A low push forward over standing ripe grain on a prairie farm, the parallel wheel tracks of the machinery running away through the crop, until an unploughed green draw curves into the frame

Project 08 of 17

Grain and Cattle

Brand & Campaign

Six takes, one flight of seven minutes. A mixed farm, mid-harvest.

Six takes, one flight, seven minutes and seventeen seconds from the first frame to the last — 108 seconds of footage in all.

Atom2Adam filmed a mixed prairie farm on a September afternoon with the harvest already underway: standing grain in one half of the frame, fresh stubble in the other. Every take is composed on an edge. The crop stops at the break of a draw left in grass and sage; the draw carries a trail worn by the herd; the herd is held by a wire fence and a steel gate; and the stubble is cut in curves that follow the water rather than the field. Nothing was moved, nothing was lit, and nothing was asked to pose.

Subject: A working mixed farm at harvest — grain and a cow-calf herd on the same ground, the crop cut to the edge of an unploughed draw and the stubble curved around a slough.
Intent: Show that a farm is not a view but a set of edges: where the plough stops, where the grass begins, where the herd is held, and what the whole of it is arranged around.
Seen: Standing grain with the machinery's wheel tracks running through it, fresh stubble cut in curves, dark worked ground, a draw left in grass and silver-grey sage with a trail worn down the middle, black and red cattle with calves at side, a wire fence and a steel gate, a dugout under planted poplar and spruce, and white birds on the water.
Made: Six takes on one flight — seven minutes and seventeen seconds from the first to the last by the camera's own clock, 108 seconds of footage in all. Five films and ten frames cut from it. Nothing staged, nothing lit.

I

The crop

Standing ripe grain filling the frame on a prairie farm, the parallel wheel tracks of the machinery running away through it toward a line of trees on the horizon — Wheel tracks running away through standing grain.

The pale double lines running away through the standing grain are wheel tracks — the same lanes the machinery follows on every pass, so nothing has to guess where it has already been and the wheels compact those two strips instead of the whole field. Now look at the far side of the frame: that crop is already down. Harvest did not wait for the camera. Standing grain and cut stubble are in this one frame together, fifteen seconds after the flight began.

A low push forward over standing ripe grain on a prairie farm, the parallel wheel tracks of the machinery running away through the crop, until an unploughed green draw curves into the frame — A low push through the standing crop.

The edge of a ripe grain field on a prairie farm where the crop stops at the break of a slope and an unploughed green draw curves away through the gold — Where the gold stops and the draw begins.

II

The draw

Directly above a grassed draw running between two crop fields on a prairie farm, a herd of cattle strung out along the trail worn down the middle of it — The herd strung along a worn trail, gold on both sides.

A farm is a set of decisions about where to stop.

Directly above a herd of black and red cattle running the worn trail in the bottom of a grassed draw, standing crop and stubble on the slopes on either side, at half speed — Directly overhead, at half speed, as the herd runs.

The green running through the gold is a draw — a low, wet fold of ground the plough was never taken into. It is left in grass and silver-grey sage, and a trail is worn down the middle of it where the herd walks to water. The crop comes to the break of the slope and stops there, and the line it stops on is not straight: it is the shape of the land, not the shape of the field.

Black and red cattle running the bottom of a sage-filled draw on a prairie farm, seen from directly overhead, their shadows long on the grass beside them — Black and red, running the bottom of the draw.

III

The herd

Cattle standing at a wire fence and a steel gate on a prairie farm, a ripe crop running to the fence line and out to the horizon behind them — Cattle at the wire, the crop right to the fence line.

These are cow-calf pairs — black, red, and one white face among them, with calves at side. The fence that holds them is wire and the gate in it is steel, and the ripe crop runs right up to it: nothing here is fenced off for looking at. The delivery's own filename for this take reads "Use from 21s to 40s". That is the client's edit note, written before the studio cut a frame, and the nineteen seconds on this page are exactly the nineteen seconds they asked for.

Cow-calf pairs gathered at a wire fence and a steel gate on a prairie farm, a ripe crop running right up to the fence line behind them, the herd then moving off up the pasture — Nineteen seconds — the client's own cut, 21 to 40.

Cow-calf pairs close on a prairie pasture: black cattle, a red cow and one white-faced among them, calves at side in grass and silver-grey sage — Calves at side, one white face among the black.

IV

The water

Straight down on a prairie farm slough: gold stubble cut in curves that follow the shoreline, a green margin of grass and willow, white birds on the black water — Stubble cut in curves around black water.

Look at the cut lines. They do not run straight out to the edge of the field — they bend, holding the shoreline of the slough, because the combine followed the water and not the fence. The birds on it are white at this height; the delivery calls them ducks. Everything else on this page — the crop, the draw, the trail, the herd — is arranged around this.

Straight down over a farm slough at half speed: gold stubble cut in curves around black water, a green margin of grass and willow, white birds scattered across the surface — Straight down over the slough, at half speed.

Straight down into a farm dugout, cloud reflected across the dark water, white birds scattered over it, grass and willow along both banks — Cloud in the water, birds scattered over it.

V

The country

The prairie horizon from a farm: pale stubble and dark worked ground in broad strips, rolling upland beyond them, cumulus standing over all of it — Strip on strip, out to the rolling horizon.

The dugout is held by a planted shelterbelt of poplar and spruce, with mown ground, a track and a building among the trees. Beyond it the fields run in strips to a rolling horizon, pale stubble beside dark worked ground, and a lattice tower stands on the skyline. Every frame on this page was made inside seven minutes and seventeen seconds of one flight, and this take is the last of them.

A right-to-left pan across a whole prairie farm at half speed: a dugout under its planted shelterbelt, cattle on the grass beside it, stubble and worked ground running out to a rolling horizon — Right to left, across the whole of it.

Seven minutes in the air. Nothing on this farm was moved, lit, or asked to pose.

A farm dugout held by a planted shelterbelt of poplar and spruce, mown ground and a track among the trees, stubble and pasture running out to the prairie horizon — The dugout, its shelterbelt, and the country beyond.

Detail → Whole

From the smallest element to the entire place.

Standing ripe grain filling the frame on a prairie farm, the parallel wheel tracks of the machinery running away through it toward a line of trees on the horizon — 01 · Detail

Black and red cattle running the bottom of a sage-filled draw on a prairie farm, seen from directly overhead, their shadows long on the grass beside them — 02 · Fragment

Directly above a grassed draw running between two crop fields on a prairie farm, a herd of cattle strung out along the trail worn down the middle of it — 03 · Place

The prairie horizon from a farm: pale stubble and dark worked ground in broad strips, rolling upland beyond them, cumulus standing over all of it — 04 · Whole

The prairie horizon from a farm: pale stubble and dark worked ground in broad strips, rolling upland beyond them, cumulus standing over all of it — The whole of it, in the last take of the flight.

Direction, aerial cinematography, edit: Atom2Adam Studio
Capabilities: Aerial · Film · Post-Production
Subject: Brand & Campaign

Next09 / Sunny Side Up

A slow push toward the Sunny Side Up sign in Cochrane, a scalloped white egg with a script S in its yolk above red letters on an arched grey parapet, patio umbrellas furled below

Project 09 of 17

Sunny Side Up

Restaurants · Cochrane, Alberta

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