The duo set up their business, Lumiere, eight years ago in Nelson - and from smalltown experience an impressive portfolio has evolved. Joshua, who came from a film-production background, and Tim, a commercial photographer, have joined into a light-on-their feet two-man team crafting strong visual for brands around the country.
Watch their reel on the Cardrona-based build (see link below) and you’ll be transported into a landscape both immense and intimate. The heritage in the hills that rise and fold as backdrop is picked up in the form and materiality of the huts that settle into it.
The pair say there is no secret to the equipment they use: a DJI Ronin 4D 8K camera, a four-axis stabilised camera, teamed with a gyroscopic monitor that allows the second operator to manage focus, pan and tilt. Most of the film was filmed at a higher frame rate - 50 frames per second before slowing down the footage to achieve the cinematic quality.
Technical ability aside, it’s an indefinable quality that draws viewers in. The way the cool verticality of the building’s galvanised cloak is contrasted by warmer horizontal layering of rammed earth. How reflections of tawny grasses and an autumn sky slide across the glazing. The eye that frames the Criffel Range in a clerestory. Or celebrates the junctures of schist and steel. That pans across rustic timber floors washed by southern light. Notices the rippled shadow cast by a corrugated edge. The wind riffle the water in a hot tub. A light-sabre slice stabbing through a crack in the doorway.
Beyond this, Joshua says they hope their films lend a feeling of what it is like to move through the space. They’re not trying to create content driven by short attention spans and social-media engagement. Rather, it’s a languorous exploration that’s evocative of place and spaces. It’s textural and contextual.
For Lumiere, who spent a day shooting this two-bedroom property a stone’s throw from the Cardrona Hotel, their viewpoint is observational. They determined to craft a piece of work with integrity, that respected architectural intent and was not over-stylised in post-production. They are grateful to have been given access to the project. But hope to be back. From a film-makers perspective, the 115sqm home in this iconic location has a multitude more stories yet to tell.
Take a glimpse here: