ONE MINUTE FILM FESTIVAL

My little video Forever was selected as one of 60 films shown at the festival du film minute de lille in France on Dec 3

I don't know the total number of entries but I do know that the 60 were paired down from something ...

No idea how the video has fared, but it was shown at the festival live in front of hundreds of people and for a panel of judges

I'll keep you tuned

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MY OWN VIDEO

Thursday, pretty much on a whim, I decided to do a video for the One Minute Film Festival. No, it was not the video that will feature various version of me, that's still waiting on logistics.

I was mulling over a concept and realized I could do it using stock footage from my Moby video and some shots I could do right here at the house.

I wanted to do a video addressing the idea that you can capture and preserve memories or images or ideas ... like a video maker may do. We can record something and preserve it but that very act aren't we already altering? It's an old concept, about the very fact of observing something already removes it from that moment.

So I decided to use some of my footage of Moniquea, record a little voice over of an obsessed video maker and lead up to a shot or two expressing the futility of making something unique.

That was the idea but when I was done, I think I came up with something different. Now, I could have considered this a failure and gone back to the drawing board, so to speak, but I kind of liked what I had. The one minute time constraint is very interesting. I imagined that it would require a great deal of discipline but at least in this instance, it became something organic.

This particular video festival allows you to enter five different films so I thought What the Hell, let's go with it. I would appreciate feed back on this one; after all, it surprised me as much as it may you.

"Forever"

60 SECOND FILM FESTIVAL: 2 CONCEPTS

So I have ideas for a couple of ideas for the Sixty Second Film Festival which closes around the middle of next month. Don't get excited, we all know what can happen to my original ideas.

The first idea is just a little humorous idea where I get play around with a few video concepts in which I've dabbled before, but I want to take it a bit further. The idea is perfectly me ... I mean, really me. As in there will be five characters in the video and I will be all of them. At the same time. You've all seen this, it's a very old idea in both film and TV. The basic idea is to have me on the left side of the screen and me on the right side of the screen at the same time.

It's not a very complex technique to pull off. Basically what you need to do is set your shot of whatever set you intend to use, take a long shot of the set as its empty, then film the two shots; me on the right side then me on the left. In Final Cut I will lay the shot of the empty set on my bottom, or base layer. Then stack the two shots of me, so that I have three shots on top of each other. With just a two shot I can use the Crop tool, wiping away half the empty shot, to reveal both aspects of me. With five me's, it becomes a bit trickier, I will have to use the Crop in accordance with a garbage matte. basically drawing an invisible frame around each character so that all the backgrounds blend in seamlessly.

The post aspect is rather simple. But for this to work, it's the shooting that is the key. If you don't shoot it properly, you can't "fix it in post"

There are a few keys to properly shooting this:

1) Tripod. You have to shoot this on a tripod. Your camera cannot move at all, in any of the shots or the illusion will be shattered. That background is like your canvas, it cannot move or change a bit.

2) Framing. This goes very much with the first point. You have to frame the shot working out where all the instances of you are going to be then lock that shot down. Once it's framed you can't changed it so you really need to be sure you have it right.

3) Blocking. This follows the point number two. You have to think what your characters ... all of the "you's" are going to be doing. You need to be careful that one shot of you doesn't overlap the other. I am no matting wizard and I am no After Affects pro and that's the kind of digital firepower you would need to get as complex as having me shake hands with me .. that ain't happening for this project. But I do want to be able to have conversations with me so I have to know where each instance of me will be in the shot so I can turn as if I'm talking to Victor ..... damn, I could never do this drunk

4) Location. This is important as well. Firstly I need a set large enough to be able to accomadate 4 or 5 of me moving around without overlapping too much. I also need something that I can evenly light, you want to avoid flickering shadows etc. I won't be doing this outside. Besides moving light situations there is too much that can move in the frame, interior is easier.

So I'm seeing if I can shoot in one of Collette's schools, like a corridor , that will give me space and allow me to enter and exit the shot off screen. Stay tuned.

The second concept is still very much nascent. It hinges on Pirandello, a theatrical conceipt of which I am extremely fond. It's a kind of illusion; I am about to fool you, what you are about to see is dramatic, it's not real, but by the time I'm finished, you'll forget that.

The concept involves memory, images, and our attempt to capture the former in the latter. It's becoming what, for me, is a pretty typical production; I will need an actress but she won't really have a character and she really won't be doing anything. Gosh, they line up at my door for these parts.

Anyway, those are the plans. Let's see if any of it pans out

SIREN

So, one has a plan but we all know about plans ... especially with me.

Time and personal circumstances curtailed me from making the video for the song Siren, for the Kmag Video Competition, that I had originally conceived.

So it became a challenge to get the video done in just a few days, without onscreen talent, and of course with no budget. My interpretation of the song remained the same: A woman pushed to the breaking point by indifference and making a sudden break and would she be missed at all.

In this version of the video, my camera became the actress, as did dozens of unknowing women in the streets of Toronto. Once again, my city was essentially a character in one of my videos.

This competition had no restrictions on with what format the video had to be in. My original idea was to use the Canon XL1 and shoot it in standard def, mostly because with that camera I have a lot more control over exposure, focus, contrast etc. But when this became another run and gun production, the Sony Handycam became my weapon of choice. As did Collette's Nikon D-80 SLR.

I'm happy with the final product; it's shot at 30 fps (frames per second) instead of 25 fps so it looks like video, not film. Some of the interior shots could have used some colour grading but I was not going for the "film effect". To the contrary, I played with some of the shots to make them more "video like" with almost the colour saturation of old VHS.

Many of the shots in the video have been affected and I'm hoping that these affects/filters add to the language of the video. With the exterior shots, the crowd shots specifically I wanted to create a sort of unsure, unreal, confused impression ... the camerawork should add to this inpression as well.

For the interior shots I built filter effects that (hopefully) give a sense of nostalgia, or things left behind, perhaps even a dream like effect.

Watching the video myself I began to wonder if I have some kind of fetish for ladies shoes ... but the intent with these shots was to give the story a more universally female skew.

I'm not completely happy with this finished product but the deadline is fast approaching and I could have fiddled with it forever. But I am also happy with it, I think it conveys the emotion of the song.

You tell me







HD version here

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION PART TWO

A few months ago I decided to create a video for the Are We Connected film competition sponsored by Amplify Me in the US

It was one of my typical on the fly productions and I had fun making it

I was just informed that the video won third place in the festival. That finishes just outside the money but very exciting nonetheless. At this point I have no idea how many videos were entered in the competition, there could have been three for all I know.

I don't care. Don't mess with my bliss

My little video, or a segment from it, will be included as part of the film festival Amplify Me is hosting in Florida on Sept 22. So that's good news

Bad news is, this only encourages me to keep cranking out these videos. Speaking of which, I better get back to it

If you haven't seen Are You There, here is the low rez version, for the hi rez version, please click on this link

Are You There

OK SIREN, SHUDDUP, I HEARD YA ALREADY

OK, I've never claimed to be bright ... all right, I have claimed to be bright. But not sensible.

I kept thinking of the song Siren from the Bungle Music Video challenge and I can't get it out of my head. I pretty much talked myself out of my original concept for the video and with only a week to go, it really be impossible now to execute.

But perhaps there was a reason why I backed away from that idea. (Yes I'm trying to justify my own procastination, it's pretty much what I do here) That original concept took the literal interpretation of the song, of a woman breaking away, discarding her past and needing to be alone, and expanding on it slightly by using several actresses portraying the same roll ... but still keeping things pretty literal.

As I began to consider actually cranking out a video I thought: How can I do this without actresses, without locales and keep true to the essence of the song. And it struck me: I didn't want to do this literally, it was what I was rebelling against. I want the same feel of the song, make the singer's plight more universal and what better way to do that than without any characters at all ...

Stop. Put the phone down. Don't call the looney bin. I'm alright. Well, as alright as I've ever been.

I was thinking too big before. I was thinking in terms of a real production, one that would be produced by a real production company. I ain't none of that. I'm just me, the Idiot with A Camera. I want to do things gonzo, I want the challenge of being shoestring, that's what I like about these challenges.

So here I go. Four days to go. My Sony HD cam, Collette's Nikon, some props at the house, shooting in the city ...

Buckle up.

SIREN SANG BUT I COULDN'T HEAR

Siren is the title of the song in the Bungle Music Video Contest. I had developed a strong concept for the video; I heard it a song of female enpowerment, of a woman "letting go" of all the baggage from a bad relationship, a woman who had given her all and gotten nothing in return. They lyrics and Ayah's powerful vocals could not let me interpret it any other way.

So I thought of taking an illustrative, rather than an interpretive approach to the song, basically telling the story through images. So following the woman on her journey of not only leaving her man, but leaving behind all those things that were holding her back. So I would need an actress and several locations to track her journey. OK, so that was doable, I cold contact Moniquea, the actress I used for After and get things going; but I had only a week for shooting.

But as I thought more and more about it a new concept came to mind. I wanted to make the song more universal. Not just about one woman but about all women. So what if I storyboarded the shots for that one actress ... and had several actresses play them out. So if Girl One got out of bed, looked at the empty spot where he should be and then exit the room, other girls would do the exact same shot. The women would be going on a journey, "letting go" as the song saids and at the end, they would all meet up.

Yes, I liked this concept very much. I even began to block out the shots. But of course this created a new set of issues: Now I needed to find more actresses, and to do it properly, have them all together on one day so I could correctly match the shots. I would have to coordinate these actresses to get together on one or two days.

And I had less than two weeks to get the whole thing done, production and post production. I have to leave a good solid 10 hours or so at the end to upload the HD video. The logistics began to eat me up. I was already conceding defeat.

Then Hayley passed. And I just find myself now, about a week away from the deadline, out of time and perhaps too emotionally beat up to properly attack this project. It's too bad, I liked the song and I liked my concept but I don't think I can make this deadline.

I still intend to contribute to the 60 Second Film Festival. I have a few concepts for that so stay tuned.

TWO NEW CHALLENGES

That's right, two new film making challenges .. shut up, sleep is over rated anyway.

The first one is an international film challenge, out of France, The One Minute Film Challenge. That's pretty much it, create a film that is exactly 60 seconds long, including credits. The deadline is Oct 13, they except any high quality video format and you can enter up to 5 videos.

It's an interesting challenge in a few ways; on one hand you have the time restriction but on the other hand the challenge is wide open, as long as you keep the video to a minute, you can make any kind of video you desire. I have a few ideas at this stage and I could see doing more than one video

The second challenge is another music video. The Bungle Music Video Challenge is to create a music video to a track created by drum/bass musician Bungle and featuring the voice of Ayah. That is the only brief, just make a video to the track. It's a very fast paced song, the kind that normally to which I would do a lot of edits; it would require an actress I think, locations, maybe costume changes .. yes, I already have ideas.

The deadline for this challenge is Sept 18 ... did I mention not really wanting to sleep for a while? The One Minute Challenge is certainly doable, the music challenge is going to be tight, it's going to take organization, pre production and some very methodical shooting.

Hang on

AMPLIFY ME VIDEO FESTIVAL

I've just been notified that my short film Are You There has been selected as a finalist in the Amplify Me video competition. Seeing as how I made the video for that competition, this is working out rather well

I don't know any details, far as I know the finalists could be me and one other guy. Still, it's pretty satisfying. Not sure when I'll get the final notice. I know they plan to include the winning video in a film they'll be airing in Florida in September.

Stay tuned

ARE YOU THERE

So I've finished the video for the Amplify Me film fest

I think

Still a few days to mull it over, feedback appreciated

Are You There

LOVE WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER ... OR NOT

So I've collected most of the footage I think I need for "Where Are You" the little video I'm making for the Amplify Me film festival in July.

Many shots of people downtown using their cell phones and some close ups along with some voice overs with the help of some of Collette's friends. So time for the offline, or rough cut

My plan from the beginning was not to use any music for the soundtrack. Partially this is because I don't have any rights to commercial music but also because I wanted to see if I could build a soundtrack without music.

I began editing my shots into the timeline and adding my audio. Some of it was "wild" or ambient audio, the street sounds that accompanied each shot. A lot of it was sound effects, many of them downloaded for free from websites that give you permission for use. Phone rings, phone hang ups, typewriting, that sort of thing.

Final Cut Pro gives you the ability to use multiple audio tracks, up to one hundred, though I could never imagine using that many. So I began layering in the audio, "bedding" the wild audio under the shots, matching SFX with other clips then adding the voice overs. I edited the VOs as if they were a music track, making the phrases almost nonesensical.

I like the effect but I kept watching the video and something was still missing, The video is coming out around 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That's a lot. Most TV commercials are 30 seconds and think how much "information" is contained therein. The averages song for a music video is around the 3 minute mark. Although I liked my soundtrack and it was conveying my message it felt a little clinical to me. Yes, here is the message but I want more than message. Andy video I make, I want that emotional element and in a video like this, without characters or dialogue, music was the obvious way to inspire emotion.

I still had the problem of needing to use music that I have the rights to. Well, I have that. I play around with Soundtrack Pro and Garage Band sometimes. I take pre recorded loops and instruments and make my own music out of them, music that I obviously have the rights to. So one of those songs got added to the project .. and I think it works

I can easily make videos without dialogue. Perhaps though I can never make one without music.

The best laid plans ...

VOYEUR OR DIRECTOR

It's an interesting question and I don't pretend that it's particularly original.

Just the act of looking through the lens at someone else puts you, theoretically, in the head space of a voyeur. When working with actors, or non actors who are knowingly participating, the voyeurism remains a purely artistic or intellectual exercise.

But what if the people on the other side of the lens are not in the know? Are you still a director or are you a true voyeur.

For the video I'm creating for the Amplify Me film fest, I needed to have clips of people using their social networking devices: Cell phones, laptops, tablets etc. Not a difficult thing to find in Toronto. I swear that most of the people in this city have had some kind of cybernetic surgery to have a cell phone implanted in their ears.

On a beautiful sunny day downtown there I was amidst thousands of people and all of them were communicating, but not with each other. Everyone just drifting through the crowds, almost shoulder to shoulder but barely aware of each others existence, so focussed on their own little world. In contact with the people who they know, out of contact with the rest of the world

Is this communication? Well, that's kind of the point of the video

And to that point, I had to video people who were locked into these little worlds. I have to admit, it felt a little weird. When I was shooting the footage for After, I did not experience this level of discomfort. But in that case, I wasn't looking for close ups, I didn't want faces. In fact I wanted faceless .. as in the faceless crowd.

This was different. I used a long lens, from a distance; I could not hear what the people were saying and they were not aware of my presence or that I was filming them. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm on secure legal ground here. I was shooting in public places; parks, streets, public squares. Always outside. In such situations you can't have expectations of privacy. It's the tune they sing to permit them to film us all with remote controlled security cams. Who are "they"? I don't want to say, they may be watching ...

But legal or not I couldn't help feel a bit uncomfortable. There were moments when I didn't feel I was filming, I felt like I was peeking, or snooping, I felt like a voyeur. I know that in the finished video most of these shots will be distorted, my intent is to make them a bit inhuman, as if rendered so by the isolation their desire to communicate gives them. And after all, it's just shots of people talking on their phone and they are doing it in public ... the fact that they don't seem to be concerned that their private business, their personal conversations, is in the public does not seem to concern them

Perhaps it should. Because they have lost the public sense of being public. And some old dude with a camera may be watching.

See, that sounds creepy doesn't it.

NEW PROJECT: AMPLIFY FILM FESTIVAL

Amplify Me is a non profit organization out of the US involved with discussing and promoting the media arts, as stated on their home page

They're asking for videos that explore the impact of social media for a film festival they are holding in Florida. Deadline for submissions is July 2

I was intrigued by this; their submission brief describes videos concerned with all aspects of social media, from unity to dissonance and this was a minor thread through my video After that I created for the Hello Future film festival

So it's been something I've been thinking about, actually for quite a while now. I watch all these people in my city wandering around with their smart phones and tablettes and laptops and although they seem to be furiously communicating, they barely notice each others existances

The other things that made me want to take this challenge; aside from the theme, there really are no restrictions. They will accept videos in any format, made to any style. After restricted me to length, for instance, the video had to be the exact length of the song. Also, I couldn't import any other other audio or add to the song in any way

This one gives me more freedom and that allows me to tailor the video more to my restrictions; ie no budget, no actors, very little time. I remember reading an interview with Rober Rodriquez about the creation of his first movie, El Mariachi, a film made on an extremely low budget. He said he looked at what he had, props and time and actors etc, then built his story around that, instead of writing a script and scrambling to gather elements that he may not have had access to

I like this theme because it may permit me to make the kind of short film that really interests me; something without acting, without real dialogue, something that tells its story with images and audio

As to the audio, that brings another challenge. When creating these projects for film festivals, you have to have the rights to everything in the movie, including the music. I took on After because Moby actually gave over the rights to his music; that is not the case here. Now, I have Soundtrack Pro and Garageband where I can create my own loops and I also have a nephew who is a musician.

But the more I thought about it, I wondered if I really needed a traditional score. Although I love editing to music, I love using a song to replace a dialogue, I wondered it if I could even take it further: Could I create a video with no music at all, just using ambient audio and sound effects and sound bites as the score

Can I make a movie with no dialogue, no score, no real actors ...

Well, let's find out

THE HELLO FUTURE COMPETITION: A SHARED DISSONANCE

I've been enjoying going through the other videos submitted to the Saatchi and Saatchi Hello Future video competition As of this posting there are over 200 videos posted. The deadline is today so I'm not sure how many more will be submitted but they do seem to be coming pretty fast and furiously.

It is utterly fascinating to me to see what different people do with the same inspiration. I've looked at most of the videos but of course I'm particularly interested in those that used After, the same song as I. That is still the least popular choice but it's interesting that those videos seem to be the ones now coming in right at deadline. Could be because it's such a damn long ass song. It is, in fact, the longest song by a good two minutes or so.

A few things came to mind as I watch all these videos. Firstly that for these skilled and dedicated amateur film makers, the overwhelmingly most popular weapon of choice is the digital SLR, primarily some version of a Canon SLR that records HD video.

I can see why these cameras are popular. The image quality is outstanding due to a combination of huge image sensors and superb optics. Using a DSLR gives you access to a large range of lenses and it gives you the advantages; focus control, depth of field, exposure, etc. It is also a relatively light piece of gear. Also most of the have the option to record video at 24 fps (frames per second) which mimics the "film look" so often sought

That film look is not something I actively seek. I love the look of video. For most of the projects I work on, I don't need them to look as though they've been shot on film. I am not a movie maker, I'm a video maker. Even if I make a fictional video expressing abstract ideas I like the look of video and it's possibilities

I still love the look I achieve with my Canon XL1. It is a standard def mini DV camera but it has a superior lens and 3 good sized image sensors. It is definitely old school, all the buttons I need to operate on it are within the reach of my fingers as I hold it, no annoying menu's to scroll through as I have on my Sony

Now, I am very impressed with my Sony. I bought it to replace my old Samsung standard def tape based handycam; its image quality was fairly low but it was small and portable and I liked to carry it in my pocket and mostly used it to take video of the girls and when Collette and I are out and about. These videos end up on this blog and I wasn't terribly concerned with the quality.

When I went looking at a replacement cam I would have been happy with another mini DV cam but those simply are no longer made. And I admit to the advantages of a cam that records on to a hard drive; you eliminate some of the physical issues you encounter with tape and if your hard drive is large enough, you can record a lot of footage. I liked the Sony because its small and I can record about 60 hrs of high quality footage on to its hard drive. The fact that it records in HD was not immediately important to me but I have to say, I'm very impressed with the quality of the footage. It doesn't record to 24 fps but the optics are pretty impressive.

Still, most of the videos for the Hello Future competition wanted that "film" look and most of them got that, with a deeper contrast ration than 30 fps and greater control over the colour temperature.

Let's leave the technical aside. I want to concentrate on the creative aspect. This competition featured video makers from all over the world, at all different quality levels. The film school kids were out in force and a lot of their work was quite impressive. The little film production companies are well represented and not surprisingly a lot of that work is of really high quality. And the artists ... the computer artists, the digital artists, the photographers even the musical artists all came to play and I really enjoyed watching their videos. They offered perspectives that never would have occurred to me.

What surprised me was how many common elements we chose to include in these videos. My submission features speed altered images of traffic, subway trains, the city at night. Turns out a lot of other people felt that same inspiration not just with my song but with the others as well.

I made a video that tried to portray emptiness and lonliness surrounded by millions of people. I knew that this was not the most original of concepts and a lot of others shared this idea.

The overall theme of the competition was Hello Future. Some folks tackled this in a very literal fashion: Robots, post apocalypse, cyborgs, plague, evolution .. all on display. I think my take was a bit less literal but fairly obvious and I'm in good company. Some approached the theme of the future on a very personal level, illustrating it through the degradation of personal relationships for instance.

Some chose to ignore the theme or perhaps tackled in a way that just escaped me. Power to them. My original concept for my video had nothing to do with Hello Future. When I reread the brief and understood that this theme needed to be an element in the video I at first thought "I don't really care, I'm making the video I want" But as I thought about it and began to figure out how I could introduce the future into my video it actually helped solidify my theme. And it gave me a clearly defined ending which had eluded me up to that point.

Vimeo is a website that is intended and designed to be a community for video makers. Mostly I use it as by far the best option to host videos, videos I generally create to show on The Hairy Edge but it is kind of nice to dog paddle in the shallow end of the movie making pool

My other blog is often about inspiration. This competition was all about inspiration, for myself and hundreds of others. As disparate as our videos may be, we all shared that same inspiration.

JIM MORRISON SINGS

This is the end my friends, the end ...

The video is done. Finished. Completed.

Not only is the deadline for the competition fast approaching but there really is no point farting around with this thing anymore. Sitting here with all these clips and my software I could edit and tinker forever.

But I started this with a particular idea in mind and I've achieved it. I've actually made the video I wanted and for a short time abandoned .. it's not very often that I can look at a personal piece of work and say "No matter what, that's what I set out to achieve"

I look at it and can envision more scenes but they were scenes that I did not shoot and did not think to shoot. That's why I need deadlines. I tend to rewrite and re edit personal projects and rarely finished.

I've submitted the video the Hello Future competition. I have no idea how it will fare. I've seen some of the other entries and they are incredibly diverse. Most of them were shot with DSLRs and look great but other than that they are all over the map.

I'm not worried about competition because honestly, I didn't embark on this to win. I started this because it inspired me. I would love to be a top 10 finalist, I put work in this and it's nice to be recognized but the judges have specific concerns and I respect that; but I didn't make this for them, I made it for me.

There have been a lot of entries for the contest, for all three of the Moby songs that were made available. Some of them are pretty amazing and you should check them out. Top ten finalists will be announced June 1 and the winner announced June 23

I did notice that the song I chose was the least popular choice of the three. Perhaps that had something to do with it being a goddamned long song, who knows

So, without any further ado, here's my official entry into the Saatchi and Saatchi Hello Future contest, After by Moby.

Normally I would embed the video here but it's a large HD file and seems to be playing havoc with Blogger's capacity so just follow this link to view it here.

ENTRY NUMBER THIRTEEN: THE LITTLE THINGS

The little things count, the details

The first offline was about assembling the clips to the tell the story, making certain I had the shots, making sure the story even makes sense, timing the clips to the music.

After I took my pick up shots I decided I had a good range of shots to use. Multiple angles of each shot, for instance, the correct length of the shot to time out to the song.

Although I'm working with a tight deadline I've left myself enough time to go over and over the footage, making adjustments. Once you're satisfied you have what you need, you have to pay attention to details. Details count.

I shot all the footage with Moniqea at Union Station on a drizzly overcast day. I shot the establishing shot of the train station on a relatively sunny day. You don't want that to jump out. But I shot the front of the building from several angles. One of them kept the facade in shadow and since I'm applying a diffusion filter to it anyway, it matches up

The in and outs of your clip are important. If you are matching cuts you want to make sure you don't have even a frame of errant camera movement at the end of a shot, trust me this is going to jump right out at the viewer; they may not know what they saw but they will know that something is awry

In parts of the song I want to cut right to the music, and I am doing this for a whole sequence of beats or musical cues. In the timeline, as I'm replacing shots, sometimes the in and out point of the clip will get moved but a frame or two; again, this will actually be noticed. So I routinely have to go through the timeline adjusting the clips to match up to the markers I placed early on

I'm also looking at things like exposure, colour saturation, things that I can tweak with the software. You always want to try to get the best shot possible during a shoot but in the run and gun style I shot this in, that always wasn't possible.

Then there is the creative aspect. Do the filters I'm applying make sense? Should I use a close up of Moniquea here or a mid shot? Even though this shot is timed to the beat does it go on too long?

I have a technical standard I want to meet but really, it's all about the story telling

ENTRY NUMBER TWELVE: EFFECTS AS PUNCTUATION

So I've gotten through the first rough cut. It's shown me a few things. For instance, I have a sequence where my character (let's call her The Girl) goes into Union Station. It is important that the viewer knows this, that they know she's entering a train station. I had lots of footage of the station but what I didn't have was a shot of a sign saying so, I was missing an establishing shot, which is Video 101.

While downtown I picked up a few more shots of busy crowds and traffic but I think that should be it. I'm happy with the footage I have but there you can fall into the habit of over shooting, of taking shots just for the sake of doing so. That's why deadlines are good, nothing like a Stop sign to slow me up.

Some of the shots I inserted into my timeline already affected; I'm using slo mo and fast speeds and it's important to put those in the sequence as such, for the timing. For anyone using Final Cut I put frame blending on when slowing, and frame blending off for speeding up.

I have a lot of effects at my disposable, hundreds and if you combine them, thousands and if I use programs such as Motion, or Colour or After Effects, thousands ... but why would I use effects and when.

My video is a story and each clip is a sentence. The effects are the punctuation in that sentence. It's all information, or expression. There is no actual dialogue in this story so effects help me convey emotion in the stead of words.

I'm doing a lot of contrasting here, a lot of juxtaposition. I have pastoral shots of country words cut next to fast moving highways. That juxtaposition is saying something right there, but I want emphasis. So the country shots are softened with a diffusion effect, then "aged" with just a touch of sepia and a soft black border which gives a vignette effect like a silent movie.

For the modern day, fast moving shots I want a jarring effect, especially when following that pastoral softness. So I use Color Corrector to oversaturate and exaggerate the colours and I put a little trail effect on the clip, to follow a kind of dreamy tone in the music.

For The Girl, I give her her very own effect. It is basically what I used for the pastoral shots but without the sepia tone; her shots are diffused, with a mild vignette. It's a way of referencing those country shots, contrasting here with the harsh colours and fast moving trails of the hurried shots of the city. She is as out of place in her environment as would be those idyllic country lanes.

Or at least that's the plan.

ENTRY NUMBER ELEVEN: THE ONLINE THE OFFLINE AND THE POWER OF THE PICK UP

OK, it's actually the power of the pick up shot but what the hell, I'm not above a little innuendo to get your attention.

I am now into the post production phase of the video, well mostly. But it's time to start putting this thing together. It's pretty obvious that what I want to do here, is to edit to music, in particular the song After by Moby.

So the first steps are to create a new project in Final Cut Pro and import my assests, that being the song and my footage. Naming your shots, or your clips, is a very important thing here. I have a lot of footage and once I load it into Final Cut's browser, it can be difficult to keep track of it.

The shots are coming off my Sony's internal hard drive where everything is named clip 1, clip 2 etc which would be a mess in my software so I rename every short during the import. In this case I used two naming priorities: All the location shots by the actual location and Monique's shots by her name. So all her shots were M and then by number, so M-1, M-2, etc in sequence as they were shots. Varsity Stadium shots were V-1, V-2 and Eaton Centre was EC-1, EC-2 etc. It makes finding everything that much easier.

Since this video is in actuality a music video, the video will follow the audio. FCP allows me to enter various elements, music, video, titles separately, on different tracks. So I lay in the audio track, the song first and lock it off. This allows me to lay my video clips into my timeline ... the editing interface ... to follow points in the music.

One of the things I liked about the song After was that it has tempo changes and even rhythm changes and I wanted to exploit them, I want to cut to them. So even before I even begin laying in clips I want to make notes of these musical cues so I can best exploit them. I do this by using Markers, little visual ticks I can insert into the timeline and use later to match my In and Out points to. There is a shortcut to insert markers in FCP, you just hit the "M" key. What I like to do is play the timeline, play the song as I come to these musical cues, hit that M key which places my marker. I just let the song play, hitting that key when I hear the point to which later, I will want to edit.

What I will do first is make a rough cut, which is sometimes called the "offline". Usually this is just a bare bones edit, placing shots that will tell the story, making sure they work, cutting to the time etc. You usually don't put in affects, adjust colour, create titles until later, in what is called the "online" edit. Some shots though I will need to affect right away. Slow motion shots or shots that are going to be time lapsed or sped up need to placed as such, to check out the timing (if I speed the shot up 5 X will there be enough viable footage to spread between two markers) and to make sure they work visually.

The offline is the best way to make sure that I actually have all the footage I need to make the edit work. The song is about 5 1/2 minutes long, that's like a freaking movie, trust me, expecially when cutting to the beat. I need to know pretty quickly if I need to grab any pick up shots, to either replace current ones that may not be working or to just help tell the story.

It really isn't going to be possible to redo any shots with Moniquea but I think I'm well covered in that regard. Time is fleeting so hopefully I won't have to do many pick ups. But the only way to do that is to get through the offline. What I'll do is try to edit the whole video with what I have, to make sure I have the footage to tell the story and to illustrate the music in the way that I wish. Then I can go back, shot by shot and examine each for how well they are working.

This is why, in movies, if they blow up the Great Pyramid, they take like 900 angles .. you only get to do that once

ENTRY NUMBER TEN: THE CHARACTER SHOOT

There may be such a thing as serendipity. When my first volunteer actress had to bow out of the project due to illness I had a momentary flash of panic. But I went back to my list of applicants and contacted Monique Amarion who, quite amazingly, was willing to shoot with me the next day

It worked out perfectly. Monique not only had the perfect look for the character but she has improv experience and therefore was able to work without a proper script and think on her feet. And she was more than willing to follow me all around the city, ducking rain drops, jumping on and off subway trains and dealing with overly self important transit officials "You do have a permit to shoot here don't you?" Yes sir, I do, it's right here beside my platinum card

It has been a long time since I've worked with actors and I have never before worked with an actor who wasn't a friend or relative doing me a favour. I've worked with "talent" doing on screen presentations for instance but that is a different matter. In that case, you are working with a salesperson more than an actor

As a director, when working with talent, you better have your ducks in a row. You need to be organized, you better know your shots (the shot list again) and you better know what you want out of the scene. The actor needs direction; everything from the emotional tone of the scene to "hands in pockets or out of them"

Monique was experienced enough to ask these questions and I was enough in control to give her answers. I also had a good enough vision of my shots to be able to describe to her what I wanted, where to position her etc. An actor needs that. They need to know that the director has a clear vision, it gives them confidence and establishes trust.

Although a director needs a vision and needs to demonstrate that he has a firm grip on the situation, I feel that this kind of production is a cooperative arrangement. I want the actor to be fully involved and to participate. Monique was wonderful. She was thinking about her part, asked me pertinent questions about her character but also knew enough to suggest certain shots such as "If I look that way will that affect the previous shot?"

She was thinking about more than her role, she was thinking about the shoot in general. That was wonderful. It gave me energy and kept me on toes which is a good thing

I've reviewed the footage and I'm very happy with it. I got the shots I needed, Monique looks exactly right for what I want and having this character footage is helping the whole video gell in my mind.

Next up, editing begins

ENTRY NUMBER NINE: RESET

Yes, you should plan every shoot and every production. But you should also plan that that plan will go awry ...

Today I was supposed to shoot downtown with Anna. It was the only day she could give me. Unfortunately she called me this morning and I didn't have to be a doctor to know that she was ill. And she will be leaving the province by Friday. The shoot was off

So ..

This is the shit that happens when you are in to a production. YES should plan as much as possible but you must be able to bounce to the knees to the groin that the Production Gods love to throw at you.

I still had the contact info for Moniquea, another actress who had responded to my ad. I called her and quite remarkably, she is willing to work with me tomorrow.

But that wasn't the only reset. I was looking at the rules for the video contest once more and noticed something that I had missed; I was so thrilled to be able to edit to a Moby song and so inspired by the After track that I forgot that there was a theme for this competition, upon which 1/3rd of the judging will be based. The video will have to speak to the them of Hello Future ...

My response was, hell what? If you asked me to make a video based on that phrase I'd probably laugh and grab a beer. But I have a video started, I like my concept, I think it matches the song. But hell, I'm a writer and and editor so I edited .. my "script" a bit. It didn't take much to come up a way, by adding some new shots, to point my video in the direction of Hello Future.

Quite frankly, I wasn't going to go back to scratch; I'm not in this to win, I'm in this because I got inspired. But thinking about the theme made me think more about the video and in actuality it gave me a bit more concrete direction

My concept for the video is that of human isolation in the city so there you go .. that's the future .. ok it's the present but it's the future that we built for ourselves

I have a lot of B Roll of traffic, of crowds, of throngs of people shot from high angles, of the city. So I drive up the 400 to King City and about 10 minutes away from my big city I found country roads, old barns, rusted fences. I'm going to cut them with my city shots, one after another for contrast; the fancy snotty word is juxtaposition.

How will I fit my actress in this? I had envisioned shots of her sort of alone and lost in the city. I admit it was a vague idea but the theme of the contest actually gave me some focus. I'm going to put my character on a journey. As she walks downtown and takes the subway she will be lost, she will be seeking. As she progresses on her journey the city will grow around her, there will be images of what we've left behind. Her journey through the city will take her to Union City.

Most importantly the theme gave me something I did not have before: A final shot. As we keep moving, as the city keeps growing our actress stands inside Union Station staring up at a sign that says, at the same time, Arriving .. Departing.

ENTRY NUMBER EIGHT: PREPPING FOR A SHOOT

Tomorrow I'm going downtown to shoot scenes with my amazing volunteer actress, Anna Ross. While a lot of the footage I've already done have been half planned, half on-the-fly inspiration, this shoot is a bit of a different beast

We have a limited window of time in which to get the shoot done so this is very much like an actual TV/movie/commercial shoot. My intent is match shots with Anna to some of the B roll I've already shot, so we need to hit not only certain locations, but specific areas within those locations; for example, I have a long shot shooting down into the Eaton Centre from one of the interior bridges. What I want now is a shot from below, shooting up at Anna on that very same bridge

In order to accomplish this, in a limited time window, the best tool to use is a Shot List. Now, there are other alternatives of course. Storyboarding is very popular but probably a bit of overkill for my needs here.

I'm organizing the list by location. This is how the big boys do it. In a movie, you could have a scene at the beginning where the actor arrives at Union Station, halfway thru, he picks up his snuggly bear love interest at Union Station and the last shot of him is standing at Union Station looking confused as snuggly bear leaves on a train with his sister ...

You don't go to the train station three separate times. You go once, with all the actors, wardrobe changes etc and shoot all three scenes back to back. That's an efficient way of using your time and for movies it may save them money in fees to use a location.

For me, it's strictly a time issue. I know I want Anna in at least three shots in the Eaton Centre so I will take all three shots while we're there although the scenes will be split up in the movie. So for my Shot List will be organized by location; Eaton Centre, the subway, Dundas Square, Yonge & Bloor etc, again matching shots I've already taken

I want to be fairly specific with the shots too, like putting Anna on the bridge, noting which way I want her to cross a street to match those shots. I always will be specific about "original" shots, such as I want her riding the subway reading a book or listening to music, this is essential to my theme. I will write all this down because I know in the moment of taking these shots, I may forget details. And for this project, this is the only chance I'm getting.

Shot Lists or Stoyrboards are also handy during pre-production to help build your story. Sometimes by visualizing a shot, be it with pictures or photo's or descriptions, it will help you decide if the shot is going to work, if it needs to be altered or thrown out all together.

The other paperwork I need for tomorrow is a props list; pretty short for this endeavour but I want to bring a book, an iPod etc. And although I'll have only one day to shoot with Anna I will bring my digital cam and take pics of her, concentrating on her wardrobe, hair style, make up .. this is just a habit I have for continuity. If I did need to do more shots, all that stuff will have to match if I want the story to appear to be happening during a single day

Whether you are making a video for profit or because you are an Idiot with a Camera, time is always your enemy and anything that makes you more efficient is your buddy

ENTRY NUMBER SEVEN: A SOLUTION

As time is going on it is increasingly clear to me that my original concept for this video is the one I have to pursue. Namely, using a character to help tell my story of urban dissolution.

So that means I needed an actress. As part of my profession I've worked with "talent" before but usually in the form of an on screen narrator or presenter. I don't make movies for a living.

The only actors with whom I've worked were my friends and families in the student movies I made back in college. I have never worked with a professional actor in my life

The first hurtle is: Where to start? Lucky for me I live in Toronto, a city with of course a very active scene for actors, from stage to movies to TV to webcasts and everything in between. We have several colleges here that focus on acting and the city attracts aspiring actors from all over the country

I decided to begin my search on Craigslist. I have gotten editing jobs from the list in the past and I've seen people asking for acting help for their projects. Of course, I had to have a volunteer, I am not getting paid for this and there is no monetary prize. I felt a bit weird asking a stranger to work for free but I got a dozen responses in a matter of hours

Some of the responses were clearly inappropriate; models with sexy poses were not what I was looking for. I was looking for someone who can convey emotion without dialogue and who had some enthusiasm for the project.

Casting from emails is an interesting exercise. Most of the ladies sent a head shot and I won't say looks are not important to the project but not essential. Still, I do have a certain image in my mind so some were too young or too old and one I very much liked her letter but she came across as too confident and assertive. I know, actors can be what you want them to be but I am talking about a few shots without dialogue so look does factor into it

There were three women in particular who caught my interest but Collette saw a certain girl's head shot and said "Oh pick her, she looks perfect for the part"

Anna Ross will therefore be my actress, we're going to meet up Wed and do the shoot. My plan is to match shots with her to the B Roll I've already taken, putting her in some of the same locations and contrasting her alone with the shots of busy traffic and large crowds

I am quite impressed that someone would give up their time to help me and I feel that she has a stake in this video turning out well as it will reflect well on her and give her something for her reel. It will be posted on Vimeo and go at least through a judging process so I hope she get some positive exposure

Working with a pro actress (irregardless of what she is or is not getting paid) will be a new experience for me. Making movies and videos is definitely a corroborative effort and since I've been doing this entirely on my own I welcome some input and I look forward to what Anna can bring to the project

ENTRY NUMBER SIX: THE PUNCTUATION OF A SHOT AND SOME DOUBTS

Last night I went down to do some night shooting. I wanted to do some guerilla run and gun style shooting so I didn't want to haul along my Slik tripod; while it is not exactly heavy it's a sold piece of gear, it takes a few seconds to set up for each shot and it has a certain intimidation factor when you are shooting in public.

Instead, I took my aluminum monopod. Much lighter, much smaller; you can tuck it into your back pack or, in its collapsed state, keep the camera clamped to it and just carry it in you hand. Yet it still provides you with stability for shots where you are tightly zoomed in or long shots that you want to time lapse

I'm liking the footage that I'm getting but as I go through it, I'm not sure it's going to be capable of carrying an entire video. It's filler or, more correctly, punctuation

I believe in the power of the shot. Every shot should convey information. When you take the shot you need to ask yourself "What is this saying, how is it adding to the story" The kind of footage I'm getting, of subway trains and traffic at night, of people moving like ants in a huge mall, they are like punctuation in the language of the story. They all say something

Here are two shots of anonymous crowds. The way I framed them, they should illicit different feelings

This is a shot in the Eaton Centre. This high angle wide shot should convey a sense of insignificance and remoteness for those dots that are people. From camera perspective I guess it could you a sense of power but the idea here is to make you think about how lost and insignificant we have become in our own man built environments.

Here is another shot of a crowd of people

This shot should give you a different kind of feeling. Here, admist the crowd perhaps you feel lost, claustrophobic, surrounded but because they are all strangers, also alone. This is a kind of forced perspective. I've zoomed in from about 20 feet away. That makes the shot even tighter, harder, more constrained

Here's a couple of shots of traffic

The concept here is to again convey a sense of remoteness; the cars and the pavement, even the grass verge and the hills don't seem quite real. You don't seem connected. It's a landscape and you forget that there are actually people in this shot, in the cars
Another shot of traffic. But far less remote. Now you are aware of the true presence of the cars and perhaps even the people inside them. Perhaps you feel a little unnerved; damn those cars are coming right at me ... But there is still that remoteness. There may be a person driving that car but you can't make an instant connection with him

So I have my punctuation but I am certain that I have my sentence to which it belongs. Looking at all my footage, hearing the music track in my head, I'm not sure if this footage is enough to tell my story.

My original story involved using a character, an actor, to cut in and around and through this footage. I dismissed that for logistical reasons but I'm coming back to it. Not sure if that's possible but this video has to evolve .. quickly

ENTRY NUMBER FIVE: DAY TIME SHOOT

Managed to get out today for about 3 hours of shooting

My main objective was to do some time lapse shots, very high angle and long, of traffic, subway trains and people.

I live right by the Allen Expressway and the subway tracks run along it at street level so I just walked over to a nearby overpass. For the timelapse I need to shoot a long sustained shot and then probably speed it up in Final Cut Pro. A tripod is essential for this; frame you shot the way you like, lock off the tripod and walk away from it. It was windy as hell up on the bridge but hopefully I'll get a long enough steady shot to do the effect.

Although I am kind of making this up as I go along, I do have certain shots in mind, I want some of the footage to be blurred and strobey and I would like other shots to have a distressed look. The weather today was fickle; clouds and sun and almost rain.

I was not totally happy with the very sunny shots. They will not suit the theme of the video very well. You have a few options to deal with this. While shooting you can adjust your iris and your exposure; the Sony does have manual exposure settings but they are not very sophisticated. My XL1 has terrific manual focus controls but that goes with having a kick ass lens. So my options here will be to do the effect in post.

Generally I am not a fan of in camera effects. That's what I have Final Cut for. I would rather get the best quality video I have than build any effects I need in post. While shooting I would rather concentrated on the essentials: Rule of thirds, head room, lead room etc. If you have a properly composed shot you have a world of possibilities

I'm thinking a lot about trains, subway trains for this video. Toronto has a subway of course but it actually took me a while to realize the true inspiration: On the home page for Hello Future contest there is a picture of Moby .. with a subway train in the background. Duh

So I have exterior shots of trains and I recorded some footage while riding the subway into the downtown core. More to come I'm sure

One of the other shots I knew I wanted was going to be at the Eaton Centre. My theme here is one of urban isolation, of being lost in the crowd (not terribly original but I have to start somewhere) and I thought Canada's largest mall (I think) would be a great place to get that footage. I went to the highest level in the mall, mounted the Sony on the tripod and took some very long shots down through the various floors and levels. Lots of people in the mall of course, and I got the whole "they look like ants" thing going on

I took similar shots outside from Varsity Stadium and at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor. I couldn't get an elevated shot on Yonge St, I had to shoot from street level but it's a busy intersection, lots of traffic both vehicle and pedestrian. I think it will work for me.

The next series of shots I want to try to capture will be night shots; high angle trains and hiway shots again and the lights of the city.

ENTRY NUMBER FOUR: TEST DRIVE

I've been thinking of the footage I want to take for the video and how I want to acquire it. I want to take advantage of the compact nature of my Sony. I've been thinking of the perspective of shooting out a windshield of the car while driving, In particular I'm thinking of night shots while moving through the city; the city is going to me a character in this video and I want lights, lights at night

Now, there are a whole host of tools available for this kind of shot, glide cams etc but I can't justify the expense. So I took my Slik tripod and jammed it against my passenger seat and mounted the handycam on top of that.

Here is a quick test of that footage. It's shot in HD but rendered out as SD (standard definition). It's not half bad. Now if only I could get the mayor to patch up all the potholes on any route I wish to drive on ...

Video Test for Car Cam from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

ENTRY NUMBER THREE:ACQUIRING FOOTAGE

With the deadline of the competition quickly approaching, I have to start getting footage. I thought I'd write about the gear I'm going to use and how I come to those selections

Without picking up the phone and begging for favours, I have a choice of gear in my closet from which to choose: A Cannon XL1 mini DV high end 3 chip camcorder, a Sony HD HDR-XR350 handycam Hard Drive camcorder, fluid head tripod, monopod, external mic, couple of lights etc

Some choices are easily made. I love the XL1, I really do. It's an old cam, mini DV tapes are pretty much a dinosaur technology now and it's standard def but I love the image quality. It has three big fat sensors and an absolutely killer lens. Lenses are important, no matter what your recording format, if your "eyes" aren't good, it doesn't matter how fast your brain is. Also, the XL1 has a high end shotgun mic plus XLR audio inputs so it can record very high end audio.

But for this project it has a few issues: It's a big old beast and it is obvious, you really can't so a lot of gonzo guerilla shooting with the thing, you can't catch people unawares. Ambient audio will not be a concern for this project, I'm not recording sound. The soundtrack is provided, I'm not using dialogue etc. Any ambient audio I may want to use, like street sounds, traffic sound etc does can be captured by any mic I have. Finally, the dictates of the competition state that your final output must be in Hi Def. Yes, I could export any footage from the XL1 into an HD project but it still won't be HD

So the Sony it is. I'm actually pretty happy with the quality of this cam though I purchased it mostly for its convenience. It does record in full 1080 HD and it does have three sensors though of course they are teeney tiny. And over all, the lens is pretty good.

It is a handycam and that size works perfectly for me. I can carry it in my pocket, it's ninja-like in it's size and it has a big fat hard drive so I can record a ton of footage in one go. The onboard mic is adequate but as stated, adequate will suffice for my needs.

I have a plan to do some time lapse style images so the tripod will be essential. I have a Slik that is a bit bulky but rock solid with a fluid head. I have a monopod which is light but for time lapse shots not as solid as a tripod. I may consider purchasing a smaller, lighter tripod; if I'm using the Sony and not my beloved beast of a Canon, a light tripod will suffice and Collette and I planning a big trip overseas this summer so a small tripod would suit us in the future

I also have available Collette's Nikon D-90 SLR camera. It does not shoot video but it does shoot extremely high quality stills. I can use it to take stills so big I can bang them into my editing timeline and manipulate them with motion tracking in a way that can replicate motion

I want to do a light of night shooting. I won't be using artificial lighting. I love love love the quality of the city lights at night. I haven't done a town of this kind of shooting with the Sony but it has a lot of manual exposure and focus controls so I think it should work. And I, for one, am not scared of a bit of grain. This is a gonzo project, sort of cinema verite (which is a fancy way to justify handheld camera shake) and I want to use natural light as much as possible. The Sony also has manual white balance controls which is good. I can correct white balance with my editing software but I am an advocate of "getting it right" on the shoot and not relying on it on "fixing it in post" I am the godfather of "fixing" other people's shoots and I know that is really a second best option at best

So my plan (sure Vic like you have a plan) is to carry the Sony with me wherever I go. I actually do have shots I want to capture but I equally like the idea of just having the cam there if some shot presents myself. In this video, the city itself will be my main character and I am more than happy to permit her to ad lib.

ENTRY NUMBER TWO

Every video project has to begin somewhere and the Hello Future competition has given me the starting point. Or rather Moby has given me the jumping off point.

For the sake of this competition Moby has made available three tracks from his upcoming CD Destroyed. Competitors are permitted to pick one of these three songs and use it to create a video. The point is to interpret the music any way you see fit.

This is the bit that appealed to me; I love working with music. I love matching video to music and music to video. I love TV shows and movies that build a scene around a piece of music or, conversely, choose a song that perfectly compliments a pre-cut scene. These are some very basic video editing concepts, choices made my directors and editors.

I also love cutting to music, cutting to the beat, letting the rhythm of the song help me decide when to use slow mo, or stop motion, transitions and effects.

This is a movie making competition, not a music video competition; I for one will not be finding people to lip sync to a Moby song. I still can't watch a music video where someone is pretending to sing, even if it is their own song, without giggling.

Here are the three songs from which I had to choose. Take a listen to them all and see which one inspires you. Do you see images when you hear the music? Does a particular song evoke an emotion? Which song changes your heart rate and make your breathing change to match the tempo .. that's what happens to me.

For me, the clear "winner" was the last song on the list, After. Of the three it seemed to me the most cinematic. It quickly set a mood. I loved the tempo changes. I loved how it built. The tempo and pace changes evoked drama.

I also liked how the lyrics were spare. I didn't want to be bogged down where a lot of lyrics would lead me to a literal interpretation. I wanted some freedom.

The song, to me, sounded very urban but very urban. I think it's about dissatisfaction, I think it's about our lives being constricted by the world we live in. I think it's about two worlds: The world inside ourselves and the world outside of us and how one is often suppressed by the other. It's about lonliness and remoteness and feeling isolated while surrounded by millions of people.

As soon as I heard the song I made the movie in my mind. But it's a movie I cannot back. I don't have unlimited time or budget or resources. My movie involved actors and locations and would have required a lot time and planning. I have none of the above.

This is where you have to become creative. You have to always bring yourself back to the point which you want to express; if I can't have actors perhaps the city itself will be the actor. How do I express isolation without being able to focus on one or two people. Perhaps lots of people, the anonymous crowds of my city would serve in stead.

I'm not really sure, I'm making this up as I go along.

But I have my song, I have my inspiration, I have my concept, my message. My intent all along was to go gonzo with this video, to go as low tech as possible.

Making a movie is generally comprised of three periods: Pre production, production, post production. Pre production usually takes the longest time; it involves writing and fine tuning the script, getting together producers and directors, casting, location scouting ... A lot of my pre production is already down.

Damn good thing. One day down. Twenty more to go

ENTRY NUMBER ONE

OK, here's the deal

If anyone follows my other blog The Hairy Edge, you have watched, or perhaps run from, the many videos I have posted there. The site to which I upload those videos is Vimeo. Vimeo is not only a free place that will host your videos, it is a very active online video making community. From casual videomakers like myself who regale the world with endless videos of my dogs, to aspiring film makers, to bona fide movie creators, Vimeo attracts and encourages idiots with cameras from all over the world.

One of the things Vimeo does is to host contests. All kinds of contests, inspiring video makers to create movies on a variety of themes, genres and topics. Inspiration is how I view contests. I don't really have a good psyche for contests, I've learned that about myself, or at any rate I should not take them too seriously

I shouldn't ever enter a contest trying to win. I'm a bad loser. Waa waa. Like that.

But contests can be inspirational. I have a variety of video making tools at my disposal, both concrete (cameras, video decks, editing computers) and ephemeral (training, experience, delusions) but I sometimes do lack inspiration. Making videos for a living as many years as I have, I've become very concerned with producing product; I enjoy making product, I enjoy the challenge of making something for a client, something that satisfies their bottom line as well as my creative side

I really enjoy shooting and editing videos on the events that Collette and I attend, videos of the festivals, videos with the girls. But it's been a while since I've made a video ... for no reason. I don't think I'm good at it. The more I think of it, I don't think I've made a video without something driving it, be it a contest, a class assignment or wanting to make a record of some experience Collette and I have shared.

So, along comes a new Vimeo contest. The first one that actually got my juices (excuse me, I may need a bib) flowing.

Moby is a musician. If you think you haven't heard his music, you probably have. I have actually edited video to his music, but for clients (um, did I just confess to some kind of crime? I plead the fifth, and I'll take a fifth of Jose Cuervo). I like his music. It has a cinematic quality that lends itself to soundtrack applications. Moby himself has utilized video along with samples, electronica etc.

Not surprising that he would team up with Vimeo to create a contest to inspire videomakers. What was surprising is that he has made available three tracks from his upcoming CD, making them public realm, that us Idiots With Cameras can use to create a video to

Oh, cool

The winner of this contest will have their work at Cannes. Yeh, right. I ain't going to Cannes, any video I make will not be shown at Cannes and I'm quite comfortable with that. I really am. There will be film crews entering this contest, shooting with Red cameras and lights and digital audio, they will have grips and Production Assitants and Directors of Photography ... oh my!

That isn't me. I think I'm going gonzo on this one. I think. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do but I want to do something.

The date of this posting is April 29, the deadline for the contest is May 9 ... what the fuck. What the hell am I doing

Well, I'm not sure but me being the Idiot With a Camera that I am .. and an Idiot with a Blog .. I decided I'd chronicle this little debacle ..er .. I mean adventure.

I have been asked in the past to describe my creative process as well as my production processes ... yes, when people are drunk they will ask you anything

So I guess with this blog, we'll find out. And I do mean we because as if this point, I really don't have any clue how I'm going to do this.

This blog will be entirely devoted to me creating a video for this contest. All my other bullshit will be hosted on The Hairy Edge as usual

No promises here. I may not get this thing done. It may be a total piece of shit. But I'm an Idiot With a Camera ... and my idiocy will not be stopped

Trust me, people have tried