What happens when you mix some very expensive camera equipment, perfect sunset conditions and a seriously devoted cinematographer?
Pure magic.
Hawaii-based cinematographer Aaron Eveland typically wows on the wedding circuit, but he wanted to create something "fun and fresh" to shake things up.
Inspired by the cult classic surf movie "The Endless Summer," Eveland set out to recreate the striking silhouettes and omnipresent sun on the film's poster. He rented the most expensive lens he could find (a Canon 800mm f/5.6) for two weeks, did exhaustive location scouting and sunset reconnaissance, and enlisted the help of patient and understanding subjects.
During the first few days with his rented lens, there was vog (volcanic smog) -- the hazy air pollution "results in very dramatic sunsets," according to Eveland -- but, more importantly, the clouds cooperated.
"For these particular sunset shots," Eveland says on his blog, "there couldn't be any clouds on the horizon. A few times it looked like that the weather was going to cooperate so I got the camera set up, people in place, and as soon as the sun was coming into the proper composition, it hit a low layer of clouds and the shoot was ruined."
Thankfully, Eveland stuck with it. His short film, aptly titled "Sunchasers," captures the dramatic, dreamlike world of Hawaii's most stunning sunsets as well as the spirit of ohana (family) and love in the islands.
"I wanted to make this film something that all of us can relate to on a human level," Eveland told The Huffington Post. "The emotion you feel when you see the couples running on the rocks together, holding hands, gazing off into the horizon or gazing into each other's eyes, that was real and raw emotion. Those were people I knew that love each other and because that was authentic, it allowed people from all walks of life to relate to it."
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