When Stones: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Scottish Stonelifting had premiered development had already begun for Stones II. We had been speaking to David Keohan, and knew Irish stonelifting had to be next.
Research began for locations, stones, and people. A mammoth task lay ahead. Not only did the film need planning, but we needed to upgrade our equipment. The original documentary was shot with a photography camera (Canon 90D) and a budget lens (EF 50mm f1.8).
A huge upgrade came in the form of the Canon R5C, EF 24mm f1.4 L lens, Rode VideoMic Pro+, and a 2tb CFexpress Type B card. Now we could shot 8k 12bit Raw footage, so our computer also needed to be upgraded to handle it. We got a dedicated video editing workstation with Intel Core Ultra 9, 96gb DDR5, 20gb GDDR6, and 16tb SSD. Davinci Resolve Studio was now running like a dream.
Stylistic decisions needed to be made. The 50mm lens on the 90D looked great, so it was decided that the new full frame camera needed an equivalent lens. 85mm on full frame is a similar field of view to 50mm on APS-C, so the f1.2 85mm was the choice. This lens is awesome, and is viewed as one of Canon's greatest lenses. These 2 lenses allow close intimate shots, and nice wide shots. They can both shoot with ultra wide apertures allowing dreamy bokeh that separates the subject from the background.
The documentary is going to be shot in Raw 12bit Clog, giving the most dynamic range, and best colour grading options when editing (the first doc was MP4 8bit). The new doc will have slow motion, something not featured in the first one. That was a choice for style, and the limiting factor of having to change multiple settings to record slow motion. Finally drone footage may not be used. Even though it looks stunning, it's overused, and the quality isn't great on a cinema screen. The difference between a cinema camera footage and a few thousand pound drone is too big. To still get stunning high up footage we might use a jib on a dolly and track. This would allow for some amazing shots.
Fun fact at the beginning the working subtitle was 'No Stone Unturned'.
Now it was time to film...
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Heading to Ireland