Falling water, straight down

Twelve seconds, straight down. We filmed this waterfall from a footbridge, holding the camera over the rail and looking straight into the drop.

Why vertical

Some subjects are tall. A waterfall is the obvious one. Filmed horizontally, most of the frame is rock on either side, and the water is a thin white line in the middle. Filmed vertically, the water fills the frame and the drop feels as long as it is.

We film shorts on the same camera as everything else, turned on its side on a small L-bracket. No phone, no special settings.

The shot

The footbridge crosses the gorge about thirty metres above the pool. We held the camera out over the rail, strap round the wrist, and filmed straight down for two minutes. The twelve seconds in the film are the steadiest ones.

Why we make shorts at all

We resisted vertical video for a long time. It felt like a format for phones, not for films. Then we realised that most people watch our films on phones anyway, holding them upright, and that some subjects simply suit a tall frame. Waterfalls, trees, towers, people. A short is not a small film; it is a film shaped like its subject.

The edit

There is almost none. We trimmed the clip to its steadiest twelve seconds and added nothing. The sound is the real roar from the bridge, a little quieter than it was, because on a phone speaker a real waterfall sounds like static.

Settings

Camera on its side on an L-bracket, 35 mm lens, 1/50 s shutter, a light neutral density filter to keep the shutter slow in bright daylight, and the stabiliser on, because our wrists are not as steady as a tripod.