Reading & Writing:
The final words were, well…final words. If there was a takeaway form any of it, it was that there is merit in sticking to the basics before getting too crazy. This was something I remember from my very first digital photo class. I was eager as hell to make things look “cool” in photoshop when I should have concentrated on composing a decent picture first. Honestly, there will be portions of the book that I revisit now that the pressure is off. I never felt like I really got a chance to absorb anything in the text because there was so much to do and it was all just a means to completing the module. I needed to extract the important points quickly and then put them to work.
Where did your skillset start and where are you now? When I started this class, I had almost zero knowledge of recording video and audio. I had done a few little projects for my own entertainment, but feel more confident to include these elements into projects. I still feel like I don’t have an amazing handle on my DLSRs ability to record motion to its best capability, but that is something that I can finagle later.
In terms of usefulness, I think that the podcast recording and the motion editing techniques were the things that I’m going to remember the most. A friend of mine is interested in starting a podcast, and since I’m kinda set up to do it now, I feel much more confident that I could record and edit it for her. On the flip side, audio was still a major challenge for me this semester. I never felt like anything sounded as full or rich as I wanted it to…it may have been acceptable, but I never felt like I could push it to be exceptional. I’m definitely interested in digging in Premiere Pro a lot more…my brother-in-law works as an editor on a couple of popular documentary television series so I hope to hook up with him soon to get some hands-on learning in soon.
In the future, I think I’m going to try making a few more of these short “In the Studio” documentaries. The artist really loved it and I’ve had a few other people offer their time to get a similar clip made. It seems like working on little projects like this would be good practice to keep things fresh.
Research to Inform:
Gimme Danger:
J-Cut example – I chose a clip from this particular cause ‘Gimme Danger’ was (in a way) the inspiration for my documentary video. I think the cuts made between the dialogue and the video are great and really express the ‘feeling’ of the concert that is being recounted.
L-Cut Example: I chose this scene because it was a memorable clip that used audio from the dream sequence carried over into the next scene to connect the two.
Create:
Project Note:
I’m gonna start by saying that I took some small creative liberties here that deviate from the outlined assignment. As a true believer that some rules are meant to be broken, I went way over the five-minute limit and I opted to not use any voice-over narration. Inspired in part by the Iggy Pop documentary, “Gimme Danger”, I went into this project with a very distinct “feel” that I was going for, and it certainly would not have been possible to achieve it by cramming a man’s life story into five minutes or having to listen to myself talk about him when I was certain he would do a much better job of it. I had pre-recorded some voice over bits prior to filming that I felt could be used to fulfill that requirement, but ultimately scrapped them because it cheapened the piece. Now, having critically watched this piece many, many times, – I’m confident that these were the right choices for this project.
Lighting:
After lugging a massive bucket of lights, soft boxes, stands and cords up three flights of stairs in a sweltering industrial warehouse, mid-way through the insanely hot heat wave, I was informed that the electricity to the building had been cut due to ongoing upgrades and renovations. Therefore, I didn’t use the required 3-point light setup that was required for this piece. I did, however, get creative with a few reflectors and the natural light that came through the only massive window in this wing of the building. I feel that the light is still soft and balanced and honestly, it’s the best that could be achieved under the circumstances.
Filming:
To film the sit-down portion of the interview, I set up two cameras: a Nikon D810 with a 2.8f 24-70mm lens and a Nikon D7100 with a 1.8f 35mm lens (with the 1.3x crop enabled in order to record at a higher fps). Each were outfitted with a shotgun mic (one RODE and another off-brand mic). I spent a few hours the day prior to shooting, researching the absolute best settings for recording with each camera…I set them appropriately, tossed each on a tripod, and let them roll; stepping off the far side of the narrow room to make sure that Don wouldn’t be looking directly into the lenses. I probably should have checked them sooner than I had because the autofocus kept re-adjusting wildly because Don doesn’t sit still…I should have known this and taken it into consideration. After reviewing all of the footage, this is my biggest filming regret and something I will likely remember to triple-check for the rest of my life.
Audio:
I got crap audio from the RODE mic, and better quality from my other off-brand shotgun mic, but the battery died shortly into filming and foolishly, forgot by batteries at home so I didn’t get anything off of it. The room was large and vacant, so there was a decent echo which I had to get rid of. I took a few passes at fixing it in both Adobe Audition as well as Audacity and this, while SOOOO much better than the original, is still pretty mediocre at best. I don’t own a lav mic or a separate audio recording device, but after working so hard to get sub-par audio it is an investment I will consider. And yes, I used copyrighted music…it felt appropriate and royalty free stuff would not have fit my vision.
Editing:
Honestly, this was the easiest part of the process. I made mental notes on the placement of footage and dialogue as Don talked because I could “see” it all coming together before me. We met at 11am Wednesday morning and I literally edited for 12 hours straight (with minimal breaks) and when I was done, it was done. It all sort of just clicked in a way that felt natural, yet purposeful.
So….here it is! (Just be sure that YouTube is set to play it in full HD)