We have been doing a lot of scouting lately for this short film we are are working on! Here we are checking out this spot I know on the Capilano River in North Vancouver just below the Hwy 1 Bridge.

Checking possible angles and shots.

I was super lucky to have the opportunity to drag Erin and Ruth down the sketchy path and have them sit in for possible angles and sort out if what I am thinking in my mind is actually possible :)

Checking angles and shots

LIGHT

All in all I am thinking that I will have to hit this location up at a few different times of day just to see how the light actually is, and how quickly it moves / shadows that the bridge creates etc. The valley floor and the river is actually rather dark comparatively to the tops of the trees and the bridge itself. I mesured a 4-6 stop difference that I have to make up for by bringing in some huge freaking lights/reflectors/diffusers or to fix it in post like I did for these photos by relying on the camera’s Dynamic range

Light is going to be both beautiful and a total problem here.
I had to bring up the exposure on these two about three or four stops and the sky os still blown out. This is easier to do with photos than it is with video so relying on this much post manipulation is not really all that prefered.

SOUND

In addition to the light issues and based on the quick sound tests I did down there external noise is also going to be a bit of a problem. The river is quite loud all around this location as there is a lot of rocks and turbulent water about. Normally in this sort of place I would scoop the boom mic to point it up at the talent and away from the water noise but doing this basically points the shotgun at the highway traffic and all the bridge noise.

I think that we would have to cheat any of the heavy dialogue farther away from the water and Bridge and look at ADR for the wider shots… Lots to think about here to be sure. I am wondering if we can adapt the film to a more secluded location.

FRAMING

In addition to the noise and challenges on getting down to the location I am having some issues with framing at this location. I want to shoot this in a 2.40 ratio (cinescope) but framing the talent and things like the bridge are actually pretty hard to do without getting down on the ground really really low or moving really far away from the bridge and using a longer focal length stopped down a tonne to compress that distance and while both are options but not necessarily what I want to have to do.

Not to mention that where the river runs under the bridge dictates where you can set a camera or the talent for that matter limiting the ways that I can cheat these two in the same shot while shooting scope. While not impossible but it is an additional challenge.

And of course we filmed it all :)

All in all the location has quite a few challenges and while super beautiful and ‘secluded’ it might not quite be the best option for the film. We are basically into winter now anyway so we will have to think about it. But this is why we scout I suppose. :)