Highs and lows of film making

Are you a budding film maker, script writer, or enjoy animation? We’re looking for helpers for a film we plan to shoot next year, titled (we think) The Ezekiel Vision. Much of the film will be filmed from the air. We’ll be filming at airports, cemeteries and over sweeping valleys. We will need actors, young and old. There’s a great story to tell that involves you, yes you, your family, your loved ones, your grand and great grand parents. So, what is going to happen?

We can only tell the future from what is already determined! To know the future we must understand the past. And we must also understand how the past was written and by whom.

The Ezekiel Vision will be a film like no other, and already in gearing up for production, we believe we have a story to tell.

The accident featured below happened quite unexpectedly. For me it was a great disappointment. Thinking about it now, the setback perhaps might be nothing less than the price paid (we pray) for what will be one of our best films yet.

Over the past year, apart from work on the film script, we have bought various props and equipment for the Ezekiel film. Six months ago I bought an AR Drone 2 quadrocopter and have enjoyed learning to fly it. The film quality from the inbuilt camera, however, wasn’t good enough. Besides, the AR Drone really couldn’t successfully lift the GoPro Hero3 action camera. So more recently I bought a hexacopter with a camera gimbal – and the quality of aerial footage is absolutely brilliant.

So here’s the story:

28 December 2013

There’s more to the story. After weeks of waiting for components to arrive by courier, rebuilding, testing and fine-tuning, tonight we finally took the Storm 6 for its maiden test flight.

I had waited for days for it to become perfectly calm. (I am learning what it means to spend a whole lot more time preparing and doing pre-flight checks and tests than actual flight time). This difference with this rebuild was that we upgraded to the NAZA-M V2 GPS system, giving greater stability in both take-offs and landings.

I think we’ll be able to film the Ezekiel scenes with the GoPro Hero 3 camera and without having to upgrade further. Of course, I would have liked to have filmed it with a BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, but that together with the ZenMuse Gimbal on a pro-grade UAV is still dependent on prices stabilising, and thus will have to wait.

We’ll keep you posted as we work on each individual film shoot. There’s some really exciting as well as challenging work ahead.

1 January 2014

Welcome to the new civil year. Here’s hoping that it is a good one. We’re edging closer to the filming of the Ezekiel Vision film, with more practise flights testing stability, manoeuvrability and the capacity to control in adverse conditions, such as unexpected wind gusts/shifts.

Battery time still remains an issue, and this it appears depends on the health of each individual battery. Note also, if you have a heart for this kind of ministry, as well as skills you would like to contribute to this film project, then we would love to hear from you.

January 7, 2014

We’ve finally started filming the Ezekiel Vision film. Today’s shot comes from the little old cemetery on the York-Quairading Road in Western Australia. Whether this particular shot makes it into the final film we don’t know yet as we’ll be shooting the same shot again over the next few days.

John Klassek

The Ezekiel Sketch

Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. (Ezekiel 37:13 NKJV)

Imagine that moment of realisation! Billions of people suddenly resurrected back to physical life. Imagine that moment when they “join the dots” and discover who they really are, and what’s more, who God is and that it was He who brought them back to life. “Then you shall know that I am the LORD” has to be one of the most heart-touching prophecies in scripture.

It’s the job of the preacher (or gospel film producer) to take the LORD’s words and convey it to this generation. Easier said than done, for even quite religious people can scoff at the suggestion that Ezekiel’s vision speaks of a future physical resurrection. But, that’s what assuredly it does. Sometimes God tells us things, and unless we have a humble and willing heart, our prejudice and bias will render his words null, or at best, with our own overlay and explanation.

I am slowly making preparations for a new film that will attempt to capture some of what God conveyed to Ezekiel. I am currently sketching out in black texta every shot and idea for this film. Earlier this year I bought a Hero GoPro camera, a few months ago a life-sized skeleton, and now earlier this week took delivery (from Hong Kong) of another UAV, a Storm 6 GPS hexacopter with a gimbal designed for the GoPro camera. While the first drone was good, it’s HD film quality just wasn’t adequate enough, and it wasn’t capable of lifting the GoPro camera. And so I’ve spent this week learning how to setup the hexacopter.

I am also thinking about contacting some of the sheep farmers I know in the area, and discreetly asking them for any skeletal remains of sheep or kangaroos on their farms. The sun-bleached bones scattered across the base of a huge valley will help tell the story. I also have ideas on how to film the actual resurrection, but still don’t know how to capture a sea of faces of millions of people.

For today though, it’s off to the local newsagent for some new black textas of varying thicknesses – to continue the sketchwork.