Post-Production – Page 3 – Journeys of a Hybrid

June 29, 2011June 29, 2011

Working With a Professional Editor

I know how to edit. Well, I should say I know Final Cut Pro. Knowing how to use a particular software and knowing how to edit – to tell the story, are two different things. Just like taking a photograph skillfully is more than just knowing how to use a camera.

I have done a relatively decent job editing projects in the past, but nothing has ever been longer than a half hour in length. Nothing has ever been as demanding as what I have been working on over this past year and a half.

After traveling around the world last summer, on a 99-day adventure, shooting a feature length film about people who are making a difference, with just a slim crew (myself and my daughter), and an even slimmer budget, financed with airline miles and hotel rewards, I returned with over 150 hours of footage and 5000 still images.

After a bleak winter of endless days of trying to make sense and order of all my content, I managed to get a very rough storyline down with interview sound bites and do a first cut on the b-roll. But there was a long way to go to get this looking like the film that I imagined in my head. I knew I wanted to work with a professional editor who would not only help me, but also would bring their own vision and craft to the film and most importantly “move the story”.

I’ve been working with Erik Freeland, from Springhouse Films over the past few months and I am simply in awe of what he has brought to the film. I’ve learned so much by collaborating with Erik. Not, little tips and shortcuts in terms of Final Cut but how to tell a story cinematically. I’m beginning to learn about the craft of editing and how the nuances of timing and juxtaposition of clips and interviews can move the story forward – or not.

As a shooter, I’m paying attention to movement in a scene and following the action. An editor looks for just the right part of the action in the clip – and how that clip will juxtapose with another clip. Not only the timing of the action within the clip is important, but also the timing of the duration of the clip itself is critical to the pacing of the film.

Timing is everything in editing – it’s almost like making a musical composition timing and pacing the highs and the lows of the story. In fact a big part of the editing process is integrating the music, adding yet another dimension to weave the viewer in and out of the story. Music is the heart of a film, the emotional backbone. Without music – the film has no heart.

So in a way, a good editor is a mixture between a technician, a storyteller and someone who has rhythm. An interesting combination for sure. It’s been a wonderful experience collaborating with my editor, Erik and I think what has made it work so well is that we have respect for what each other has brought to this project. We have both learned and grown along the way and pushed ourselves creatively. What more can you hope for? That’s the beauty of collaboration.

June 17, 2011June 17, 2011

The Making of a Movie with a DSLR

It’s been a wild ride since I first began this journey of making a feature film with a DSLR camera – in my case, the Canon Eos 5D Mark II. I had already completed three short documentaries to date – all made with traditional video cameras from my first Canon XL-1 to my current HD Sony EX-1. But this time I was heading out on a 99-day journey around the globe, with my 23 year old daughter in search of ordinary people on six continents, who were making a difference in the world, and we had to pack light.

We were “the crew” – the two of us. We had to work efficiently and with gear that would fit into two backpacks and would endure the adventure as we traveled to 17 different countries on 30 flights. I also wanted to shoot both still images and motion, so I opted for the DSLR solution. Of course, I was enchanted by the “big chip” and the cinematic look of these cameras, but I was also thinking of my gear in practical terms – how I was traveling – how I would be shooting – and of course the desired outcome.

So with my daughter “running sound”, doing the interviews with our subjects, shooting still images, and navigating us through the subway systems in Moscow and Buenos Aires, and me taking care of all the logistics and shooting both video and stills, we came back 99 days later with almost 3000 gigabytes of content – that’s approx. 150 hours of footage and 5000 still image captures!

I wasn’t mentally prepared for what came next and that was 2 intensive months on my part ingesting all the content into my editing system, transcoding and adding metadata to the files and culling through hours of interview soundbites until I had cut it down to three . It was grueling and my winter months were spent putting in 14 hour days – 7 days a week. I was overwhelmed, yet somehow driven by some force. It was a lot of work, it was tedious and it was daunting – but yet it was my passion and somehow this inexplicable “force” got me through it.

I raised money along the way through crowd funding on Kickstarter and with that, I hired an editor. After I handed the project off to my editor, Erik Freeland of Springhouse Films, there was a huge sigh of relief on my part. I knew the post production had a long way to go but, I also knew that I had to let it go for a while and step back. Working with Erik has been amazing in itself and he has brought enormous value to this project and film. I have learned a lot from his insights and his talents in knowing how to” tell a story”, and we are finally coming to the completion of this film. Or at least in getting the “first cut” done for a sneak preview on July 17th, at the State Theater in Traverse City, Michigan. The screening is by invitation only and if you would like to attend, just drop me an email at gail@openingoureyes.net and tell me how many people would like to attend.

Since I first dreamed up this project in the final days of 2009, to the departure of our trip in the Spring of 2010, to where we are now, it has been a continual journey on every level imaginable. And I have had many angels working on my behalf – my husband Tom Kelly who has been the “wind beneath my wings” and without his support none of this would have been possible, my extended family who have been amused over the years with my schemes and dreams, my dear friends Angel Burns and Ally Raye who have believed in me and this project and have made incredibly exciting things happen for this film. (I’m not quite ready to divulge some of those exciting things publicly, just yet), Maria Grillo and Jason Harvey at The Grillo Group who have been so giving with their time and talents and created all the graphic design for the film’s release, and so many other “angels” who have helped me with foreign translations, been financial backers, helped me spread the word globally, and every person who was there for me when I needed support and encouragement. I am deeply grateful to have all these people in my life.

We live in an empowering time. When I began my career as a still photographer, over 30 years ago, I never would have imagined doing any of this. In fact just two years ago, none of this would have been possible. Our dreams are as big as we want them to be. I have seen this dream clearly from the start and each day I get closer and closer to seeing it become a reality.

Watch the Trailer

May 25, 2011

A Year Ago Today – The Beginning of Our Documentary and the DSLR

It was exactly a year ago today that I left with my daughter on a 99-day journey around the world to create a documentary about people on six continents who were making a difference in the world. I was not new to video or documentaries, having shot motion for over twelve years and completing three short films. But this was big – not in the sense of “big production” or “big crew” or certainly not “big budget” – it wasn’t any of those things but it was indeed BIG.

I had no idea how big it turned out to be. The trip in itself was almost the easy part, although don’t get me wrong – it was arduous on every level. What was overwhelming was taking the project from idea to completion. Had I known how overwhelming it has been at times, I may have reconsidered – or at the very least had a bigger crew.

The crew was my daughter and myself. I shot video. She shot stills. She interviewed the subjects and ran sound. I operated the camera and shot B-Roll. She research, scheduled and pre-interviewed the subjects and I worked on all the logistics – travel, travel needs and gear. I thought about gear long and hard and decided to go with the hybrid cameras, in my case the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 7D. I wanted to capture both stills and video, but I didn’t want to bring two separate camera systems, so I chose the hybrids. I have written a lot about the gear but the all time most popular post I wrote was about my gear for this 99-day journey.

We returned in September with over 150 hours of footage and over 5000 still images. Wow! Talk about overwhelming. I spent 2 solid months of my winter getting the footage into a manageable rough timeline – or at least the sound bites. I handed it off to my editor Erik Freeland of Springhouse Films and he hopes to get me his rough cut this weekend. I’ve had many conversations with Erik over the past month or so about the story(s) and the arc of the film and he truly understands how to tell a story. I am extremely grateful that I was able to hire a professional editor and it never would have been possible, without my successful run with Kickstarter.

I have been working a lot in the back scenes with distribution options and I am thrilled with what I am finding. This is the time for “the documentary”. It’s possible with small budgets and crews to make a powerful film that can be seen in hundreds of various venues well past the big screen movie houses and film festivals. It’s an amazing time for “the individual” and what can be accomplished because of technology. That’s another blog for another time though.

I’m headed to California this afternoon to speak at Cal Poly tomorrow evening. Join me if you’re in the area. For old time’s sake, I took my Eagle Creek bag – which I had circumvented the globe with. It seemed like the right thing to do.

May 23, 2011

The “Real” Cost of Shooting Video With the DSLR

There was an interesting thread on ASMP’s video listservlast week. It started when a still photographer asked if a particular

DSLR camera would help him get into the game – of video.

Jan Allklier, a Seattle based photographer, shooting both stills and motion summed it up:

“If you simply want to ‘explore the medium’ a hybrid DSLR may well be the right ROI, although it really will only give you a flavor for moving images, not the workflow of professional moving image production, which encompasses a wide range all the way from feature film, to corporate work, to webisodes for small business; and many tools and skills well beyond the image capture device at hand.”

Kevin Kamin, Minneapolis based shooter, reminds us that it’s not just about the camera (or tool), but about the story:

“I understand why some photographers are looking to expand into video, it’s definitely doable, but I believe there is a tremendous underestimation of what is required to do so. I feel like video is being perceived as simply moving photographs-95% of the videos I’ve seen on commercial photographer’s website are not at a professional level (most feel like overly long, clunky, rough cuts that lack sophistication and a clarity of message). They say that ‘people who are good with a hammer tend to think everything is a nail’ So along that idea, many  of the videos feel like videos made by photographers, who haven’t fully grasped the spirit of the medium. People can enjoy a still photograph for a minute or  two, if it is compelling and engaging, but if you have three seconds of video footage that doesn’t move the story or lingers 15 frames too long, you just lost your viewer no matter how pretty it looks. Photography functions differently  within time based media.   Storytelling is the core of video. “

And Chuck Fadely, of the Miami Herald, connects the dots for us, first by passing along a link to Shane Hurlbut Visuals blog that lists the “standard” movie making rental gear for DSLR video. More importantly, Chuck reminds us that shooting motion is a skill set. It’s a different way of seeing and shooting.

“The hardest thing about video for a still photographer is learning to shoot in a totally different way. You’ve got to learn to shoot in sequences, with transitions. It takes years to overcome the habits you’ve built up as a still photog — like reframing, adjusting exposure, following action — which are death in video.   I was a news and feature photog with several decades of experience, with extensive lighting skills, good technical ability, and a knack for learning new stuff. I switched over to video full time and it was shocking how little transferred over. Video is a different beast.”

This was one of the easiest blog posts that I’ve ever written and maybe the most beneficial for readers. It brings up another important point and that is how much we can learn from each other. When I started shooting motion back in the mid ‘90’s – there really weren’t any listservs or social media forums where my peers were so forthcoming with information.

When people ask me why I’m so giving and sharing with my knowledge, I always tell them that I get back so much more than I give. What a great time to be alive.

May 10, 2011

Top Five Tips For Photographers Moving into Motion

The last post I wrote was titled The Top 5 Mistakes Photographers Making Moving From Stills to Motion.
Why is it anytime I use the word mistake in the title of a post, it goes viral? Is it because we take comfort in knowing that other people make mistakes? Or is it that we know we can learn from others’ mistakes?

I think it’s a bit of both. But I also think that if one takes comfort in knowing potential pitfalls, then they may be more likely to take chances creatively and push their own limits.

In this post, I decided that I’d spin it in another direction – toward the positive – and dish out some tips for photographers moving into motion.

•   Understand where the new opportunities are. Don’t try to compete in traditional markets like broadcast spots right away. Many new opportunities are with your still photography clients who you already have a relationship with. They might be new to motion also and need to produce a video. Ask.
•   Don’t do everything yourself. You’ll need a good team. Video has a lot of facets and you can’t do everything yourself, especially when you’re still learning. Find good audio people and editors you can work with.
•   Think differently – Shoot in sequences. Think how you will get into and out of a shot when you’re shooting, putting the story together in your head.
•   Shoot and move – Shoot a lot of b-roll. Cover at least 3 angles on everything with a variety of focal lengths. Get wide, medium, tight and close-up shots. You’ll be glad you did in the editing room.
•   Make a production schedule – And make sure you get your client to sign off after certain parts of the process – after the shoot – and throughout the edit.

May 6, 2011May 6, 2011

Top 5 Mistakes Photographers Make Moving From Stills to Motion

1.   Give it away – One of the best opportunities that still photographers have when expanding their businesses with video is to offer their new services to their existing clients. I hear from so many still photographers who squash this opportunity from the start by throwing in the video clips for free because they are still learning. First of all, I’m not a fan of learning on the job, but more importantly if you give your new skills away because you’re still learning, then the question is “At what point will you be good enough or have learned enough to charge for it?” Who decides that you or your client?
2.   Audio is an afterthought – Capturing good audio is more important than making a great image. If a viewer cannot understand the dialog, they will walk away. Don’t make audio an afterthought. Hire a good sound person.
3.   Position themselves as “just” a shooter – If you position yourself as just a camera person, then you will not only lose a lot of creative control, but you will leave money on the table by not making a profit on the other aspects of a video production. I position myself as a producer. That’s not to say that I don’t also shoot a job, but I oversee the entire production and charge accordingly for pulling together all the pieces.
4.   Don’t collaborate – Get over the one man band, solo creature model and surround yourself with a crew of experts that will make you look good. Build a team of editors, sound mixers, motion graphics artists etc.
5.   Forget about the story – Every good product, including commercial videos have a great story. You can have the best production values in the world, but if you don’t tell a good story, it will not resonate with your audience or your client.

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011

NAB Show 2011 Afterthoughts

Whew! I’m fatigued in every way imaginable – in a good way though as I always am after attending the National Association of Broadcaster’s annual show in Las Vegas. It’s overwhelming and over stimulating and after I get home and decompress for a day I’ll make some sense out of what I learned and how to apply it in my hybrid world.

What springs to the forefront of my mind as I wait for my flight, which is delayed, is that convergence and/or “integration” continues at a rapid pace. 3D, which seemed to be the big topic last year is still present but not commanding all of the attention. This year the conversation seemed to be centered on the integration of TV and Broadband. But I couldn’t help but wonder as I went from James Cameron’s keynote where he talked about his continued thrust into 3D, to a session on TV and Broadband convergence – where does 3D fit into the Broadband world?

Many attendees infatuated with the HDSLR solution wondered why Canon didn’t roll out the next “hybrid”. I’d like to think that Canon is working on a video camera that will utilize a “big chip” than working on a still camera that has less work arounds in an attempt to make them more video friendly.

Adobe announced CS5.5 and the next day Apple made their worldwide premier of Final Cut Pro X at the Final Cut Pro Users Group Supermeet. The crowd went wild as each new feature was demo’d – no transcoding, auto rendering in the background while still working, no more clip collisions and so forth. At the end of the demo everyone’s jaw dropped when they announced the price at $299. What Apple didn’t tell us – is if and how it will integrate with the other apps in Final Cut Studio like Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Compressor and Color.

Another very cool product was the Ninja by Atomos an Australian outfit. The Ninja is a monitor – but not just a monitor because it takes your media out as 8/10 bit uncompressed HDMI and stores it on insertable 500 G hard drives. Unbelievable and at a price of less than $1000. That means that compressed media gets output at a quality 8 – 10 times better than recording it to cards. Sorry, DSLR users but it doesn’t work with Canon’s DSLR’s because for some reason there is no way to record the data without the display. That’s a question for Canon as to why it can’t over ride that and output and record without the display recorded on the data.

As always my favorite part of NAB is sitting in on the Super Sessions with big time directors, editors, CEO’s of broadcast networks and manufacturers. That’s where you truly get to engage the movers and shakers in the industry and learn and ask questions. One of my favorite sessions was with filmmaker Kevin Smith. He is the kind of guy that constantly pushes the envelope and he made a comment that stuck with me. He said “Hang with the people who ask why not – not the people who ask why”. It’s a lot easier to question why and in the process never get anywhere but to have to courage to say “why not” – well that’s when things get created and invented.

So, as I head home thoroughly exhausted in a good way; I’ll hang onto that thought and seek out others who say “why not?”

April 13, 2011

Embrace Disruption

Every now and then disruption needs to take place and does. Technology is causing disruption in all our lives but it need not be looked at as a negative thing. We can embrace it and find opportunities or we can shut ourselves off and become obsolete.

It’s Day 3 of the NAB Show. Every April the National Association of Broadcasters have one of the largest conferences in the world but these days this show is not just attended by broadcasters. As TV converges with the Internet the attendees have become more and more diverse.

On a very small scale there is the DSLR contingent along with all the vendors that cater to this group with their third party add ons – a big business these days for sure. At Canon’s display, Hollywood DP’s and cinematographers like Gale Tattersall of House and Russell Carptenter of Titantic (to name just one of his films) tout the merits of the Canon 5d MarkII and make the point how these hybrid cameras have created a new aesthetic. They are also quick to point out that these “affordable” cameras are not chosen because of budget but rather because they are small and discreet and create a beautiful image in low light. One digital “rebel” filmmaker remarked how he shot a scene for his film on an airplane with an actor and no one even took notice because its such a low profile camera.

But back to the word disruption. Convergence works both ways. As much as the DSLR has rocked the still photographic world and created a huge hunger amongst still photographers who want to learn how to shoot motion and capture good sound, it has also rocked the world of motion shooters who are providing stills for their clients and learning the language of photography.

TV and Internet are converging. There is a whole generation that has no need for a cable hook up. They watch what they want – when they want – online. Just like they never get a landline – many never get hooked up to cable. The small affiliate broadcast stations are feeling just as threatened these days as magazine photographers are because of the demise of print publications. Their worlds have changed because the patterns of the end user have changed.

Director James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) just formed a partnership with a 3D company. As TV’s are manufactured with 3D capability and the tech hurdles are overcome, he feels that 3D will become mainstream. But he goes on to say that the big problem is content because the only content created now is coming from the motion picture industry.

And Apple made their worldwide announcement last night with Final Cut Pro X. I was in the room and all I can tell you is that it is REVOLUTIONARY. Watch out Adobe.

But at the end of the day – of every NAB day – as I sort through all the information and announcements – I ground myself and think about what I will choose to embrace. How can I use technology and apply it to what I do and why. If disruption means that I can tell my stories in a better way or reach more people – that I welcome it with open arms.

April 8, 2011

The Amazing Age of Convergence ….

…where anything is possible. I’ve haven’t written in awhile because I’ve been traveling. Last week I was in Chicago presenting a seminar at ASMP’s SB3 Seminar. It was the last one in a series and now I’m kind of going through withdrawal. There was so much sharing of information and ideas that no one wanted the conferences to end. But now we all need to initiate some of those ideas and apply some of the things we’ve learned. And that’s the part we can’t forget about – doing the work that will bring our ideas to fruition.

In my last blog I wrote about believing that the impossible is possible. I don’t mean to over simplify that notion and to say that all we have to do is have a positive mindset and things will happen for us. What I really mean to say is that without the belief that we have the power to do anything we put our minds to –we would never try – we would never give something a chance to happen. But along with that comes plenty of times when it just doesn’t happen – the first time, the second and third time and many times after that. And that’s when we need try again – and maybe harder.

The good news is that these days it seems like all our tools are converging to make just about anything possible. We no longer need someone to validate our ideas because we can validate our own. We have affordable cameras that shoot stunning still images and video. We have non-linear editing software to create the stories and we have Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about them. We have crowd funding sites like Kickstarter to raise money so that we can make our ideas a reality. And when our videos are finished we can upload them to YouTube or Vimeo and share them. We can also distribute our creations through image portals, downloaded Apps or through iTunes.

Last week I uploaded a trailer for my documentary Opening Our Eyes. As of today people in 71 countries have played the trailer! I sent the link to less than 30 people and they passed it on, embedded it on Facebook and blogs and it took on a life of its own. That simply amazes me because of the power that we now have to connect and communicate with just about anyone, anywhere in the world. That’s revolutionary. That’s a game changer. That’s powerful.

I’ve just arrived in Las Vegas to attend the NAB show. The National Association of Broadcasters has one of the world’s largest broadcast conferences in the world. All the movers and shakers of the broadcast world are here to network, make announcements about new products and learn. It will be another solid week of input overload with my head bursting with ideas and possibilities. And every one of the ideas has the real possibility of happening because of the age we live in.

If only I had more time.

March 28, 2011

Editing a Trailer – Part II

First let me thank everyone for his or her comments and suggestions. It’s very difficult to cut a short trailer because I’m so close to the story(s) that it’s hard not to make assumptions or see the obvious. I’ve always found that getting feedback from people is important at a certain point in the process. I want to be far enough along in the edit that it’s “almost” there but not so far that I’m reluctant to change things.

My first impulse after reading everyone’s comments was to take all the suggestions to heart and I started implementing the changes. I quickly realized it was starting to feel like a corporate job that had been designed by committee and it was somehow missing the mark. I was trying to cover all bases, trying to please everyone and I was losing sight of my own insights.

I took the weekend to revisit the trailer every now and then, in between socializing with my brothers and sister and their families. It was the first time we had all been together since my mother died, over 7 years ago. My brother was up from Florida and it was his kids first time seeing snow. It brought out the kid in all of us – throwing snowballs and sledding down our front yard, which is pretty steep, and not for the timid.

As usual, taking a break from the technology brought everything back into perspective. This morning I knew what I needed to do. I shuffled some things around, cut 20% out, adjusted the sound and the text and came up with something I think that I can live with. It’s not perfect but like Maggie says in the trailer “If I waited for things to be perfect, I never would have done it”. So I’m throwing this out to the universe and see what transpires.

http://www.vimeo.com/21598761

Thanks again to all who took the time to watch and comment on my previous renditions. I appreciate your comments more than you know. Occasionally, when I’m at a conference or another professional event, someone will come up to me and thank me for what I share in my blog or tell me that something I said inspired them. The truth is it works both ways because I get so much in return.

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