Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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take a screen grab and post as an image
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Kind of interesting but the camera work is almost unwatchable. You could remove the on-cam bits with the editor and make it a better video.
Mike Cohen -
Pre-CC you could open the project file in notepad and change the version number to allow backwards compatibility. What is the CC version of this?
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Get some friends and shoot anything you can. Improvised scenes with an iphone is a good way to start. Current technology allows anyone to shoot and edit video without investing large sums of money.
Setup a Meetup or FB group for local filmmaking as a hobby. I have worked on a couple of 48 hour film projects which are great fun.
If you can’t do any of the above, find at least one other person and make something – anything – to get your feet wet.
See a tv commercial you like? Try to re-create that yourself. Use action figures if you don’t know any people.
Sam Raimi likes to say “make a hundred bad movies and you’ll eventually make a good one.”
Good luck.
Mike Cohen
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I have seen lot of “editing” reels which are a bunch of cuts of different shots from different projects, not showing any actual editing. If you take out the clips from mainstream movies this guy isn’t saying much about editing. Read “In the Blink of an Eye” and go shoot some dialogue scenes single camera and learn how to edit.
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Vimeo Pro has such a feature where you can make comments and they are tied to the time on the video, but not to the actual timecode.
We have started experimenting with mycircle.tv which allows you to view videos in real time with other people. Webex does not have the bandwidth for this. If you want to view something with a client this is an option.
Mike Cohen
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[Mark Suszko] “Ballrooms are often horrible places to shoot. “
Mark says it best. Going into a live event with anything other than the right tool for the job will be a bad result. If the speaker is at a podium/lectern and not moving around, and ENG camera with a long lens and studio controls on a solid tripod on a riser with house audio is your friend. Anything less than this is going to be a problem.
Stage needs some lighting – stage wash at a minimum, directed spotlights focused on the speaker is preferred. Is there a DSM for the speaker to look at for the slides? That helps the person not have to stare into the lights or turn to look at the projection screen.
If the person is moving around like a TED talk, then you need multiple cameras with experienced operators. I attended a TEDx event and they have two cameras FOH and a 3rd stage right alternating between a side view of the speaker and audience reactions. The crew seemed like they had done this type of event before because the switching was tight.
Going back to the typical podium setup, find your shot and let go of the camera. Stay wide enough that if the speaker moves left to right a little you don’t have to chase them.
If hiring a camera operator, make sure it is someone with some experience working in a dark room with potentially boring content. I have evicted camera operators for falling asleep or checking Facebook during an event. If you need to bring the person an espresso a couple times a day do that.
As for the audio, get a feed from the audio board, and if you can split it and record a different level in Ch 1 and 2 that gives you some safety in case the person changes their volume.
If you need to sync to slides in post, point a 2nd camera at the screen for reference, or ask the AV company to record that feed to a KiPro or similar device, with audio, and half the work is done for you.
A small camcorder, DSLR or any camera without an ENG style lens is not useful in this situation.
As for camera position, often the back of the room (FOH) is your only choice so get a riser and rope it off.
Good luck.
Mike Cohen
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The book does mention removing the Luke backstory stuff on Tatooine to speed things up. Lucas has discussed the concept of entering a story after it begins and letting the audience figure it for themselves. For example when Vader is giving orders aboard the Tantive IV he says “…see to it personally commander. There will be no one to stop us this time.” He is referring to something that happened before the movie started, probably the events of Rogue One, but who knows. We are not supposed to think too much, just enjoy the show!
The special Edition did add a few moments with Luke and Biggs meeting just before the final battle. Prior to that all we knew of Biggs was one line from Luke about “Biggs and Tank leaving for the academy.”
For those that have not seen it, here is the cut Toschi Station scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYpa6OpCe-Y -
It is a rabbit hole – beware the jabberwocky. A lot of the most popular Reddit content seems to repeat every so often. The forums are all over the place from news to things you cannot talk about with your mom.
Forums mostly work the same way: people post links to either news, photos, videos or just a text description of an idea or question. Users post comments, often without reading the linked article. Reddit is sometimes called a “hive mind” because it is not a balanced selection of opinions, but more of an echo chamber of the same opinions in many cases.
Is it for everyone? No. Many users seem to be teens and young adults, but there is a large cross section of interests and in some forums you find very knowledgeable people responding to topics of interest.
Reddit looks like a website made in the early 90s and it might not benefit from a more advanced GUI – it is text-based discussion.
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I have shot many interviews, mostly single camera with a locked shot. Time permitting I may change the zoom amount between questions. On a few occasions I have parked a 2nd camera next to the main camera for a locked off closeup, for smoother editing. A few times I have setup a 2nd or 3rd locked off camera with a side view like it being discussed here, but only to give some variety for editing out content, rarely for a creative purpose. I agree that these Letterman interviews seem to be using more cameras to try to make a static interview visually more interesting, but it is not enough justification for some of the shots.
A couple of years ago I went to a TEDx event. Each talk has one person standing center stage, with a remote control to advance slides. The event was live switched for I-MAG with 3 cameras. A master medium shot, a closer shot and a camera on stage right which alternated between a side view of the speaker and audience reaction shots. In a live switching situation this can work well, as the 1,000 people in the audience were often laughing, crying, clapping or smiling. Depending upon what the speaker was doing the side view may or may not have been appropriate, and it is up to the director or TD to make those decisions in real time.
These Letterman interviews are conducted in a theater with an audience, so I wonder if there is live switching for I-MAG, and then they re-edit from ISOs or tweak the live switched recording. I have done both methods with multi-camera events.
I have only watched the Obama episode, but this show is in my queue along with about 500 other shows!
Mike