Editing

Review of Last Week

The shooting is complete! Friday night I filmed the master shot. After weeks of planning and doing test shots it came out really good. I did run into a few problems while setting up the scene. For example, all my test shots were done inside my living room and the actual shooting location was inside a Sunday school room. Since the Sunday school room is a lot bigger than my living room I had a lot more space to work with and had to spread out my lighting a little more.

I also had to change my lighting set up a little bit. For some reason my key light was a little brighter in the Sunday school room than it was in my living room. Because of this I decided to put on the covering for the key light which I did not use in my test shots.

Shooting the b-roll was really fun. It felt a little funny and silly at first with people watching me as I filmed. The kids that participated were really cooperative. I am so thankful for that. My photographer was really good too. I've learned a lot about him since shooting this film and I'm sure people in the church will too once they see the final edit.

Here are some test shots I've done so far for the documentary. My final test shots are done in HD with a blue filter for the backlight but I was unable to post those because I do not know how to import video that's shot in HD. I will plan a date to shoot the documentary this week since Ken will be back from North Carolina. The music I was thinking about using for the documentary was the opening song from "The Office" but now I'm having second thoughts. I'll keep looking.

Summary of Previous Week

I've gotten a chance to take out the camera and lighting equipment. I'm not ready to film quite yet so I've done some test shots. I do know what I need to film. I will have two master shots of Ken talking to the camera. Everything else will be B-roll. I kindda forgot how to use the camera too so I sorta had to relearn everything. Regarding my test shots, I'm playing around with the composition of the shot to get it the way I want it.

My first test shot was reviewed on Friday and it didn't turn out so well. The image was flat and it didn't pop. Basically the shot was dull in my opinion. I've gotten some feedback and made some notes and I plan on doing some more test today. The problem was that I used a V-light as a back light which is way too bright. I'm going to try bouncing the V-light off of the wall or if that doesn't work just get rid of the V-light altogether.

Regarding Ken, I will meet with him tomorrow to discuss the story boards that I've come up with.

Final Story Board!!

I think this is it. My final storyboard. I think I'm ready to shoot.

Revised Questions WITH real answers!

I emailed a list of the questions to Ken and he sent them back with the answers he planned on using. These are the final questions that will be used in the documentary. Sorry about the final story board. I'm still working on it. I'll finish it soon.

Revised Questions

I've done a revision of the questions I would like to ask my photographer. A revised story board will be done by the end of the week. I'll have one more meeting with Ken to discuss the project and than I'll probably be ready to shoot.

Summary of Previous Week

Last week I planned out my split script and my story board. I now have a better idea how my documentary will look. I also have a better idea of how I'm going to film it as well. I will try to keep the shooting process very organized. I finally got a reply back from my photographer. His name is, "Ken" by the way. He said he is willing to do the project but there is one slight problem. We will be unable to use the actually name of his company because of legal issues and what not. Right now the two of us are working on how we can work around this. We might need to make up a fake dummy photography company or use fake names. Ken will still be able to talk about his profession. The only problem is I won't be able to follow him to work. In order to film that I would have to actually set up a pretend set where Ken would appear to be at work. That's one solution. The other solution is to turn this whole documentary into a movie about a photographer instead. But I don't wanna go there. The point is I can't talk about or refer to his company.

I had just recently seen "Mr. Death", a documentary by Errol Morris. Honestly, it was ok. I really didn't think it was the greatest documentary ever. I still prefer "Super Size Me." With that being said, I really got some great ideas for my own documentary. It was really interesting to see that in "Mr. Death" the director had the person talk as if he was looking directly into the camera. To me it seemed like he was looking and talking right at me. I think I might use that in my own film. I've also figure out how I wanna shoot my documentary. 3 master shots of the person being interviewed. That will make things a lot easier for me. Of course there will be B-roll. I also plan on going back and re-doing my storyboard. Well, not actually re-doing, just added a couple of more shots.

Mr. Death

My copy of "Mr. Death" by Errol Morris just came in the mail. I'm gonna try and see if this will help me with my documentary.

Story Board

Story Board Coming Soon

I just finished my split script. It should give you a rough idea of how the documentary will play out. Story boards are coming very soon.

Split Script

B-roll

Here are some scenes that I think will make for good B-roll.

"Ken" is the name of the photographer by the way.

1. Ken setting up his camera equipment. Carrying his equipment to and from his car.

2. A close-up shot of the kids looking at the camera. Basically this is Ken's POV as he is looking through the camera lens.

I think the scenes where Ken is carrying the camera equipment should be shot free hand. That will give it a more authentic look and feel. Or not. I don't know.

Any other suggestions?

Waiting on response

So I emailed my friend and he said that he's checking to see if his boss will allow me to film the documentary. So far I haven't gotten a response yet.

Questions I intend to ask.

I haven't quite done a storyboard yet since I'm still trying to figure out how I want to shoot the documentary and what kind of B-roll I want to use. I do have an idea of the type of questions I want to ask.

1. What is your name and what do you do?

2. Who do you work for?

3. Walk me through a typical day of work?

4. Do you ever get frustrated at work? What kind of frustrations?

5. How long does it take to get to work and where exactly do you work?

6. Do you have a helper or is it mostly just you?

7. How long have you been in this profession?

8. What type of clients are you working with?

9. What kind of camera equipment do you use?

10. Do you use any other type of equipment other than a camera? Computer?

11. How has photography changed and evolved since you first started?

12. Do you ever regret being in this profession?

13. If you could do any other profession and actually be good at it, what would it be?

14. Are you happy with the end results?

Final Project Idea

I think I finally know what I want to do for my final project. I have two ideas so far. The first idea and probably the one I'll end up doing is a documentary about being a photographer. I recently just had dinner with a friend who is a photographer and throughout the evening he was basically telling me what a typical work day was like for him. I laughed but at the same time was very fascinated. It was interesting to hear his likes and dislikes about the profession. And at the same time as he was talking I thought to myself, "man, this guy can really tell a story. Wouldn't it be great if other people got to hear this as well?" I haven't asked him yet if he'll help me with the project but being a long time friend I think he'll say yes.

My second project comes from my love of movie trailers. I think movie trailers are the best part of going to the movies. So wouldn't it be cool if I did a movie trailer of my own. I was thinking of doing another trailer of the Dark Knight. I have a friend who does an excellent impression of the joker. He's black, so it'll be a black joker versus Batman. I don't know. I think this trailer might be a lot of work.

First Blog

My very first blog! I'm so excited...