted war criminal, Slobodan Pavlov. Pavlov and his henchmen soon find out that the enthusiasts had been watched by the group and rush swiftly to kill the witnesses. Now racing for their lives against the helicopters and expert assassins, the enthusiasts must put their quick extreme sports skills to the test in order to escape the mountain. Plot Commercial director Ian, Hollywood producer Will, three extreme sports enthusiasts Chloe, Kittie and Silo, cinematographer Mark, and Ian's boss, Jef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XXX (2002 Film)
''XXX'' (stylized as ''xXx'' and pronounced ''Triple X'') is a 2002 American action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Rich Wilkes. The first installment in the ''XXX'' film series, the film stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious athlete-turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas and Samuel L. Jackson. Cohen, Moritz and Diesel had previously worked on ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2001) as director, producer and cast member respectively. The film grossed $277.4 million worldwide and was followed by two sequels, '' XXX: State of the Union'' and '' XXX: Return of Xander Cage'', released in 2005 and 2017, respectively. Plot Anarchy 99, a Russian terrorist group, acquires a biochemical weapon, "Silent Night", presumed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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