Just back from another week at Fort Benning, GA
It was a good trip. In my quest for "Good TV" I found myself talking to the camera, being held down in a choke hold and eventually tazered. My shooting partner looked at me like I was crazy, but once the idea inched its way into my little pea pod there was no way I'd not get stun gunned.
Unfortunatly, Benning greeted us with the hottest week in five years. Shooting seven stories in five days with a heat index of 110 about beat the stuffings out of me. I haven't sweat like that since Iraq. But was impressed with how we worked as a team. I was the big idea guy and he usually smoothed out the finer details. Except for two stories believe we really raised the bar in how our community should shoot stories. We got working interviews, interactive stand ups, really nice rack focuses, honest interviews, set up surprises, interesting interview shots, intriguing opening shots, used fast shutter speeds and of course, I got my ass screaming on camera.
Some things I'm still missing as a producer/shooter. I'm still impatient and I still rush when the time comes. For instance, we were shooting interviews at the Ranger Memorial. Its interesting because it centers around a huuuge Bayonet and the outside ring has a big Ranger sign. Okay we'll shoot our guy, then his wife. I decided to shoot the guy in the foreground of the Ranger tab but use a shallow depth of field so the ranger tab was blurred in the background. It looked kind of interesting, we used a reflector to pop the backlit sun on his face. Truth be told that was one shot that ended up looking like ass. It was a hundred degrees out there, this guy was standing up getting blasted with a reflector and his wife was on the side kind of uncomfortable with the whole thing. Now whats the lesson. The "professional" guys who shot the same couple after us took the couple into the shade, sat them on a bench. I'm sure their shot was pretty standard but I'm sure what they got out of the interview was a world away in terms of them being comfortable and at ease. Which is important when your trying to tell a Soldier's story.
So note to self: Subject first Composition second
Unfortunatly, Benning greeted us with the hottest week in five years. Shooting seven stories in five days with a heat index of 110 about beat the stuffings out of me. I haven't sweat like that since Iraq. But was impressed with how we worked as a team. I was the big idea guy and he usually smoothed out the finer details. Except for two stories believe we really raised the bar in how our community should shoot stories. We got working interviews, interactive stand ups, really nice rack focuses, honest interviews, set up surprises, interesting interview shots, intriguing opening shots, used fast shutter speeds and of course, I got my ass screaming on camera.
Some things I'm still missing as a producer/shooter. I'm still impatient and I still rush when the time comes. For instance, we were shooting interviews at the Ranger Memorial. Its interesting because it centers around a huuuge Bayonet and the outside ring has a big Ranger sign. Okay we'll shoot our guy, then his wife. I decided to shoot the guy in the foreground of the Ranger tab but use a shallow depth of field so the ranger tab was blurred in the background. It looked kind of interesting, we used a reflector to pop the backlit sun on his face. Truth be told that was one shot that ended up looking like ass. It was a hundred degrees out there, this guy was standing up getting blasted with a reflector and his wife was on the side kind of uncomfortable with the whole thing. Now whats the lesson. The "professional" guys who shot the same couple after us took the couple into the shade, sat them on a bench. I'm sure their shot was pretty standard but I'm sure what they got out of the interview was a world away in terms of them being comfortable and at ease. Which is important when your trying to tell a Soldier's story.
So note to self: Subject first Composition second