#DIALW Wind Reel And Print - It's a WRAP!

So technically we wrapped production on Saturday and proceeded to discuss future film projects over a great curry.

It's been a fun week and I look forward to turning in the first finer-cut edit to the director, Seb Hunter. But Monday is a day off, I'll tackle that tomorrow.

The film is already loosely cut and clocks in at around 28 minutes sans titles. But too loose to show anyone, just yet.

Floor 6, Chesil Street MSCP. Park by phone.

So let me reflect on what I've learned on this production -

1. To park by the statue of King Alfred on Broadway in Winchester requires 'coins'.

2. In freezing muddy conditions you can do a lot worse than Vivobarefoot Tracker hiking shoes.

3. In freezing muddy conditions at night you can do a lot worse than Nitecore TM26 at 150 lumens with a runtime of approx 41 hours.

4. If the production unit is highly mobile with added agility then kit choice needs to reflect this. Mobile means why not use mobile. Thus, airninja movie method is validated.

5. Even though we are not using production audio from the iPhone 6 Plus, if we had planned for it, we could have. Audio perspective matches the fixed lens, MEMS microphone DSP helps noise reduction (although it didn't reduce the noise of overhead aviation, it won't do miracles nor should you expect it to).

6. All I want from a video camera app is simple - fix the white balance to a preset, fix the exposure, but leave autofocus roaming (AF with focus pixels works very well in iPhone 6 Plus). Currently the native app can't do this, so the closest I have found to my needs is Kinomatic.

7. Parkas are in fashion this season.

8. I didn't need touch sensitive gloves to operate the iPhone - just a naked hand and a spare pocket to keep it in between takes.

9. I used the ShoulderPod S1 + Manfrotto PIXI with wrist lanyard 95% of the time. The other 5% was on a Manfrotto Compact Action tripod.

10. Digital zoom, you guessed it, sucks. Which means all next wave rebellion against airninja must use digital zoom.


Look out for the final cut of Dark Is A Long Way playing in Winchester cinemas with live musical accompaniment from the Provincials - ETA Easter 2015.

#DIALW Day Four and Five - ducking, burning, drinking, resting, editing

On day four we successfully sent the suspected witch to trial into the freezing waters of the River Test where the blacksmith divined the fact she is a witch by attempting to drown the woman - she lived! Clearly a witch. So we burned the devilspawn tied to a stake in Spinney Hollow (other amazing activities are also available). The evening descends into classic medieval debauchery and I slip away to dump the rushes and do a kit check ...

What can I say?

DeerCam1 after shooting for hours in freezing rain.

1. The Lord's rain does not show up in the frame when filming it. Mythbusted! I'm happy to have visual proof that it does show up if you aren't scared of a bit of rain, and have a light source and camera available to record. Sure, the rain has to be reasonably medium-to-heavy but by-jiminey if it doesn't look like fucking rain on playback - because it is fucking rain.

2. Thou shalt not use a smartphone to make a film. Poppycock! This commandment has been successfully debunked several times over and Dark Is A Long Way continues the trend.

3. Always use a smartphone case and screen protector. Well, yes. Do do that (my choice for DIALW being iPhone 6 Plus and Anker case). Because in the freezing rain and cold mud whilst slipping in the quagmire you won't need a camera assistant, you won't need an umbrella, you won't need to cry for your mummy, you can just keep shooting and shooting and shooting. Your fingers will freeze and you will die of hyperthermia and the screen protective case will keep capacitive-confusing moisture off the glass long after you are dead and have no need for phone. Except perhaps for an emergency call?

Vivobarefoot Tracker off-road boot.

4. Bonus/footnote - the Vivobarefoot Trackerperformed admirably in these conditions with a firm connection to the ground, I didn't slip once. More importantly perhaps, neither did I get soaking wet feet whilst standing in River Test nor galavanting around Spinney Hollow.

In summary - "nobody knows anything" - William Goldman.

On day five - well, there's hangovers to contend with and a very rough and loose edit to continue. We are at least over half way through the nine day production schedule now!

10 Things I Learned On The DIALW Recce

Yesterday the director, headline actress, and myself recce'd the main Hampshire locations for 'Dark Is A Long Way' (DIALW). The main reasons for me to recce locations are to minimise surprises, take some test footage and figure out where everyone is going to park on the day. That said, here is what I have taken away from the day:

1. Tripods are boring. Seriously, I setup a tripod shot and I already felt like I had an albatross around my neck. I am the human tripod!

2. The high contrast black & white look is really going to compliment the subject matter, as is the season (winter) that we are shooting in. All the stills on this page are extracted video frames.

3. You can add locations to 'Favorites' in the Maps app on iPhone. With varying degrees of accuracy depending on your cell and wifi environment.

4. You can extract the latitude/longitude metadata from a photo snapped on iPhone and use that in the iPhone TomTom app to create an email that will open the co-ordinates in Google Maps or TomTom Route Planner. Great for call sheets.

5. The Vivobarefoot Scott really is waterproof. However the sole is not a great performer on wet grass at a gradient.

6. Spinney Hollow is an awesome self-sufficient homestead and also has structures that will be great in our movie. We can also burn a person at the stake there.

7. The vistas found in the New Forest look great with winter atmospheric perspective.

8. The glass-bottomed aquarium may look too small, but the actress can get her head in it and the iPhone can frame things well from underneath.

9. Winchester city rubbish tip is like an Ikea surplus store.

10. My strategy of using gloved hands and a stylus to operate the iPhone touchscreen is not going to work reliably. I may have to get a cold finger for art's sake.

All in all a very useful day that allowed me to get satnav bookmarks for all locations ahead of the first day of shooting this coming Saturday.


BONUS: what I learned creating this blog post - this many pictures when authoring a Blogger post are a pain in the ass to format (as I'm sure you can see, for which I apologise!)

Shoelaces And Lacing Are More Important Than You Think

I've got pretty wide feet and like the looser fit that ladder lacing gives me. However, re-lacing that way shortens the length available to tie the laces (not drastically, but enough to be irritating in a first world problem kind of way).

So I was pleased to find a vendor that sells decent hiking laces at various lengths at a decent price.

Voila. Another first world problem put to bed ahead of shooting DIALW.

Great Scott - Price Drop on Amazon

Vivobarefoot Scott firesale?

Half price (£60 at time of writing) so what do I do? Buy two pairs of course!

Sole Runner Ouch

After a couple of days wearing it's clear these cannot be my everyday shoe (note the sore red line on my foot, caused by the Sole Runner Vario).

Back to the Vivobarefoot Gobi it is then!

Sole Runner Vario minimalist boot / shoe

They took a few days to arrive from mainland Europe but my new all-season minimalist boots by Sole Runner came today (via Amazon.co.uk).

Initially the thermal inserts were installed but a few seconds after putting the shoes on it became clear that currently the weather here in the UK is too hot. So I removed the inserts - I'll save them for when it's freezing weather.

Without the inserts the shoes felt much more roomy and less snug on my feet, but in a positive openly free way.

One niggle - on my right foot it felt like a seam was digging in along the top of my foot, felt similar to an insect bite. Annoying but manageable to ignore. Would this be a point of abrasion and tear the top of my foot to pieces? Watch the video to find out.



Overall I'm very happy with the Sole Runner Vario, coming from Vivobarefoot Gobi with no in-soles. The Vario gave me zero blisters so far which is a feat only Vivobarefoot has managed previously. I do think there is a high chance the Vario will become my 'go to' everyday shoe. Personally I like the high-top since I do not wear socks and although the Gobi are extremely comfortable, I can feel 'exposed' because I do not wear socks.

Thanks to minimalist shoes I haven't worn socks for over a year now and I don't anticipate ever wearing socks again under normal conditions.

Quest Continues For My Perfect Footwear

Ordered: Sole Runner Vario all-season minimalist boot.



After realising I am actually a size 7 in Vivobarefoot and consequently looking for a autumn/winter minimalist boot, I started looking for the Vivobarefoot Scott. No avail, not available anywhere I can find in a 7.

I've been through a lot of shoes the last couple of years, but I keep going back to the Vivobarefoot Gobi- but I really want a higher-top so I don't have to worry about feeling weird about not wearing socks. Some weatherproofing could be useful too.

Then the Sole Runner shows up as a suggestion and I look into it. Seems pretty good, ticks a lot of boxes for me. I guess I'll find out. From what I've read, seems like I'll be a size 7, so that's what I'm taking a punt on (and Amazon makes returns relatively painless in my experience).