We've been to the bridge once before, and happened to see what the location looks like at sunset. Because of this, we scheduled the shoot so that we ended right after the sun went down, so that we captured it but still drove home before it got dark.
The weather conditions at the bridge were very uncomfortable. The air was very hot and dry, the dust from the road was sticking to everything, and as the sun went down the bugs came out. But as always, the harder nature makes it for us the better the result:
Part of the shoot involved experimenting with different cameras and rigs. We did some extensive work with a remote control helicopter rig, and the results were fantastic.
The point of this wasn't just to play with some new toys. We needed to convey the scale and mass of the bridge and the landscape surrounding it. Being that many of the ideal vantage points are obscured by trees, it was important to get above the treeline and really convey the grandness that is the Third Bridge.
One of the other things I wanted to convey was the unchanging nature of the bridge. I wanted it to feel visually that as the world is changing, the road and the bridge remain still. Because of this, I brought a standard compact point 'n shoot to the set, the difference being that the software on the camera has been hacked to deliver automated HD time-lapses. As the sun was setting we did two setups with this camera, and while the images looked great we didn't have enough time to really get some nice long time-lapses like I hoped for. I plan to go back to the bridge and do some more in the future.
We also captured tons of standard b-roll using regular cameras. Rachel and Beth helped out on this endeavor. I instructed them to keep the cameras locked down and still, and only to use square framing. This was to help reinforce that visual weight and size of the bridge, and they did a great job creating that.
No comments:
Post a Comment