My previous short film In The Rainforest featuring my daughter Penelope has been racking up so many hits, it was time to make a sequel! I brought my Canon 7D on a recent trip to Watkins Glen State Park. Located in the Fingerlakes of New York State, the Glen features a gorge that you can hike up along steps carved into the canyon walls. It’s a magic feeling with sunlight streaming through the canopy high above as you hike behind waterfalls. I expected to see Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings around every corner!

For lenses, I used my standard kit zoom lens for most of the shots on the way up. On the way back, I popped on my 1.4 50mm lens for some shots with a shallower depth of field.

Everything was handheld. Pretty amazing, since the footage looks like it was mounted to a SteadiCam! But I did have two tricks up my sleeve. First, I used the Image Stabilizer on my kit lens, which works great as long as you don’t point the camera up at an angle (for some reason, this makes the IS start vibrating, which would be the opposite of what you need). And second, I used Final Cut’s SmoothCam filter on almost all of the footage, which did wonders for it. Remember, I’m holding a DSLR in my hands in front of me for all of the footage.

Color correction took place in Apple Color. You can really get a cinematic quality to your footage with just a few simple filters using this program. With the new Final Cut X on the market, Apple is moving away from this program, which is a shame because it rocks! It’s one of the reasons I’m holding off from purchasing the new software; I’m waiting to see if it makes a comeback in a later version.

Sound was captured through the built-in camera mic. For the music, I composed the theme using Apple Logic, and mixed everything with Apple Soundtrack Pro.

If you’re ever planning a trip to the Fingerlakes Region, Watkins Glen State Park is definitely a must. The hike is fantastic, and after your workout, you can cool off in one of their swimming pools.

And of course, very special thanks to Penelope for being such a cutie. Who knows where our next film will take us...