Way back in 1999 I had a photographic exhibition sponsored by a Manukau City Council arts Grant. It featured portraits of  returned service men. They ranged in age from 22 up to 101, with a variety of military service from the French Foreign Legion to RAF Bomber Command.

I am in the  early stages of producing a sequel to the exhibition that will be a film documentary. I would like to interview several veterans, look at  pictures from their services,  and tell their story on HD DLSR video.

I remember when I photographed the subjects for the exhibition I also took notes from them for picture captions. When they told me their story I thought it would have been great to capture that on film.  I will be shooting second unit stuff like the clip below to go with the documentary.

This is an experimental clip and I wanted to test out a few techniques on ANZAC day. One is using handheld cameras without steady-cam to create a cinematic urgency. Its used commonly in TV production.  At 40seconds where I was following the subject filming with a 90 mm lens handheld is a good example. With the camera rolling at 24 FPS the clip has a physical feel to it of sorts.

Its an exciting long-term project and one that I will be posting regular updates on.