It’s been busy… To date, my favorite project is one I completed over this summer: the homepage video for Alaska King Salmon’s website! Not only did I find the beauty of Alaska as incredible as I’d always imagined–the mountains surrounding Anchorage literally took my breath away–but the guys at the camp were fantastic people to spend the week with. Not only did they respect me and my work, but they were constantly making sure that every guest felt as comfortable as possible. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a group of guys work this hard. Check out the video below, and be sure to visit their site, alaskakingsalmon.com!
Alaska King Salmon Adventures from Outside Communications on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Plastic Cars and Smashing Pumpkins
As a new intern at Picture This, I’ve discovered a crazy exciting opportunity: taking available equipment home over the weekends. This first weekend, I just about flipped at the chance to take home the Sony FS700, a fantastic camera that stands out to me because it records video as fast as 960 frames per second, played back at the users choice of a standard frame rate (30, 24, 60, etc).
For my purposes (publication to the Vimeo), I chose the slowest frame rate that could maintain a pleasant 720p resolution: 480 fps. While I tried a few tests in 960 fps (the max resolution in 960 is SD), I didn’t see enough of a slo-mo “wow” difference (compared to 480 fps) to merit giving up that much resolution.
Ironically, after I spent a few days with this camera, I ran into a cameraman who’d used the FS700 for sports television. For him, the 240fps setting (up to 1080p resolution) worked great, though the lag time between clips made it difficult to capture every critical moment of action in the game. (Immediately after the camera captures frames live, it pauses to “record” to media, creating significant chunks of time where the camera is inoperable. The consecutive record time in slow motion is also significantly limiting: when I recorded a brief matchbox car scene with my brother in 480fps, the recording automatically stopped just short of the second that I wanted to stop recording.)
All the aforementioned said, I need more than a few days to get into this camera! With limited time over the weekend, smashing food became a priority. Some may debate whether or not it was worth the mess, but in my opinion, the half hour of cleaning was nothing compared to the fun we had!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Papers and Little Boys
Tis the season of paperwork! For the last few months, I’ve been on “production break,” doing the less-fun side of self-employed filmmaking: paperwork. Sometimes that necessary evil makes me want to scream. Besides financial and project-specific paperwork, the monster of Market Research awaits my trembling soul.
Looking back, I haven’t sat down for a day to dig deep into what’s going on in my field for several years. It’s far too easy to get obsessively consumed with my own projects while the constantly changing world of media moves on. So this week I made myself a cup of tea, found a comfy chair, and proceeded to visit Uncle Google and the sites of my cinematography heroes (Ray Roman, Philip Bloom, and StillMotion, to name a few).
Between paperwork and research, I’ve kept my creative side satisfied by shooting footage of my family. The following short film is definitely a personal piece, capturing a handful of precious moments. Please enjoy The Professor and the Ham:
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
My DVD Down-Res Philosophy
After growing up on standard-def prosumer camcorders, I cannot explain how much I love DSLR 1080 24p footage for events. Recently, a friend in the wedding video business asked me how that relates to the DVDs I give to clients. Are they 1080p? While numerous videographers are beginning to offer blu-ray HD discs, my clients (so far) have asked for standard DVDs. In these cases, is the 1080p recording necessary? While some may say that it is debatable, there are advantages beyond the potential for a nicer-looking end product. (Note that 24p in my case is entirely preference; the 24 vs. 30 fps debate is unrelated to the purpose of this post.)
advantages
One advantage of recording in 1080p is the ability to re-frame. While post-cropping is generally frowned upon, in some cases (i.e. while recording a wide shot, an unforeseen occurrence at a live event catches your eye, but you don’t have time to swap lenses. The resulting footage makes the subject look too much like a far away ant.) it is a wonderful asset. With 1080 footage working on a 720 timeline, you have a lot of wiggle room before down-res, without loosing any resolution. You can always down-res, but you can never up-res. Only once have I made the fatal mistake of recording standard-def, and I will never make that mistake again. Ever. I’m emotionally scarred from the trauma. Fortunately, the project was a repeatable short, showcasing future potential technology, so I only lost sixteen hours of work. Unfortunately, I had to recreate the project start to finish in a single day to meet the deadline. The ordeal almost killed me, even though I came out successful in the end. Take heed, dear friend, and play it safe.
fun techy stuff
In addition, I have been asked how I use 1080p footage. My workflow is fairly straightforward; I export the edited sequence full resolution and bring it into Compressor to create DVD compatible files. This is where I feel like I cheat; I drag the .mov files into compressor, and drag over the “DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes” preset. Simple, effective, and hassle-free. (Compression for internet streaming on various servers, however, is an entirely different monster. Be forewarned.)
My completed DVD project folders look like this:
advantages
One advantage of recording in 1080p is the ability to re-frame. While post-cropping is generally frowned upon, in some cases (i.e. while recording a wide shot, an unforeseen occurrence at a live event catches your eye, but you don’t have time to swap lenses. The resulting footage makes the subject look too much like a far away ant.) it is a wonderful asset. With 1080 footage working on a 720 timeline, you have a lot of wiggle room before down-res, without loosing any resolution. You can always down-res, but you can never up-res. Only once have I made the fatal mistake of recording standard-def, and I will never make that mistake again. Ever. I’m emotionally scarred from the trauma. Fortunately, the project was a repeatable short, showcasing future potential technology, so I only lost sixteen hours of work. Unfortunately, I had to recreate the project start to finish in a single day to meet the deadline. The ordeal almost killed me, even though I came out successful in the end. Take heed, dear friend, and play it safe.
fun techy stuff
In addition, I have been asked how I use 1080p footage. My workflow is fairly straightforward; I export the edited sequence full resolution and bring it into Compressor to create DVD compatible files. This is where I feel like I cheat; I drag the .mov files into compressor, and drag over the “DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes” preset. Simple, effective, and hassle-free. (Compression for internet streaming on various servers, however, is an entirely different monster. Be forewarned.)
My completed DVD project folders look like this:
Monday, September 3, 2012
Reminiscing a Project From Not So Long Ago…
My first documentary (completed in 2011) is finally online!
There’s something to be said for a project without a due date. In October of 2007, I heard my great Aunt Hope tell a riveting childhood story of escaping a flood in the small town of Malott in Okanogan County, WA. At sixteen years old, I was considering documentary filmmaking, and the story sounded like a great opportunity to test the waters! If only I’d known how much time it would cost me…
Through the rest of the year and into 2008, I did research here and there, finding only one short article and a book memoir, written by a flood survivor. By 2009, I wrapped up most of my highschool requirements and dove into uncovering the story of the flood, contacting extended family members and getting scattered bits of the story. I also went through the memoir again, copying down names and bibliographic references to search obituary records and websites. That didn’t take me very far, so I contacted the historical society near Malott in hopes of finding contact information for any of the names in the book. The Okanogan Historical Society opened the door and the contacts started appearing.
In 2010, I took two road trips around Washington state, collecting phonebooks from areas near Malott and interviewing as many survivors as we found. Many were still spread through Washington, though one had moved to Texas and another to Montana. I contacted them all, eager to get the story straight, with as much detail as possible. Over the phone, many sounded suspicious at first, but once I mentioned my great grandfather’s name and the nature of my project, most people could hardly stop talking!
I met dozens of incredible people that I will never forget, and it is because of all the amazing stories that editing took me hundreds of hours. Without any previous experience, I nearly drowned in 30 hours of footage (small potatoes!). I transcribed every interview and created at least forty-two drafts of the story, with most drafts far too broad and factual. Talking heads became the bane of my existence, as I tearfully scribbled ideas into my production notebook, in tatters from adventures and hours of writing and re-writing notes and outlines. Sure, I’d shot a lot of b-roll, but footage I desperately hoped to look professional didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Through all of this, I learned why there are film crews: a single person cannot successfully produce, write, direct, budget, shoot, narrate, and edit a documentary project. At the very least, someone with no experience shouldn’t attempt it and expect a feature-length professional-looking documentary! In the agony of editing, I started college at MHCC, where I met my amazing video profs in the Integrated Media program. I laid out my precious project for scrutiny, and the initial critique made me sick. Looking back, I am forever indebted to my teachers for taking so many hours to work with me and point out my blind spots.
This project was, in many ways, a turning point in my career. I learned hundreds of valuable lessons the hard way, and that experience can’t be bought. In addition to the video production side of the project, I found great fun in digging up old stories, visiting courthouses, checking out county plat maps, verifying contradicting accounts, traveling across Washington state, flying in an ancient passenger plane, exploring deserted ruins and meeting fascinating people. Through the ups and downs, this project enriched my perspective on life and filmmaking.
Equipment used: –Sony FX1 –Canon HV30 -ancient tripod –Sennheiser EW122-p G3
There’s something to be said for a project without a due date. In October of 2007, I heard my great Aunt Hope tell a riveting childhood story of escaping a flood in the small town of Malott in Okanogan County, WA. At sixteen years old, I was considering documentary filmmaking, and the story sounded like a great opportunity to test the waters! If only I’d known how much time it would cost me…
Through the rest of the year and into 2008, I did research here and there, finding only one short article and a book memoir, written by a flood survivor. By 2009, I wrapped up most of my highschool requirements and dove into uncovering the story of the flood, contacting extended family members and getting scattered bits of the story. I also went through the memoir again, copying down names and bibliographic references to search obituary records and websites. That didn’t take me very far, so I contacted the historical society near Malott in hopes of finding contact information for any of the names in the book. The Okanogan Historical Society opened the door and the contacts started appearing.
In 2010, I took two road trips around Washington state, collecting phonebooks from areas near Malott and interviewing as many survivors as we found. Many were still spread through Washington, though one had moved to Texas and another to Montana. I contacted them all, eager to get the story straight, with as much detail as possible. Over the phone, many sounded suspicious at first, but once I mentioned my great grandfather’s name and the nature of my project, most people could hardly stop talking!
I met dozens of incredible people that I will never forget, and it is because of all the amazing stories that editing took me hundreds of hours. Without any previous experience, I nearly drowned in 30 hours of footage (small potatoes!). I transcribed every interview and created at least forty-two drafts of the story, with most drafts far too broad and factual. Talking heads became the bane of my existence, as I tearfully scribbled ideas into my production notebook, in tatters from adventures and hours of writing and re-writing notes and outlines. Sure, I’d shot a lot of b-roll, but footage I desperately hoped to look professional didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Through all of this, I learned why there are film crews: a single person cannot successfully produce, write, direct, budget, shoot, narrate, and edit a documentary project. At the very least, someone with no experience shouldn’t attempt it and expect a feature-length professional-looking documentary! In the agony of editing, I started college at MHCC, where I met my amazing video profs in the Integrated Media program. I laid out my precious project for scrutiny, and the initial critique made me sick. Looking back, I am forever indebted to my teachers for taking so many hours to work with me and point out my blind spots.
This project was, in many ways, a turning point in my career. I learned hundreds of valuable lessons the hard way, and that experience can’t be bought. In addition to the video production side of the project, I found great fun in digging up old stories, visiting courthouses, checking out county plat maps, verifying contradicting accounts, traveling across Washington state, flying in an ancient passenger plane, exploring deserted ruins and meeting fascinating people. Through the ups and downs, this project enriched my perspective on life and filmmaking.
Equipment used: –Sony FX1 –Canon HV30 -ancient tripod –Sennheiser EW122-p G3
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Battery Harvey Allen
While on family vacation, we made a quick visit to Battery Harvey Allen at Cape Disappointment. This is my short montage of clips capturing mood using natural light and simple movement.
Equipment used: Canon 5D Mk II, Canon EOS 24-105mm IS, Manfrotto 679B
Equipment used: Canon 5D Mk II, Canon EOS 24-105mm IS, Manfrotto 679B
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