Galapagos filming

Tai Lyon

Tai Lyon

Well-known member
I'm going to be down in Ecuador in late January on a shoot for an adventure travel company and I was wondering if anybody has shot down there and would have any tips or advice from there experience.

I'll be shooting on the mainland as well as on the Galapagos. I'm shooting on a HVX200 with currently (2) 16gb P2 cards. The end product will be for the web but of course I want to achieve the best results possible.

Questions in particular relate to:

workflow: I'm debating between using a pc laptop to dump the cards or using a external hardrive (OTG) or both. I'll have access to power at the end of each day.

Would you invest in another P2 card?

Mattebox or not? Would my polarizer cut it? Mainly concerned with the amount of sun and potential contrasty light.

What do people like for softer shell back packs?

I'm on a budget of course but I don't want to compromise the end product for trying to skimp on an essential piece of equipment.

Any suggestions/comments greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tai
 
I haven't been there myself but as a big fan of the islands, I would say yes to pretty much every thing. Bring a PC or mac laptop and an HDD (or two), P2 cards, it depends, mattebox I would say yes if possible, though you could probably be okay without it as long as you think a lot about how you're working with the sun. Being sans mattebox might cost you a couple of shots, though, especially when you're shooting up (and you will be).

We went to Ireland with an HVX, a Firestore, a macbook, 2 500gig HDDs, tripod, mics and a few lights. We managed to get around by packing all the necessities in to the camera bag, then stuffed a tripod, a light and a boom pole in the tripod bag. Got a bit heavy but it was only walking through Dublin that it started to get to us - the rest of the time it was a fairly easy jaunt.

I'm not sure about the level of humidity down there, but I would say you might want to think about something like that. We didn't have the ability to offload during the day, which was why we took the firestore - it can hold like 220 or 320 minutes of 720P 24PN, so we only needed to offload it in the evenings. If all you've got are 2 16GB P2s, that's an hour 20 minutes a day, and may well suit you. But if you only get the chance to offload at night, you might want either a 3rd card or a firestore. (Firestores aren't too bad, we shot every day for a week and only lost one shot which was my own fault, and I was shooting under some fairly harsh conditions with no problems).

It all really depends on how much you're planning on shooting per day. Either way, check to see what effect humidity might have on your laptop or external HDDs. It would be a royal pain to go through every thing and have an HDD die from humidity. We took two just in case and both made it back fine, but you never know... those things can die at any moment.
 
Galapagos

Galapagos

A couple of years back, I shot a short film about a trip to the Galapagos. (You can see the individual chapters of the film at http://wwww.costachannelc.com, click on Costafari Films.) Here are a few things I would tell you about shooting down there…

- Worry as much about what you'll be wearing as what and how you'll be carrying. Comfortable shoes will go a long way to making you very happy. You will likely be doing a lot of walking, and in places that are not easy on the feet.
- Humidity will be an issue unless you allow for it. Do not use the AC in your room at night and you shouldn't have a problem.
- Take a good polarizer (or two). Leave the matte box at home. (My opinion.)
- Spend the money (if you have it) to get an Ewa-Marine underwater housing. It'll get you some great shots at or just under the surface, which is really as deep as you need to go. (Check out Las Tintoreras, where you can swim with some small reef sharks.)
- Don't be a tourist. Meet some of the locals. The people of the Galapagos are some of the most welcoming and friendly I've ever met.

--SM
 
Many thanks for your reply and suggestions. Humidity is definitely going to be a concern so I will research the best possible way to deal with that adequately.

Mr wrOng, BTW what sort of lights did you travel with? I probably will not have them on this trip to keep costs and weight down but for future travels I'm looking for some. I imagine shoooting in Ireland provided some vibrant colours and character for your film.

SM,

About not using AC at night, do you mean that the AC creates humidity or the flucuation in the environment for the gear?

I'll look into the underwater housing, that would be a great feature but may not fit into the budget.

I tried to click on the link for your movie but it doesn't load. Any other places I might take a look?


Thanks again, I'm new to this site and just amazed at the wealth of knowledge openly shared and available for all of us pursuing similiar passions.

TL
 
Last edited:
Tai Lyon said:
About not using AC at night, do you mean that the AC creates humidity or the flucuation in the environment for the gear?
Click to expand...

I think what he's getting at is that AC systems by their nature pull the humidity out of the air - making your room much less humid than it is outside, which is where problems can arise if you take your gear suddenly from a dry environment into a humid one.

You can see the same thing happen with people who wear glasses in really humid environments (used to happen to me when I had glasses) - you run the AC in your car and everything is fine, then the second you get out your glasses fog up.
Same thing can happen to your gear.

Keep the AC off, and you'll keep the level of humidity constant between the inside and outside, and your gear should be okay.
 
LC's got it right. When I was down there, I had set aside one morning to do a time-lapse shot. The AC had cooled down the gear in my room, and when I went outside, nothing worked. I had to wait two hours before I could shoot a thing, and I missed the shot I wanted.

--SM
 
Tai Lyon, we brought two omnis, a tota and a rifa. The airliner, however, put all of our lights on a plane to australia so it took them over half of our 10 days to get them to us. By then we'd finished all of the most important interviews and just wound up taking the rifa to dublin to balance out what we'd been doing otherwise (putting the subjects by windows and just going with that). The director and I each have a different tripod set, I had a heavy-duty set of legs while he had a small, prosumer set of sticks, so I put his tripod in my bag, along with the boom pole and the rifa and it just BARELY fit, but it did.

I don't know if conditions will be as favourable to you on the equator. Ireland is almost always overcast & very cloudy, so very little direct sun to throw off the shots. If you're running around in hot sun, your best shots are gonna be super-early and right at sunset when the sun is the closer to the horizon and not directly overhead. Your mid-day stuff outside will probably mostly be junk, but if you can get in to the forests you'll probably be good. It's very bright there.
 
i second the mattebox is not crucial sentiment. i shot recently for two months on the big island (hawaii) and my hvx did fine without it (remember that you have two built in french flags, your hands - unimpressive looking but gets the job done)

Polarizer - yes

If you use AC at night, or in your rental car, let your gear acclimate in its case for at least a good 30 minutes out of the AC before you take it out of the case. maybe the galapagos islands are more humid, although hilo receives many inches of rain a year.
Good advise about the best times to shoot being (as expected) morning and evening.
look into a graduated ND filter, helps keep the sky from blowing out in landscape shots.

i also have the ewa-marine case, it does what they say, keeps the camera dry, but it isn't very good for serious underwater anything. honestly, it felt kind of like a toy...not to be unexpected with the price.

hope this helps
-p
 
P-

Totally agree on the Ewa-Marine. I've used it in shallow water work (six feet or less) and in the surf, and that's about all I'd use it for. But in the Galapagos, a lot goes on in those six feet, so barring the opportunity to use a Gates or Equinox, I'd take an Ewa with me. If only two or three shots come out of it, it's worth it.

--SM
 
stephenmick said:
P-

Totally agree on the Ewa-Marine. I've used it in shallow water work (six feet or less) and in the surf, and that's about all I'd use it for. But in the Galapagos, a lot goes on in those six feet, so barring the opportunity to use a Gates or Equinox, I'd take an Ewa with me. If only two or three shots come out of it, it's worth it.

--SM
Click to expand...

sm-

exactly why I bought it for Hawaii, get into the waves and surface coral beds, nothing major at all. i have had it down about ten feet (about all i could dive with it without SCUBA gear)

a plus for the Ewa is its size, it easily fits in your luggage and doesn't attract attention. although you really need a lot of ballast to make the thing manageable. it's a great tool to have, just know it's limits.

hope this helps
-p
 
Thanks again guys!

The clarification on the AC, makes complete sense. As does the time of day shooting, etc.

I'll look into a graduated ND.

Good to hear your thoughts on a mattebox. I kinda figured the lens cap and some gaffer tape could always double if needed to block some stray light.


T
 
one more question

one more question

Steven,

I appreciated your input to my questions about the Galapagos.

I was wondering if you would go with a dv multirig pro and a tripod or one or the other to cut down on equipment.

I own a good quality tripod but would have to invest in the mulitrig.

I'm going to be filming on the mainland as well as the Galapagos all for an adventure travel company and their activities, so as you said before I want to insure I'm comfortable as much as I'm concerned with equipment. Having said that I'm trying to picture setting up a tripod vs using something like the multirig to be more mobile.

Any thoughts?
 
If money is an issue, I would spend the sixty bucks or so and get a Spiderbrace 2.

http://www.spiderbrace.com/

I shot with one on an October shoot and it worked perfectly and without incident. I can't say enough about what a shoulder brace can do for the quality of your handheld shots. If you can bring both a DVMultiRig and a tripod (and based on how small the MultiRig folds, you should be able to), I would bring both. It's worth the little bit of added weight.

--SM
 
I had been looking at the Spider brace, good to hear you had success with the brace.

Muchas gracias.
 
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