As photographers, we’re always chasing the perfect light wherever we go. Driven by passion, we have an unwavering determination to get “the shot”. Light is the key ingredient in any photograph, and photography is about learning how to sculpt that light. Conor McCann and I spent a month shooting this project while living out of vans down in California. We’ve travelled together a ton of times over the years, but this was our first time collaborating on a video, so it’s a special one. And a huge shoutout to Corona for trusting my creative vision. Shot on the Canon R5 and Black Magic Pocket Camera.
This is a passion project of mine that has been in the works since the beginning of Covid lockdown. I began writing the script last march- slowly adding to it day by day… Sending it to friends, getting feedback, and changing things around. I wanted Chelsea Yamase to be in it because she is always telling me beautiful stories like this one. Rachel Moore was kind enough to let us shoot on her sailboat while also being the perfect balance to Chelsea in the film. Acting is about subtlety and I think they both did an incredible job… it’s not easy with dialogue scenes. As for the footage, my goal was to NOT use any stock-footage. I spent most of the last year with this project in the back of my mind- always keeping an eye out for shots I could capture to help tell the story of Nasa’s Voyager Spacecrafts. Shane McLachlan and I brainstormed concepts for VFX shots in the film, and being the incredibly talented human that he is, decided to try learning 10 years of VFX and compositing in just a few months. All the VFX shots of the spacecraft were done by him for the film based on storyboards we created. Other friends of mine helped me with the shots I was unable to capture- such as the volcanoes in Guatemala and the elephants in South Africa. One of my best friends Isaiah English spent almost a whole year recording sound effects and making an incredible library of original sounds used in this film. I guess what I’m trying to say is: creating projects that are meaningful to you, is always made better when you surround yourself with a crew of talented, inspiring, and creative people. And in this case, I feel very lucky to call them my friends.
This is the first short film I’ve made in quite a while and I’m super excited to share it. Chelsea and I spent 17 days in French Polynesia filming this video. The first half of the trip felt like an uphill battle. Everything we tried shooting didn’t feel “right” and we were feeling pretty uninspired, even in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
In a wave of creativity and energized focus, Chelsea and I came up with the concept for ‘Lady of the Sea’ and excitedly wrote the beginnings of the narrative down in my journal.
The moment Chelsea got in the water wearing the dress, we knew this would be a pretty unique project.
DJI sent me their new Air 2S and I decided to put it through its paces- testing it in as many different situations as I could. It’s small, light, and has incredible image quality. Here’s the film I shot with it.
Flow state is that feeling of energized focus when you immerse yourself in something you love. That feeling of getting so in the zone, you start preforming at the absolute peak of your abilities. @ChelseaKauai and I decided to explore this concept and how you can tap into the "flow state". Special thanks to @kold and @Kylor Melton for helping with the footage, and to Corona for making this one possible.