I came onboard Rachel Noble's short film Rooted at the beginning of August. The film examines depression and the need to find joy in life's little things. Thematically I could definitely relate.
It sounded like a lovely little project and then Rachel mentioned we'd be filming in the water and my ears perked a little. I'd never shot in water before, so I definitely relished the challenge. Armed with wetsuits, waders and wellies we tackled the Irish Sea, which is still chilly even at this time of the year! The main problem, that we faced when shooting the water scenes, other than the changing tides, was that everyone kept drifting subtly away from the spot we intended to film at. It was hard to notice until you released you weren't looking at the same angle you'd framed up 30 seconds ago. I used natural light and a bounce, where possible, to light these scenes. We shot the water stuff with an a7S II and an underwater housing to boot rented from Film Equipment Hire. A lovely bunch of guys up there!
The actors gave us very natural performances, making the shoot a dream to lens. They say never work with children or animals, well... we didn't have any kids, but we did have a large body of temperamental water and a wonderful smiling dog named Molly.
The rest of film was lit using natural light, a bounce and diffuser, except for the bedroom scene which was lit using a Kino Flo Diva 4 Bank. I shot on my Ursa Mini 4.6k using the Sigma Art zoom range of 18-35mm and 50-100mm. In camera filtration was a Promist 1/2.
The film should be finished by mid September and will be entered in to festivals.