Farmhouse Films in Papua New Guinea

In November 2013 I was fortunate enough to re visit Papua New Guinea aboard the magnificent True North. This time the journey took us to the North Eastern Sepik river region then on out into the Bismarck sea to explore the amazing outer Islands that make up such a pristine tropical paradise. 

Stilt Village.

Once again I was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of this region as well as an amazing cultural experience the likes I had never imagined. Travelling up the Sepik river was like travelling to an ancient world virtually untouched for hundreds of years. We were privileged to be invited to visit the village which is bringing back the ancient tradition of the crocodile scarification where as part of an initiation to manhood young men would go through the painful process of cutting their skin to create a texture not unlike that of a crocodile. 

Crocodile Scarification.

We also snorkelled and dived on amazing coral reefs with their abundance of tropical fish and colourful corals as well as be enthralled by the local villages of these tiny Island as they entertained us with there traditional dance or Sing Sing.

Plenty of Pikinini's ready to pose for the camera.

I have put together this short video as a snapshot of what we experienced over 11 days. 11 days which I will never forget. It has got me wanting more from PNG and I'm already coming up with excuses to get back there next year when True North heads back. It truly is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.

For some details on the filming process, the whole edit was shot on the Canon C300 with the exception of the under water sequences shot by Oli Oldroyd on a Olympus OMD. Once agin the C300 performed amazingly in very hot and humid conditions and never missed a beat.

I used the following lenses. Canon 17mm f,4 Tiltshift, 16-35mm f,2.8, 50mm f,1.2, 100mm f,2.8 Macro, and the 400mm f,5.6.

Editing was done on Premiere Pro CS6

Live music was recorded through the C300 with Rode mics and the soundtrack was by XPURM from the album "PRUMX"

You can visit the True North here northstarcruises.com.au

Thanks to Mark Stothard and Craig Howson for the opportunity to travel again on the best boat on the water

Capella Lodge, Lord Howe Island

 In March 2014, Mike Fletcher was commissioned to create a short promotional piece for the owners of Capella Lodge on the pristine Lord Howe Island. 

 To state the obvious it was Tough! Really Tough!

 Lord Howe Island is approximately 600 kms off the East coast of Australia. It's a tiny island which hosts a population of only 400 locals and 400 tourists at any one time. Capella Lodge is the premiere resort on the Island which caters for every whim. 

 Getting talent to shoot this location was difficult considering the small population so Mike had to take his family along to be the talent. The male talent was to be sourced from the islands stock of suitable men but they were all too shy to go on camera so Mike had to set up and star in his own shots. 

 For eight days Mike battled through in difficult circumstances to gather the footage required to showcase this Island and the footage shows it's not a bad place to get shipwrecked if your ever going to have that happen to you.

 Two camera's were used in this production. The bulk of the footage was shot on the Canon C300 whilst a Lens Whacking 5D mk2 was used for the fill in stylised shots. Everything was cut in Premiere Pro.

 The owners of this resort also own two other boutique resorts. One is the Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island and the other Longtitude 131 at Uluru. Now if we can only convince them to renew their existing videos.

Visit Baillies Lodges here www.baillielodges.com.au