#18 Wk11 - Documentary and Interview

You going to hear the cuts in this episode. I recorded this podcast from Logan Airport in Boston, waiting for my plane to Las Vegas. Lots of background noise. There just doesn't seem to be quiet rooms at this airport. I thought the Men's room would be a little obvious. I'm also editing in Adobe Audition instead of Soundtrack pro and Garageband, so the production values are going to suffer from my limited experience with that program. I think it's quite the capable piece of software, I'm just unfamiliar with it.

We watched the first 15 minutes of an excellent documentary called Children Underground, by Edet Belzberg about the lives of a group of children who live in the subways of Bucharest Roumania. From that we took a number of lessons about shooting cinema verite with a handheld camera.

The assignment for the class was to take multiple shots of an individual working at a computer. All different angles and perspectives, from above, over the shoulder, in front, close-ups of hands on keyboards and mouse, the monitor, the desk, etc. It was all about coverage, getting every shot you could need to demonstrate the detailed actions of someone working on a computer, probably with the intention of using it as B-roll for a voice-over, or over dubbed interview. Shooting handheld for even 15 minutes is very fatiguing.

We didn't get time to look at the video, but we did discuss our experiences while we were waiting for everyone to get back. In the next week we'll review them and take on another assignment.

In the meantime I'm still waiting for the plane. Heavy winds in Nevada they say.

#17 Wk10 - Documentary and Interview pt2

The ummm, ah episode. I'm trying really hard to streamline and shorten the production process for podcasting. That means working off of short notes, instead of a finished script and not spending so much time editing, removing annoying ahs and spaces. And as much as I've tried, I've still spent too much time editing the audio. I can't stand listening to me stumbling along, why should you. Still it's a little rougher that usual. Let me know what you think.

This episode includes notes about a documentary preview, So Much | So Fast, and Q&A with the filmmaker, Steven Asher. His comments on how to make a living as a documentary filmmaker were interesting.

Thursday and Saturday we prepared and shot an interview which I describe as well as give up some pointers on how to conduct an interview.

Finally I talk about the RED One camera. It's the one to watch at NAB this year.

#16 Wk10 - Documentary and Interview pt1

Another quick set of notes for this podcast.

This week begins the class on documentary and interview. This podcast is only about Tuesday night's class. I'm going to put out a second podcast covering Thursday nights special topic where we screen a just released documentary and get to question the filmmaker, and then Saturday's class where we set up lighting for an interview and then interview someone we don't know.

I also take the time to bleed all the humor out of David Brenner's jokes with my sad delivery

I discuss the sad lot of Julie Amero

Check out Errol Morris' films, and the commercials on his site. He's the one who did the original Apple ads about switchers.

#15 Wk9 - Filmmaking Fundamentals

Just a brief note, you'll have to listen to the podcast to figure what's on. Click on the title to link to the audio or subscribe to it on iTunes.

This podcast closes the last classes of the Filmmaking Fundamentals module. I also give a run down of things to see at the National Association of Broadcaster's show in Las Vegas, coming up in April. Lots of stuff about software, cameras, video editing seminars.

I'll see you there.

#14 Wk8 - Filmmaking Fundamentals

I'm talking about a variety of shoots this week. We're shooting an action scene using a dolly and shooting a dialog scene with a variety of OTS (over the shoulder) angles, including dirty and clean singles. Once all the camera work is done we'll be editing it into rough cuts next week.

I also discuss a number of Filmmaking events taking place in the next couple months. In Boston the Independent Film Festival will be taking place, April 25 - 30. They're looking for volunteers. Another film festival is online, called the One Minute Film Festival.

The 48 hour film project is closed in Boston, but it's a wicked cool event you should look into to get a complete tour of the video production experience.

I will be attending NAB mid April and while I talk a little bit about the things I plan to see and learn at the show, including training by FMC, I'll talk about at more length in the next podcast.

Some of the updated announcements I expect to see are Adobe CS and Production suite, Apple FCP and an update to Avid for the Mac/Intel processor.

Red camera is going to make a big noise with a demonstration and possibly a limited sale of it's new camera that shoots 4k video.

#13 Wk7 - Filmmaking Fundamentals

Creating a Short Narrative

This module is all about putting into action what we've been taught to date about light, camera work and sound. After a brief introduction by our instructor Tom Robothan we were thrust into the preproduction process. Our goal was to shoot five scenes from interviews to action and dialog and then cut it together.

It's an excellent example of the team-orientated learning that is a big part of CDIA's curriculum. This week is all about planning and next week we'll do the bulk of the shooting. The last week is for editing.

#12 Wk6 - Lighting

I'm way behind so I'm posting this fast and short. This show is less than 5 minutes long.

This week we finished the lighting module. We did an exercise with 3 point lighting on 2 people and another exercise outside using daylight and reflectors.

Saturday and Sunday I shot video of a reception and awards ceremony at Brandeis University for their annual film festival, Sundeis.

Here are some links mentioned in the audio:

Matters of Light and Depth
American Film Institute
Vision of Light
Cinematographer's Style
All That Jazz
Roy Scheider