Video – Page 22 – Journeys of a Hybrid

May 28, 2010

Arriving in Uganda Under the Full Moon

It’s early morning in Kampala, the sky is just getting bright and the animals are making their music.

Our first day in Uganda was a full but relaxing one. We had arrived the night before under a full moon after over 22 hours of flying. We had left JFK on Tuesday morning and got here Wednesday night, so somehow we lost a day but we’ll make it up after we’ve completed our circle around the world, three months from now. Security in the three airports (New York, Johannesburg and Entebbe) had been a breeze and even though my daughter and I had backpacks full of camera gear, computers and hard drives, no one even blinked an eye, let alone opened anything up.

Letha Sandison of Wrap Up Africa, our first subject of our film, picked us up at 9AM and after changing money, getting a mobile phone with a local number and getting a bite to eat, we went to the local university to meet with two artists. The artists, Bruno, a potter and Sega at metalsmith were working with Letha to make buttons for the garments that she creates for her foundation Wrap Up Africa. Letha’s foundation is two-fold and is a great example of sustainability. She trains family members who have children ill with cancer to be tailors and in turn they sell the garments that they make through her foundation so they can pay for their children’s chemotherapy and hospitalization.

Even treatable cancer can be a death sentence in Uganda if a family doesn’t have the resources for medical treatment. Letha created her foundation to help these families who are dealing with cancer but her task is not an easy one and finding funding is difficult in a country and continent where Aids is so widespread and becomes a priority.

After visiting the university we went to the offices of Wrap Up Africa and entered a room where women were busy sewing. We met her staff and made a plan for shooting there today.

So we are off to start our first day of filming. We’ll shoot some interviews, do some b-roll as well as some stills. Last night we did some testing and I gave my daughter some lessons in capturing audio. She’s a quick study and has the trained ear of a musician so I’m confident she’ll make a great audio person. At any rate after 3 months, we’ll both find our groove. So we’re off and running.

May 24, 2010

Heading Off Around the World

Gail Mooney and daughter Erin Kelly, Giza, Egypt — Gail and Erin in Egypt in 2006

It’s very early in the morning, my favorite time of day – no distractions and a whole new day ahead of me. But today’s a bit different, it’s the day before I leave on a 3-month journey around the world to take on probably the biggest personal project of my life and I have a million details running through my heads.

Just the other day I wrote about the “what if mentality” and how we sometimes fall victim of sabotaging ourselves by talking ourselves out of doing things. And today I have a whole host of “what if’s” running through my head. What if we can’t get into Bangkok or get out? There’s a State Department warning advising Americans not to travel to Thailand and we’ll be traveling with a doctor going into the northern hills – not an easy place to get in and out of in peaceful times. What if one of us gets sick? What if something gets stolen? What if one of our 27 flights get canceled or delayed? What if I don’t get the material I’m after for the documentary?

Certainly, lots of trepidations but I’m a pretty savvy traveler and I’m about as prepared as anyone can be. I try to remind myself of that and focus on the incredible journey ahead of us. I’ll be sharing this experience with my 23-year-old daughter and that in itself will be something we’ll never forget and create a special bond between us for the rest of our lives. We’ll not only be circling the globe together, we’ll be working together to create a documentary on people who are making a positive change in the world. Those connections will be life changing, and in fact one of our hopes is that our film will inspire others to do the same.

So one more day of details and then we’re off – first stop Entebbe, Uganda by way of Johannesburg, South Africa. Our last stop is Buenos Aires, Argentina via the jungles of Peru. Lots in between – lots of laughs, tears, lands and miles. I will be writing as often as I can and uploading when “connected”. And if I disappear at times – you’ll know why. You can follow our journey at Opening Our Eyes.

May 21, 2010

The “What If” Mentality

These days it seems like we as a culture spend more time questioning “what if?” and talking ourselves out of things. I suppose it’s a lot easier not to take action on something. It’s a lot easier to do nothing. The problem with that line of thinking is that as much as it seems like a safe way to live life, it’s actually quite scary because ultimately you’ve eliminated opportunities and possibilities. You’ve left your fate to others.

I too have asked the “what if” question numerous times in my life. There have been many times when I’ve questioned if I should move forward on something and take the chance. But whenever I start to talk myself out of something, I flip the “what if” question around and ask myself “what if I don’t do this?”

Some years ago I was on assignment in Ireland and I spent a memorable morning with an Irishman who was quite a character and full of life itself. At one point we were driving around the countryside doing errands, and he told me about how his son had just spent a small fortune on a racehorse. I said to him “wow, that’s risky” and he replied, “yes, life is a gamble, isn’t it?”

Life is a gamble – you never know what’s right around the corner. To me that’s the beauty in it. I love to look back through history and contemplate how things could have turned out quite differently based on the decisions people made and chances that were taken.

We all set our course with every decision we make, or lack thereof. I think we all have the same amount of luck in our lives; it’s just that some people take notice of it and some don’t. I’d much rather take the chance and fail than ask myself “what If I had….” at the end of the day.

May 18, 2010

My DSLR Kit for a Three-Month Road Trip

For those who have been following this blog you know that I’m getting ready to depart for a 3-month trip around the world creating a documentary with my daughter – Opening Our Eyes. Here is what I’ve managed to fit into two backpacks – it just fits. Thank goodness there’s two of us.
Please follow our journey http://www.openingoureyes.wordpress.com

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Canon 16-35mm 2.8
Canon 24-70mm 2.8
Canon 70-200mm 2.8
Canon 70-300mm 4.5
Canon 1.4X tele extender
Canon 2X tele extender
Nikon/Canon lens adaptor
Nikkor 14mm rectilinear lens f2.8
Nikkor 50mm 1.4
Nikkor 85mm f2
6 Batteries for Canon
1 Battery grip for 5D
3 Battery chargers
Remote control for Canon
AC adaptor for Canon
Rycote Hot shoe extension
4 – 16 GB flash cards – all cards – Sandisk UGMA
4 – 8 GB flash cards
2 – 8 GB SDHC cards
2 – 4 GB SDHD cards
Neutral density filter kit
Polarizer
Epson P6000 digital wallet
Zoom H4n digital audio recorder
JuicedLink DT454 audio preamp
Rode shotgun mic
Tram lav mic
Sennheiser Transmitter/Wireless kit
“Dead Cats” (windscreens)
XLR cords
Headphones
HD Hero helmet camera with attachments
Flip HD
ManfrottoTripod and fluid head
Small Matthews boom stand for mic
Reflector
Zacuto Z-Finder
Zacuto Striker Rig
Flex DSLR remote
Lacie Rugged Hard drives – 4000 GB memory!
Firewire and USB cords
3 – card readers
2 MacBookPro Laptops
1 extra laptop battery
1 extra AC adaptor for laptop
Kindle
iPod
Blackberry Tour
2 Scotte Vests – with 22 pockets in each

May 13, 2010

Photographers/Filmmakers as Publishers/Producers

It’s been a busy year, trying to manage jobs and lots of road trips giving seminars for ASMP to photographers who may be contemplating video. I’ve enjoyed meeting my peers and sharing information through my presentations as well as on my blog, but I need to take some time to get back in the field and capture my own “moments” and “motion”. I need to spend some time “doing” right now and ultimately that will make what I have to share that more valuable and meaningful. So I will be embarking in a couple of weeks on a “passion project” that will take me around the world for 99 days.

It’s an exciting time to be working on a personal project because of various distribution possibilities and portals that are in everybody’s hands. Ten years ago when I got started in video, technology made it possible for me to create documentaries and films without the need of large crews and big budgets. And now with the web, fast download speeds, video host sites, mobile devices and itunes – I can – we all can be publishers and producers and get our content out globally. The pipelines have been democratized and it’s a very empowering position.

I’ve spent a career on the road and on assignment for various publications and corporations. I’ve been fortunate to have worked for magazines like National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian and Travel & Leisure shooting stories on destinations and people all over the world. I suppose you could say that I lived the life I dreamed of. I was shooting these assignments at a time when magazines were giving me ample time in the field to come back with a story – back when travel magazines ran stories as opposed to survey pieces or celebrity profiles. More importantly, I maintained the copyright of my images and was free to market them as I wished after a standard embargo period was over – usually around 90 days.

These days many publishers issue “work for hire” contracts, so essentially photographers are giving up their copyright. Photographers have always been strong advocates for copyright and I include myself in that position. But in our advocacy to keep strong copyright laws in place, we end up fighting for that right for large corporations and publishing empires who ultimately take away our copyright in lopsided contracts. And for the most part these contracts are not negotiable. You either agree and take the job or you don’t.

These days because of technology we can be our own publishers and deliver our stories and other content in a number of different ways. Sure it means taking the risk up front but that in itself brings its own rewards. It’s very liberating to be shooting and answering only to myself – not second-guessing someone else. I take more chances creatively because I’m not afraid to fail. And every time I’ve ever done that, I’ve grown and the rewards have been many – both creatively and financially.

I don’t know exactly how and where my Opening Our Eyes project will be distributed when I complete my journey. But these days – it could be a book, a multimedia exhibition, a feature film distributed through itunes or on a DVD through Amazon, various magazine articles or broadcast. I could package the journey and the back-story and give talks to universities. An endless sea of possibilities. What an amazing time we live in where we can all make our dreams come true.

May 11, 2010May 11, 2010

Shooting With the Canon 5D Mark II

Two weeks from today, I will depart for a 99-day journey circling the globe working on a passion project Opening Our Eyes. It will be both an adventure and a humbling experience. But right now I’m getting down to the wire and trying to tie up a million loose ends.

This past weekend, I took a break from the details to attend the wedding of my nephew – my sister’s oldest son.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to really do a test run with my new Canon 5D Mark II with the Zacuto rig Striker. I wanted to capture good audio as well so I ran the Rode mic via XLR connection to the JuicedLink DT454. To be honest, I was going to capture the audio two different ways – via the JuicedLink and also straight from the mic to the camera via mini jack, but I forgot to bring the XLR to mini jack cord so I ended up capturing all my audio via the JuicedLink. Because the 5D has had a firmware upgrade where I was able to turn off the AGC, I used the JuicedLink with the AGC disabler turned off. But until Canon issues a firmware upgrade for the 7D that allows you to turn off the AGC, you can use the JuicedLink to disable it.

Ultimately this combination was a nice way of working candidly. I had the Rode mic and JuicedLink attached to an extender on the top of the camera, although I will probably attach the JuicedLink to the Zacuto rig in the future, leaving just the mic on the camera’s hot shoe. But either way, I was able to get good ambient sound and/or spontaneous sound bites from people. I had done previous testing to know that I first needed to calibrate the camera audio by going into manual settings and dialing the audio down half way. Then I dialed the volume down on the JuicedLink to whatever setting is necessary according to the meter levels. In a noisy atmosphere with loud music like a wedding reception, I had it dialed way down. You never want “hot” audio where the volume levels are spiked.

The image is simply stunning and I am really sold on the look. I shot in late afternoon sunlight as well as on a dark dance floor and the camera handled both beautifully. The Striker rig with the Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 3Xworked great for stabilization and I didn’t find the focusing to be as hard as I thought it would be. The Z-Finder Pro 3X is very sharp with built in diopters. The striker is light and with the camera strap around my neck, it was easy to be in standby mode, relieving some of the stress on my hands.

I did notice though that I tended to start shooting more with a still “moment” mentality rather than in video/motion b-roll. When I shoot video I have a mantra running through my head to “shoot and move” – meaning shoots lots of variations, from wide shots to close-ups from a variety of angles. When shooting at the reception I found myself defaulting to one spot – rather than covering the angles and focal lengths, but then again I was caught up in the “personal” moment of the event so I wasn’t thinking too much about “getting the job done”.

All in all I have to say that I really loved working with this camera and I definitely love the “feel” of the images. I can’t wait to really test it out over the next three months, and I’ll keep you posted. See a short video “snippet”.

May 4, 2010

Gearing Up For A HDSLR Documentary

Most people have no idea of how much really goes into planning for even the simplest films. My biggest job was to come up with the right mix of gear that would enable me to shoot both still images and video in a high-end way, yet remaining to be portable and lean as far as what we would be bringing with us. That can be an overwhelming task – but the more I break it down and prepare for it with a Plan A, B and C – the more confident and relaxed I feel as our departure date nears.

Please watch the video that I created (nothing fancy) showing the gear that I’ll be bringing around the world on a 99 day shoot for my passion project Opening Our Eyes.

I’m embracing the HDSLR system since I want to shoot both stills and video but by no means is it streamlining my equipment needs. Quite the contrary, I’m bringing an assortment of lenses that I wouldn’t be taking if I were shooting with a traditional camera, as well as a lot of third party gear to augment audio capture and rigging for stabilization. What you don’t see in the video are the two (redundant) MacBooks that are essential when shooting any tapeless workflow.

Of course there are a million other details to cover for a 3 month trip around the world.
I’m still trying to determine my mobile phone and service needs. I’ve set up Skype on both laptops – yes 2 laptops because when you’re shooting tape less you are totally dependent on a computer and a back up if one fails. I’ll most likely upgrade my Blackberry because it’s been two years and that’s light-years in the tech world of communications. And I need to activate travel/medical emergency insurance as well as register my equipment with US Customs and add new gear to my business insurance policy.

There are also accommodations for 99 nights and a slew of internal airline tickets that needed to be taken care of. Read about it more at: Opening Our Eyes

April 30, 2010

The Future of Photography

Ethan G. Salwen posed the question on his After Capture blog “Where do you see the photography industry going in the next 5 years?” He asked that the answer be stated in 50 words or less. I’ll give it a try – and this paragraph doesn’t count.

Still photography will be delivered via electronic platforms – the web and mobile devices. Print magazines will still exist but only in genres that don’t deal with timely subject matter. Still cameras will continue to morph as hybrids capable of shooting video and sent wirelessly to the Internet.

That was 48 words but maybe just enough. Who really knows what the industry will look like but I do know it will continue to change with the exponential growth of information technology. And along with the technological changes will come new business models. That part is predictable.

Two years ago I attended the Photo Plus Expo in New York City. I saw a talk listed in the schedule called “The Future of Photography” so I headed to the theater to listen. When I got there a sign was in the doorway and it read “The Future of Photography – Canceled”. I hoped that wasn’t an omen and then I thought “I’m glad I learned video”.

April 27, 2010April 27, 2010

Copyright and Video

As still photographers move and expand into video because of the convergence of their tools, they often ask me about copyright, licensing and usage and how to apply that to video. Essentially they are trying to apply a licensing business model from their still photography and sometimes that doesn’t work in video production.

The biggest distinction between shooting video and shooting still images is that for the most part a video camera operator is just one of the many creative people involved in a video production. So unless the camera operator is also the producer and in charge of the entire production, including the hiring of the crew, they will be working in a “work for hire” situation. One video project can’t have every collaborator on a project maintaining ownership of their part of the whole.

Depending on the job and the market you work in will ultimately determine who will maintain ownership, copyright and control. Generally speaking the end client or video production company holds the copyright to the finished production. This is why I made a conscious decision when I got into video many years ago, to position myself as a producer and not “just” a content provider. I wanted to maintain creative control and ownership of my projects.

But even in still photography these days, I see more and more “work for hire” contracts, and in market sectors like editorial where that wasn’t the case just five years ago. Sometimes I feel that in our efforts to protect copyright laws, we end up fighting for that right for big corporate entities that in turn grab those rights from the creators through lopsided contracts.

Something to think about – maybe with new eyes. Perhaps we need to start thinking of ourselves as “publishers” rather than just content providers. It’s never been more possible to be a publisher, because distribution has been democratized by the web, giving all of us a pipeline to a global audience.

It’s time to look at our creative businesses with new eyes and not just on the creative part of the process – but the business part as well. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts and ideas on this topic.

April 25, 2010April 25, 2010

One Year and 130 Posts Later

A week or so ago, I overlooked a minor milestone. One year ago, I started Journeys of a Hybrid. I have written 131 one posts to date. That’s almost 3 a week. I told myself when I started this blog that I would embrace the idea of writing and sharing and would make it a regular habit.

Quite honestly it’s been very therapeutic for me – a way of organizing my thoughts if you will. While I’m also surprised as to which posts are widely received and which seem to barely get noticed, I’ve always written about what happens to be on my mind, rather than second guessing what I think people want to read.

I thought today – I would list my particular favorites:

Finding Your Passion

Breaking the Spirit

Convergence-Defining Yourself by Your Vision – Not Your Tool

You’re Only 25 and You’re Already Making Compromises

Standing on a 10 Foot Frozen Wave

Thanks to all of you who continue to read my random thoughts and collections of information.