DSLR – Page 4 – Journeys of a Hybrid

May 4, 2011

Change

Change Who likes change? Other than needing a change of scenery every now and then, change is usually tough to take. I grew up with change. My family moved 10 times before I got out of high school.

Gail in kindergarten — Kindergarten, Chicago, IL

I was always the “new kid”. (Hint: I’m in the second to last row. I was also the “tall kid” even in Kindergarten)

No, my dad wasn’t in the military and we weren’t on the lam – he was just climbing the corporate ladder. He’d get promoted or there would be a new sibling and we’d move to a bigger house or he’d get promoted and transferred and we’d move to a totally different place leaving our friends and familiarities behind.

I’m not complaining, nor saying that I feel slighted by having that constant change in my life. It was the life I knew and I suppose I always looked at it with open eyes and curiosity about what was next to come. Of course, if I thought about the friends and sometimes family that I was leaving behind, it made it much harder.

Perhaps growing up in a constant state of change made me more flexible in dealing with all the changes affecting my business these days. Both still photography and video production have been profoundly changed by a bad economy and technology. Kind of like a double whammy. At least with technology the sword cuts both ways and also provides opportunities. It’s usually during the tough times when the economy is bad when innovation happens. Sometimes people just have to be forced to make changes in their lives, even if what they have been doing hasn’t been working. I was asked to speak at Cal Poly on the theme The Role of Mass Communication and Media Technology in Today’s Global Economy: A Multidiscipline Approach. Specifically, they wanted me to talk about how I was using technology to communicate in a global market. I started thinking about how this past year I had vigorously embraced new tools and a new business model, integrated with the Internet and social media to create a mixed media project that will ultimately result in a feature film, a book, an e-book and maybe even an exhibition. I didn’t have a big team behind me, nor did I have a lot of money. We had a two-person crew- myself and my daughter, an editor and my husband working the PR, the social media and the back support. We raised some money on Kickstarter with the help of our backers and we’ve had musicians offer us their music and talents to our film. We are extremely grateful for all of the support worldwide and it could never have happened without advances in technology.

The fact is that we live in such an amazing time where something like this is even possible. It is a time of empowerment for the individual. Technology is democratizing and is leveling the playing field especially in terms of distribution. The locks are gone and the gates to distribution are open and affordable. Within a month of uploading the trailer to my film on Vimeo, it has been played in 95 countries – that’s almost ½ the countries in the world. What a staggering thought in terms of mass communication!

Going forward my ultimate plan at this point in time is to distribute the film through iTunes or Netflix and DVD’s through Amazon. More importantly, I would like to set up 100’s of screenings in communities all over America – maybe even all over the world – and use the film to move people to action. Kind of like a grass roots effort to motivate people to make a difference in their communities. Imagine what kind of an effect that would have if it spread virally through the world. Just Imagine.

April 18, 2011April 18, 2011

Snapshots With Words

Many of you have probably heard me say “still images are moments in time” and “video is time in motion”. I think and I shoot differently in each of these mediums.

It is kind of like the difference between poetry (or the lyrics of a song) and prose. In a poem, just as with the lyrics of a song, each word must “say” a whole lot just like a still photograph must convey everything in that one moment in time. When writing prose you have all those other words to connect your thoughts. To be honest, I never took any writing courses in college and I did not find myself reading books of poetry in my off time. But I did listen to a lot of music back then – still do – and there’s not a lot of difference between the lyrics of a well-crafted song and those in a poem.

When I was traveling last summer, I found myself mentally capturing images in my head as we went from destination to destination. I started to type out these random thoughts on my blackberry and because of the nature of that device and the tiny keys, I typed out my thoughts in abbreviated fashion. My intent was never to share these thoughts with anyone, let alone pretend that I could write poetry, but I did share some of them, reluctantly and with trepidation, “testing the waters” so to speak. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a dock and dipping my toe into the water while a friend egged me on and encouraged me to jump in.

I’ve continued writing my snapshots with words but I’ve become a bit more self-conscious these days with sharing these thoughts. Perhaps I’ve become more guarded or maybe just too self-conscious to share. I suppose that’s ok because what is most important is that I don’t let my own inhibitors and doubts stop me from writing. When I first started writing down these words or poems or whatever label you want to put on them, perhaps I needed to share them with someone else. I needed to test the waters and when I did I got the necessary encouragement to jump in.

These days I try not to define myself too rigidly as to who or what I am by definitions and labels like photographer, filmmaker, writer or poet. Ultimately, I use whatever tool works best to express the thoughts and stories that run through my mind. I continue to stick my toe into unfamiliar water and every now and then I get brave enough to jump in thanks to a little encouragement from my friends. I think we all need that in our lives – someone who we know we can bounce ideas off of without the fear of ridicule. As one of the subjects in my documentary beautifully stated “we’ve got to shine each other up”.

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 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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March 24, 2011

Editing a Trailer

Like anything else the best way to learn how to do something is to “see” how it’s done. I wanted to create a trailer for my documentary. I’m working with a professional editor on this project but while he is getting acquainted with over 160 hours of footage, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could create a trailer.

For me, it’s always much harder to edit a very short piece. Everything becomes more critical – every cut – every shot – every sound bite and sound effect – every slate and every high and low in the music. And trailers are the ultimate shorts. You need to peak someone’s interest and make them wanting more.

I started paying attention to the trailers on DVD’s and online. I watched them to see how they were constructed. I analyzed them and paid close attention to things like sound effects, music and slates and if it made me want to see the movie. There were a couple of trailers in particular that I really liked, each for different reasons. One trailer was for the film I Am. This trailer gave me some ideas on how to use music and text to deliver the story idea in a concise way and get people’s attention. I also liked it because it was just vague enough to intrigue me but not to confuse me. Another trailer I like is Dennis Connor’s Breaking Boundaries; the Art of Alex Masket. There are a lot of things I love about this trailer. Dennis’s subject Alex Masket couldn’t communicate verbally so Dennis blended visuals of Alex using other people’s sound bites as the narrative. He also had a beautiful jazzy musical score composed for the trailer.

My challenge was that I had to make a trailer for a film that was about 11 stories. The first thing that I needed to remind myself was that it really wasn’t about 11 stories. It was about 11 people but ultimately one story. With that thought I started pulling together my strongest sound bites. One benefit of spending all that time editing the past few months was that I was very intimate with the interview footage and I knew where to look for the gems. I was looking for provocative remarks that left one wondering and they needed to be short and to the point.

Once I got the stand out sound bites on a timeline I started looking for some live action footage and other b-roll. Then I began to interweave the appropriate visuals with the sound bites – pacing them – giving the piece a bit of time to breathe. I also added slates with text to help tell the story.

Once I got it down to a reasonable length – in my case 3:45 – which is still a minute too long – I started looking for the perfect music. I came across Neosounds.com a royalty free music site with some of the best RF music out there. Picking music for me is like picking wallpaper, going back and forth until everything starts to sound the same. After making a few painful decisions, I integrated my musical choices into the timeline. There was still something missing and that was sound effects. There are hundreds of great free sound effects that come with Soundtrack Pro. I picked a couple of them to boost and emphasize certain spots in the trailer but I wanted to keep them subtle. For example I used a sound effect of a motorcycle in one spot and a jet engine taking off in another.

What has resulted from this exercise are two variations of a trailer. I am sharing these both with everyone because I would like feedback. I don’t want to influence opinion here, other than to say one trailer has a bit of more information than the other. One is also 15 sec. longer. Any and all comments are welcome.

Which one should I use?

Watch the links in this order.

http://www.vimeo.com/21241911

http://www.vimeo.com/21376387

March 21, 2011

Some Useful Information for Workflow

I made a few new discoveries this past week. Forgive me if these items aren’t new but they’re new to me.

One item I discovered was Drop Box and the timing was perfect. Drop Box is a sharing and storage site. I can upload files and documents to their server and share those files with anyone who has Drop Box installed on their computer. For instance, I am able to share project files and updates with the editor that I am working with on Opening Our Eyes. This past week, I was working on a new trailer for my film and I was able to share that updated project file with him, along with the RF music that I licensed for it.

The other thing that I love about Drop Box is that I can share files and info with the various computers that I work on. No more emailing docs or copying media to a DVD so that I can transfer files over to my laptop. With Drop Box installed, I can share files, media and calendars with any and all of my computers. As a bonus, Drop Box acts as an off site storage solution as well.

My other discovery was a royalty free music site called Neosounds. I’ve been searching through hundreds of royalty free music libraries over the years and Neosounds is definitely the best source for high quality music that I’ve found. It stands out amongst the rest because their music doesn’t sound like royalty free music. Recently, I needed music for a new trailer that I was making for OOE and I was googling around for some cinematic sounds. I found the perfect background music for my film’s trailer. I’m still tweaking the trailer a bit, but you can listen to a clip of music from Neosounds that I used in a short video I made that appeared on a recent blog post.

One last item that I’ll mention is a great source for travel guides – the unconventional type. They are called Unconventional Guides and are brought to you by Chris Guillebeau. Since discovering Chris Guillebeau’s blog The Art of Non-Conformity, I’ve become a huge fan of Chris and his writings. If you haven’t discovered Chris’s blog , then do so. He has an amazing outlook on life and he articulates his thoughts so beautifully in his blog. His global view of the world and how to live life is truly an inspiration to me. He’s definitely, a kindred spirit.

Back to tweaking. Stay tuned for my next blog with links to some new samples.

March 9, 2011

I Must Have Been Crazy to Think I Could Do It

….But I did. Last night I shipped 3 hard drives with almost 5 terabytes of media to my editor. After 2 very long months of extremely long days – every day – I got through the “first edit” of my documentary. It’s by no means finished, there’s a lot more editing needed to cut it down by half, there’s music to be composed and a narrative that has to be written, but I take great joy in the fact that I got through this part of the process – because it damn near killed me.

When shooting a documentary, you don’t work with a script or a storyboard – or at least I don’t. I have a pretty solid idea of the “story” when I set out to shoot, but there’s always twists and turns with every situation and every interview. But I love surprises and I make room for serendipity to happen. What results is a lot of content that needs to be crafted and arced into a story. And I’ve just finished defining that story and laying the foundation.

It hasn’t been easy. In fact there have been times when I’ve wanted to walk away from this because it was so overwhelming. Trying to tie 11 different stories into one, and looking through 150 hours of footage multiple times can be overwhelming for a team of editors, let alone one individual. I’ve also had my share of low moments these past few months with a grant application rejected and a broken promise by a friend, but somehow I got through it. I got through it because I had desire.

Having a strong desire for whatever it is one wants to achieve is essential. Many times we say we really want something, but that is far different than having a true desire to make something happen. In order to stick to something (anything) and follow through with it – no matter what – that desire must be strong and come from within. It’s something that can’t be copied, taught or faked – you either have it or you don’t. It comes when you are true to yourself.

It’s hard to stay true to yourself. Many times, well meaning friends or spouses try to distract you from your purpose. I see this happen a lot when a significant other, who may not understand that in the creative world, the line between work and pleasure is quite blurred and sometimes may feel somewhat resentful of all the time their partner spends on “work”. I’m lucky in that my husband is also my business partner and has a full understanding of those blurred lines between work and pleasure. He also knows that when I have such a strong desire to do something, that he shouldn’t get in the way of me following that desire. That is truly selfless and well meaning.

Since beginning this lofty project, I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people who are in a slump for one reason or another. They look to me for some kind of guidance. I don’t really know what to say, other than to tell them to listen to their true self – the one underneath the clutter of the ego – and to trust what it tells you. If I get one of those calls during one of those low moments in my life, I try really hard to stay positive even though I feel like a big fake, because I’ve temporarily succumbed to my own self doubts. At those times, I try to be utterly honest, relaying the bitter with the sweet and say that bad times don’t last forever. But you have to let your spirit shine.

I wrote a blog once about the human spirit. I feel that the spirit inside me is ageless. I know when people come up to me and say “you look good” – what they really see is my spirit – which never gets old because I keep it alive. When I’m true to myself, my spirit soars and I look back at my defeats and rejections with a different understanding and acceptance.

So today, with my spirit in tact and my desire ever so strong, I rejoice in the fact that I accomplished something – something that’s really meaningful. That brings a big smile to my face and great joy in my heart. What a feeling – it’s priceless.

March 2, 2011March 2, 2011

Open Yourself to Possibilities

Thank goodness February is over. It’s been a long, cold, snowy winter here in New Jersey and February felt particularly brutal. I can cope with cold weather pretty well but “cabin fever” can be deadly for me. And last month it almost killed me. I had been in isolation editing video for 14 hours a day – every day. It was almost inhuman.

This weekend I headed down to Philadelphia to present a seminar at

ASMP’s SB3. It was just what I needed. I needed to connect with people. Conferences like SB3 are meant for stimulation and learning and everyone walks away with their heads exploding with new ideas – attendee and presenter alike. But I walk away with so much more. What I get from interacting with people, learning from them, sharing with them is immeasurable.

Some things that stuck with me:

“Be awesome” Colleen Wainwright

“Hang out with people better than you” Blake Discher

And from Tom Kennedy
F.A.I.T.H

Freedom – to see – to be open to opportunities
Authenticity – be yourself
Intentionality – live intentionally – be proactive
Trust – in yourself
Hospitality – be open to the world

And I learned about a blog that truly resonates with me The Art of Non-Conformity
As all the conversations still run through my mind, I remember one in particular. I was speaking with someone who had taken his own path – traveling a lot before going to college and pursuing other passions in life before settling down on a career. He wanted to know if I would mentor him but he had so many questions, he was concerned he would infringe too much on my time. I smiled and told him that I was quite accessible and to feel free to call anytime. And that I’d let him know if he was wearing out his welcome He smiled back and said, “you have a hard time saying no don’t you?” My answer to him was “yes” and that I liked that word much more. It opens up so many more possibilities.

If you haven’t attended on of the three SB3 events – there’s still one more in Chicago April 1- 3. Check out what people are saying on Facebook. And then come and join us in Chicago and prepared for lots of “ah ha” moments. It could be life changing. You just never know.

February 21, 2011

Editing 150 Hours of Footage From a DSLR

As I roll away the miles, driving the ten hour trip to Michigan to rendezvous with my daughter Erin to film the last of our subjects for our documentary Opening Our Eyes, I realize how desperately I needed a long road trip – just cruising down the highway. I have been in utter isolation for the past month, editing over 150 hours of footage that we had shot over our ultimate road trip around the world this past summer. Little did I know that the 99-day journey would be the easy part of this project.

This past month there have been many times that I became so overwhelmed with the process of editing that I wanted to throw my hands up in surrender and just give up. But somehow I plowed through it, many days putting in 14 plus hours. I was on a mission and listening to the words of my subjects got me through it. After all these were some of the most inspirational people I had every met, so revisiting them through their interviews was a constant reminder of the goal of this film which is to create awareness and inspire and motivate others to make a difference and create change.

Ultimately, my challenge is to take ten (soon to be eleven) different stories of people across the globe who are making a positive difference in the world. After finally getting the tedious tasks finished, of transcoding files and sorting through the good from the bad clips, I arrived at a point where I needed to start telling “THE” story. Meaning I needed to determine how I could best structure the film to convey the common themes between my subjects.

In order to see the story clearly – I needed to get away from the technology. So as the miles roll by, the story becomes more vivid in my head. I see the hero(s), the themes, the commonality and the arc of the story as the stories intertwine. I won’t give away too much information other than to say that the solution is simple. They aren’t eleven different stories after all. It’s really a global story about the power of one. How one individual can create positive change and not only effect generations to come but change themselves as well. It’s a basic human story that resonates with all of us.

When I started writing this blog I was going to talk about editing tech tips. Somehow as the miles rolled by and my head became clear of the intense electronic input from the past month, I not only saw the story, but I felt it. I had gotten back on track and gotten to the heart of the story.

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