Jon Agnew
Forum Replies Created
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Great video, Steve. I am obsessed with TED.
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Thank you, sir. That was all I needed.
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Steve Wargo for the win! Best idea ever. HA!
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I knew I should have posted this in the Diplomacy and Relations forum! haha.
Thanks to everyone for the input. This forum is great for helping those who know the right answer, but don’t want to acknowledge it.
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Most likely, I’m going to just grin and bear it. But considering that this is my supervisor (who neither signs my checks, nor has hiring/firing power) and not a client, I was looking for a way to tell her that she will be decreasing the productivity for which our boss pays us so handsomely.
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Slightly more upbeat than my quote for yesterday:
“I’m like a good whore…I go where I’m kicked.”
– Sam Peckinpah -
A valid point…so maybe I’ll work an hour a day then spend the rest of my time at the beach or on the COW.
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I think it is sometime all too easy for us to fall into the technology trap, giving too much weight to numbers…1440 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080….4:2:0 vs 4:2:2…etc. I am more than guilty of this. However, I think it’s important for us to remember that, at its core, filmmaking is about story and emotion…and that cannot be quantified with resolution or color space.
One of my favorite movies from the last 5 years is “The Puffy Chair” shot entirely on a DVX-100. It may not look like “The Last Emperor”, but the story was successful…and because it cost so little to make, it was a financial success as well. And it opened the door for the Duplass Brothers, who wrote and directed the film, to make more films…which, in the end, is how a filmmaker would judge his own success: “Can I make another one?”
I think it’s laudable for filmmakers to pursue their craft despite limitations imposed by budget and format. I would rather see a good story shot on VHS, than a Michael Bay film in IMAX.
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I’ve decided to go to law school. I’m going to specialize in copyright law then charge all of you $400/hr.
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When I was still in college, I documented a few mission trips to Brasil for a friend’s parents who were missionaries. It was a great learning experience for me, as I’m sure it will be for you as well.
I hate to say this because I hate when producers do it to me, but….roll on everything. Because you are not going into this with a specific story in mind, rolling more often than not can be beneficial when you catch some happy accidents. Life only happens once…be rolling when it does. That said, however, you should take some time on the plane to figure out a rough story idea….or at least to answer some basic questions about your goals with the project. What are you trying to accomplish in these schools and churches? What kind of footage would be ideal to communicate this to the viewer? Is this about the missionaries’ experiences or about the impact that they have on those to whom they minister? Stuff like that. If you can go into the project with some very rough guidelines like this, it will make it easier to make tough decisions on the fly.
Shoot lots of B-Roll…shoot the heck out of locations. Get people filing into the church…shoot their feet…hands…smiles…tears…etc. Shoot as much as you can in the towns and cities that you will be visiting. Cars racing by on over-crowded streets…a cow-pulled cart…anything interesting that you see that you can use to convey the feeling of being there to the viewer. Having good B-Roll will make your transitions from one scene to the next much easier in post.
Watch the shakiness of your camera. This may seem obvious, but when you roll all day long, it can become very easy to get lazy with your handheld shots. Speaking of shooting handheld…USE YOUR TRIPOD!!! With documentary/reality projects, handheld is a necessary evil. Using your tripod every now and then, especially for B-Roll, will give you a good way to break up the dizzying effect of a shaky camera.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.