Uploaded by Mark Gee
With many thanks to Mark Gee.
Full Moon Silhouettes is something that I’ve been wanting to capture for a over a year now.
The video is a real time capture of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in the capital city of Wellington, New Zealand.
On the evening of the 28th January 2013, after a lot of planning and many failed attempts, I finally managed to pull it off.
There were numerous factors I had to consider and get right to capture the footage. The weather, moon phases and finding a suitable location where I could actually get the moon rising directly over the lookout.
Finally it all came together – I found the perfect location, and the weather in Wellington was amazing! Luckily there were people watching the moon rise from the Mount Victoria Lookout. I didn’t know what to expect with the performance of everyone up there, but I couldn’t have directed it better myself, even though they had no idea I was filming them.
I shot 8 minutes of footage between 9.14pm and 9.22pm and the finished edit shows about the first 3 minutes of that.
Technically, getting the shot was quite difficult. I was 2.1km away from my subject, and there was no room for error. I only had one chance of getting the shot right on the night. Thankfully it all came together, and what I ended up with was this wonderful performance of total strangers silhouetted against the full moon as it rose above the lookout.
Technical details – The footage was shot with a Canon 1D MkIV in video mode, with a Canon EF 500mm f/4 lens and a Canon 2x Extender, giving me the equivalent of 1300mm focal length. The camera was mounted on a Sachtler tripod with a Sachtler FSB 6 head.
I’ve also had a lot of comment on the music I’ve used.
The music is a royalty free track which I licensed for this short.
It’s Tenderness by Dan Phillipson, and you can find it here: http://premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/tenderness
Have a look at the film above, and feel free to share and leave comments below. Maybe one of these silhouetted strangers will even recognise themselves!
With many thanks to Mark Gee.
