Lavalier Fail

By the end of a term in my TV Production class, everyone is able to successfully put a lavalier on an interview subject. We did 13 shows this semester, and used lavs in most of those, meaning there was a chance for everyone to get some practice.

So I was really surprised to see the above disaster during our skills test. I'm still not sure what happened. People get nervous, I guess.

I refrained from making any Viagra jokes, but had to take a snapshot for the "don't" file. Unless your subject is on the show for the ability to speak through his nipple, you might want that microphone aiming at his mouth, not hanging limply toward the ground.

(The student in question passed everything else, but clearly lost points here. Of course, the ironic thing is always that when a student makes a mistake like this and gets corrected, they end up never forgetting the right way.)

In Case You Missed It

Watch more free documentaries
In case you weren't at today's screening at the Limelight Film Showcase, you can see Blind Faith: A Film About Seeing online. Give it a "like" or "Snag" the player and put it on your blog. See more about the film on IMDB and give it a rating.

Back in Town

Left the city for a documentary shoot over the weekend, but I'm back now. Details soon. Above: a view from 34th Street.

Camera Test A

Panasonic GH1 "Stress Test" A from Ted Fisher on Vimeo.

My first session with the Panasonic GH1. The goal of the shoot was to find the camera's limits. Everything was shot handheld, seeking out conditions which might prove difficult on this type of hybrid system.

So I shot quite differently than one normally would. Rather than panning smoothly, avoiding shots with extreme or complex detail or aiming for the often-recommended shallow-depth-of-field look, I aimed to make the camera struggle.

I think it performed very well. The next test will include quite varied conditions and a different style of shooting. I'm hoping to do a low-light test as well.

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE)

Dowser Video: Elizabeth Scharpf, Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) from Dowser on Vimeo.

The video above is the second piece I've edited for Dowser, a media organization that reports on "creative approaches to social change in order to help people understand how to build better communities and a better world."

If social change is your thing, then be sure and check out Maura Minsky, Scenarios USA as well.

Creative Approaches to Social Change

Maura Minsky, Scenarios USA from Dowser on Vimeo.

Dowser is a media organization that reports on "creative approaches to social change in order to help people understand how to build better communities and a better world." You can't go wrong with that.

Today is the soft launch of their new Web site, so I hope you'll visit them. I edited four short videos for them this year, and the movie above is the first posted online. More soon. Enjoy.

TV or not TV

I've enjoyed teaching TV production this term. Today, we did our fourth show for the term: an interview show. Essentially we were doing a copy version of "The Charlie Rose Show." It looks very simple, but I think by the second run-through many members of the class realized we weren't quite hitting it. The simplicity is deceiving, and pulling this off requires focus on every detail from the director and every member of the crew. As Director Ferrand says in Day for Night:

What is a film director? A man who's asked questions about everything. Sometimes he knows the answer.

Ah well: a very good learning experience for everyone. Above: an iPhone snap of today's Television Studio class.

"Other Side" Screening at ASU Art Museum in April

Some good news just in via email: my documentary short To Get to the Other Side will be screening at the ASU Art Museum Fourteenth Annual Short Film and Video Festival on Saturday, April 17th.

I screened a film there last year, and in my opinion it's one of the best-run and most filmmaker-friendly festivals I've been in. They handled everything very well both before and after the fest. Also, for last year's event over 1,300 people attended.

I'm looking forward to it.

Art Week

And on my other blog, we've just finished Art Week.

Sam Francis Sunday
Malevich Monday
Tuesday Title Test
Wednesday Whirls
Thursday Theory
Friday: Self Portrait with Bicycle Wheel

What's My Line Again?

I was hoping to get one short documentary out into the world each month during 2010. Ambitious, I know... but I did get To Get to the Other Side out the door in January and screened, and now it has been submitted to a few other festivals.

We're at the end of February, however, and I'm officially behind on that schedule. Also, I'm not going to be participating in this year's International Documentary Challenge -- so can I get anywhere near that goal?

We'll see. Some projects are in fact moving forward, so maybe there won't be 12 new films this year, but ... well, just check back soon.

Snow Day

Today is a snow day -- no teaching in The Bronx -- so I'm trying to catch up on several projects.

One decision I wanted to note, however: after three years of participating in the International Documentary Challenge I won't be part of it this year. The timing just wasn't going to work out, and while we will be making a film with one of the subjects we met in planning for the event, we won't get the excitement of trying to make a documentary in five days. Good luck to everyone who participates. Maybe next year.

Above: Old Yankee Stadium yesterday, as seen from the 4 train.

EgoFest: IMDB Listings

For anyone attending EgoFest Film Festival, here's a list of all the films I could locate on IMDB. I'm certain the filmmakers would appreciate it if you would sign in and give them a rating.

Definitely don't forget the last one on the list.

Absorbed
A Dark Radius
Ai
All 'Rapped' Up
An Open Door
Consensus
Dinner Date
Distractions
Don't Listen to the Cookie, Franklin
Eight Thirty
Greatest Man Alive
How To Live Better
In The Event Of A Zombie Attack
Libidoland
Love Sick
Meeting Mr. Williams
Mind Over Matter Man
My Friend Root Rot
Perfekt
Snow Bunny
Solomon Grundy
Speed Musing
The Beekeeper
The Car Wash
To Get to the Other Side

Winter Blunderland

Finished grading about 3 a.m. last night, as the snow started to fall. Today: it's pretty. Until the wind drives it, like tiny flying shurikens, directly into your eyes.

Two Upcoming Screenings

February? Already? Unbelievable.

This weekend Blind Faith: A Film About Seeing -- a film I co-directed in a sort of co-op approach -- will be screening at the Picture This Film Festival in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I really really really wanted to go, but with so much going on will have to watch from afar. The film received an Honourable Mention, and if you visit the festival's site you can see the festival jury provided some lovely comments.

February 20th, my brand new film To Get to the Other Side will screen at EgoFest Short Video Film Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota.

I love the way EgoFest has developed -- it features 40 shorts by 30 directors, and has shown a truly indie approach: many of the filmmakers became aware of the festival on Twitter thanks to the efforts of festival director Phillip Holbrook. With a no-application-fee / filmmaker-friendly approach (including a smart deadline extension), the festival has set the bar high for openness. I was able to get questions answered about the fest almost instantly, and the tone has been all about the fun of independent film.

I won't be able to join any road trip to Brainerd this time, but you can bet I'll be watching for next year's fest.

Color Coded Keys

A little pre-term session today.

Those little color-coded-keyboards? I don't like them.

For one: no little fingerbumps on the "f" and "j" keys.

Secondly, if the idea is that I'm going to look down at the keys, find the right color and the right symbol, click it, then look back up at my screen ... then I'm going to work much much slower than by getting used to thinking in terms of letters and working by touch. I mean, I think "tap j" and -- since I know how to type -- I don't look down.

The other reason: if you moved to a station with a normal keyboard you'd be lost. Maybe you could bring highlighters, and color code it yourself?

Documentaries in the News, ChimpCam Edition

Sure, you can trace the physiological basis of editing to the fact that we see the world in blinks. That's no big surprise, when you realize that Chimps can edit.

Of course, first they need to settle a typical Producer / Director on-set squabble. You know how that goes.

Movie made by chimpanzees to be broadcast on television

On top of the box was a video screen that showed live images of whatever the camera was pointing at. Initially, the chimps were more interested in each other than the video technology, as two male chimps within the study group vied to become the alpha male, disrupting the experiment. But over time, some of the chimps learned how to select different videos to watch.

I'm just curious if they'll get the IMDB credit.

Polanski Petition Update

I've shared my opinion on the Polanski Petition -- signed by a number of people in the film industry -- previously:

Facts Matter
Polanski Update
“The director of the documentary told me..."
Less Hypothetically
So Far In The Past

Now there's a little new news:

Judge: Polanski must come to L.A. to be sentenced in child-sex case

A judge has rejected director Roman Polanski's bid to be sentenced in absentia in a three-decade-old child-sex case. Judge Peter Espinoza ruled that Polanski, 76, will have to come back to Los Angeles to be sentenced. "I have made it clear he needs to surrender," the judge said.

So, do the signers of the Polanski Petition feel strongly enough to stand behind the director as the proceedings move to the courts?

To Get to the Other Side

Back on Halloween, I made this post about preparing to shoot a mini-documentary on the New York City Marathon as it passes through my neighborhood.

Well, I've been in the midst of a lot of other work, some of it quite uncooperative and confusing. But...

It's done. It's six minutes and ten seconds long, and sort of quirky. I'm sending it off to a few festivals in tomorrow's mail. I'll post more details soon, and we'll see how it goes.

The Canon Files

Over on my other blog, I've made a few posts giving a little background information as we go through the process of shooting a short interview-based documentary using a Canon 7D. For example:

First Canon 7D Test
Second Canon 7D Test
Working with the Canon 7D

Thursday the first interview session was completed, so I'm going to give some details on the technical specifics in case anyone finds that useful.

The 7D records H.264 format files onto memory cards and those files should be transcoded to a format that works better in your nonlinear editing software. The H.264 QuickTime files that come straight out of the camera can be imported into most editing packages, but don't seem to perform well unless transcoded to a format like Apple ProRes. This results in larger files, but the new files work well for the editing process.

The specifics for our shoot:

1. the session resulted in 5 gigabytes of files.

2. when these files were transcoded to ProRes, the total expanded to 14 gigabytes.

3. that means transcoding to ProRes format expanded them to about 3 times larger (in filesize).

4. one file, shot at 1920 by 1080 dimensions and 24 progressive frames per second, was 9 minutes long and resulted in a 3 gigabyte file. So, for an interview, we saw 3 minutes equal about 1 gigabyte of filesize (as an H.264 QuickTime).

So, our first rule-of-thumb estimation:

In camera, you might get about 3 minutes of shooting time for each gigabyte of storage.

After transcoding to ProRes, your files may blow up about 3 times larger.

So: 3 minutes a gigabyte in camera. 1 minute a gigabyte after the transcoding to ProRes.

Easy to remember. We'll see if that holds up through the next interviews.

Next time: transcoding time.

Please Help Me Identify These Runners

These two stills are from a video I'm editing, shot at the 2009 New York Marathon. If you can help me identify the runners, please post a comment or give me a message on Twitter at http://twitter.com/theodorefisher. The names on the front of each shirt should help, but I'm struggling with the woman wearing red and any help is appreciated.

UPDATE! Thanks to a very nice person on Twitter, I now know Salina Kosgei, Derartu Tulu, Ludmila Petrova, and Paula Radcliffe.

But who is that in red?

Update: it's Christelle Daunay.