Author: Gail Mooney

I am a new media specialist producing video and still photography for print, web and broadcast.
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Pre-Production Blues

Pre-production on any video shoot is essential. That is if you want to save time and money, not to mention avoid having a major melt down in the editing room because you didn’t get the necessary goods.  Although I recognize the need for good solid pre-production and am usually more than “just” prepared for a video shoot – there’s a big part of me that despises this part of the process.

With tight budgets comes tight shoot schedules because time is money and you want to be sure that once you get to a location, everything is set to go.  People that need to be notified – have been notified.  Gear that needs to be rented has been and some kind of storyboard or shoot list has been signed off on.  Lots of details have to be taken care of and that’s what I’m good at – leaving no detail to chance.

But once I get to a shoot with the confidence that everything has been previously arranged – I like to allocate some time for serendipity to happen.  And that’s the part of the process I love – when little things happen that I didn’t expect.  But I need to go into a shoot allowing the time for this to happen – leaving  time for the unexpected as well as being mentally “open” to it.  In other words being prepared yet flexible at the same time.

I had a client once say to me “the more I see you worry about the details – the more I know that I don’t have to think about them”.  A compliment for sure but at the same time I realize that it’s all a balancing act.  Always a balancing act between being the prepared professional and the passionate storyteller who is willing to “depart” from the plan if necessary.  When I get that balance just right I feel it.  Words can’t describe it but I literally feel it.  And when a video really comes together in the end, that feeling resurfaces every time I view it.  And that’s the part I love the most.

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What Camera Should I Buy?

If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me what camera they should buy – I could retire.  These days I get a lot of “what video camera should I buy?”  That question is almost impossible to answer without more information.  So I usually reply with my own onslaught of questions “What are you going to be shooting?”, “What editing software will you be using?” , “Are you concerned about getting “natural sound” or will you be using the “video” and not the “audio” from the camera?”.  And of course the big question “What’s your budget?”.

One thing that complicates making a choice in video cameras is that unlike still cameras – video cameras shoot different types of files – mpeg2, native quicktime, HDV, AVCHD.  In addition some shoot to tape, some shoot to cards and some shoot to discs.  Then of course there’s the basic consideration of SD or HD.  And not all HD files are alike.  Sounds confusing and overwhelming doesn’t it?  And it can be so my advice is always to work backwards.

Start by identifying the type of shoots you’ll be doing – corporate interviews or beautiful imagery intended to be shown to a music track.  Where will it be shown?  Broadcast? Web? DVD’s?  And how will you edit it? What platform? What editing software? To help guide you with selecting the right camera for the editing software you have or intend to purchase I have come across some great links to compatablity charts. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut This is a great place to start to see if that reasonably priced prosumer camera that outputs AVCHD files will work with the prosumer version of the editing program you have or will you have to purchase the full pro program.  I have seen lots of posts on listservs with people who need help editing files from the camera they just bought and loosing a lot of time in the process, not to mention the frustration they put themselves through.

There’s all kinds of cool cameras coming on the market everyday and lots of people jumping on the bandwagon as seen in the success of the RED and the hybrid Canon 5D II. http://tiny.cc/KmAOK There’s a lot of great things about both these cameras but before you plunk down the money – ask yourself if it’s the right tool for you.  Unless money is no object, you’ll want to make sure that your investment in a camera will serve your purpose.  There’s a tool for everything.  Here’s another interesting camera that recently debuted.  If you’re an action adventure shooter – it could be the camera for you.  http://tiny.cc/3owdX

My advice is to make a pros and cons list before you even look at cameras.  That way you won’t be overwhelmed by the tools – but will choose the tool that is the right tool and the “means to your end”.

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Editing and the Story

I’ve grown to love the editing part of the video production process.  It’s where I “craft” the story and take it where I want it to go.

Last Spring I attended a conference at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan.  The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MichiganWhile staying at this historic gem, my goal was to create a short web video on the hotel and the island.  I shot the property in a dozen different ways getting b-roll footage of carriages, guests on the porch, tea in the parlor, the orchestra and other areas of the hotel as well as scenes in town. I also interviewed third generation owner and President, Dan Musser III and carriage driver Tom McCarthy.  Those interviews as well as some soundbites from a talk given by concierge Bob Tagatz – gave me my narrative track.

When I returned I gathered all my assets – interviews, b-roll and music and started to layout the story. Generally, I lay down my best soundbites first.  This drives the story.  I’ll then go through all my b-roll and live action shots and select the best clips that best illustrate the narrative track.  I was fortunate on this piece because I was able to capture footage of the harpist at the Grand Hotel and this not only provided me with some nice visuals, but it gave me a music track to work with that made sense in the context of the story.

After piecing together the story in Final Cut Pro, I then went  back and “cut” it.  Given time, I may even live with it a bit, going back and cutting more each time giving it more punch.  I’ve uploaded my first two cuts on vimeo.  Here’s a link to my latest rough cut. http://www.vimeo.com/5889700 I’ll probably live with it a bit and then go back and cut out another 20%.  It’s always hard to cut but it makes the piece stronger and these days – people don’t take the time to look at long web videos.

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Making a Difference

I’ve always been quite active as a volunteer in my community.  When my daughter was going through the school system, I was very involved with various committees and events throughout the years. What I enjoyed most was being able to share my gift of expertise as a professional photographer and filmmaker.  One year I produced, shot and edited a piece for the school’s International Baccalaurete Program highlighting what some of the students were doing for the CAS portion of the program.  CAS stands for Creative Action and Service and  the students need to spend a certain number of hours in each of these areas.  So I created a short video made up of interviews with current students talking about what types of things they were doing to fulfill those hours.  I also took whatever still photos and video that the kids or their parents provided me and worked it into the piece.  The video was a hit amongst the kids, their parents and the teachers and will be archived to show future students contemplating the IB program.

I’m not so involved with the schools now that my daughter has graduated, and I miss that community connection and what I got from that personally. I do mentor high school kids from time to time who are interested in photography and video and I love to work with the passionate ones.  And last year my husband/partner, Tom and I shot and produced Freedom’s Ride, a short documentary about 20 predominately white students from our high school district and 20 predominately black students from a public school in Harlem, NY who rode the bus to and from Alabama, retracing the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. That was an incredible and rewarding experience for all.

Currently we sit on the board of our local public access TV station Mendham TV.  Independently Tom and I have produced 20 half hour talk shows for the station, called Mendham People.  We recruited local people for hosts who came up with various local people to interview in a Charlie Rose type format.  One of our hosts was our local postal clerk, Pete.  We live in an area where we don’t get mail delivery so everyone goes to the post office on a daily basis and sees Pete. So he’s a well known figure and knows everyone in town.  Recently our station started airing the town’s public meetings.  The station isn’t funded but we managed to get volunteers and trained them to shoot the meetings. I’ve started attending town meetings  and I feel much more in touch with my community.  Volunteering on the board of the local TV station has kept us involved with our community and is a way for us to continue to “give back” to our community.

It’s always nice of course when I get personally thanked or recognized in some small way for my volunteer efforts, but the biggest reward is always  how it makes me feel.  I believe we all can make a difference even in the smallest acts of “giving” and to all those who have shared their time and talents, you know how rewarding it is personally. I’ll end with a quote by Arthur Ashe.

“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”

—Arthur Ashe (1943-1993), professional tennis player, civil rights supporter

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10 Great Links For Video Resources

If you’re like me, no matter how much you think you know – when it comes to video production and editing – there’s always something you don’t know.
I have been helped on numerous occasions with a little help from my friends and great resources.

Here’s my Top 10 List of Online Resources and Blogs for Video Info

http://forums.creativecow.net/ Info, forums and tutorials
http://www.dvinfo.net/ Tutorials and interactive forum.
http://www.2-popforums.com/forums/ Forums for video discussions.
http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa Apple’s discussion forums
http://tiny.cc/BbKwL Ken Stone – Final Cut Pro guru
http://digitaljournalist.org/ Monthly online magazine
http://tiny.cc/qcrWh Digital Juice -Tutorials and forums.
http://tiny.cc/vfKr0 Chuck Fadely’s Blog – great info on video
http://www.photoshopforvideo.com/ Photoshop Tips
http://www.lynda.com Training for just about anything!

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Video and Social Media – A Great Partnership

Facebook hit one billion video views last month. There are four times as many video views as actual Facebook members. That’s astounding. It also speaks volumes about how much video has become a part of our lives. With Facebook, people are sending video messages to “friends” without sharing them globally on You Tube or other video host sites. http://tiny.cc/v3d8K. Social networkers can also embed their Facebook videos on other web sites or blogs.

But if you think one billion video views in a month’s time is amazing, then you’ll be stunned to hear that YouTube gets over one billion views in a day!

And let’s not forget the new iphoneG3 that is not only a display tool for video, but a tool that can create video content as well. And this is not one of the new hybrid still cameras that also shoots video files – it’s a phone!

So between the new tools that create video content, coupled with the new tools that allow us to share video content, video is becoming a new “norm” in how we communicate. And with these new tools it has become easier for the consumer to use video to communicate. Does that mean video professionals should feel threatened. Not at all. To me it means that because video is becoming the new “norm” there is more and more of a demand for it. And that means that for my clients who have only worked in print before, are now finding a need to deliver their message in video to consumers who have come to expect it. And that’s good for me and my business.

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Birthdays, Dreams and Optimism

It’s amazing how quickly priorities change. Today’s my birthday and I knew that I had a lot of deadline items I needed to get accomplished early in the day. I was cutting my work day short because I have tickets for a Jackson Browne open air concert this evening in Brooklyn.

I quickly checked my email and caught up on “social media” dialog and then at 7:50AM Eastern Daylight Time – my power went out. I knew I had a “window” of opportunity to get any computer priorities taken care of before my backup battery went out. Then I would need to come up with a plan B. I could still work on my laptop but my airport wasn’t on so I didn’t have an internet connection. I could last as long as the battery in my laptop held out. I could go down to the library – but their power was out too. I could use my blackberry for as long as that battery lasted. Then I actually could recharge both my blackberry and my laptop battery if I used the “universal power inverter” that plugs into the cigarette lighter in our car.

Or I could give into the forces of nature and take the day off from technology. I think I’ll do that. But I’ll use a bit of my battery and write this blog before I succumb to the “powers that be” and “make the best of it”. Who knows there could be a silver lining in all of this. All these metaphors started me thinking about other “mantras” that I’ve led my life by. Seems fitting on my birthday to take the time to reflect on these mantras and share them.

1. Always have a dream. Believe in it and believe in yourself in making it happen.
2. Keep your passions alive. For me, my strong interest in cultural stories will always keep me exploring. I need that and it gives my life perspective.
3. Set goals – even little goals are good and then reward yourself. They will all lead up to you making your dream come true.
4. Make decisions or they will be made for you.
5. Do the “right thing”. You will love yourself more if you do.

It’s still raining and the power is still out at 9:56AM on Tuesday, July 21, 2009. But I’m going with my plan b, taking the day off from technology and heading out to the open air Jackson Browne concert – rain and all. At least it’s his “acoustic” tour.

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“The Most Trusted Man in America” – Walter Cronkite 1916 -2009

We lost one of America’s greats yesterday, Walter Cronkite died at the age of 93. I grew up, getting my “news” from Mr. Cronkite along with millions of other Americans. We all believed what he said and we trusted that what he said was the “truth” and not just “opinion”.

Walter Cronkite brought us some of the most amazing news stories of the 20th Century and he did so with the utmost integrity. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Martin Luther King’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, news about the Vietnam War and of course the first Moon landing. He said once and I’m paraphrasing, that amongst all the turmoil and problems of the 1960’s, the Space Program and in particular that first landing on the Moon showed America’s true spirit and resiliency. He personified that – he gave us hope for the future.

I think anyone who remembers getting their news from Cronkite, longs for those days when the news was the news and not an endless stream of pundits’ opinions. We’ve lost our trust in journalism and journalistic integrity. And with social media and “citizen journalism” I not sure we’ll ever get that trust back.

I had the privilege of meeting and photographing Walter Cronkite in 1986. I was shooting a story for the National Geographic Traveler Magazine about Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. I was given contact info for Walter Cronkite and called him up and asked him if I could photograph him for the article. Mr. Cronkite spent his summers in Martha’s Vineyard and was a well known figure there especially among the “sailing set”, so it was thought that a photo of him would make a nice addition to the story . We set up a date and a time for the photograph. Being a professional, I always confirm any appointments the day before. So the day before our shoot was scheduled, I called the telephone number that I had, to confirm. This was well before the days of cell phones and emails and even before computers became such a big part of our lives. Throughout the day, I kept calling the number that I had from whatever pay phone was available but I kept getting a ringing phone – no answer and no message machine. The day came and went and so did the next day – the day I was supposed to photograph him. I missed our appointment because I never connected to get details of where to meet him. I felt betrayed by “the most trusted man in America” that somehow he had forgotten our appointment. And then something hit me that night – perhaps when I rewrote my notes with all my contacts and phone numbers for the shoot – I had not written his phone number down correctly. So I took a shot and called directory information to see if by some slim chance Walter Cronkite was listed. Much to my surprise he was listed! The next day I called him, profusely apologizing, embarrassed and humiliated and told him how I had incorrectly written his phone number down when I was rewriting my notes and that it never occurred to me to check the telephone directory to see if his number was listed. I assumed that someone like him who was so high profile would have an unlisted telephone number.

Cronkite

He was incredibly gracious, yet he did warn me about making “assumptions” and I have never forgotten that lesson. And he gave me a second chance and set up another day for the shoot.

The day of the shoot was a glorious day on Martha’s Vineyard and Mr. Cronkite suggested that I photograph him on his sailboat. His mother was also on board and I remember her as being quite a character. I have fond memories from that afternoon. I took my photos but he didn’t head back to shore to drop me off – he loved to sail and it was a perfect day for it so we continued to sail throughout the rest of the afternoon.

I cried last night when I heard the news of his death. I cried because he’s gone and also because we’ve lost our trust in journalists and the news media in general. But like Cronkite, I’m hopeful for the future. Thank you Mr. Cronkite for your integrity, professionalism and your personal words of wisdom for me that wonderful day so many years ago. “And that’s the way it is”.

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Family Biographies

I think one of the most gratifying areas I create videos for is in documenting family stories. This past weekend, I traveled to Michigan for a large family gathering. Because this part of my family is over 800 miles from me, I don’t get to see them as often as I like. I also know that the years go by like minutes these days and that many of my aunts, uncles and cousins are getting on in years.

On this particular trip I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and decided to set up time to get my relatives to sit down for video interviews. I wanted to archive their stories for future generations of our family. Mom,Jereta, Joyce, Dorlen, Frenchie

We took an afternoon and one by one, each aunt and uncle told me stories of growing up and the hard, but happy life they had on the family farm. They talked a bit about my mother and I’m grateful for that because she is no longer here to tell her story.

At times the tales were funny and it times they were quite emotional. But I think at the end of the day we all agreed that what we had accomplished in taping their stories,  was an important thing to do. Video is such a wonderful tool for documenting a family’s story because they are telling their stories in their own way, with their own voice. Creating family biographies is one of the most rewarding areas that I work in. And it’s also the most appreciated.  I’d like to think in my own small way that I’m continuing a legacy for future generations to come.

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Pinetop Perkins – Still Singing the Blues at 96

Yesterday, July 7th as the world mourned Michael Jackson’s passing, another music legend, Pinetop Perkins turned 96 years old. Pinetop Perkins, King Biscuit Blues Festival, Helena, AR

Pinetop Perkins is a legend in the world of “blues” music. He taught Ike Turner how to play piano during the 1940’s while working on Hopson’s Plantation in Clarksdale, MS. Pinetop still tours the world playing his boogie woogie style blues. Even at 96 years old – he’s still living his passion for the blues.

I met Pinetop in Mississippi in 2002 while there for his homecoming. I had recently embarked on one of my earliest video projects – a project about the Delta blues musicians and the part of the world that gave birth to that music.  http://tiny.cc/ntwso My approach was to shoot still environmental portraits of these musicians, but more importantly capture video interviews of them talking about their youth and the Delta.

Pinetop Perkins, Clarksdale, MS I spent the morning with Pinetop sitting on the front porch of an old shack on Hopson’s Plantation. The crowds from the party the day before had come and gone and it was just the two of us, having a conversation on a glorious October morning. It was memorable and I captured his stories which I hope will be heard by generations to come.

That day led to many other wonderful encounters over the years with Pinetop and even a trip to the Grammy’s when Pinetop was honored as a lifetime achievement recipient.

Pineop_Ike_Gail

Seven years ago when I asked him what the blues was, he replied “ Something worrying you so bad that you mights need to cry about it – you got the blues if you can’t sing em”. I try to remember those words when I’m down – and sing the blues to carry my troubles away.

Happy Birthday Pinetop.