Behind the Scenes

Through Hike is an independent film written and directed by Blaine Norris. It was filmed entirely on the truly amazing digital camcorder, the Canon XL1S. Daytime shots were lit with natural light, to provide the most realistic lighting possible. At night, battery powered LED banks were used with soft filters to mimmick moonlight. Because of time constraints, many "night" shots were actually shot during the day. To achieve a night time effect, lense filters were used along with adjusting the camera's light gain, F-Stop and shutter speed. "We couldn't have done it with a camera with less features. Scheduling just didn't allow us to shoot all of the night scenes during the night, so we improvised and used the camera to turn day into night." Those shots will be given a blue tint during editing to match the true night shots.

The movie was filmed entirely in Pennsylvania, on the Appalachian Trail and nearby forests and mountains. The remote locations created unique filming challenges, since no electricity was available for the cameras, lighting, and sound equipment.

No member of the cast and crew had just one job. The actors doubled as boom operators or light operators, the boom operators were also the cooks, the production assistant was also a photographer, even the director operated the camera and chopped firewood. Everyone was kept very busy.

Below are several stills from the production. Keep checking back for more updates!