Beauty seen from a bird’s eye view
It’s a view many people haven’t seen of the Hutt River - a bird’s eye view.
Starting this weekend, video artist Murray Hewitt will be showing people the unseen sights of the river through his new video project, Rising Gale.
Shot by drone, Rising Gale charts the course of the Hutt River.
The Moera resident had never flown a drone before, so he enlisted the help of Hutt drone flight school RPA Skills Ltd when it came to filming.
‘‘We had to chase the drone [up the river]. We put the drone pilot on the back of a quad bike - he was flying it and the driver trying to frantically keep him on - it was fun,’’ he said.
The footage he shot will be shown at five different bore and river sites around the Hutt Valley, including Waterloo Railway Station and GNS Science.
Hewitt has been working with Hutt Valley musicians and writers keen to perform alongside screenings of his drone footage of the Hutt River.
The footage was all captured last September and Hewitt produced 24 minutes and 24 seconds of video, looking straight down at the river. Over the course of the film, the drone follows the water’s course from an aquifer in Taita to Somes Island.
Murray went out to several music groups in the Hutt community with a challenge - create a soundtrack to fit the film’s time frame.
The Hutt Valley Community Choir and the Taita College Poly Choir both put their hands up to help out, as well as writers Gem Wilder, Damien Wilkins and Helen Heath.
The writers have poems and short stories to read out and sound artist Jason Wright has created a soundtrack full of natural noises - bird song and flowing water - to accompany the footage.
Hewitt said using different music groups would change the whole tone of each showing.
‘‘It’s that kind of thing that if you put a video up with sound, you get a different vibe.’’
Rising Gale is part of the Common Ground: Hutt Public Art Festival, a festival exploring our relationship with water and its role in daily life.
Screenings of Rising Gale begin 9pm February 25 in Nash St, Taita. Music provided by Taita College Poly Group. For more information, visit the Common Ground website. To see a sample of Hewitt’s work visit stuff.co.nz