Ice Road Truckers' Camera Crew Constantly Risks Their Lives In Order To Get The Shot
One of the things that make "Ice Road Truckers" such a compelling reality show is the dangerous nature of its subject matter. The series depicts truckers getting into deadly situations, showing how they use their skills and experience to get out of life-or-death scenarios in one piece, with their cargo still intact.
The characters depicted in "Ice Road Truckers" are truck drivers by trade. Some of them have been driving on ice roads for decades prior to the show's pilot episode. While the risk to their lives remains the same, at least they know what they signed up for and have plenty of experience dealing with tricky situations in the middle of these snowy deserts. The same cannot be said about the camera crew, who also had to risk their lives in order to capture the best, most exciting moments on the road.
The camera crew followed truckers in a dedicated vehicle
When watching "Ice Road Truckers," it is easy to binge the show without paying much attention to how exactly some of its most exciting moments were shot. As it turns out, History Channel's camera crew followed the main characters in their own truck, dedicated entirely to the cameramen and their equipment. This is what enabled some of "Ice Road Truckers" most breathtaking shots to appear on television. In order to capture the action in high quality and impeccable sound, many of the crew members put their own lives at risk by pulling off stunts such as hanging off the side of their truck. They've been involved in accidents, too. In 2009, the show's production crew truck crashed into a semi in Alaska, leaving some crew members in need of hospitalization (via Reality TV World).
Allegedly, a few of the camera crew members who took part in the filming process were complete rookies plucked from other areas of production. Dave Redmon, one of the truckers featured on the History Channel series, claimed in a Huliq interview that "some of the people on the camera crew were so inexperienced (...) they didn't even know how a camera worked." According to Redmon, some were even promised better jobs in exchange for working as camera crew members on the show. It is impossible to verify whether or not Redmon's statements are completely truthful, but there's no denying the final shots the camera crew achieved made the reality show all the more thrilling.