Last year, Kerry and I developed an approach to working which was essentially meeting at a specific location without bringing any ideas about characters/themes/shots there. We would walk around, observe, place the camera in a position that felt right and then come up with a shot that often involved the other person walking, or performing some kind of action. After doing this several times and figuring out what worked and what didn’t (purely by instinct) we would look back at the footage and decide what was worth refining. You can write a script and create a shot list, but I feel it’s equally, if not more important, to be able to be in a position on set where you can actively improvise and execute an idea by using the space around you. Filmmaking (to me) relies a lot on spontaneity and I find this way of working very exciting and liberating.

Kerry has had a short film idea in the works for a while, and a week or so ago we rented the EX3 over the weekend to test a few things out, essentially to ‘find’ the movie. We met at Ruffey Lake park on a Sunday (about 10AM), and the following day (Monday) at 7AM where we were fortunate enough to witness the glorious fog surrounding us. The below shot is one I figured out on the Sunday, and we did about 4 or 5 takes. A lot of ideas come to me subconsciously, and I am fairly certain that the walking scenes in Garrel’s films were the inspiration for this shot. They are loaded with mood and atmosphere, and I wanted to not necessarily re-create, but use this as a template. As for the camera itself, the shot involves a number of slow-zooms, something that I have become obsessed with since seeing Rossellini’s Blaise Pascal (1971), which completely changed my perspective on framing and cinema in general. It is my visual bible. As I have had little experience with operating the camera (I’m more of an ‘ideas’ kind of guy (I want this to change)), the exposure was a bit off, but more importantly, I didn’t use (out of pure ignorance) the auto-zoom button, instead manually doing it. The button was far too sensitive, and while on some occasions I could hold the speed I wanted, it was ultimately too inconsistent.

We looked back at the footage and Kerry and I decided we needed to shoot this again, properly. I asked Robin about the auto-zoom, and he showed me where it was located (doh) and how to adjust the speed level. A few days later we went back (with Andrew), again in the morning, to refine the idea.

We did about 6 takes, and the one below was the last and by far the best. I think the fact that we got an extra (without permission) makes it all the more special, and her entrance into the frame was timed perfectly. It’s funny that so many things that ‘make’ shots are often by mere luck.

Kerry and I have always thought the image from the EX3 looked best in black and white, and I think this is an appropriate shot for that choice. As we weren’t using any lights, we relied on the sky and the distance between the path and the bushes to create a correct exposure. The sky was clear, I would have preferred clouds but at least there was a consistency to work with. Kerry’s hat adds a nice shadow to his eyes, while the shades of his clothes work nicely against the natural backdrop. We had some problems with sound (it was panned only through the left side) so I added some ambient sounds over the top to try and even it all out. Overall, I am very pleased with how this has come out – I’m really not sure what else could have made it better.