Special Feature
Director of Photography Lachlan Milne gives us the inside story on shooting in Buenos Aries for Curious films.
“Burn - Never Extinguish” is a branded content short film for Coca Cola’s popular energy drink. Director Ash Bolland of Curious Films was approached to create a visually strong, narrative based skateboarding film with an emphasis on in camera action and high end vfx work. Ash and I had worked together before in Sydney and has a background in both photography and post. Producer Tara Riddell forwarded me his treatment and reference material and it was clear this was a fantastic concept. I’d seen the previous spot which I really liked, so I was excited to be involved in such a visually driven spot.
The script from the agency left the story open to what we may find on location. Skateboarding is an urban sport where riders improvise and adapt to their environment, Ash wanted locations which both looked gritty and exposed but also lent themselves to long skating runs. We shot the spot over 4 days in Buenos Aires, mainly on the fringes of the city.
We originally looked at using an Arri Alexa with some short zooms but we wanted an observational shooting style that was both fast and unconstrained and felt that perhaps the gear might restrict that. I’d shot a few commercials on dslr cameras with some great results. They’re fast, lightweight and easy to rig quickly. We decided to use a PL mount Canon 7d with Master Primes and a few HD Go pros we could rig underneath the boards. The Cinestyle colour profile had recently been released and after some testing I decided to use it for Burn.
Ash and I are big on in camera techniques, we wanted to blend the post as seamlessly as possible so we used a combination of debris canons, wind machines and practical fire. Everywhere we went we had at least one dslr rig with us so we could shoot whatever may come along that might help with the story. There’s a few shots in the van on the way to set as well as some from the reccee. I didnt want the camera to influence the action or limit it at all, so we shot from quad bikes on a bungy rig or hand held on foot so I could move with the guys, and snuck a second camera in where possible.
The weather was a concern, the whole story takes place under a growing storm cloud so overcast conditions without rain were what we were hoping for. We shot in July which increased our chances, mostly we were lucky and got what we wanted. Where we didn’t get the sky we wanted Ash motion tracked in a stormy replacement.
It’s a great end result with some solid skating and beautiful compositing. The shoot itself was fantastic and the Argentinean team were very professional. I’m very glad to have been a contributor to this film.
