Art from the HeART: Orchestration of Salvation
Sam O'Donnell as "Chris"
As part of the annual Hillsong “Art from the HeART” film and arts festival I worked with director Nick Khoo and producer Peggy Yabevula on their short film “Orchestration of Salvation”.
It was a fun project where I finally got to put my new cameras to the test in “video-mode”. My 5D MkII’s, apart from being superb still cameras, also shoot HD video and in true Vincent Laforet style we went guerilla shooting all across Sydney for this short film.
Nick has already shared some of the limitations of this camera on his FB production blog, which are significant and could make certain film projects really difficult. The fact it shoots 30fps compressed H264, you have little or no iris control, handheld shooting is not an option, focus on that little screen is not great (you really need an external HDMI screen, and a focus assist from RedRock would also be nice..) and you really need a separate recorder and microphones for audio, as the internal microphone picks up a lot of noise from your focus ring and other on-camera dials, buttons etc.
The limitations aside, the cameras turned out to be a great match for this project. The compatibility with my range of beautiful Canon lenses, the size and light weight proved great features and really gave the opportunity for us to get some beautiful footage, and some shots that would have been hard to do with conventional video-cameras. We also largely went without needing any lighting except for a silver reflectors and one scene in the church a couple of red-heads as a fill light.
Another great thing about this project was we didn’t have to worry about audio (which suits the 5D’s perfectly) as the whole script was based on voice-overs..
Check out the video and some production stills below.
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The Orchestration of Salvation from Nick Khoo on Vimeo.
Everyday your life is filled with seemingly insignificant events, but little do you know that every moment that is made is part of a larger orchestration.
2009 Finalist : ART from the HEART Film & Arts Festival
Director : Nick Khoo
Writers : Michelle Khoo // Nick Khoo
Starring : Samuel O’Donnell // Renée Hodson // Geoff Young // Dave Hunkeler // Matt Tickner
DOP : Anders Kjondal
Producer : Peggy Yabevula
Shot completely on the Canon 5d Mark II.
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- 5D mounted close to the ground on Wally Dolly
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- Renée on park bench
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- Anders behind the camera
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- Nick behind the camera at La Boheme
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- Sam O'Donnell
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- Camera mounted overhead on C-stand
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- Filming in church
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- Balmain Anglican Church
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- The entire cast & crew
Art from the HeART: Immolation
Glenn Stewart's Immolation
Another film project I was part of for the “Art from the HeART” festival was Glenn Stewart’s animation called “Immolation”.
For this animation, Glenn wanted to photograph a series of stop-motion character movements that he could put into his film. We set up a blue-screen studio in my loungeroom and spent a night shooting the character movements. We also went outside the next night and shot a number of flame sequences for the closing scenes of the movie, where everything goes up in flames, literally..
The films are screening on the Hillsong website this week, so get in and cast your vote!
Also, visit Glenn’s blog to view the film in HD..