YUKON
TREK '97 or SEARCHING FOR THE STRINGER LEGEND
by RICHARD STRINGER, CSC |
Ron Chapman
of Brandworks International took me on a great ten
day shoot for a special Yukon tourism film project.
This was in June when the nights never really got
dark so we just kept going and going. This was quiet
different from our Sorel Boot commercial winter
shoot 2 years ago when we only had six hours daylite.
As we drove through the beautiful Yukon scenery,
we managed to get great footage of a grizzly bear
(Stringer! - frame out the highway pavement!), visit
the Klukshu valley at salmon smoking season (love
that backlit smoke!), shoot the rapids on the Takshahini
River (give the assistant the splash bag camera!),
overnight in Keno City, population 30 (new meaning
to "the end of the road"!), shoot the
worlds largest cinnamon buns (some places of the
Yukon are hard up for attractions!), and visit the
famous Dawson City (hippies and hitchhikers still
exist!).
And talking about Dawson City, did you know my grandfather
is a famous Yukon personality? In 1909, when Isaac
Stringer, an Anglican missionary bishop was lost
in a blizzard for thirty days, he earned the famous
title, "The Bishop Who Ate His Boots".
After many days without food, he and a fellow missionary
made a stew from their moccasin boots. That gave
them enough strength to keep going, and three days
later, they were rescued. Isaac and my grandmother
Sadie Stringer, spent many years up North in pioneering
times. Their lives are full of many stories, hardships
and adventures. I am trying to put a documentary
film together, but no go yet. CBC's "Life and
Times" put it on the reject pile. Anne Murray
is better prime time stuff, I guess!
My Yukon footage will be cut with some great helicopter
footage shot by Bob Lynn with his versatile "Mega
Mount". The show was shot on Super 16 for video
projector screening next year in Whitehorse at a
theatre set aside for just this show. It will be
released in 3:4 video with 1.66 letterboxing. At
least this isn't as bad as cutting the NTSC signal
information down to 1.85. I did some research into
anamorphic squeezing of the Super 16 image to make
the full use of the NTSC 3:4 format. This does involve
another post stage and additional costs, so it is
probably only worth considering for 1.85, and only
in situations where you have control of the unsqueezed
projector setup. |
|
|
|
|
