Director: Jonny Pander
DoP: Kevin Michael Martin
Producer: Alex Joho
Editor: Kevin Michael Martin

So after finishing up on I Saw You we began preproduction on the second round of mid-terms and this meant we were pulling out the 16mm Arri SR1 Film camera’s. Lenses, hoods, kodak film stock, and the works. So as any good camera lover would do I put my hat in for a cinematographer position and was chosen as cinematographer and editor for the project.

Frost was a period thriller set in the early nineteen hundreds set in central canada in the winter. Yes, this one was a doozy. As the cinematographer I set off to work directly with the Director, Jon Pander and the Producer Alexander Joho to begin dissecting the script and putting together the fun and exciting logistics of shooting winter vista’s in Vancouver British Columbia.

When we began this story it was set in the early nineteen hundreds in a cabin somewhere in Saskatchewan Canada. We needed to figure out if we were going to build a set or find a location to film the production. Luckily after exhausting location scouts we found the perfect locations. Despite the fact they were spread out all over southern BC we had the fickle Northwest weather to deal with as well. Will there be snow in Vancouver? Luckily the further from the coast we went the more snow we found. And find we did.

Jonny, Joho and I came across a park about a stones throw from the United States Border. It was perfect, large open areas, snowy fields, and a frozen pond. We approached the instructors at VFS and told them we want the actor to walk into a frozen pond breaking ice as the final scene of the film. Blank stares and a couple raised eyebrows later a discussion ensued. In order to run this little scene we needed to try a dry run (so to speak) out on ourselves to see if it would even work.

Jonny and myself grabbed a dry suit and made our way one snowy afternoon in early December. I suited took one for the production and walked in breaking some ice and headed on in for a little dip. The mission worked and the reluctant powers that be gave us the green light.

Now we had ourselves a good old time on this shoot, we had the park scene which had to be filmed all in one day. The parking lot was a mile away and we had to haul the gear out there and set up for the shoot.I grabbed my biggest pack and hoisted the Arri SR1 and a 400 foot mag with my first and operator and took off into the field to gather various cut-aways, establishing shots and three key scenes.

Now shooting in low double digit temps is a difficult task but the hardest part is keeping the batteries working, thankfully the Arri SR1 camera is a champ, but the light meter and the batteries were shot and all the spares fried quickly. So I had to dig deep and hit the math to coordinate the film stock, color temperature changes from waning light and filters  to receive a solid readable image. A challenging but rewarding task, which paid off when we rushed the dailies. There was a sigh of relief that I was right.

The final scene approached and we got our team together to construct the dolly tracks needed to push in on the talent as she made her way into the frozen pond. Nerves were high, tension thick as the park authorities were there for safety and all our precautionary methods were put in place. The time came; camera rolled, dolly cued, and action was called we wrapped the day with a successful frozen pond death scene.

Once principle photography was completed we went into post production. Using Avid Media Composer I disappeared into the dark dungeon-like basement editing suites the school had. Cold  dingy and a bit lonely. But a great place to really cut away. After 3 weeks we sent off the final cut to our sound campus and held several sweetening sessions.