The camera is fine, but my back kills.

A couple weeks ago Matthew and I got a request from our friend John to help him with an idea he'd had for a video. It started as simply as filming wintery things like sledding and such and putting it to Fleet Foxes. It's a great a recipe and we decided to run with it, just for fun.

I filled the role of cinematographer so I could experiment with our work-in-progress 35mm adapter, and l let Matthew handle the artistic direction of the film. As with every film shoot, there were issues. The problems started out small, things pertaining to the 35mm adapter, like the focal range needed to be adjusted and there was debris inside on the ground glass. These minor issues were soon trumped by larger ones, issues pertaining to the location we had chosen for sledding and the fact that it was less of a hill and more of an icy ravine requiring abstaining from any thought to physical preservation to even attempt. In layman's terms, it was a lumpy, lumpy hill. As the sled approaches 10 to 15 mph the lumps term from rhythmic bumps to near fatal shocks to the body, primarily the spine and tailbone. The lumps were so severe that most rides down the hill would end in being vertically thrown from the sled by an exceptionally violent lump. The 3 of us, being tough young men and stout of heart, would lay at the bottom of the hill crying and moaning for no more than a couple of minutes following each ride.

Arms are great tools for avoiding greater damage to precious parts of the body, such as the face and head, during a gnarly fall. It's a real shame that my arms were busy trying to keep our precious HV20 from harm, even whilst being ejected from a sled at 20 mph in a fashion that would make a tumble weed jealous.

For reference, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uFc51Q6_74

We filmed for an hour for 2 days, then Matthew did a quick edit for a screening at 4:00 the next day. It was a success. The 35mm adapter gave the perfect, old timey feeling we we're looking for, and most of the pain was worth it.

See the end result for yourself!