The Winter Wonder
“I think a general inspiration has been a desire to develop my skill sets for nature documentary type projects. So why not utilize a local natural wonder to take a project from inception to distribution. As simple as this piece is, I am pleased with the out come when factoring the “One Man Band” approach I had taken minus a morning jib shot my 1st AC Nicholas Murray was kind enough to help with.”
“The winter months are generally a busy time of year as we have heavy shooting and editing schedules. In January of this year we were wrapping up post production on a major project and I was coming in to a weeks’ vacation. Knowing I wanted to film a project, I was keeping an eye on the upcoming weather forecast and to my surprise we had unexpectedly warm sunny days coming in perfect alignment with my staycation! I was really hoping the days would be very similar regarding lack of cloud cover…and they were! With all the elements lining up I thought this was a great opportunity to create a short film that fulfilled my desire of capturing a color full winter wonderland. It was also a nice opportunity to give the piece to my clients as a thank you for access and support in capturing images throughout the year in one of the most majestic places on earth!”
“Difficulties with shooting in potentially arctic conditions in Canada can be numerous. I had mentioned that I picked warm sunny days to film, but to put those temperatures into context, the days I filmed were only 5 degrees and 0 degrees with wind chill. Another element that makes filming by the falls a challenge in all seasons is the mist, in the winter it can freeze a layer of ice on all your gear in a very short time. One dynamic that was on my side is, the team I work with have been shooting in -20 degree nights for consecutive months and we have become fairly climatized to the cold. To us it was practically a spring day!”
“On the post production side of things finding the right music was crucial. I needed a song that was going to provide what I believe is a large percentage of overall emotion and fluidity to the edit. I had very set ideas on what style and pacing the music would need express, as well as no specific budget to have a custom score. I found a beautiful and powerful song on Motion Array, a stock site which I utilize regularly in my corporate productions. The song is Slow Motion and composed by LuLu Productions, I am extremely satisfied with its ability to pair so well with the imagery.”
“I Imagine the references for the project are various nature documentaries I enjoy. I always found that certain shots of Niagara Falls in the winter can resemble scenes from some exotic frozen location or even something from another planet, if I have my sci-fi goggles on. I like to use my imagination to try and keep places I film on a regular basis, fresh and enticing.”
“I think the camera and techniques I used for this project are used quite regularly since the democratization of high quality image and sound acquisition. But if I’m honest the ability to film at 120fps and utilize 4K resolution was not really accessible to me even a half a decade ago, well at least not with a “staycation budget” I was working with. I also think this project was a very good exercise in lighting and planning. You would be right to point out that I didn’t introduce my own production lights in this naturally lit film, but the light placement, angle and shoot durations where all planned according to seasonal dynamics in advanced. Though I had essentially no control of these dynamics, I was able to confirm my schedule, frame rates, shooting angles, lens choices as well as other production factors to the specifics of the situation.”
“For the edit I wanted the sequence to linearly travel from morning golden hour to evening golden hour, an added benefit is the southern path of the sun in a Canadian winter is great for introducing a warmer tone. I thought this warm tone would contrast the blue tone of the shaded elements of my compositions. I was also hoping the angle of the light regarding early morning and late afternoon would introduce a subtle dramatic mood to the shots. In my humble opinion I think this may be a good example of being able to practice and execute cinematic concepts and techniques regarding light and equipment with what you have on hand.”
“I used a Sony A7S II with a custom-made Picture Profile I have developed manly for more pleasing skin tones. For lenses I kept it very simple with over 80% of coverage shot with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II and the wide shots with one of my beloved Contax Zeiss lenses, the 28mm f/2.8. I have spent years rigging out DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras, sometimes with good equipment and sometimes with homemade DIY approaches. It’s a real love hate relationship using photographer-based ergonomics for cinematic applications, though I am very appreciative that at least the cinematic qualities regarding equipment are in reach. I have gone from unbalanced “Frankenstein Rigs” to well-balanced compact “Cinema Machines”.”
“Starting out with camera rigging I personally think you need to make inexpensive mistakes, eventually learning what is a proper approach for “ease of use” and “time efficient” shooting behaviors. That being said if you can learn from someone else's mistakes that's even better. There are some fantastic resources online, from some very generous people. When you begin to make money from your craft, I find you can shift from “reinventing the wheel” to purchasing extremely well thought out products, like the Tilta ES-T17-A Cage and Metabones EF to E Mount T CINE V Adapter. With all that said, I still have a super glued 15mm rail contraption I use as my adjustable EVF mount, I think a DIY perspective will always be with me, especially for items I can’t obtain, or ones that are not created yet.”
"I think a general inspiration has been a desire to develop my skill sets for nature documentary type projects."
“I do the post-production on probably 95% of my projects. Since this project was accomplished outside of a commercial budget, I was definitely going to be the one doing all the post-production work, minus the score. I work mostly in Adobe Creative Suite, utilizing Davinci Resolve for advanced color correction. The editing was accomplished with Premiere Pro CC with an integrated Film Convert plugin alongside Lumetri color panel for fine tuning.”
“For color correction and grade, I have customized a “in camera” Slog-2 picture profile that works very well with Film Convert’s film emulations. The custom picture profile was painstakingly developed to deal with skin tone issue I find Sony’s stock sensor settings has. For me color correction is extremely important in accomplishing a well-balanced and visually symmetrical piece. Though I still have much to learn in this area, I believe great care should be taken to avoid distracting the viewer with inconsistencies of exposure and color nuances unless you are deploying a technique to specifically support a story’s desired effect. For this film I wanted a fairly natural look regarding color, so I essentially stayed away from a stylized grade. Specifically, I used Film Convert’s KD P400 Ptra emulation as a base LUT and fine tuned from there.”
“This film’s shooting and editing was accomplished by my own efforts, but there are other aspects of accomplishing the finished piece that others were involved in, like the involvement of my producer Julie Angle. Telling a story using a cinematic medium involves all kinds of talented people with wonderfully different personalities. This is what many people including myself belief gives the production and final piece a soul…one soul created from a composite of individual souls. This composite of ideas and efforts is fragile and must be treated with gentle hands if it is to stay together in an effective and organic manner. This means the leadership roles have a great responsibility to be wise, with a strong sense of empathy regarding relationships within the team.”
“I enjoyed this project very much! I love living close to such a magnificent world wonder and I wanted to start sharing the beautiful experiences I draw from such a powerful expression of nature...Niagara Falls! The frozen elements and alienized visuals that can be filmed in the Niagara Parks in the winter months seemed like a good way to start. I am extremely thankful for any one’s desire to watch The Winter Wonder and honored to share my thoughts and process of creation to any that find it interesting!”
