Light sensitive

Perhaps it is a cross that all film-makers have to bear.

I’m hypersensitive to light. Not in the sense that it causes pain or I can’t see in bright light. It’s more that I’m very conscious that half way through January the light is already changing. The days are getting longer and the angle of the light is definitely on the move.

Of course, this makes no difference at all to the weather which is, as expected, as frustrating as ever at this time of year. Our key areas of development work right now are centred on our aerial filming platform known as “Rex” (the hex) – our rather magnificent flying machine. We cannot even fly relatively simple test missions in rain, snow, mist, fog or strong winds.

It’s really frustrating since we’ve made quite a few improvements to the system and we’re dying to test them out. We have a new 4k (really high resolution) camera which, when fitted with a rather special lens from Germany, and a bit of tweaking, we’re pretty confident will yield some great images.

Oh well, we needed a proper winter and there have been a few spectacular dawns and dusks, the Golden Hours, to most cinematographers. Even if not filming, it’s well worth the time to stand and take a really good look at how the sun moves and the clouds pick up the light. At those times of day, everything seems to change so fast, there really isn’t a dull moment.

Even the frost can be pretty volatile as what little warmth there is in the sun transforms the ice crystals.