So I’m working through all of the footage and I think I should be done with categorizing this week. I can then work on importing and categorizing the B-roll and hopefully work on my story flow by the end of January. I’m hoping to have a final version of this film done by July.

I’ve been watching more documentaries and it’s still tough to get a feel for how I want to present this story since all the docs I’ve seen are hours of bad road (i.e. negative). But it did make me feel like a positive documentary is even more important right now. Its not a good thing to live in a society where art takes you to the abyss and never brings you back.

Equipment for these two films:
This was obviously something I spent days and days planning because I was taking a plane down to Florida so I couldn’t take things I may have taken to a local shoot. This was by far the second most energy consuming task (the first being scheduling but I’ll talk about that later). I also have “Tressa’s law of traveling” which usually includes traveling with no more than one large luggage and something like a backpack. This was definitely not going to happen now that I’ve started filming when I travel. So let’s start with the equipment and then the bags/packing.

1 – Panasonic DVX100B
1 – Azden SGM-1X Shotgun Mic
3 – Smith-Victor light sockets
3 – Smith-Victor soft boxes
3 – Smith-Victor 8′ light stands
2 – 500 watt incandescent light bulbs
1 – 250 watt incandescent light bulb
2 – 105 watt Fluorescent light bulbs
1 – 65 watt Fluorescent light bulb
Stock Battery
9 Hr Battery
Camera Remote
Lens cleaning cloth
Logitech Noise Canceling Headphones
30 – Mini DV tapes
Pen for labeling tapes
Battery Charger
3 – Impact Light dimmers
Sticky Pod
Video Cables
Impact VT-2500 Tripod
2 – Sand bags
AA & AAA batteries
Power Strips
extension cords
Automatic pan/tilt head
Gaffer Tape
Script book
Rain cover

All of this stuff fit into two checked bags and one carryon. I decided to buy a hard carryon (Pelican) case to use when traveling from now on. In it is everything I need to film if my other bags are lost. Basically, my camera, all of the tapes, microphone w/cables, pan/tilt head, cleaning cloth, etc. Of course not the lights.

One checked bag was a medium sized luggage that I primarily used to carry my three light sockets and tripod head which were inside a hard case (Porta Brace) and some power cords, empty sand bags, ect. The second checked luggage was a kinda upright duffel bag made by JEEP. This is the most awesome bag on the planet and it is what I used to carry my gear around town once I was at my destination. This bag had my clothes in it along with my light stands, tripod legs, Sticky Pod, and light boxes, etc. All baggage was within airline weight limits. I shipped ALL of my light bulbs ahead of time via the US mail. I also shipped them back when I left (I did break one of the high wattage fluorescents while there but happened to find them in Light Bulbs Unlimited and nowhere else in Tampa or surrounding areas. Light Bulbs Unlimited didn’t even know they carried them.).

Once in Florida I put everything I needed for each shoot in the one JEEP bag which had wheels and a telescoping handle. I’d rented a PT Cruiser which initially I didn’t want but after getting it I quickly realized the incredible blessing it was. With the back seats pushed down, I found I didn’t have to break down my 3 light boxes anymore. I put all three, fully assembled in the back along with my JEEP bag full of my gear. Eventually I would leave the light boxes in there until I needed them. I was also able to film Charise’s beach interview sitting in the back of the PT Cruiser. She was sitting outside the car and I sat on the folded down seats inside the car (with the back door up of course). This way, my microphone was shielded from all of the wind and outside noise and I could get just her against the ocean in the background.

Everyone I interviewed were nice enough to help carry stuff and help setup. I was pretty thankful because it is time consuming if it’s just you filming. I would like to have a small crew next time.

Preparation for these films:
I originally was just going to film Charise but thought I’d ask Marlo and Michelle if I could do a doc about their lives anyway. I didn’t really expect them to say yes but they did! So then I went to work with setting up phone meetings and gathering information on everyone so I could determine what my stories were. From there I put together my questions. I like to cover as much as possible so I tend to have many many questions to ask.

The schedule was the most energy consuming task. Just because when you are setting up a schedule you are at the mercy of those you are interviewing. So if they have to wait for their work schedule, so do you. This can be taxing when you need to plan ahead to make sure your shoots will be as successful as possible. I was lucky enough to have Marlo and Michelle handle getting in touch with all of their family and scheduling them in on the days I could shoot. This was a tremendous help!

Honestly, I found that once I had all of my points covered, there wasn’t much else for me to pre-plan. For instance 1. Subjects to Interview, 2. Clear stories to tell, 3. Questions to ask, 4. Gear needed, 5. Schedule. Then it’s shooting time. I pre-worked how I thought the final films would be structured because I had time. I also setup photoshoots which can be added to the workflow for covering promotional material as well.

I was also fortunate because everyone stuck to the schedule and everything I had planned went exactly on time. It was the most incredible film shoot I could ask for. And I had tons of fun with friends I hadn’t seen in a very long time. :)

I originally planned to do only one trailer for the documentary on Albinism but there is really two parts to it; the medical aspect and the social aspect. So when I collected clips for the one trailer, I had no choice but to make two instead of one, if I wanted to end up with something that is actually trailer length and not a full hour or so documentary. :)

This trailer was also hard because of the subject and also being limited on B-roll clips as well. But so far I’m satisfied with what I have put together. After completing the first trailer, putting together this second one and working on it in Adobe After Effects has been much faster.

I originally planned to do only one trailer for the documentary on Albinism but there is really two parts to it; the medical aspect and the social aspect. So when I collected clips for the one trailer, I had no choice but to make two instead of one, if I wanted to end up with something that is actually trailer length and not a full hour or so documentary. :)

This trailer was also hard because of the subject and also being limited on B-roll clips as well. But so far I’m satisfied with what I have put together. After completing the first trailer, putting together this second one and working on it in Adobe After Effects has been much faster.

One of the main challenges I had with editing of course was knowing when to stop editing. When is your art ever “good enough”? :) The other thing was getting a feel for the length of the titles. It is a fairly straightforward thing to add titles to the trailer but between those and adding the music, it was kind of a back and forth thing with the title length.

The final challenge was the music. On one hand, I am capable of scoring the film(s) myself. I have a pretty strong musical background and an extensive audio library. But that aspect of filmmaking is a whole other project within itself. Being that I plan, shoot, edit, and pretty much handle every aspect of my film projects, doing the scores for all trailers and two different documentaries is a bit much. :) So I spent countless hours online looking for suitable, affordable audio to use for these film projects. I find that a great deal of the music available is quite substandard and on top of being substandard it is expensive. But fortunately I was able to find an incredible music source with excellent music compositions at affordable rates. It turned my frown upside down! hahahahaha.

Once I had the music picked out and added, I decided I was done with the first trailer. Do I think it’s 100% perfection, not at all but I think its effective, concise and says what I need it to say. The second trailer for “Our Side of Joy” focuses on the relationship between Marlo and Michelle.

It’s also interesting to go over all the footage and see where I could have asked “this question or that question” or that I completely didn’t ask one person a line of questions I should have but at the same time, realize that while I could have asked all of that but with the film already at 7 hours of usable footage (not including B-roll), then I couldn’t use any more footage and keep the film at a decent length. But then again, I like to be thorough.

Another interesting thing is that when you do the editing, you can learn about speech patterns. I find it pretty fascinating.

It made me think of more ways these films can be of value to people and families. It also made me think of how I can present these films in many different settings and about the work I could do to prepare documentation and other learning aids to go with them.

I originally decided I wasn’t going to do trailers right away but changed my mind. It’s always a good idea to just make them right away and have them floating about for some time. I also find that they help me clear up any doubts or uncertainty I might have about what the films are really about.

Right now I’m going through the first trim of “Our Side of Joy” and it’s currently seven hours long. As I go through it, I’m seeing so many “lessons” and subjects I can address with this film. I also realize that this film is extremely valuable to our society and it doesn’t include a negative angle to be valuable. I’m happy that I was able to shoot a film that didn’t need to have a “problem” to make it interesting or of value.

So the first trim for Our Side of Joy is done (although I haven’t finished the first trim of the B-roll footage) and now I’m considering going ahead and making the trailer for it.

I’m currently working on the first trim for “Charise:…” and its going ok but I’m already realizing that I don’t have enough B-Roll footage and I just didn’t get enough good footage of her doing regular everyday stuff. So I’m going to have to get creative. This is also true for the twins documentary although I got a lot of B-Roll footage, its very specific footage and can’t be used just anywhere.

I’m also wondering how the interview I did with Charise on the beach is going to fly in this film because it is noisy but you can still hear Charise quite clearly. It was the best interview I was able to get out of her so I know it will be important to use it. I was sitting inside the back of my rented PT Cruiser with the camera ect. while she sat outside and that’s how we got the interview.

Cheers

Well I’m having an emotional Aries moment right now. HA! :) I’m kinda living in the moment these days and I’m back to the good side of my life path.

I’m still editing these docs I just filmed. But the more I edit them, the more I learn and the more I realize the value of certain things I’ve done over the years and my own way of life. Take for instance, the documentary on the twins. They initially didn’t think their lives were interesting enough for a film. I don’t know if they’ve changed their minds but I think the story of their lives is even more valuable than I originally thought. As I was going through and making my first round of trims, at the end of each day, I feel like something good has swirled around in my brain. But today as I went through their individual interviews it was just … well this was it. That is what I was looking for, for this film. What I mean is, what I came away with in the end is, this family represents what it means to love a group of people who are your family and friends in a way that is not distorted. The way they care for each other is pretty cut and dry. Their relationship to each other is absent of desperation and possessiveness. These two things I see in relationships all the time and what you get then is this really distorted dysfunctional needy love. Of course this family needs each other but not in a dysfunctional way. And it would seem everyone knows what their responsibilities are and accepts them. I think for me, it was just very cool to witness that because I just haven’t seen it a whole lot during my lifetime and this films says “This functional love is possible, and this is what it looks like when it exists”. It’s not perfect; it’s just honest and free of the underlying malice that is present in a lot of relationships and families. And so I feel like if I can get that from this film then it should be of value to at least some people.

The thing I’ve been brainstorming about also is the possibility of releasing this film in different formats. It occurred to me that everyone spoke in whole concepts which to me is perfect and I feel captivated by their answers. But upon looking at tons of other documentaries, I noticed that they seem to be put together for people with short attention spans. Commentary from interviewees are very short. Usually just like two or three sentences per shot and then I was like… how in the hell am I going to break up whole concepts …. hahahaha So I think what I’ll do is release the film in a couple of different ways for the different types. I’ll do the short attention span standard and then I’ll do one based on the full concepts as they are presented and perhaps that will be for folks like myself and for the academic world.

Also, I feel the doc about Albinism is very cut and dry and I should be able to put that one together fairly easily but I’m kinda sleepin on it a little right now …

1. I’m debating on if I want to do an interview for it and talk about what I’ve witnessed and experienced from the social side of having been friends with Charise and being her friend all these years. But my concern there is hurting feelings or for folks to not understand that it’s just my perspective and I’m not making the statements as if they are anything but my own perspective.

2. I’m debating on if I’m going to see if the black woman with Albinism in my neighborhood would like to be interviewed and added to the film.

I do hope I can decide on both soon.

While I’m feeling chatty… I was watching one of my favorite movies, “Nuts” with Barbara Streisand (?) and Richard Dryfuss, and listening to the audio commentary. She produced the movie so she did the commentary. And she was talking about how hard it is to for people to want to hear the truth and how strange that is… and I was reflecting on that and …yeah, people don’t like hearing the truth even if you put it nicely and do your best to let them know that no matter what the truth is, you are going to support them and still love them, etc. Which to me should make dealing with the truth easier. On one hand I can see how hearing the truth may be painful and there is nothing one can do about it (like if someone dies or something) but it would seem in some cases that what may make wanting to hear the truth uncomfortable is a fear of the consequences or being left out there or unsupported once you hear it. So then I would think that if you show the person (telling isn’t enough) that you can handle the reality together, that they would at least go ahead and hear it but… nah. They don’t. odd creatures we are.

Anyway, it is a very good movie. It has a lot of really good concepts about how we treat each other, how people can appear to be one way and really be piles of shit in reality, and also it deals with mental illness, normalcy, and childhood trauma but not in the ways you’d expect.

This just had me thinking because I always try to be honest but at the same time, be kind about it and supportive where needed but sometimes its a struggle because I realize folks don’t want to hear it and/or they may feel back stabbed or something and I don’t want to act like my need to say what I want to say should be put before the reality that they may feel sideswiped or something. So if I’m going to be honest I need to assess the validity, worth and method. Of course I’m not talking about choosing to be dishonest over being honest, I’m talking about knowing when to be honest and doing it in a dignified way.

Anyway, my Aries moment has passed and I’m going back to editing.

Cheers!