Location Scouting

So I finally got around to visiting the aforementioned park that I have permission to film in.  I took some video for inspiration.  It’s beautiful!

So, I can see that I should not have filmed so much while walking, because it’s way too shaky to look at.  I should have walked to the interesting spots, stood in one place, and panned around myself to take in the scenery.  Oh, well.  It’s just for reference anyway.  I’ll keep looking for other locations as well.  Wanna be prepared.

“New” Ike footage

Finally got my post-Ike video together.  This one is a little more interesting than the others, IMO.

Location Releases.

Arrrrrghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps anyone who has tried to secure a location release for a film will appreciate how I’m feeling right now.  When I was scouting possible locations for the 24-hour film contest, I needed to not only come up with a variety of possible locales, but I needed to get permission to film in those places in writing.  I found out that people will often allow you to film, but they won’t sign anything.

I called a local park and got verbal permission to film there, and the lady who answered the phone agreed to pass on the location release to her boss.  After a couple of days of waiting and wondering, I contacted her and she told me that he wouldn’t sign it, although I was free to film at the park.   (Luckily for me, I discovered that this contest didn’t require releases for external locations, as long as I had the proper permits).

The other place I found was this awesome apartment clubhouse that could be made to look like a number of different sets–a house, apartment, hotel, lobby, etc..  It had free wifi and a kitchen.  It was perfect.  When I called to ask permission to film there, they were really great about it, and the lady said she would be able to sign a release for me.  I tried to get someone to pick up the release before we filmed, but due to a miscommunication that didn’t happen.  So I went the day after filming to pick it up myself, and the lady (I assume a different one that  spoke with earlier) said that they DO. NOT. SIGN. ANYTHING.  (although I was free to film if I wished).

I tried to explain my situation, that the only thing the document said was that the apartment complex would not sue the company sponsoring the contest if I broke anything (although they’d be free to sue me), and that it didn’t matter anyway because the filming was done.  But she said no, while not disguising the expression on her face that told me there was no reason in the world why she would give a crap about any of this, but she’d forward the request on to their management.  I called later to see what they said, and the answer was the same.

Uggghhh….

This actually happened to me once before, on my first film.  But the ending was much happier.  I called the library, and they were very nice about letting me film before they opened.  When I asked the lady to sign the release form, she said she didn’t have the authority to do so.  She said she’d ask the main office, but I never heard back, and I’d missed the contest deadline anyway, so I didn’t really pursue it.  But when the contest came around again the following year, I called the main office myself, and they were really nice about signing it.

I can see now how lucky I was.

What’s the lesson here, kids?  Get your location releases early, and get them in writing.

Here it is.

So yeah. Here it is. Lots of technical issues but… also a lot of heart. hehe.

Here are my comments on this video (please keep in mind we did the whole thing in 24 hours, which was VERY challenging)

• picture:  Aside from the aforementioned jitter/blurriness issues, I actually had a cinematographer help me with this, but he quit about halfway through due to the problems we were having with the camera.  No hard feelings, though, but his heart just wasn’t in it.  Later, I discovered the whole thing had been shot in 16:9 aspect ratio, when the contest required a 4:3 aspect ratio.  When I converted it, the picture got cropped and I lost some of the picture around the edges.  …so when you see some of the actors cut off a little, that’s why.
• sound:  I rented a boom mike for $50 for the day, and I like the sound a lot more than any of my other videos, but I could still hear noise in the background.  The air conditioning kept turning on and off, and since it wasn’t my place, I had no control over that.  Also, I didn’t have time to try and remove the noise digitally.  But.. I don’t think it’s too distracting.
• lighting:  I had a light kit with me, but we didn’t end up using it.  The apartment clubhouse we used was pretty well-lit.  I’m sure I could have improved on it, but with the time constraints we had, I think it was an okay compromise.
• acting:  yes, the actors are amateurs, but I LOVED them.  They were fun to work with, and such good sports.  Especially Akil, who is the one who got the face sandwich.  Poor guy.  He didn’t even want to act.  He was there to be on the crew.
• editing:  I had some transitions at certain points between scenes, but somehow they got obliterated when I converted the aspect ratio.  So the film is a bit more rushed than it was when I edited it.  I could have fixed it, but I ran out of time.  Just barely made it in time to turn the thing in.

I’m sure there are more things to comment on, but those are the main points.  Now, as for the whole 24-filmmaking experience:

• When we first got together as a team, there were more than 10 of us.  And in retrospect, there were way too many cooks in the kitchen.  The brainstorming session was fun, but there were just so many ideas and opinions that it was hard to move forward.  And once we did have an idea, I ended up spending a lot of energy dealing with the miriad of opinions that people had regarding the smaller details.  Looking back, I can see how some of the things I wanted to do got lost because I was trying so hard to move the thing forward.  With so little time, it became very important that we not spend hours arguing over tiny details.  For my next project, I will definitely limit the number of people involved in creating the “vision” and then hire people for crew and acting only.
• Location releases:  I had, and am still having, trouble with location releases.  My biggest mistake was not scouting for locations earlier on in the process.  I have found a number of places that allow people to film, but won’t sign a location release without lawyers looking at it first.  Even though, all it says is… “You agree not to sue filmracing.com if the filmmaker destroys your property–you sue the filmmaker instead!”  When I called the apartment complex, the person I spoke with agreed to sign the release, but I didn’t get it from her before shooting.  When I came to collect it after shooting, a different person was there and said they would not sign it.  They passed it to their higher-up, but I doubt they will sign it either.  At this point I’m not sure if my film will be screened, but the organizers are aware of my problem, and I’m still working on getting it.
• Equipment:  I should have tested the camera when I checked it out from the cable access channel.  If I had, they would have given me a different camera, and it wouldn’t be blurry.  That is all.
• Actors:  I loved my actors, but I recognize that trained actors tend to be very polished.  Once I have a script put together and I’m ready to go, I will try to find real actors who are willing to work for free, or for little pay.  There are lots of resources that one can use to announce auditions, and I believe that will be the best way to find the appropriate actors for the parts in future films.
• Production assistant:  I should’ve gotten me one of those.  Someone involved early on who could share the legwork with me.  Someone who could go get coffee for the crew, make phone calls, help find locations.

Another thing that occurs to me is that when you are managing a team of people on a film, you need to be assertive.  Because everyone seems to want to do it their way, but if it’s my project, I need to decide when the discussion is over and it’s time to move on, and communicate that well.  I think that assembling a team more carefully, and assigning very well-defined roles would be helpful in this regard.

Overall, I’ve learned so much from this experience.  I obviously would not ideally want to put these kinds of restrictions on myself, but in doing so I can see what I need to do better should I have more time to complete my project.

Adventures in 24-hour filmmaking.

Oh, my lord.

I am currently sitting at home, waiting for the footage from my Film Racing entry to upload onto the computer so I can edit it. It is extremely jittery. It turns out that the camera I got from the cable access channel has something wrong with it. I hoped that it was just showing up that way on the LCD screen of the camcorder, but no… it really looks like this, and there was nothing I could do about it. And when you have 24 hours to shoot your film, you are stuck with what you have. ..damn!

Besides that, though, this was an amazing experience. I was so stressed out in the days beforehand, trying to recruit people, locations and equipment. I managed to get permission to use someone’s apartment complex clubhouse, and also the use of a public park. I got a camera, tripod, and light kit from the cable access channel, and I rented a boom pole from a film equipment rental place. I wrangled about 15 or so people into promising to participate, knowing at least 1/3 would drop out before the day, and that at least another 1/3 would not stay for the whole thing (I was right).

When we finally got together at the meeting place, there was an immediate positive energy. We spent two hours brainstorming and about another hour writing, and it was awesome. I had no professional actors, but the actors I did have were great.

But about halfway through the shoot… it became clear that the footage was going to be bad, and that there was nothing that could be done about it.

So. I’ll see what I can do with it, and submit it anyway. And that’s alright. You can’t win ‘em all.

Film Racing 24 Hour Film Contest.

Check it out–I missed the 48 hour film project because of a previous commitment, but then I found out about another one that is happening next month–Film Racing. It’s the same idea, but you only get 24 hours to produce a film. I’ve already started putting together a team, and I’m very excited!

The only problem is that it takes place on the FIRST DAY OF RAMADAN (I’m Muslim). Which means that I will be fasting–no food or drink from dawn to sunset–for a good portion of the time. And the first day is always the hardest. That’s okay. Maybe I’ll get some extra blessings, lol. That’s why I named my team “Team Baraka.”

Cable Access Show Clip

I’m producing a Toastmasters show on the local cable access program.  I’m putting together a PSA of sorts to talk about what our show is going to be about once it airs.  I wanted to post a clip of some footage I took of our host Marlo.  I’m getting better at the technical details…  As I mentioned in my previous post, my boom mic died, so I ended up getting another cheap microphone at radio shack at the last minute.  It wasn’t great (hear the buzzing in the background?  Gotta see if I can subtract that noise out with audacity), but it was much better than the mic on the camera, which picks up all the ambient sound in the room.  Here is a clip of Marlo’s segment:

 

I wanted to shoot her with some natural light, but we didn’t get started until after dark.  So I lit one side of her face with the ceiling fan light, and for the other side of her face, I shined my work light on the window to her left and bounced that light onto her face–direct light would have been too harsh.  I like the effect, but the picture is still kind of grainy.  I’m sure it has at least in part to do with my cheap camera, but I noticed that when I shoot outside in natural light, the picture looks much better.  So I need to improve my lighting technique, for sure

No mic.

My microphone stopped working.  Piece of crap.

Light of Islam bookstore fundraising video

Finally… I finished my next project.  Well, sort of.  My intent was to do a profile of Ruth Nasrullah for the LinkTV “One Nation, Many Voices” contest.  I missed the deadline, then dragged my feet, until Ruth asked if I would do a video for her March fundraiser.  This lit a fire under me, and I finally finished something… Unfortunately, this version doesn’t show you what is so great about the bookstore.  It assumes the viewer already knows, and just talks about the positive impact it’s had on the community.  So a LOT of my footage didn’t get used, so I am *planning* on doing another version of this later that is closer to my original vision. 

Boy, did I learn a lot from this experience!  Not only do I have COLOR this time, but I also have SOUND!!  I got better at editing (especially editing footage that has not been stoyboarded), and at learning how to keep the viewer from dozing off while trying to show them a bunch of documentary footage (hopefully).  Here are some things I can definitely improve on, though:

• Framing:  Some of my framing is really bad.  I was trying a little TOO hard to adhere to the “rule of thirds” and ended up pushing some people almost out of the frame completely.
• Lighting:  Some of the shots are dark and/or dull.  I used ambient light in all of these interviews, but I should have found a better way of lighting my subjects.
• Sound:  The sound is kind of tinny and cheap-sounding, but I am not sure what I could have done about that, short of getting my hands on better sound equipment.  Especially since I was trying to grab people for interviews whenever I could.

I’m sure there are a bunch of other issues with this that I will think of later, but those are the main things for now.  PLEASE post constructive criticism–I want to get better!

interviewing

While interviewing some folks for my latest project yesterday, I realized that I would get much better content if I just set up the camera and had a conversation with them, rather than pointing a mic at them and asking them questions.  While setting up, the subjects would talk and talk, and I’d be like, “hold on!!  I wanna get this!!”  But it’s hard when they feel put on the spot, or like they are performing.  Unfortunately, my microphone only works at short range, and is attached to the camera, so all that stuff has to be in the person’s face while I’m interviewing them.  So setting up the camera and letting people talk is not a viable option at the moment, but I’ll keep that in mind for the future.  If I could set up a sound system that would allow me to have the camera sitting far away from my subject, that would be much better.