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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Documentary "<keyword id="12095478" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="the-rescue" source="Orion">The Rescue</keyword>" use the Thai cave divers who were really there in its reenactments.</li><li>The two-week shoot of the reenactments included challenges like a cave set that was too small.</li></ul><p>Filmmakers <keyword id="12307065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elizabeth-chai-vasarhelyi" source="Orion">Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi</keyword> and <keyword id="12307066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jimmy-chin" source="Orion">Jimmy Chin</keyword> were instantly in a dilemma when they decided to take on "The Rescue," their documentary on how the thrilling <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thai-cave-rescue-timeline-how-it-unfolded-2018-7">2018 Thai cave rescue was pulled off</a>.</p><p>With no footage of what really went on inside the caves during the daring 18 days, how could they show an audience what really transpired to get 12 boys and their soccer coach out of the labyrinth Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand, many of which were completely submerged underwater?</p><p>They decided to film reenactments. But that can be a blessing or a curse for a documentary.</p><p>Done effectively, reenactments can be memorable like the HBO hit "McMillions" or the fantastic "Dark Side of the Ring" series on Vice. However, if they come off cheesy and unrealistic - think "Unsolved Mysteries" or ABC's "20/20" - it takes viewers out of the story completely.</p><p>But Vasarhelyi and Chin quickly realized they had an ace in the hole. The small group of divers - whose lifelong hobby of going into narrow underwater caves was instrumental in the saving of the kids - didn't just want to supervise the reenactments, they were willing to star in them.</p><p>"It had to be them," Chin told Insider of having the real-live divers star in their own reenactments.</p><div type="image" title="Diver in the water" height="2160" width="3840" msid="86998589" hostid="261"></div><h2>The filmmakers used the Thai cave divers in the reenactments because authenticity was essential</h2><p>Close to the end of doing their principal interviews for "The Rescue," Vasarhelyi and Chin traveled to the famed Pinewood Studios in the UK. Known as the site where some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters are shot, the doc filmmakers were there to film the crucial reenactments using a cave set submerged in a water tank.</p><p>Rick Stanton, a retired firefighter; his friend John Volanthen, an IT consultant; and a handful of other cave divers who were involved in the <keyword id="12095480" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="thai-cave-rescue" source="Orion">Thai cave rescue</keyword> brought all their suits and equipment to Pinewood to recount what they actually did.</p><p>Vasarhelyi and Chin are known best for their death-defying documentaries like the Oscar-winning "<keyword id="12307067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="free-solo" source="Orion">Free Solo</keyword>," which chronicled Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without a rope. For them, being painstakingly accurate was essential.</p><p>"They were really keyed in that it was authentic," Chin said of the divers' involvement. "When we are going to shoot something climbing and your whole peer group looks at it and is like, 'That's complete B.S.'... How the participants feel about the film is really important to us." </p><div type="image" title="Cave divers in the water" height="1080" width="1920" msid="86998591" hostid="261"></div><h2>The filmmakers searched around Pinewood Studios for a larger cave set after realizing the one they had wasn't big enough</h2><p>The two-week shoot was done last October in the midst of the pandemic and included everyone being tested daily and working in pods, making the underwater shoots, which are typically filmed at a snail's pace, being made even slower.</p><p>And Vasarhelyi and Chin admit the cave set they started with wasn't the best.</p><p>"On a doc budget you can't really afford a realistic-looking cave," Vasarhelyi said with a laugh. "So we had a cave that wasn't big at all."</p><p>The first week of shooting was so frustrating, Vasarhelyi said the crew began walking around Pinewood to see if there was another cave option.</p><p>"The DP was walking around and he saw a piece of someone else's cave, like from some action movie," Vasarhelyi said.</p><p>"It was triple our size and he was like, 'Let's take that cave' and we got permission to get it," Vasarhelyi continued. "But we didn't know if it could be submerged, if it would disintegrate right when it hit the water. And it's too expensive to just drain tanks when things don't work so it was just a lot of hope it would work and it lasted just long enough for us to use it underwater." </p><p>Finally, with a proper underwater set, the filmmakers were ready for the final week of shooting. But there was still a nagging anxiety about the reenactments.</p><p>"We didn't think it was going to work," Chin admitted.</p><div type="image" title="Cave diver in an underwater cave" height="2160" width="3840" msid="86998593" hostid="261"></div><h2>'We were worried we were going too far with the dramatics'</h2><p>As the divers reenacted their remarkable rescue for the cameras, both Vasarhelyi and Chin were concerned what they were filming was going the way of bad "Unsolved Mysteries" reenactment footage.</p><p>The water was so dirty (bits of broccoli were put in the tank to make it look like the murky water in the cave) that the directors were concerned audiences wouldn't see closeup shots of the divers with their masks on underwater. And then there was reenacting the rescues.</p><p>"We were worried we were going too far with the dramatics," Chin said.</p><p>Particularly, they were worried about the first rescue Stanton and Volanthen make before even finding the kids. They encounter a group of scared men who were trying to pump the water out of the caves and got trapped. The reenactment footage shows the men flailing wildly underwater as Stanton and Volanthen get them out of the caves.</p><p>"I was like, 'But is this over the top?'" Chin recalled asking Stanton and Volanthen after shooting the scene at Pinewood. "They were like, 'Not at all.' It turns out that rescue was a full-on wrestling match because the men thought they were going to die."</p><div type="image" title="Jimmy Chin in a grey shirt and hat, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi in a jacket and blue hat" height="2124" width="2832" msid="86998595" hostid="261"></div><p>Chin said he and Vasarhelyi became less anxious about the reenactments as shooting progressed and Stanton and Volanthen talked them through it.</p><p>The result is <a href="https://www.insider.com/review-the-rescue-2018-thai-cave-rescue-documentary-is-masterful-2021-9">some of the best reenactment footage you will ever see</a>. With the mixture of the actual cave divers in the scenes and the footage having a look that feels more realistic than Hollywood gloss, it's hard at times to tell the archival footage from the reenactments.</p><p>"There were things that you can't understand until you see it, like binding the children's hands behind their backs," Vasarhelyi said, referring to how cave diver Dr. Richard Harris, an Australian anesthetist, injected each child with a mixture of Xanax, Ketamine, and Atropine so they could calmly be transported out of the caves (which was a two-and-a-half-hour process).</p><p>"There's a gravity of that when you finally see it," Vasarhelyi added.</p>

How 'The Rescue' directors made reenactment scenes featuring the Thai cave divers who were really there

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Diana Nyad's historic long-distance swim from Cuba to Florida is the focus of the Netflix film "Nyad."</li><li>Since then, Nyad has kept busy by writing op-eds and co-founding a walking initiative. </li></ul><p>Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad's story is back in the spotlight thanks to the Netflix biopic and awards season contender "Nyad."</p><p>Nyad is best known for being the first person to successfully <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/video/diana-nyad-completes-historic-cuba-to-florida-swim/50E05BE1-6192-4037-B5B2-AE2F3E818BC6">swim</a> 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. She completed the feat at age 64 on September 2, 2013, after five attempts.</p><p>The athlete's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/diana-nyad-cheating-conspiracy-theory-2013-9">milestone achievement</a> has been mired in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/sports/questions-and-doubt-after-a-record-swim-from-cuba-to-florida.html">controversy</a> since then, with some people<strong> </strong>questioning its legitimacy and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.openwaterswimming.com/wowsa-advisory-boards-decision-on-diana-nyads-2013-cuba-to-florida-swim/">World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA)</a> refusing to ratify her crossing. Nyad <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/marathon-swimmer-nyad-rebuts-her-skeptics-insists-feat-was-squeaky-flna8c11134626">insisted</a> that she didn't cheat to complete her noteworthy swim. </p><p>Here's what Nyad has been up to in the years since her landmark crossing of the Florida Straits.</p><h2>Nyad has written op-eds and co-founded the initiative EverWalk</h2><div type="image" title="Diana Nyad attends the &quot;Swim for Relief&quot; benefiting Hurricane Sandy recovery at Herald Square on October 10, 2013, in New York City." height="1997" width="3000" msid="108337094" hostid="261" sizebytes="469876"></div><p>In recent years, Nyad has written for publications like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/opinion/ocean-temperature-climate-change.html">The New York Times</a> and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/28/simone-biles-diana-nyad-olympics-gymnastics-withdrawal/">Washington Post</a>.</p><p>Nyad <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/diana-nyad-profile-cuba-florida-swim">previously</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/swimmer-diana-nyad-opens-up-about-her-sexual-abuse-video">alleged</a> that her swim coach, Jack Nelson, sexually abused her when she was 14 years old. She wrote about the effects of the alleged assault in a 2017 essay for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/opinion/diana-nyad-sexual-assault.html">NY Times</a> and said that she experienced "years of covert molestation." No charges were filed against Nelson, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/sports/jack-nelson-swimmings-version-of-a-chess-master-dies-at-82.html">who died in 2014</a>.</p><p>Nyad competed on season 18 of "Dancing With the Stars" in 2014. She was paired with professional dancer Henry Byalikov and got eliminated during week two of the competition.</p><p>In 2016, Nyad and Bonnie Stoll, her coach and longtime friend, co-founded the national walking initiative EverWalk. The pair remain close, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C3OBsV0O28v/">traveling the world together</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C2searyPyJc/?">competing in tennis tournaments</a>.</p><h2>Nyad's 2015 memoir 'Find a Way' inspired the Netflix biopic 'Nyad'</h2><div type="image" title="Annette Bening and Diana Nyad speaking onstage during Netflix's &quot;Nyad&quot; LA Tastemaker event at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 5, 2024 in Hollywood, California." height="1692" width="2256" msid="108337096" hostid="261" sizebytes="321950"></div><p>Nyad's memoir "Find a Way" was adapted into a feature film released on the streamer in early November, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. "Nyad" stars Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as Stoll. Both actors are nominated for awards at the upcoming <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oscars-2024-nominations-winners-list-2024-1">Oscars</a>.</p><p>Nyad has been supportive of the film during awards season, attending screenings with the cast and appearing at events like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thewrap.com/diana-nyad-jodie-foster-power-women-summit-2023/">TheWrap's Power Women Summit</a>.</p>

Where is Diana Nyad now? Everything to know about the athlete at the center of Netflix's biopic 'Nyad' 

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>"Free Solo" directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin recount what led to them agreeing to film Alex Honnold's attempt to solo climb El Capitan.</li><li>The filmmakers also explain why filming what was going on in Honnold's life on the ground was just as important as his climb.</li></ul><p>&#xa0;</p><p>For Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and her husband Jimmy Chin, the idea of doing a documentary on rock climber Alex Honnold was more intriguing to them because of how he is on the ground than when he's thousands of feet above it during a climb.</p><p>Before Honnold became known the world over for his incredible free solo climbs (mountain climbing without ropes or other protective equipment), he was a kid who was incredibly intelligent but also scared of everything: people, physical contact, even vegetables. But that same kid blossomed into a young man who fights his fears by climbing mountains.</p><p>"It was the potential of being a story that spoke to a lot of people and could inspire," Vasarhelyi told Business Insider about her original interest in doing a movie on Honnold.</p><p>But Honnold had another idea. He wanted them to shoot him soloing up the 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall in Yosemite National Park.</p><p>"He said, 'If we're to make a film, the only film-worthy thing in my life is doing this," Vasarhelyi recalled.</p><p>Chin has filmed Honnold soloing for 10 years. He knew Honnold had the skill to pull off the climb. But he also knew how crazy it was to even attempt it. It would be a four-hour climb, at least. Every single step would need to be perfect. His level of concentration needed to be super sharp throughout the entire climb because his next move could be his last.</p><p>Could Chin say El Cap is the Super Bowl of soloing?</p><p>"It's beyond the Super Bowl," he said. "The mental capacity to do that is unlike any athletic achievement I've seen, whether it's extreme sports or professional sports of Olympic sports. You have to play the perfect game for four hours. You throw an interception in the Super Bowl, compared to this, it's not really a big deal."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>With that danger in mind, Vasarhelyi and Chin told Honnold they had to think about if they wanted to proceed. And they thought about it - for months. Could they go forward with doing a movie that could end with their friend falling to his death?<p>They say the moment that really pushed them to finally agree to film the attempt was a chat Chin had three years ago with author and avid climber Jon Krakauer,&#xa0;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of the survivors of the disastrous 1996 expedition to Mount Everest</a>&#xa0;and the man who wrote "Into the Wild" and "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman."&#xa0;Who better to get advice from?</p><p>Chin told Krakauer he and Vasarhelyi were considering doing a movie on Honnold and his soloing of El Cap. The author simply replied: "Holy s--t."</p><p>"He was quiet for a while," Chin said. "And we walked for a little bit further, and I asked if it's even okay for us to do this. He was like well, 'Is he going to do it whether you film it or not?' And I said yes. And he said, 'Are you one of the best people to do this?' And I said yes. And he said, 'If this is one of the greatest athletic achievements of all time, shouldn't it be captured?' And I was like 'Yes.' We kind of went from there."</p><p>With Vasarhelyi and Chin on board, they set out for Yosemite to make "Free Solo" (in theaters Friday). For months they filmed Honnold's day-long training sessions on El Cap and his humble existence off the mountain living in a van.</p><p>Chin and his team of mountain climbers/cameramen used huge 4k cameras to capture Honnold on the wall, which he said is unheard of when filming climbing because of the weight of the equipment. But he and Vasarhelyi wanted "Free Solo" to be more than just a highlight video. They wanted to go a step further, not just visually, but emotionally. And that's what Vasarhelyi was doing on the ground, trying to peel back the layers of the complex Honnold.</p><p>"It was basically a conversation that kept going for a year and a half," Vasarhelyi said about creating a verite feel to the movie.</p><p>As "Free Solo" makes very clear, Honnold is not an open person. His life is completely focused on climbing and everything else comes second, including opening up to Vasarhelyi. But a fascinating thing happened during the filming process: He found a girlfriend who could tolerate his lifestyle.</p><p>Sanni McCandless is the complete opposite of Honnold. A big personality and not afraid to challenge Honnold, the relationship between the two is an interesting subplot in "Free Solo," as the driven climber begins to let his guard down (the two go climbing one time and a mistake by the inexperienced McCandless leads to Honnold falling and injuring himself before the El Cap climb; in another scene, the two look for a house in Las Vegas).</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Then there's the lead-up to the climb itself. At one point in the movie, Honnold starts his solo climb of El Cap but then dramatically stops and climbs back down to the ground. From that point on, it's unclear not only if Honnold will attempt the climb again but if he still wants Chin and Vasarhelyi there to film it.<p>"In our minds we're not allowed to push him one way or the other," Chin said. "But I would like to think he understood the amount of passion and heart that this whole crew was putting into it."</p><p>"But Alex responded in an honest way," Vasarhelyi added. "Which was, 'I have to be stronger and better.'"</p><p>It all culminates in a dramatic conclusion where the filmmakers capture the dramatics on the ground between Honnold and McCandless as well as Honnold's historic trek.</p><p>Audiences are already dazzled by "Free Solo." It won the people's choice award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which inevitably thrust it into the race for the best documentary Oscar. But as much as Vasarhelyi and Chin love how audiences have reacted to the movie so far, the standout for them is how Honnold sees it.</p><p>"He says he has the opposite experience from the audiences," Chin said. "Everybody loves the love story and him as a fascinating documentary character and then are cringing during the climb. He loves the climbing footage and cringes during everything else."</p><p>&#xa0;</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-trak-explains-what-djs-actually-do-2018-8">Here's what DJs actually do</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The directors behind the death-defying documentary 'Free Solo' explain why they made the risky decision to film Alex Honnold's 3,000 foot climb up El Capitan without a rope

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How 'The Rescue' directors made reenactment scenes featuring the Thai cave divers who were really there

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Where is Diana Nyad now? Everything to know about the athlete at the center of Netflix's biopic 'Nyad'

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The directors behind the death-defying documentary 'Free Solo' explain why they made the risky decision to film Alex Honnold's 3,000 foot climb up El Capitan without a rope

Jason Guerrasio

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