The last few weeks have been full on video mode. I got the first round of edits and just wrapped up going through all the raw footage from the filming... and dear lord, I'm excited! There is still plenty to do to get this to where I want it, but I'm over the moon at how beautiful the shots turned out! [See what I did there?]
The shoot.
We filmed over two days in two iconic Sydney locations. First day we went up to Palm Beach to film at a quiet beach and rock pool. It was a super warm day so we were able to get a fair amount of footage without having to worry about freezing to death in the water. We ended up filming a majority of the video at night with bugs and wind and sand in places you don't want sand to be. With each take I was becoming less and less sure I was going to make it, but it actually ended up making for some awesome/authentic faceness for the video!
(Setting the scene for our night shoot... drama!)
Day two we took it underwater at Clovelly. While the weather was still warm, we had much greater swells to contend with - add that to swimming in a dress and cape made of garbage and that was a whole other level of tiring! I can safely say my sinuses were completely cleared out after that experience. In retrospect, this is the part of the shoot that I would have liked to redo... not for the footage, but for the process. Swimming in clothing in ocean water when you can't touch the bottom is a lot to manage all at once. I think it would have been good to practice the underwater shots without the costume and then do it in realtime. Fortunately, Thibault brought an excellent safety assistant and a surfboard to help out in the water and we were able to get some really incredible footage. Lessons for the next video!
The best part of the whole experience was the amount of people that came up to ask what we were doing and giving their full support. "We definitely need this!" and "That's awesome!" were consistent remarks across the board. More people are becoming aware of ocean pollution and recognizing something needs to be done. This is encouraging on so many levels as it means my video is not just important, but also timely. We gotta do better!
What's next?
We're working on the second round of edits this week and I'm hopeful I'll be getting those back soon. Right now, I'm starting to lay the ground work for the video roll out so I'll be doing a lot more social media to keep everyone updated on how that's taking shape. Once I have a "working" edit I'll start reaching out to organizations that could be interested in sponsoring this and future projects. I have lots of ideas about how we can make this an interactive experience for both educational and fund raising opportunities - if you know someone who might be interested, let me know!
It's really happening!!!
(Obligatory Sydney sunset. That's a wrap!)