Behind the Scenes of The Fire Sermon (#2)
This is a continuation of my last post detailing my ANAM collaboration with Ronan Apcar. So if you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out here.
Ben the grip, rigging up the lights
Let the foiling begin… *Cue sad lonely cello music
Production
Our video was filmed in the Rosina Auditorium at Abbotsford Convent. It was chosen for its open space and tall ceiling, and it had a grand piano in it already which was an added bonus. Being a heritage-listed site however meant there were a few things we needed to troubleshoot. Firstly we needed to make sure we didn’t overload the ceiling rails with the lights (which were quite heavy), and secondly we needed to find a way to darken the space. Since each light was made up of a lamp head and a control box, I decided to spread out the weight by attaching the lamp heads on one rail, and the control box on the other. With the windows, we weren’t allowed to stick things on the walls, and there were no existing curtains; so in order to black out the 10 or so large windows we either had to bring in multiple stands and black out material, or we could rely on the miracle properties of wet foil! In the end, we went for the foil option, and Ronan had the unenviable task of covering up all the windows. (Sorry Ronan for the 9 hours of your life you’ll never get back). Thanks to Ronan’s meticulousness, this method of blacking out the windows worked an absolute treat.
The overall production was comprised of a half day pre-set and two full days of filming.
We filmed all interior shots of the piano and floating material on the first day; and reserved the second day for shots involving Ronan. I made sure to schedule enough time for the performance shots (seen in climax of the piece), and the final reveal at the end, as I knew these would take the longest to finesse.
I always enjoy reflecting back on collaborative projects like these – looking at how conversations and ideas evolve, and the unexpected points of inspiration and artistic tangents that happen. I’m so incredibly proud of what we’ve created, and I hope audiences will enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed making it!
Many thanks to ANAM, Nathan Ellul our audio engineer, Ben Howell our grip, and of course Ronan for being such a brilliant musician and collaborator!