blogs – Page 2 – Journeys of a Hybrid

March 14, 2011

Editing Tips From Kurt Vonnegut

Recently I came across a blog article entitled “Writing Tips from Kurt Vonnegut” which was posted on Melody Godfred’s blog “Write in Color”. It was short and sweet and to the point, listing 8 great tips. Two of those tips really resonated with me because at the time I read them, I was entrenched in editing my documentary and I was struggling with a couple of story issues.

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Start as close to the end as possible.

For the most part when I write I’m usually writing with someone in mind. But I realized when I was editing the 11 stories of this documentary, I was getting caught up in trying to tell too many stories for too many people with their needs in mind. And in the process, I wasn’t getting anywhere in telling the central story of the film. After reading these words of wisdom from Vonnegut, the master of storytelling, I stepped back and envisioned myself with a friend, telling the story of my film and it became clear what I needed to do.

One thing I’ve always done when editing video is to create the beginning and the end first and then fill in the middle. So when I read the tip about starting as close to the end as possible, it reinforced the idea that I needed to have a very clear idea on how I was going to end this film. I had already decided that I wanted to contrast the beginning and the ending visuals so I applied this thinking to the story itself.

I get a lot of questions from people about the mechanics of editing video – like how to do certain things in Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere – and I answer the best I can. But I also point out that it’s easy to get caught up in what the software can do and forget about the story that you’re trying to tell. My advice is to read as much as you can about the craft of storytelling. I learned a lot about story structure from Blake Snyder’s book Save the Cat. I learned that every good story has a few key ingredients – irony, conflict, resolution, a hero, change – all basic universal themes. Tutorials on Final Cut aren’t going to help your storytelling skills and without a good story – you might just have some “eye candy” to music.

There is just one more tip from Vonnegut that I’ll leave you with – make sure you check out the other 5 tips.

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

February 7, 2011

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Ok, I’m just going to come right out and say it. I was one of the few people in America who did NOT watch the Super Bowl yesterday. Before you try to enlighten me as to the merits of the game and sentence me to watch NFL highlights, let me just say I don’t like football. Just never got into the touchy feeliness of the sport. And besides, I’m still chained to my editing station – finally starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

But this morning I couldn’t escape the pundits grading and scoring the Super Bowl commercials as I clicked through the morning programs looking for the “news”. It was interesting to hear their “take” on what commercials were successful. Most of the pundits made their assessments through the eyes of their “ad men” (and women) persona, debating which commercials caught the attention of the viewers.

One “expert” frequently commented, “now this one had people telling their friends – be quiet – I want to hear the commercial. I’m not quite sure what Super Bowl party this person went to, but no doubt it was a party made up of other advertising folks. Now, I’ve had very limited experience attending Super Bowl parties, but as for the ones I have been to – nobody has ever said “be quiet – so I can hear the commercial”. With that said, as I watched many of the spots this morning via YouTube, some of the most effective commercials required no listening at all. Check out this one for Bridgestone.

I guess the creatives who made this spot go to the same kind of parties as I do – parties where people don’t ask someone to turn the volume up for the commercials. Actually, I’ve learned a lot about editing by watching TV commercials with the sound off. The “story” either becomes apparent – or not.

The New York Times did a pretty good critique of the ads this morning. But what I found most interesting was the running commentary from the “average Joes” via Twitter and Facebook. No doubt some of these advertising experts were paying as much attention to the social media chatter this morning as Mumbarak’s men were. Hands down, the Chrysler “Detroit” spot won the most hearts – mine included. It drew me in from the start and kept me the entire two minutes. Imagine that – a two minute commercial! When was the last time you saw that? A beautiful mini-film told in credible brevity. Quite frankly, to me it would have been just as effective without Eminem or any celebrity for that matter. It evoked emotion – that’s what kept me watching.

At the end of the day, the commercials that resonated most with just about everyone – pundit and laymen alike were the ones that told a simple story that rang true with the human spirit. Works every time. To tell those stories, one needs to get out of the meeting rooms and late nights at the office and spend more time living life. Otherwise, what you end up with is a bunch of people creating commercials about what they think life is like.

October 26, 2010

“Kickstarting” a Passion Project

For anyone who has been reading my blog, you know a few things about me – I love to dialog and share with others, my work and my pleasure are one in the same and I always have a passion project that I’m working on.

I can’t say that I’ve always been like this. In the beginning of my career it was a lot harder to dialog and share with people – pre-social media and email. And as my career took hold and I became busier with work, I didn’t have time for sharing or personal projects. But for someone like me who is a dreamer, I was starting to burn out.

When I started exploring the video medium in the late 90’s, it triggered a spark in me. I started thinking and dreaming about all the stories that I wanted to tell – that would be possible for me to tell – through this medium. One of my first attempts at telling a story with video was a short documentary I did on my daughter’s youth symphony. I couldn’t have picked a harder subject if I tried because it was all about sound, which I knew nothing about. And anyone who has ever shot a musical concert knows that it’s almost impossible to do with only one camera. But I naively pursued with this project and learned a lot in the process.

My next passion project was The Delta Blues Musicians that I envisioned as a multimedia project combining still environmental portraits of these musicians along with video interviews, capturing their life’s stories. It was a lot of work and for the most part, I went it alone – doing everything myself. For anyone who has ever tried to shoot both stills and video on the same job, you know it’s not an easy thing to do. That project will always be near and dear to my heart and continues to reward me in ways that I never knew were possible.

There have been other passion projects since these first two and my head is usually full of ideas that are rumbling around, just waiting for the right time to surface. I am in the midst of a project now, Opening Our Eyes that is perhaps the most ambitious one I’ve ever dreamed up. This past weekend I launched the project on Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a website that posts creative projects for the purposes of finding funds. It’s a perfect example of crowd funding where one can donate anywhere from $1 to $10,000 to the project of their choice, and in the process make someone’s idea come to life.

I launched Opening Our Eyes on Thursday and within 3 days we reached 30 % of our goal. We still have a long way to go and have another 71 days to get fully funded. The way Kickstarter works is that if you don’t get funded 100%, then all bets are off and you don’t receive anything. So, I’m doing my best to do what I like the least and that is make a pitch for pledges. My intent is to secure enough funds so that I can collaborate with a professional editor and raise the bar on the film that my daughter and I shot this past summer on our 99-day adventure around the world, about people who are making a positive difference in the world.

It’s really a win/win for anyone who chooses to give – even a pledge of $25 will get us closer to our goal and you’ll receive a DVD of our film when it’s finished. So please check out our project on Kickstarter and pass this link along to others. Ultimately our goal is to inspire and motivate other change-makers through the power of our film. We know we can do it with everyone’s help and it will make you feel good to give – it always does.

August 25, 2010August 24, 2010

10 Things I’ve Learned Circling the Globe

I came across an interesting blog yesterday “20 Things I’ve Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years”, by Gary Arndt. It was pretty much on target with my observations from my very short journey of a little more than 3 months. But it got me thinking about what I have learned on these travels.

Erin and Gail, Peru — Erin and Gail and children of village along Amazon River, Peru

To travel is to experience and learn and also an opportunity to show other people from other cultures what an American (U.S. citizen) really is, beyond the news, the music and Hollywood movies.

1. People are good – Like Gary, I’d have to agree that for the most part most human beings are good. Sure there are schemers, con artists and thieves in just about every culture, but for the most part – people are good.
2. Government policies don’t always reflect who the people are – U.S. citizens are not all warmongers and not every Afghani is a terrorist.
3. The media exaggerates – Because we all get our news these days in abbreviated and sensationalized TV content – it’s distorted. I almost changed my plans to go to Thailand because of the coverage of the political unrest, which in actuality was contained to only certain sections of Bangkok.
4. There aren’t just “ugly Americans” there are “ugly tourists” – people around the world seem to equate badly behaving tourists as “ugly Americans”. I have found bad behavior is not solely exclusive to “Americans” or U.S. citizens – I have witnessed really bad manners from all types of tour groups – French, German, British, Japanese, Argentinean – you name it. I think it is more of a reflection of a “group” dynamic than a cultural one.
5. U.S. citizens are misunderstood – I find this is more common in countries that are more “westernized” than countries where you would think more of a discord would be present. For example – I found the people in Egypt friendly, curious and informed, unlike other “westernized” countries where the attitude was more of one of disdain. In other words, the more “westernized” a country was there seemed to be more of a preconceived yet narrow minded and naïve attitude about what an “American” was.
6. Cultural naiveté – Guess what folks – when you join those tour groups and they take you to the “untouched villages” along the Amazon River or to the hill tribe villages in the mountains of northern Thailand – they’re probably bringing you to government sanctioned tribal villages where the people have made it a business of “dressing up” for you. Some locals that I met referred to these places as “human zoos”. It’s kind of like expecting to see everyone in the U.S. wearing cowboy attire – I mean outside of Texas and Montana that doesn’t really exist anymore.
7. The Internet has changed the travel experience – you can pretty much get connected anywhere – anytime. My blackberry worked in some of the most remote places in the world. I could almost always get a cell signal – the irony was that I didn’t always have electricity to charge my battery. If you want to really get away – leave your laptop, iphones and blackberrys behind.
8. Go with the flow – don’t focus on what you miss from home whether that is a Starbucks coffee or a hamburger – discover the richness of the country you are in – the food – the music. As we become more and more connected with each other across the globe – we are beginning to lose our cultural differences.
9. I am a diplomat for my country – sure there are things that I don’t like about my country, the United States. But when I travel, I feel that this is my opportunity to interact with the people where I am visiting and to give them perhaps a more true picture of what an American is – beyond what the news and Hollywood portrays us as. That is if people give me a chance – if they haven’t closed their mind.
10. I am grateful that I can travel – and I think that everyone should travel – outside his or her country and culture. Don’t just visit the tourist sites but try to get out of the cities and interact with the people. The best thing about this journey is that our purpose was not to see the sights but to connect with the people. That made it meaningful and memorable.

July 30, 2010July 30, 2010

The Power of Possibility

In my laziness and urge to get outside and make the most of my last two days in Sydney, Australia, I am cross posting a post that was on my Opening Our Eyes blog – so forgive me if you follow me there.

Yesterday, I uploaded this photo on my Facebook status

Sydney-6039 copy — Sir Richard Branson, Damien, Captain Paul Moulds at Oasis in Sydney, Australia

. It got noticed as “celebrity” always does and one person remarked “hanging with the superstars”. I commented back saying that they were all “superstars”. Certainly, Captain Paul Moulds for the work that we devotes himself to with Oasis and reaching out to homeless youth in Australia and Sir Richard Branson for his generous support and making it possible.

But perhaps the biggest “superstar” is Damien, the young man in the middle who turned his life around from being on the streets with barely any hopes and dreams at all to having a job, a place to live and a bright future.

I was attending an event yesterday at Oasis where Branson was cutting the ribbon on the opening of a fitness center that his company Virgin had funded. But prior to the opening of the center, Branson and others listened to the stories of the “champions”, young people like Damien who against all odds, had redirected their lives to a better future. The stories were difficult to hear – stories about being abused – physically, sexually and emotionally. Stories about wanting to die and the attempts that they made on their lives because they felt unwanted and that they had no purpose.

I can’t even begin to really understand the horrors that these kids have faced in their young lives. I can’t even imagine how difficult it was for them to tell their stories, and yet they did so with grace, dignity and compassion for one another. They were there for each other and to show their gratitude to people like Paul Moulds and Richard Branson who make places like Oasis possible. One young man said – “without Oasis, I’d be dead”.

I will never forget that morning and it went far and beyond the thrill of meeting Sir Richard Branson and eating an egg sandwich that he had cooked on the grill. The most important thing I walked away from was being around a group of people with a like-minded purpose. A purpose of doing whatever they can to make a difference – a positive difference in the world. I could see, hear and feel the impact that Moulds and Branson had made in these young people’s lives. It was tangible and real – not just words on the pages of a foundation’s annual report.

As we wind up our time in Australia and head home for a few days break before heading down to South America, I am energized by something that Paul had mentioned during his interview. He was talking about an amazing documentary that was made about Oasis and the issues facing homeless youth in Australia. The documentary was two years in the making and gave an up close look into life on the street for these young people. Paul told me that after the documentary aired on Australian TV, the response and support that followed was astounding. It had made a real impact and prompted people into action – to help with donations or wanting to volunteer.

So I’m energized going forward that our little film will also create awareness and prompt others into action and what they can do to make a positive difference in the world. It’s a simple yet powerful thought and full of possibility – the power that’s within all of us to create change and make the world a better place for those that are less fortunate. The power of possibility – think about it.

July 23, 2010

Living in the Now

The last couple days have been eye opening as well as reminders as to why I have embarked on this project www.openingoureyes.net. Maybe I needed a reminder at this point in my life that you only go around once and to make the most of it. And after spending a couple days with Ronni Kahn, CEO of Oz Harvest, I got that reminder and it affirmed in my mind why I took a risk, took on a personal project and took off for 3 months on a journey with my daughter around the world.

But Ronni reminded me how important it is that you really only have the “now” in your life because you don’t know what tomorrow may bring. I remember when I first embraced the notion of living in the “now”. I was 19 years old and hitchhiking around the world. I remember a consistent remark from people who stopped to pick me up and bring me a bit further along on my journey. Many of them said, “I wish I had done what you’re doing when I was your age”. I never lost sight of that and have always lived my life with the thought that if I don’t do “it“ now, I may never get the chance again.

No one really knows what tomorrow will bring – that’s the mystery of life. The best-laid plans are never givens and the surprises and unexpected moments are many times the most rewarding.

Tonight, I had a simple yet memorable dinner with my 23-year-old daughter Erin. As we ate our pizza and had a lovely, inexpensive bottle of wine – we took notice that here we were in Sydney, Australia, overlooking the Sydney Opera House and it all seemed so surreal. But it was real, it a moment in time that we made happen, that we didn’t postpone until the “perfect” time in the future and a time that we will always have and always remember. We were living in the “now” moment.

July 22, 2010July 22, 2010

HDSLR Video – The Camera is Just the Beginning

Many still shooters make the same mistake when jumping over to video – they only think about the camera and the shoot. When this happens, what quickly follows is mild to severe panic when they realize that audio is even more important than the visual and post-production is video is far different than in stills. On top of that, if you shoot video like a still photographer – you’ll want to kick yourself when you get in the editing room.

The good news is there are plenty of resources when embracing these various skills and learning curves than when I started shooting video over ten years ago.

Here’s a few great sites, listservs and blogs that you should bookmark:

http://asmp.org/tutorials/video-tutorial.html

http://photocinenews.com

http://www.cinema5d.com/index.php

http://phillipbloom.net

newspaperVideo@yahoogroups.com

http://worldwide-studios.com/Worldwide_Studios/Resources.html

So have fun and remember, the more your learn, the more you realize you need to know.

July 16, 2010July 15, 2010

I Don’t Believe in Re-Inventing Myself

I hear an awful lot of people these days saying they are re-inventing themselves. I always take pause when I hear that because I think to myself that I don’t want to re-invent myself.

Gail Mooney in northern hill tribe town, Thailand — Gail in bamboo hut in hill tribe village, northern Thailand

I like who I am and what I do – so why change it? It doesn’t really matter to me if I’m in vogue or doing what everyone else is. What matters is that I’m true to myself.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not stuck in the 1970’s and wishing for the good old days. It’s just that I’ve always kind of done what moves me – what I just have to do. So in that sense I suppose one would say that I re-invent myself on a daily basis. But in fact I’ve always lived my life and pursued my career based on what that little voice or “inner self” is telling me to do.

Has that inner voice always been right? Many times when things don’t have the kind of outcome that I expected, I’d probably say that my inner voice led me astray. But in fact, the outcome was what it was meant to be – even though it wasn’t what I wanted. Things happen for a reason and things happen when they are meant to happen.

There have been times when I’m in such a hurry – in pursuit of my dream – that I don’t stop and realize that my dream is happening right then and there. On those days when I feel that I’m just a day away from where I want to be – I try to remind myself that maybe I’m already there.

In my 99-day journey around the world, I try to remind myself on a daily basis – not to look ahead to my next destination but to relish the one I’m in. A powerful thought and an even more powerful action.

So as I continue on following what that inner voice is telling me, I realize this is what I’m meant to do and this is the time that I’m meant to do it. I believe that and know that this is all happening for a reason. This is my path and where it will lead, I’m not certain. But I’ll follow along with faith and good judgment and never feel forced to re-invent myself.

July 12, 2010July 10, 2010

Revisiting “Standing on a 10 Foot Frozen Wave”

It’s been only 5 months since I stood on top of a 10 foot frozen wave of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Seems like a lifetime ago. I couldn’t be further from that wave, both literally and figuratively speaking.

BlueIce2 — Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula, Michigan

As I stood on the crest of that frozen wave, in utter silence with no one in sight for miles, I reflected on the human spirit in this remote part of the world. The sun was setting and I was fearful of slipping into a crevice but yet drawn to the glow of the setting sun – feeling hopeful for the future.

I am in Jaipur, India right now with the temperatures nearing the 100 mark and the humidity level the same. But it seems hotter because everything here in India seems intensified on every level. I’ve been on the road for close to 2 months now and have traversed a variety of climates, cultures, joys and heartbreaks. It’s been easy, hard and everything in between.

In creating this documentary “Opening Our Eyes” I have challenged myself in every way I know how. Just shooting a documentary with an HDSLR system, on a slim budget and with a two-person crew is a feat in itself. But this documentary is taking us around the world and putting us in touch with the less fortunate of our planet. It’s humbling, heartbreaking, exhausting, yet somehow a boost to my inner spirit – that same spirit I wrote about back in February when isolated and alone on that 10 ft. frozen wave.

How I crave those frigid temperatures and the utter silence of tranquility. Space is a luxury in India with billions of people competing for it. Such an intriguing culture but one that is beyond demanding of all that a body and soul has to give. I draw on my inner strength and my people that came before me who taught me well about struggles and endurance as well as compassion for those who are less fortunate.

My eyes have been opened these past two months in so many ways and so I think unknowingly I chose the perfect title for this film. To experience and see the extremes of the human condition across the globe has broadened my perspective and put things into balance. What seemed so important just a few months ago, seems so trivial today.

And so it goes as I complete this journey in a few months time. Off to another climate and culture with my eyes opening wider as I go along.

July 7, 2010July 6, 2010

Beyond the HDSLR and the G4 iPhone

Everyone these days seem obsessed with the tools. The blogosphere is full of tech talk but few mention the art of storytelling. Without that, we are left with technique with no apparent message – or one that is weak at best.

When I think about it, the videos and photographs

KopilaValley-5904 copy — School girl in Surkhet, Nepal

that really resonate with me and stay with me for any length of time are not examples of shifting depth of field or low light marvel, but rather pieces that have touched me because of the story that they tell.

The story that we have to tell is also one facet of video making where we can stand out as being truly unique. Our stories are our songs where we reveal a part of ourselves. If our films are solely portfolios of technique and examples of what our tools can achieve, then we do not separate ourselves from our competition. We can all buy the same gear, gadgets and gizmos and with that run the risk of being button pushers.

I suggest that we all work backwards. That we define the message that we want to communicate and then choose the right tool that will appropriately fill that need. In order to do that, we need to step back and experience life itself. See what the world has to offer, discover our passions and have something worth talking about before we even begin to pick up a camera – whatever camera that may be.