Screenshot taken from video.
Last year we featured Ben Blennerhassett’s amazing travel photography work taken at locations from all around the world here. Recently, in his trip to Spain, he has created a short film titled “One Heart” showcasing breathtaking landscapes mixed with slices of real life scenes of the streets and people there.
One heart from Ben Blennerhassett on Vimeo.
Ben Blennerhassett’s cinematography was skillfully executed in capturing vast variations of sweeping scenery in Spain, covering dramatic wide angle perspectives of the prominent architectural landmarks in a busy city to the high altitude aerial footage of beautiful mountain ranges and semi-deserts. Ben carefully inter-laid his breathtaking landscape shots with snippets of candid, spontaneously taken sequences of actual street life in Spain, going in super up close to portraits of strangers he encountered and showing what the locals were doing in their daily activities. Consequently this resulted in a compelling sense of being right there as the video was intentionally shot in a first person’s view to maximize the engagement with viewers: seeing the facial expressions and emotions of the people, almost able to feel the texture on the wall and pavement and smell the food in the scenes.
Based on the video descriptions, Ben shot the entire short film in a span of two weeks in Spain, working with Sony A7s II, Canon 24-105mm f4 L, Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L and Sigma 35mm f1.4. The real challenge was in editing the video to produce a cohesive, structured and beautiful story which Ben has successfully done so to instill the main message he conveyed: though different we are all the same, we share the connection in humanity wherever we are and we can find “home” in each other’s company. From the flow of one beautiful scene to another, “One Heart” has such an impact to inspire us to pack up and travel to experience a different culture and see the world to ultimately expand our understanding of people and life.
You may find out more about Ben Blennerhassett and his cinematography and photography work at his portfolio site here.