Father Carl Was Murdered

One day, Elliot - being one of my close friends and colleague - told me about how he wants to create a documentary about his Great Uncle from his Mom’s side of the family. He told me how he was a very important person in the Philippines who lived to serve and help others before himself. Many loved Father Carl. But he was also tragically murdered by one of those he helped.

As Elliot described it, it’s like one of those stories that his parents would tell him growing up but there weren’t many tangible items or records of such stories. Elliot decided to gather his family and relatives, sit them down, and record the story before it becomes forgotten. And man was it a fascinating story!

Elliot had moved to LA to pursue his career in film for a couple of years now. His main objective for visiting home this time around was to be part of his parent’s anniversary on August 12th. He reached out to me to help a little with lighting and capturing the interviews. Of course, it was unpaid work, but having not seen him for a while, it was good to catch up and listen to stories of a great man told by those closest to him.

Elliot came to me with a very specific look. He wanted it to be dramatic but not too much. The lighting was mostly lit by a large LED panel through large piece of diffusion very close to the subject. To create that dark shadow on the other side of the face, all I had to place was a tall, black bed sheet on the opposite side, and voila!