Three West

25. September 2008

Documentary Filmmaking In 10 Steps

This past spring I flew to Florida from New York to film my latest two documentaries, Our Side of Joy and Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism. I’d filmed my first documentary back in 2002 but I was very new to filmmaking at the time. That doc turned out pretty good but [...]

8. May 2009

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Going Mobile - Portable Filmmaking

So, I’m planning another trip out of the country and the fist thing that came to mind was how heavy my bags and gear were on my last trip. After my last trip, I’d already decided that I absolutely had to travel lighter on future international excursions. I have always made an effort to travel light [...]

7. May 2009

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Tips for Authors, Acting Talent & Film Crew: Why No One Responds

I never thought I would need to write an article of this nature, however, due to the overwhelming flood of snore inducing e-mails from readers hoping for publishing deals or to obtain acting and/or film crew jobs, I feel I must offer some advice. I’m not exactly sure what is being taught in school these days [...]

16. February 2009

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Two Hours or Less - Almost There

I’m just about finished getting Our Side Of Joy down to two hours or less. It’s still a very tough process. It feels as if this film is really two complete films in one and most likely that’s pretty much what it is. It has caused me to think about my documentary career. Before [...]

22. January 2009

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Do It Yourself LCD Production Monitor: Part 4

I’m back to share with you all that has happened since Part 3 of this project. *Smile* Several things… First, I received the 26″ HDTV and realized it was enormous. Then I opened it up and realized it was scary. Then I fixed it for $21.99. *Insert Diabolical Laugh Here* The 26″ HDTV did indeed [...]

9. January 2009

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Do It Yourself LCD Production Monitor: Part 3

There have been a few new and exciting developments in my quest to create my own production monitor. First, I have to say up front that it is cheaper to buy a broken LCD TV (with a good LCD panel and controller board) and fix it, than it is to try to use a laptop [...]

4. January 2009

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Do It Yourself LCD Production Monitor: Part 2

A few days ago I went ahead and dismantled the IBM ThinkPad T21 I had lying around. The laptop still worked but there was a problem with the backlight and it had some serious wear and tear. The backlight issue can easily be fixed with a new inverter. So with that in mind, I proceeded [...]

3. January 2009

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Do It Yourself LCD Production Monitor: Part 1

Back in the day I used to own a Fuchsia 1977 Chevy Impala. That’s right, Fuchsia. *Smile* The car was having some problems with the carburetor and so I decided to buy a kit to rebuild the carburetor. I admit, I was motivated by the ridiculous prices I was being quoted by mechanics. So I [...]

28. December 2008

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Moving Forward - Staying on Track

I’m working on one of my docs and I’m glad that I’ve been experimenting with other films in between because I learned about a simple feature Adobe Premier offers (Multiple sequences in a project. A basic feature, I know.) that has helped me tremendously with organizing the footage for this doc and helping me know [...]

11. December 2008

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New Films

Well I’m doing my Aries thing as usual. I didn’t shoot “Old Wounds”, instead I shot a video on how to make fake intestines for HowCast.com (so not worth it), and I shot a short film called “Anything”. This was originally supposed to just be a one weekend shoot but I think I’d like to [...]

29. November 2008

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Back to working on documentary, Our Side of Joy

Well I’m back to working on “Our Side of Joy”. I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t just work on these two docs I have sitting here already filmed. I think I just don’t like editing. *smile* I can do it, yes. But I don’t like it. I think on future projects, if [...]

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