Reefs of Hope South Pacific Expansion

Descending and rising take up the bulk of my flight time now.  I search for interesting looks -- white sand borders which look like faces, formations of swimming gardeners, or the breathtaking shards of light the sun can create over the ocean.  I spin over it all, hurtle here and there, and take in the deep enjoyment it brings.

Then the alarm sounds -- battery low!  It's time to land.  

Here, I will attempt to describe the landing of a drone on an open dive boat.  First of all, it's important to have a nice, wide landing area.  (I don't have that.)  Secondly, it's important to have control over the landing area you have designated.  (I don't have that either.)  Then, you can simply descend your drone onto the GPS location the drone marked at takeoff.  (That spot is now open water.)  Or you can do what I do -- steer the drone over the moving boat with one hand on the controller, and snatch the drone out of the air with the other hand when it's close enough. 

Note:  The drone will fight you when you seize it.  To keep your fingers from being sliced by the blades, snatch the drone in the midbody from underneath.  Quickly turn the drone upside down -- this action cancels the drone's fight to level itself.  Don't fall in the water whilst doing this.  If you do, heave the drone onto the boat -- you will survive the water.  The drone won't.

Got it?  

My mantra in any shoot is, "By air, by land, by sea..."  Hence, once the flying shots are done, I can stow the drone, pull on some fins, and go underwater.  The underwater camera is a marvelous piece of engineering we take for granted.  The image stabilization of the latest models has really transformed what we can do with them. My favorite underwater camera trick is to weigh down a tripod, take it to the bottom, and film upwards.  Austin and crew just seem to fly into the frame!  And with the sun glow serving as backdrop, these shots can be mesmerizing.  The key for me is to remain still enough and near enough to capture the work without invading the space.  

The length of the "shoot" at sea and shore is determined by battery life.  With three drone batteries and a fully charged underwater camera, there's a good three hours of filming we can do by air and underwater.  Shooting with the movie camera usually comes last.  Once ashore, we can can reflect on the day and I can find a shady interview spot, write some questions, and "gear up" for filming close ups.  

I won't bore you with lens choices and audio setups here, but I feel it's worth knowing that an interview audio setup involves two microphones -- one on the body of the interviewee, and the other on or near the camera.  (Yes, I like it near the camera and facing away from me so that my "interviewer voice" is naturally quieter.  This seems to translate well to film as it's how we hear things as well.)  The lens of choice is usually the 50mm, but I will swap out to the 24mm with some frequency.  The key is to keep the sand off the lenses, so carrying every lens I have to an interview is silly.  Keeping it simple works best.  

Then there's the teasing of the right sound bites from Austin.  Truth be known, the camera loves Austin.  (And I believe the feeling is mutual.)  The trick to success is to get the short and sweet answer.  However, as you know, answers rarely come in short, sweet packaging.  They must be teased out.  (This is how we finish the filming day -- the low-soaring sun, the hush of waves as our soundtrack.  If I could just find a proper chair to film from...)

With the interviews complete, the work of uploading footage to computer drives begins.  Back at the office, cords stream from device to device to wall and back like tangled jellyfish tendrils.  

Austin and I are comfortable roomies.  Many times, he brings me plates of food when I can't break for dinner. There's the constant give and take of, "Wow, look at this!" and "Did you see this latest report?" in the office.  And this all happens so naturally that we hardly notice the deep effect we have on each other.

I lost my brother, John, at the age of 23.  I have filled this chasm with music, art, filmmaking, and the heaping of love upon my twins.  Yet I can frankly say that Austin is my brother now in the most important of ways.  He illuminates the dark places, and he helps me remain optimistic in this fight -- this existential battle to bring the world to its senses.  

Links:

• How a good few days of filming can turn out