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So today marks the last day of 2011 – well, here in Ireland anyway…

It’s been an eventful year for some, life-changing for others, and maybe just a quiet year for many more. But as the numbers ’2 0 1 2′ loom over you dominating your brain with thoughts that could easily scare the shit out of you, or simply leave you as happy as ever, you must remember that those numbers are just that – numbers.

No need to panic about anything, because really – it’ll all be over with eventually and once they are, you can go on to the next thing in your life. I’ve been able to take that into account, as I am easily prone to making things out to be bigger than they really are.

Then again, I’m only 15 – I shouldn’t have to worry about a fucking thing, right?

I don’t have any ‘resolutions’ because they usually never stick, so instead I’ll take on habits and hopefully change some bad habits to good. These habits include:

1. Shoot More:

I’m only equipped with a 550d, two utter shite cheap kit lenses and a 20 quid tripod, so in terms of gear, I don’t really have any advantage over anyone…but what I can do is simply do what I can with what I have until I can upgrade – by just simply using all the ideas in my head, making it visual and putting them online I can get that sense of accomplishment, even if it’s not very good, I still feel like I’ve skipped the bother of complaining about not having what I need and just going out and actually doing it!

I’ve been doing this for over a year now with the same gear, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to get jobs out of just these small personal projects which I essentially did for myself with no money.

2. Start writing my ideas

I constantly have ideas for narrative films in my head. Wherever I go, I’m always looking at people as if they’re the characters in my idea and wherever I am, I always see these locations as settings for the film…but I always procrastinate and never write these down…the ideas could be shite, or maybe even worthy of a flippin’ Oscar (unlikely), but I always just leave it and eventually forget about them. So, from now on I’m going to try and put these onto paper and with any luck, actually try and make some scripts out of them…

3. I actually can’t think of anything else. Share with us what you’re NY’s new habits/resolutions are with a lil’ comment below!

So get of this blog (the few readers who actually read this) and continue with your life into the big aul’ 2012 and hopefully we won’t all die at the end of it!

Thanks to everyone,

Nathanael

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I was approached by two organizers about 2 and a half months ago to film an event they were organising in aid of their charity. It was to be a charity skydive event in aid of OláGolá (http://olagola NULL.com), for the prevention of suicide, depression and stress related ilness’s in young adults around the world. I was a little hesitant to accept something quite so heavy seeing as I’m only 15 and was afraid of mucking it up or something…but Liz, a co-organiser of the event told me what it was about and I then realised how important it was – so I accepted.

It took about 5 weeks to get this fully done. The main event was on one day so it was essentially like a wedding, where I couldn’t get second takes. I shot on one single 550D, with a fairly cheap rig I borrowed off a friend who got it on eBay (can’t remember the name of it), a 20 quid tripod and two lenses: Canon 18-55 kit and Canon 75-300; both cheapies. As you can tell this equipment is very light i.e not perfect, but I did what I could with it.
It was so windy on the day and even started raining heavily at some points, so it all kind’ve went downhill…luckily I got what I needed before the weather took over.

I shot the aerial footage 3 weeks later; my brother is a pilot and took me up in a small plane for about an hour – the sky was so stunning and was just after a storm so there were some amazing views to be filmed. In the final edit I only used about 20 seconds worth of this footage, but it’s some of the nicest shots in it.

For the interviews I just used the 550d again with the kit lens. I used all natural light because I don’t have any lights as of yet (which explains the bad lighting). For the sound I had with me a Sound Devices 702 DAR (http://www NULL.sounddevices NULL.com/products/702 NULL.htm) and the mic (can’t remember which one). Stupidly, I only brought a 2gb card for the recorder and it obviously ran out..half way through the interview…I had no other audio from it so I ended up having to use the camera’s audio! Sucks, but it turned out OK. The day after I was shooting the interviews with the two politicans featured in the doc and was all set with the DAR…the camera was all set, and I stuck the XLR into the recorder and next thing I know the whole device is f*cked up and totally uncorrespondant…so once again I had to abandon it!! :@

I edited it about 3 days before it was being premiered so I spent the majority of the day on it. I used Premiere Pro CS5.5 and colored using Magic Bullet Looks. Gert Kracht (Twitter: @iGert) was a huge help during this, by giving me a ton of help on bettering my colouring skills! Huge thanks to him for that!

The actual skydive shots were done by the Tandem Masters at Tandem Skydive Kilkenny (http://www NULL.tandemskydive NULL.ie/). Thanks a million to them for letting me use the footage!

The photos at the end were by Ronan Melia, and they’re all brilliant. Thanks to him for letting me use them too.

Music was the obvious Fix You by Coldplay…I used the instrumental version which I found online somewhere. And for the credits I used Noorgard by The Vaccines.

Liz Campbell and Eddie Hughes organised this charity event. Jumps took place at Kilkenny Airfield in cooperation with Tandem Skydive Kilkenny. Help Reduce Suicide, Depression and Stress Related Illnesses in Young Adults – olagola.com

Thanks,
Nathanael Macdonald

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