Winter Solstice under the Full Moon

2007-12-30T13:49:00.000+01:00

Home.

A lot to sort out. Here are a few images from 48 hours of film.

Image three shows a planet slipping into view from behind the mountain on the left. That would have been around 22hoo on the 25th.

2007-12-28T01:42:00.000+01:00

Broke Camp this morning at 8. Snowy two hour drive to Kiruna. Peter was waiting with fresh towels, hot showers, sauna.

Flight home to Paris early afternoon. Left the arks and supplies on the lakeside for Peter to drive out and pick up later today with his truck and trailor.

Looking forward to home and some sunshine.

2007-12-26T15:48:00.000+01:00

2007-12-26T10:51:00.001+01:00

Fantastic. Awoke yesterday to snow and a completely transformed landscape. Ice which had previously begun to form on the edges of the lake as well as the rocks in the middle of the water now all white. By 18h the temperature dropped and the clouds lifted giving us a perfectly clear star-lit, moon-lit theater. Lasted until some point in the early hours of the morning when humidity moved back in, curtain down, off to bed.

Just incredibly beautiful.

Will continue filming until midnight tonight (still hoping to capture the northern lights, which we have seen but not yet had in view of the camera) while packing up camp. Return journey home tomorrow begins at 6h.

2007-12-24T12:29:00.000+01:00

We arrived late in the evening on the 21st. Overcast, virtually
black sky. Took us a good part of the night to set up camp and it
wasn't until the next day towards noon with the sun edging up just
under the horizon that we were able to see well enough to begin
placing the camera.

Our biggest problem was finding a way to insulate the cables that run
from the camera to the computer in the ark. 5 meters long and
exposed to the low temperature and wind blowing off the water, there
was significant data loss. It wasn't until close to evening
yesterday that we got it worked out and were able to make a clean
capture. Camera has been running since midnight but the weather is
still very overcast. Hoping the howling wind we've had since the
middle of the night will clear away some of the clouds and give the
moon a chance to light things up.

Ben and Devin have been scurrying around ensuring every detail is
covered. Ropes to hold down the ark from tipping against the wind;
hot coffee; salmon cooked over a fire (that only stays lit as long as
you blow on the embers).

The arks have diesel heaters, so no worries for staying out of the
cold and getting good sleep.

Without the extreme contrast of light and dark, day and night that
comes with the sun, we have fallen into a timeless land where the
ever-so-slightest shifts in the clouds makes drastic changes in the
light on the ground. Every so often the clouds clear away, leaving a
hole for the moon to shine down on the ground in an eery - almost
daylight - type light. But as this may happen at two in the morning,
or six in the evening, we are beginning to lose the references that
make for 'day' and 'night'. The only thing that keeps us tied to a
'normal' rhythm is our desire to eat, but even that is becoming
skewed as evidenced by the fact that someone has to look at their
watch (Devin!) to see if it's time for a meal. We're just getting
around to breakfast and it's already 11h40. We've been up since 8,
tending to the camera as well as the wind's displacement during the
night of the loose bits of the camp.

When we arrived at the Kiruna airport on Friday, my attention was
drawn to an older woman sitting in the arrival area wearing
sunglasses. Already very late in the day, with no sunlight having
shown for at least a week, and none to come for at least another, my
first thought was of the pretensions of a city-chic starlet trying to
way-too-cool her way in front of the viewfinder of a camera. It
wasn't until we got out to Tornehamn and into the night that it
occurred to me that the woman was protecting her eyes from the bright
tungsten lights of the city. Once you've adapted to living without
daylight, once your pupils have dilated to see in the night, the last
thing you want is to see the glare of a lightbulb. I had kidded Ben
about his wanting to bring flashlights. Thankfully he insisted as we
wouldn't have been able to get things up and running if I had had my
way. But now that we've been in the open landscape for almost three
days, none of us is very quick to turn on a light lest we lose our
ability to see.

2007-12-19T12:40:00.000+01:00

Un arbre dans le matin

Et trois nuages pour la beauté

L'herbe tremble, presque rien,

Je vais peindre sur du papier de soie

Le vent, quelle couleur ?

Et la pluie, si elle vient ?

La terre tourne lentement

On voit juste bouger les feuilles

Les secondes vont au rythme du cœur

Je suis au monde

j'ai le temps

Marc Baron

Merci, Elise.

Hardware

2007-12-19T07:39:00.001+01:00

The camera/computer/capture equipment was fail-safe doubled-up and divided into three groups. One third will be travel with us as carry-on; one third in suitcases; one third sent in two boxes weighing 60 kilos.

In carry-on we'll have the things required to make the most basic of films. If for some odd reason the boxes don't arrive and the suitcases are lost we'll at least be able to do something other than sit in the dark.

Please don't read any further unless you are really a tech-head:

Sony XDcam HD PDW F-330

Fujinon 1/2", 5.5 - 77 mm Lens

2 x PortaBrace Polar Bear Heated Camera Bag

48 Heat Packs

2 x HyTron Ni-MH Battery

2 Position Charger w/ Camera AC out

AJA IO HD, Mac Pro Res 422

20 kilo Tripod with L-Brace Side Attachment

2 x MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz, 2 Gb ram

Sony HDR FX-1 HDV Cam

G-Raid 1 Tb

External Two-Drawer Sata Disk Array

2 x External One-Drawer Sata Disk Array

4 x 500 Gb Sata Drive

4 x 750 Gb Sata Drive

(One each of above configured in Concatenated Raid giving 4 x 1250 Gb Scratch Disk)

12v to 220v 3500W transformer

12v to 220v 1000W transformer

12v to 220v 140W transformer

20 x 23 Gb Professional Discs

30 x 1 hr DV recording tape

400/800 fire wire and Sata Express Cards

Cables (400, 800 fire wire, Y/Pr/Pb)

2007-12-18T18:19:00.000+01:00

The project has entailed months of extensive pre-production research and experimentation. Filming high definition in near darkness (at possibly -20° C) requires a fair amount of very sophisticated and extremely expensive gear.

SO MANY thanks are due to Jeffery Hall and Millenia Fine Arts without whom this project would not have seen the light (strike that), dark of day. Every time we came up against what seemed an insurmountable problem, Jeff responded with whatever piece was needed to find the solution. HD Broadcast camera (sensitive to 0.004 Lux), computers, hard drives, real-time high definition video editor... every bit of it unquestionably provided.

It wasn't until four days ago (a week before our departure) that the final configuration was fully put to the test and proven to work. Capturing an hour or two of high-def video is one thing; recording 24 hours non-stop at a rate of 41 Gb per hour is quite another. Doing it while huddled in a tent in a blizzard in complete darkness (that part we haven't tested yet) is pushing it.

It worked in the studio. Now we go see if it works in the snow.

2007-12-17T23:23:00.000+01:00

Compass points:

E 18°35'30" N 68°25'12"

2007-12-17T14:41:00.000+01:00

Extracts from Summer Solstice : 24 Hour Film, the high definition video I made with the help of Ben Walker, last June at Tornehamn, a spit of land 200 km north of the Arctic Circle on Tornetrask, a large lake leading into Lapland on the Swedish-Norwegian border. From Midnight 21 June to Midnight on the 22nd, camera, computer and external hard drive made one complete 24 hour capture of the never-ending day.

During the time we spent encamped on the edge of the lake a plan to return in winter was hatched. What companion piece might I be able to create during a never-ending night?

Filming in complete darkness is of course an impossibility. Or at the very least not terribly engaging for the viewer. On the other hand, a snow covered landscape lit by the full moon seemed rife with promise. Although rare, 2007 is one of these years when at this latitude the moon is full and will remain above the horizon without setting, circling above our heads at the same time the sun remains below the horizon for the week of the solstice.

In Sweden I was told this is called the 'Philosopher's Moon'.

Friday 21 Dec, Ben and I, accompanied by my son Devin, will fly to Kiruna, Sweden; drive to this same location; set up camp and attempt a 24 Hour capture of the moon-lit, snow-covered landscape.