The last mini part of our shoot was the footage which will be placed within a Polaroid frame to create a magical moving image. It consisted of Paula, dressed in her ballerina costume, lighting and setting off a Chinese lantern. This is the kind of look we were going for, except in a field and in late afternoon.
We only had one lantern so this was a one take situation, with a high chance of failure due to the unstable nature of setting a huge piece of paper on fire on a windy day. But we took that chance. We set the camera in place and set it on record before we had started, for fear of a frantic run for the camera when things didn’t go to plan.
Whilst Paula got changed, it took 3 of us to light the lantern and hold it up. I handed my part over to Paula so I could go back to the camera and check the focus. After the recommended 2 minutes of filling the lantern with hot air, Helena and Niall ran out of view of the camera leaving Paula holding onto the rapidly rising lantern.
We decided it was time to let the lantern go, and it gracefully blew several metres sideways before crashing onto the grass. However Paula managed to grab it before it set itself on fire, and let it go again. This time it rose up perfectly and just kept going. Over the school. Over the canteen. It just kept going up until it was a tiny dot in the sky, flying into the surrey hills.
Hopefully it’ll be in focus.
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