Come and sAaaaAaaaaAAAAve meeeeeee!
That's such a good song. Anyway, let's post about what happened yesterday because it was a big, long, crazy grueling day that demanded all of my power.
I got a phone call from Jamaica around nine thirty which kinda sucked since I didn't wanna get up 'till 10 at the earliest and he was cutting into my nap time. The idea was to get to school at 11 and pick up the gear and head over to said location around 11:30. I had already solved the first of our problems.. okay, two problems. The first was that we had no idea what to shoot. I did that last night, wrote up a quick script and took care of the fact that Steve was not going to shoot with me. Had Jesse not agreed, there would have been nothing.
So, I got the call and he asked when I was going to blah blah blah. I told him 11:30 was the scheduled plan and hopefully we'd be there by 12 to start shooting. I got to the school and filled out the check out form. Mat approved it but it wasn't approved until like 11:45 'cause he was in class. Oh well, really, and I ended up just giving it to him while he was in class and he signed it, I signed it, Josh signed it, everyone signed it. It got complete. I got my gear, a good bit more than I actually needed, and away we skidaddled. And by we I mean I.
To gather up Jesse, I had to go downtown. The place we were shooting at was by Disney anyway, so that would take me through downtown. I jumped off the exit I had to go on.. took a wrong turn, but mostly 'cause I forgot what Jesse had said and when I called him to find out I had already guessed wrong. (It's so fun to look at your turn and go 'I'm pretty sure I should go right.. but I'll go left anyway' and find out you should have gone right). I mean, I get those tiny little instincts that say 'go this way' or 'this is going to happen' and I ignore them. Then I miss a turn. Or wreck a car. Or eat someone's baby. It's all very ridiculous.
So it actually took me twenty some odd minutes to find Jesse because of that turn.. and several other mistakes that were made in the driving part. I eventually did hook up with him and we started out on the highway to find this place. Well, here's where actual bad directions came that were in no way my fault. Except where they were, a little, but let's get to the story.
Jamaica told me blah blah and I heard it and followed along where he said.. got to where he said.. and that's when we found it he was wrong. We stopped off first in the middle of no where and I called him and he said he'd come get us.. and then he called again like 'hey, where are you' and I told him and he went 'uhh.. yeah, that sounds wrong.. oops' and he gave us new directions. We followed those and same thing happened until he found us and realized that the directions he had tried to give us were just wrong. I actually made a few turns on my own to get where he said and, because I actually listened to those instinct bits, we got where we should be quickly. That and a phone call halfway through as we were already turning the right way.
Anyway, once we got there it was like 12:45 and I wanted to start shooting because we'd already lost a lot of time. I figured we'd coach as we go and things would be nice. Well, Jamaica wanted a meeting. We had a meeting. It was pointless. Basically it was 'go over what ideas you have' and I told them the one and they nodded and were like 'yeah, sure, that sounds great whatever' and we went ahead and shot the beginning of it (which we used) but Jesse had an interesting idea of said girl walking across the sidewalk in front of the house and using that bit in the video.
Oh, right. So, before we actually showed up at the house we were shooting at (after the meeting we had to go to another house) Jamaica said to Jesse and I (also, Jesse knew this guy.. which was pretty funny since I was talking somewhat not so flatteringly about him earlier) "Also, before we go, try not to say that you guys are students while we're over there" and we both were like 'uh.. kay' and Jamaica goes "Well, we're renting the house" (which wasn't true, by the way.. it was the mom of the girl's house) "and they think you're professionals."
Before we go any further, and you should already know this, Jamaica is using us. That is, he didn't want to pay any money for real professionals (and we didn't get paid at all) but he wanted some decent quality stuff so he chose students to get what he wanted.. which was, in essence, a thirty second promo video for this cat. If we could do more, great, he'd want it. But we couldn't do more. It just wasn't possible. And I don't entirelly like someone trying to swindle me and act like he's doing a favor. Suffice it to say, I probably wouldn't do this again without monetary compensation.. but that's unlikely at least at this juncture.
Anyway, on we go.
We got there and it was insanely bright. But we couldn't do much about it except fiddle with our f/stop. We didn't. Should have, but we were short on time and I didn't want to screw around with it. Combine that with the shadows we didn't have reflectors to fix.. and the simple fact that there were only two of us.. well, let's just say, the images could have been better.
The girl was a little hard to direct because she was a tiny bit of an idiot. I mean, I bet she has a good head on her shoulders (I don't really, but for the sake of argument) she just didn't really listen when I tried to tell her to do stuff.. or when any one did, for that matter. Jesse was invaluable in helping both of these 'actors' to fall in line while we went. Not only does he know a lot more about r&b and rap videos than I do, but also... okay, mostly it was just that which helped us. Haha.
So, Jesse came up with the idea I think I mentioned earlier and I set up all of the camera shots, even those that he suggested which we did or didn't use depending. It was a great collaboration, really, and I enjoyed the spontaniety of it.. and the way we managed to come together through it all. The other main problem with my shots, though, was that for the most part.. it was framed like a movie (which I mentioned to Steve later and he agreed). I mean, I don't entirelly know all of the shots for a good video.. though I think I did get a couple pretty decent music video shots.. I just would imagine that some better things could have been done to make it less.. movie..ish.. and more.. video..ish.
Anyway, at precisely 5, without any real breaks, we finished shooting. We packed up our gear. And everyone thanked us for a job well done and couldn't wait to see the finished product. Hahahahaha. Haha. We're students. We had less than twenty four hours to come up with an idea and shoot it. Now we had to edit it. Yes, a fantastic product was about to be unveiled.
I forgot to mention that the mother was trying to plug her daughter to me, telling me what the daughter has done and posed for and blah blah. It was quite humorous. Jesse and I had a laugh outside about the whole situation once it was finished. But, I will say, it was exciting. Nothing really gets the blood pumping than an impromptu job decently done. I can say with confidence that I don't know anyone who, with our equipment and time constraints, that could have done a better job. I mean, had Steve been there we may have had a few more cool shots (Steve has a great eye for camera work) but he wasn't, we didn't, we took what we had.
Jesse bailed out before editing and I got the CD we used for playback (having played it out of Jesse's car, hahaha) and rushed back to school. I got there a full hour after five which kinda sucked but traffic was bad. I had class. I skipped it. Damn. But, Steve showed up the sae time (actually, just after I had finished putting away all the gear) and we went up to peruse the footage and start our job as editors.
Mat asked how the shoot had gone and I looked at him and just sort of laughed. I mean, this whole project was and is ridiculous... though it is complete now. But, I went over a bit of how things had gone while Steve tried to see why his project from another day wasn't getting onto DVD. He spent maybe twenty minutes of our time trying to figure this out and eventually I had him log into the comp and we immediately began, the two of us, reviewing footage.
Steve is.. a silly kid. I'll say this. I like him, but he's not exactly an editor. He can make good ideas and choices and is smart when it comes to camera work but he isn't always insanely creative in shot choices. So as we were capturing, I was just assuming he was picking all the best shots. I was wrong.
We started to edit, picking thirty seconds of the most exciting part of the song. We snagged the second chorus and bit of prechorus. It actually ended up cutting off the chorus a bit because of this choice but it worked. So, we tried next to sync up some vocals. After all, we used the same CD (which I now realize is still in that computer) to have Soldierboy (that was the artist's name, hahaha) sing to. Actually, we tried to sync up the first lines of the song to him and we couldn't get it despite our best efforts.. so instead we skipped to what I already said and we tried something else.
It had taken us near on an hour to attempt getting the lips to move to the words and it didn't work. We chopped up the song and jump cut our way up the girl for the start of the video. Then, through a miraculous bout of I'm awesome and God's own assistance 'cause we'd wasted near on an hour and a half capturing and attempting to get sound to work right, I nailed the synchronization (...right) of this fella singing with the prechorus bit and we were both pretty thrilled. Moving on.
Steve was really worried about how long it would take us to actually snip bits together and get thirty seconds and he continously was saying 'oh man, we're in trouble' and 'we can't do this' which was like 'don't tell me what I can't do!' in my head but mostly I was like 'yeah, it'll be hard, but we got it' and we traded reassurances.
I will say now that without Steve and Jesse both I would have had a very difficult time with this project. Without Steve, I'd have gone crazy in editing and without Jesse I'd have not shot anything. Haha. So, we did a decent job here I say.
It took us about an hour and a half to edit things quickly.. and then another fifteen minutes to make it all flow relatively well. Most of the people that saw it (we had some kids in and out helping and showed it to Josh and to Larry and one or two others) said it worked well with the beats and all that. Of course, none but Jamaica were actual rap fans so it was like 'yeah.. looks good.. for something I don't actually like' and it was funny.
But, Larry helped us get it onto DVD for this kid. He said he needed it on Betacam SP to give to Fox or whomever was supposed to show it on TV. But DVD was also welcome and we did the latter after a brief attempt at Betacam. Our deck for that was busted, again, so we switched to DVD and it didn't take tooo long to get it all hammered out.
I was pacing a lot and continued attempting to refresh myself via the water fountain as we went. I kept having Steve work on parts as we edited, fixing out the tough stuff.. smothing away the 'oh no' bits and mostly working over him.. then giving him the controls.. and then working again. He did do a bit but I did most of the work.. as he pointed out when I thanked him for his help.
It was pretty fun, both shooting and editing, as there was lots of laughter to be had by the three of us throughout the day. Mostly, Steve and I got a kick out of the crazy dancing and slightly risky comments on Soldierboy and the girl respectively. But, we did get the project done and finally put in DVD by 10:40ish which was a bit after the original deadline time.. but it was edited and done on the comp before 10 so I guess it works out, all around. I was just glad that Larry helped us a great deal at the end get everything done right and finished up and such. Whew.
So it was a lot of fun in that it was crazy and before I went out I was like 'oh, God, please help me not freak out and just accomplish this insane task' and then after thanked him profusely in the car. It was pretty stressful at first.. but once we started, perhaps after the first shot, I was just in work mode. In fact, I hadn't even realized I didn't eat anything except breakfast until I got home. Haha.
Damn.
Good times.
I got a phone call from Jamaica around nine thirty which kinda sucked since I didn't wanna get up 'till 10 at the earliest and he was cutting into my nap time. The idea was to get to school at 11 and pick up the gear and head over to said location around 11:30. I had already solved the first of our problems.. okay, two problems. The first was that we had no idea what to shoot. I did that last night, wrote up a quick script and took care of the fact that Steve was not going to shoot with me. Had Jesse not agreed, there would have been nothing.
So, I got the call and he asked when I was going to blah blah blah. I told him 11:30 was the scheduled plan and hopefully we'd be there by 12 to start shooting. I got to the school and filled out the check out form. Mat approved it but it wasn't approved until like 11:45 'cause he was in class. Oh well, really, and I ended up just giving it to him while he was in class and he signed it, I signed it, Josh signed it, everyone signed it. It got complete. I got my gear, a good bit more than I actually needed, and away we skidaddled. And by we I mean I.
To gather up Jesse, I had to go downtown. The place we were shooting at was by Disney anyway, so that would take me through downtown. I jumped off the exit I had to go on.. took a wrong turn, but mostly 'cause I forgot what Jesse had said and when I called him to find out I had already guessed wrong. (It's so fun to look at your turn and go 'I'm pretty sure I should go right.. but I'll go left anyway' and find out you should have gone right). I mean, I get those tiny little instincts that say 'go this way' or 'this is going to happen' and I ignore them. Then I miss a turn. Or wreck a car. Or eat someone's baby. It's all very ridiculous.
So it actually took me twenty some odd minutes to find Jesse because of that turn.. and several other mistakes that were made in the driving part. I eventually did hook up with him and we started out on the highway to find this place. Well, here's where actual bad directions came that were in no way my fault. Except where they were, a little, but let's get to the story.
Jamaica told me blah blah and I heard it and followed along where he said.. got to where he said.. and that's when we found it he was wrong. We stopped off first in the middle of no where and I called him and he said he'd come get us.. and then he called again like 'hey, where are you' and I told him and he went 'uhh.. yeah, that sounds wrong.. oops' and he gave us new directions. We followed those and same thing happened until he found us and realized that the directions he had tried to give us were just wrong. I actually made a few turns on my own to get where he said and, because I actually listened to those instinct bits, we got where we should be quickly. That and a phone call halfway through as we were already turning the right way.
Anyway, once we got there it was like 12:45 and I wanted to start shooting because we'd already lost a lot of time. I figured we'd coach as we go and things would be nice. Well, Jamaica wanted a meeting. We had a meeting. It was pointless. Basically it was 'go over what ideas you have' and I told them the one and they nodded and were like 'yeah, sure, that sounds great whatever' and we went ahead and shot the beginning of it (which we used) but Jesse had an interesting idea of said girl walking across the sidewalk in front of the house and using that bit in the video.
Oh, right. So, before we actually showed up at the house we were shooting at (after the meeting we had to go to another house) Jamaica said to Jesse and I (also, Jesse knew this guy.. which was pretty funny since I was talking somewhat not so flatteringly about him earlier) "Also, before we go, try not to say that you guys are students while we're over there" and we both were like 'uh.. kay' and Jamaica goes "Well, we're renting the house" (which wasn't true, by the way.. it was the mom of the girl's house) "and they think you're professionals."
Before we go any further, and you should already know this, Jamaica is using us. That is, he didn't want to pay any money for real professionals (and we didn't get paid at all) but he wanted some decent quality stuff so he chose students to get what he wanted.. which was, in essence, a thirty second promo video for this cat. If we could do more, great, he'd want it. But we couldn't do more. It just wasn't possible. And I don't entirelly like someone trying to swindle me and act like he's doing a favor. Suffice it to say, I probably wouldn't do this again without monetary compensation.. but that's unlikely at least at this juncture.
Anyway, on we go.
We got there and it was insanely bright. But we couldn't do much about it except fiddle with our f/stop. We didn't. Should have, but we were short on time and I didn't want to screw around with it. Combine that with the shadows we didn't have reflectors to fix.. and the simple fact that there were only two of us.. well, let's just say, the images could have been better.
The girl was a little hard to direct because she was a tiny bit of an idiot. I mean, I bet she has a good head on her shoulders (I don't really, but for the sake of argument) she just didn't really listen when I tried to tell her to do stuff.. or when any one did, for that matter. Jesse was invaluable in helping both of these 'actors' to fall in line while we went. Not only does he know a lot more about r&b and rap videos than I do, but also... okay, mostly it was just that which helped us. Haha.
So, Jesse came up with the idea I think I mentioned earlier and I set up all of the camera shots, even those that he suggested which we did or didn't use depending. It was a great collaboration, really, and I enjoyed the spontaniety of it.. and the way we managed to come together through it all. The other main problem with my shots, though, was that for the most part.. it was framed like a movie (which I mentioned to Steve later and he agreed). I mean, I don't entirelly know all of the shots for a good video.. though I think I did get a couple pretty decent music video shots.. I just would imagine that some better things could have been done to make it less.. movie..ish.. and more.. video..ish.
Anyway, at precisely 5, without any real breaks, we finished shooting. We packed up our gear. And everyone thanked us for a job well done and couldn't wait to see the finished product. Hahahahaha. Haha. We're students. We had less than twenty four hours to come up with an idea and shoot it. Now we had to edit it. Yes, a fantastic product was about to be unveiled.
I forgot to mention that the mother was trying to plug her daughter to me, telling me what the daughter has done and posed for and blah blah. It was quite humorous. Jesse and I had a laugh outside about the whole situation once it was finished. But, I will say, it was exciting. Nothing really gets the blood pumping than an impromptu job decently done. I can say with confidence that I don't know anyone who, with our equipment and time constraints, that could have done a better job. I mean, had Steve been there we may have had a few more cool shots (Steve has a great eye for camera work) but he wasn't, we didn't, we took what we had.
Jesse bailed out before editing and I got the CD we used for playback (having played it out of Jesse's car, hahaha) and rushed back to school. I got there a full hour after five which kinda sucked but traffic was bad. I had class. I skipped it. Damn. But, Steve showed up the sae time (actually, just after I had finished putting away all the gear) and we went up to peruse the footage and start our job as editors.
Mat asked how the shoot had gone and I looked at him and just sort of laughed. I mean, this whole project was and is ridiculous... though it is complete now. But, I went over a bit of how things had gone while Steve tried to see why his project from another day wasn't getting onto DVD. He spent maybe twenty minutes of our time trying to figure this out and eventually I had him log into the comp and we immediately began, the two of us, reviewing footage.
Steve is.. a silly kid. I'll say this. I like him, but he's not exactly an editor. He can make good ideas and choices and is smart when it comes to camera work but he isn't always insanely creative in shot choices. So as we were capturing, I was just assuming he was picking all the best shots. I was wrong.
We started to edit, picking thirty seconds of the most exciting part of the song. We snagged the second chorus and bit of prechorus. It actually ended up cutting off the chorus a bit because of this choice but it worked. So, we tried next to sync up some vocals. After all, we used the same CD (which I now realize is still in that computer) to have Soldierboy (that was the artist's name, hahaha) sing to. Actually, we tried to sync up the first lines of the song to him and we couldn't get it despite our best efforts.. so instead we skipped to what I already said and we tried something else.
It had taken us near on an hour to attempt getting the lips to move to the words and it didn't work. We chopped up the song and jump cut our way up the girl for the start of the video. Then, through a miraculous bout of I'm awesome and God's own assistance 'cause we'd wasted near on an hour and a half capturing and attempting to get sound to work right, I nailed the synchronization (...right) of this fella singing with the prechorus bit and we were both pretty thrilled. Moving on.
Steve was really worried about how long it would take us to actually snip bits together and get thirty seconds and he continously was saying 'oh man, we're in trouble' and 'we can't do this' which was like 'don't tell me what I can't do!' in my head but mostly I was like 'yeah, it'll be hard, but we got it' and we traded reassurances.
I will say now that without Steve and Jesse both I would have had a very difficult time with this project. Without Steve, I'd have gone crazy in editing and without Jesse I'd have not shot anything. Haha. So, we did a decent job here I say.
It took us about an hour and a half to edit things quickly.. and then another fifteen minutes to make it all flow relatively well. Most of the people that saw it (we had some kids in and out helping and showed it to Josh and to Larry and one or two others) said it worked well with the beats and all that. Of course, none but Jamaica were actual rap fans so it was like 'yeah.. looks good.. for something I don't actually like' and it was funny.
But, Larry helped us get it onto DVD for this kid. He said he needed it on Betacam SP to give to Fox or whomever was supposed to show it on TV. But DVD was also welcome and we did the latter after a brief attempt at Betacam. Our deck for that was busted, again, so we switched to DVD and it didn't take tooo long to get it all hammered out.
I was pacing a lot and continued attempting to refresh myself via the water fountain as we went. I kept having Steve work on parts as we edited, fixing out the tough stuff.. smothing away the 'oh no' bits and mostly working over him.. then giving him the controls.. and then working again. He did do a bit but I did most of the work.. as he pointed out when I thanked him for his help.
It was pretty fun, both shooting and editing, as there was lots of laughter to be had by the three of us throughout the day. Mostly, Steve and I got a kick out of the crazy dancing and slightly risky comments on Soldierboy and the girl respectively. But, we did get the project done and finally put in DVD by 10:40ish which was a bit after the original deadline time.. but it was edited and done on the comp before 10 so I guess it works out, all around. I was just glad that Larry helped us a great deal at the end get everything done right and finished up and such. Whew.
So it was a lot of fun in that it was crazy and before I went out I was like 'oh, God, please help me not freak out and just accomplish this insane task' and then after thanked him profusely in the car. It was pretty stressful at first.. but once we started, perhaps after the first shot, I was just in work mode. In fact, I hadn't even realized I didn't eat anything except breakfast until I got home. Haha.
Damn.
Good times.