I have been commissioned to make a documentary about a new Public Health School in Hong Kong. The school is part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the documentary will follow the students of a new BSc course. The course is the first of it’s kind in Hong Kong.

Since the course is 3 years long, I will be travelling back to Hong Kong several times over the next few years to catch up with the Professor’s and students and see how things are developing.

It’s a great honour to be asked to be involved in such a project and I enjoyed the first round of shooting a lot.

Because I was travelling I needed a portable and compact filming solution and that is where the development of new camera technologies has proved to be extremely useful. I am shooting the documentary on a Digital SLR camera, which is capable of producing stunning results in a very compact form factor.

I use two DLSR cameras like this now – the Panasonic GH1 and the Canon 7D. The Hong Kong film is being shot with the GH1.

In the still above – taken from the film – you can see the kind of possible results. It takes people a moment to get over the fact that your camera is so small! But they soon forget about it, and if anything, being so discreet helps the interviewees to feel more relaxed.