FIELD NOTES:
THE ANALOG JOURNAL
BACK TO THE HUDSON
It's been 5 years since our first Hudson River canoe journey. This September we returned to follow a music collective as they voyaged on the river and caught up with some old friends along the way.
5 YEARS ON…
ROSS FERRIER | 17 SEPT 2024
This September we got the opportunity to head back to the Hudson River to link up with our good friends at Ninth Wave Global and partner on a new documentary piece exploring the historic link between music and activism in the Hudson Valley.
We spent 10 days behind the camera shadowing folk music collective 'The Hudson River Incidentals' as they travelled the river by canoe, playing gigs at their stop-off points along the journey. It was a privilege to engage with the various communities throughout the Hudson Valley as locals, young and old, shared stories of their personal connections to the music culture over the years.
It is unusual for us to get the chance to revisit the sites of our previous adventures but it was rewarding to return to the Hudson River 5 years on and document the progress being made in this ongoing restoration project while reconnecting with old friends along the way.
One of the most attractive elements of this project was that it afforded us a diverse range of shooting opportunities. Every day was unique and might see us shooting stunning landscapes, incredible wildlife, music performances in fascinating locations and sitting down with some wonderful people to record real stories of the Hudson Valley.
It wasn't all plain sailing however. There are many challenges shooting a documentary when the whole kit truck has to fit into two rucksacks so that it can be transported on canoe. It is definitely not easy shooting with long lenses, balancing as the boat sways with the water. The Sony FX6 cinema camera was certainly put through its paces but its modular design allowed us to run a lightweight set up, that was much more stripped back compared to our usual larger camera rig, while at the same time still being able to offer the high-end shooting capability that the film required.
After 10 days of adventure along the river, the team travelled through the canal locks of the Erie Canal which links the Hudson River with the Mohawk River in an annual event alongside more than 130 other canoes and kayaks. It was an epic spectacle and the festival atmosphere made a fitting end to our long and tiring journey.
REBECCA PLATER | VISUAL ARTIST
We are invited out to Rebecca Plater's beautiful art studio, set in the Fife countryside, to create a brand film for her new line of sustainable kitchen & homeware products.
BRINGING THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN
GARRY FERRIER | 23 APR 2024
Sometimes a project comes along that feels like just the right thing at just the right time. This has never been more true for us than when we were kindly invited out to spend some time with creator and visual artist, Rebecca Plater, at her beautiful home studio in the countryside of Fife.
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the serene views from her studio windows created a real moment of calm in what had been an especially hectic month of work.
Our mission was to work with Rebecca in creating a new brand film to showcase her work and the ethos her business as well as introducing her brand new range of hand-painted homeware products.
It became clear to us immediately that so much of the identity and motivation behind Plater’s work was firmly routed in her own personal transformative story. So we pitched the idea of producing a short documentary style piece that delved deeper into her own backstory to show the depth of the journey that she has been on to arrive at her current processes and works of art and demonstrate the greater meaning these new products represent.
We spent time in the studio capturing a range of her artistic activities from clay sculpting to watercolour painting to mono-printing with an awesome vintage press machine. We also sat down with Rebecca in informal conversation about her story and her work - the audio from which would provide us with the narrative bedrock of the film and would allow us to create a concise and effective communication of the story through editing.
We then headed out to her herbal kitchen in the back garden where she demonstrated the natural food preparation and herbal remedies that have become an integral part of her life and well-being in recent years.
Finally we headed out from the house into the surrounding woodlands to capture Rebecca as she connects with nature and forages for the materials that she uses in both her art studio and herbal kitchen.
We shot this film on vintage prime lenses that have a lovely organic quality which blended perfectly with Rebecca’s aesthetic and the feel of the film. We especially love the swirly textured bokeh effect this gives to the trees and out-of-focus areas of the image which helps to separate Rebecca as the main subject in the frame.
Despite an absolutely packed shooting schedule, we still managed to find the time to connect with Rebecca on subjects like work/life balance, prioritising family, and the importance of exposure to the natural world, and came away from the experience genuinely refreshed and inspired.
ANALOG IN HELSINKI
The ANALOG boys head to Helsinki to team up with FNZ and Gaël De Crevoisier to embark on an epic solo expedition across the Atlantic.
A RACE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
GARRY FERRIER | 12 AUG 2024
In May 2024, ANALOG headed off to to a remarkably sunny Helsinki to team up with adventurer Gaël de Crevoisier as he prepares to embark on his latest expedition - to solo row across the Atlantic Ocean.
“More people have been into space than rowed an ocean” Gaël tells us, an aspiring astronaut himself and once we start to learn all that is involved it’s not hard to see why.
We have the privilege of spending 3 days on location with Gäel at his home in Helsinki and his local sailing club to capture his training and his preparations while he balances the busyness of work and family life.
The brief from the client was to create a cinematic short documentary that showcased the incredible lengths Gaël must go to in order to achieve his ambitious goal. We knew we wanted to learn not only about his physical journey but also his inner journey through this whole process and discover the motivations for why he is drawn to constantly challenge himself and push himself to the limits.
We shot an informal conversational interview in Gaël’s home where he regaled us with stories from his previous expeditions and thumbed through polaroid photographs of memories from his mind-blowing travels.
We then rode on his boat as he took to the seas on one of his first longer sessions on the water. He hadn’t been able to get his boat in the water until a short time before since the sea in Finland was still frozen right through April.
As well as capturing his unique vessel from every conceivable angle while aboard, we also went out by speedboat to capture some dynamic shots of his boat in action.
This project has sparked a great interest for us in ocean rowing and the community that surrounds this incredible form of adventure. So don’t be surprised if you see more of this from us in the future.
CANOES ON THE HUDSON
We head to the Hudson River Valley to partner up with environmental NGO 'Ninth Wave Global' to journey down the river on open canoe.
A HUDSON RIVER JOURNEY
GARRY FERRIER | 24 SEPT 2019
We had the amazing opportunity to travel to the Hudson River Valley with environmental NGO ‘Ninth Wave Global’ to embark on a week-long voyage down the Hudson River on open canoe. Between paddling and wild-camping we visited various individuals and organisations that have a strong connection to this iconic waterway and have played an important role in the conservation and regeneration work that has brought the river ‘back to life’ over the past 50 years.
We documented these personal stories and perspectives as we travelled to culminate in the short documentary, ‘THE RIVER THAT FLOWS TWO WAYS’. The film premiered at the Equinox Mountain Film Festival in Manchester, Vermont just 2 days after we ended our canoe journey in Beacon, NY.
The film festival was a small, grass-roots gathering of filmmakers and storytellers, all with an environmental focus to their work. We stayed for a sunny weekend in a beautiful ranch house and had the chance to share our ideas and experiences with many like-minded creatives.
Upon our arrival, just 2 days before the film festival began, we immediately set up our mobile editing suite and got to work. Somehow between the 2 of us editing side-by-side, and very little sleep, we managed to get the film completed in time and screened on the Saturday evening as the feature presentation.
We also had the privilege of being asked to be judges at the film festival and held afternoon workshops speaking from our own experiences as travel and documentary filmmakers.
