Page 27 - Fujifilm Exposure_49_King's Speech_ok

GOINGTHATEXTRAMILE
CAPTURING THE EXTREMES OF SNOWBOARDING IN FOLLOW ME DOWN, NOMINATED IN THE DOCUMENTARY SECTION AT PLUS CAMERIMAGE
ntarctica is one of the last Aunspoiled wildernesses on
Earth, and for extreme sports enthusiasts represents an irresistible challenge to test
their skills against an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful.
The thrilling experience of legendary free riders Jeremy Jones and Xavier De Le Rue as they snowboard their way down sheer plains of virgin snow is captured in Follow Me Down, the second in the Lives Of Artists series. These films aim to capture the extremes of human achievement and the obsessive drive that takes us there.
A multi sensory fusion of stunning visuals and great music, this film brings together the pioneering electronic sound of UNKLE captured in concerts in Tokyo, St Petersburg and London with the Antarctic adventure enjoyed by Jones and De Le Rue, all captured by a small unit that included Between The Eyes producer Ben Pugh and cinematographer Daniel Trapp.
“It’s funded by the energy drink Relentless,” Pugh explains, “and director Ross Cairns came up with the concept. There’s a point around that brand where extreme sport and music meet, and Ross wanted to make a film that could be interesting content for the people that follow the brand.”
For Trapp, who was born and raised just outside of Wellington, the film represented a chance to return to a childhood fascination with the Antarctic that began during his childhood in New Zealand.
“I felt it was quite an honour to go somewhere like that,” he says, “to be walking up mountains and to be climbing crevasses where it’s possible no human being has ever set foot before.”
So remote was the location that the small unit – also including camera assistant Mark Barrs and Alpine cinematographer Guido Perrini – had to travel for a week, including a three-day boat journey for the final leg, to their final destination.
The shoot itself lasted seven days in this extraordinary location, but with 22 hours of daylight and very mild weather the unit was able to shoot for six of them. For the film Trapp selected the 16mm ETERNA Vivid 500T and ETERNA Vivid 160T, despite the pressure to go digital.
“I fought very hard and ended up winning the case based on the latitude that you’re going to get in a place where you can’t control anything. And I was proved right, because when the sun did come out we had shadows as well as whites, and it was actually very interesting to expose.
“A lightmeter can do one thing but you trust yourself to know that certain things were actually much brighter than they seemed, so film itself was important to help us to achieve that. That was just for the Antarctica sequence though. The second, music concert half of Follow Me Down was not shot on film but that was more controllable.
“I was glad we did it that way because one environment was very organic and was all in the texture whereas the other world was more electronic and artificial so schematically and conceptually it worked really well.”
Along with Trapp, Barrs and Perrini, director Cairns would also turn his hand to operating too, picking up one of the cameras available to capture images of the snowboarders in action that would only be possible as a first take.
“Mark would shoot B camera as a sort of mid-shot,” Trapp adds. “Guido would go up higher and I would stay more for the zoom, or to pull out for a wide effect. It’s really interesting watching the film, and I don’t know whether people notice or not but there are points that you obviously know they had to cut because there was nothing more of it, maybe the film ran out or maybe we hadn’t gotten quite into position quick enough.
Photos left: scenes from Follow Me Down
“WHEN THE SUN DID COME OUT WE HAD SHADOWS AS WELL AS WHITES,
AND IT WAS ACTUALLY VERY INTERESTING TO EXPOSE.”
THE DP VIEW
DANIEL TRAPP
I thought the ETERNA Vivid 160T
would be really interesting, that “it would pop everything out,
and it really did. I had to pull back quite a bit at one point because
one of the snowboarders was wearing a red jacket and that became a bit distracting.
But we used that with the ETERNA Vivid 500T when we were in Antarctica because I was interested in finding something unexpected.
I certainly didn’t expect as many blues as we got to be honest;
I expected a lot of white, but we were very fortunate with the look of it, and that became a big part of the film.
What was most interesting to me was the level of contrast we found because it was pretty much light the whole time we were there. The sun was quite low at certain points but never went down, and that led
to some really lovely moments
in the film.
”
for too long because the cameraman says the sun is moving and shadow’s coming across.
“So you really have to be on your game. Ultimately it was a lot of pressure to get it every time because each run is unique, and it’s not like you can ask them to do it again.
“Once they’ve done it they move on and do another one, so the point of having three cameras rolling at any one time is purely for coverage, so that one run can be extended into a watchable sequence. One shot down a mountain lasts only so long, so the logistics of getting all that done were quite interesting.”
The stresses of catching the key shot at the first attempt seem well worthwhile now that the film is complete. But more than that the unique environment of a remarkable shoot remain the strongest memory for all those who worked on
Follow Me Down, and for none more than Trapp.
“The first day we landed we were rushing around trying to get cameras together and gear in bags, and the snowboarders wanted to get on with it. It was chaos. But the head guide told us to shut up for one minute and think about where we were and what we were doing there. It was at that point that we all just had the same epiphany.
“Then they all left and I stayed in that area because it offered a really nice wide shot for me. Most of the cutaways that end up in the film were from that day.
“I was literally in awe of
the surroundings, the sound of the icebergs rolling and the birds flying past, but other than that silence. That had, and always will have,
a massive impact on me as a person and as a cinematographer.” ANWAR BRETT
Follow Me Down was originated on 16mm ETERNA Vivid 160T 8643 and ETERNA Vivid 500T 8647
“The point is that when the
snowboarders have just climbed all
the way up a really steep, 90 degree
face, they’re not going to sit there www.relentlessenergy.com
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 25
The film can be viewed at: