The last two days I've been shooting the most tricky exterior miniature scenes for my short film together with Øystein Moe from Helmet and Stian Eriksen.
The place we've been shooting at as seen from the outside, an old petrol station that's been converted into a studio.
Due to budget limitations we spent the first day finding a solution for how to do the camera movement from the house on the island out into the sea past the icebergs. Øystein and Stian set up the dolly with the Red camera hanging on it. At the end of the day we all had to admit that it was impossible to get a steady movement with the 15 kg heavy RED camera dangling forth and back.
The following morning they arrived with a good solution. We used a dolly with a crane on which we fixed the RED camera upside down.
This proofed to be a great solution since at last we were able to do a smooth tilt movement from the house on the hill down into the sea past the icebergs.
Øystein and Stian created lighting that ranged from bright morning light to overcast sky to snowstorm to moonlit night to stormy night. Also, we had one shot in which we captured a time-lapse from night to day.
Me placing the moon.
Sometimes we had to cheat a little in order to achieve my vision. In the shot below, for example, we had to place the island lower than the sea in order to get the right angle for making the icebergs appear more epic.
In post production, I'll be digitally painting and animating snowflakes and textures as well as adding footage of sky, mist and clouds. Also, I'll be blurring parts of the footage according to weather conditions in each shot. In mid September we'll finally be shooting the last part, the remaining exterior shots and the interior miniatures. In the meantime, I'll be continuing with editing and post production.