Balloon Animals

A three-day short film, written and directed by Justin Meckes.

I had a 2k and an Arri D3 kit, and a lot of foamcore/shiny boards. We had a ghetto dolly, too, which gave us some anxious moments but worked fine in the end. The crew was a bit sparse, especially with the director in front of the camera—ninety camera setups in three days, pushing my own dolly, hanging all the lights, and running sound left me a zombie. But a happy zombie, when I got jubilant cast and director reactions to the dailies.

Shot with the Canon GL2. I backed off as far as I could for depth of field, but 1/4” CCDs don't give you much play there. The Canon's lens is great, and it does a nice job with skin tones, in my opinion. I used a grad filter any time I felt I could get away with it. FYI, GL2 owners, the Cokin P series butts up against the onboard microphone.

All props to Alex, Mack, Jeremy, and especially Justin himself for throwing themselves into the project with reckless abandon. Can't wait to see it finished.