The documentary JK-47: A Story of Connection, is a project I started in 2022 as we emerged from Melbourne’s lockdowns.
The aim of the documentary was to be a pilot episode or proof of concept for a greater series, showing the newfound struggles of the music scene in Australia, how each featured artist overcomes these, and how they continue their passion and move forward in their career. This changed over the making of the short.
Documentary
The new focus was on JK-47 & his crew as they found meaning to their art, family and landscape. Drawing to the past to bring thought to the new generations and how music is the vessel of connection.
Production for the documentary, JK-47: A Story of Connection, had myself and five colleagues travel to Queensland to shoot with JK-47 and his crew for the week. Managing all the logistics of the trip, I brought an array of equipment to film with. Principal shooting was conducted on the RED Scarlet-W, with our B-Cam being the BMPCC4K. I also had a Sony FX3 shooting a third angle in the interviews on a motorised slider, which was handheld during his live performance. I had originally wanted to shoot anamorphic, but given the documentary nature of this project, I decided to shoot with variable zooms on Canon and Sony glass.
To give the documentary an indie and local Australian aesthetic, I opted for shooting much of the b-roll on a Hanimex super 8 with Kodak 50D & 500T colour negative, as well as 50D Tri-X black and white negative. This helped create a ‘timeless’ feeling to the b-roll and moved the story along nicely in the final product. In addition to film, I also shot on a Panasonic 3CCD VHS camcorder to get some ‘home-video’ styled clips.
In pre-production it was established that a lot of the footage would be graded in black & white. This diversified the tone within the documentary, colour bringing in a sense of being in the moment and monochrome helping to establish reminiscing or a reflective sentiment. This wasn’t a golden rule for the film but it helped articulate changes to the story visually to the viewer, even if it was subconscious.
I was hesitant to film the live performance in a ‘multi-cam’ format, I really wanted this to be a film from start to finish.
The footage we captured was mindful and consistent with the conventions of cinematography throughout the piece.