The committee that selects the final nominations for an Emmy doesn’t usually share the reasons behind a particular choice, but "Hawaii Five-0" stunt coordinator Jeff Cadiente is pretty sure he knows why the second-season episode "Kame‘e" got the nod:
The sky-diving rescue sequence some 14,000 feet above Mokuleia.
"You don’t see it on television, you see it on feature films," Cadiente said. "The way we shot it was very featuresque. It was very big and very dramatic because they were falling through the clouds. You could see the water below. It was something pretty memorable."
There was no computer-generated imagery. It was all stunt doubles and Cadiente’s air cameraman.
Cadiente’s Emmy nomination Thursday was his second in a row for "Five-0" and his sixth overall; he had four nominations for the Fox TV thriller "24." He hasn’t won any, though.
In "Kame‘e," which first aired Oct. 3, Cadiente put three people in the air: a stunt double for Alex O’Loughlin, who stars as Steve McGarrett; stuntman Sean MacCormac, who appeared as an unconscious Navy SEAL thrown out of an airplane; and cameraman Tom Sanders, who was armed with two different cameras to film wide shots and tight shots at the same time.
To capture close-ups of O’Loughlin, the actor was suspended by cables about 15 feet over a Kakaako parking lot. The rest was real sky diving.
"You had 60 seconds of free-fall," Cadiente said. "We set it up so we had two to three shots all in one. They would fall out of frame and quickly gather and shoot again."
Sky-diving experts told Cadiente it would take 10 jumps to capture the speedy sequence, but he did it in eight. And he did it in a single day; a typical feature film shooting a sky-diving sequence could take up to a week to get it, Cadiente said.
AS THE unconscious SEAL, MacCormac’s role was the hardest. But he’s a veteran Red Bull extreme sports jumper, Cadiente said.
"He had to pretty much lay there like a rag doll and fall upside down, plummeting to the earth at over 100 mph," Cadiente said. "It was very difficult to make it look believable that he was passed out. So, he completely let his body go limp as the other stunt double as Alex came down to save him."
Last year, Cadiente was nominated for work on the first season — the May 9, 2011, episode, "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau," which saw Danno Williams exposed to a deadly neurological poison.
Because he gets to select which episode is entered, the action — on an action-packed show — has to stand out, Cadiente said.
"It has to be something worthwhile," he said. "It was very difficult. Last season we had a lot that were worthy. I wish they would vote on a body of work instead of a single episode."
Being nominated is always an honor, he said, but this year is even more special because the rest of the nominees are friends: Tim Davison for FX Network’s "American Horror Story," Tom Elliott for CBS’ "Criminal Minds," Matt Taylor for NBC’s "Grimm," Troy James Brown for "NCIS: Los Angeles" on CBS, and Richard "Peewee" Piemonte for TNT’s "Southland."
Work on the third season of "Five-0" began two weeks ago, and already the stunt crew has crashed cars, blown things up and gone screeching around turns and through traffic.
"I don’t ever try to do my work to try and get nominated," Cadiente said. "I try to do the best, most spectacular work I can. If it is nominated, great. I’ve never tried to top my last stunts. I just go with what’s in the script."
The Emmy Awards will be shown on ABC on Sept. 23.
AND that’s a wrap …
Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
