My dad looked over at me with a cigarette in his hand. In all fairness, he usually has a cigarette in his hands whenever I see him outside in the garage at night, but the smoke gave my dad a look of age and wisdom. Smoking for some reason does look cool no matter what our teachers and parents have said.
“If you want to be a reporter, you have to be a bitch.”
On a scale of one to ten, this particular Monday was going well. Being a videographer for KOMU had gone well today, I was almost done with one of my video projects, and I wouldn’t have to work the coming weekend so I was feeling pretty good.
But not everything can go so smoothly. Continue reading Reputation – How an Awesome Project Can Go Up in Smokes
Well, I like how bright and colorful this video is and and fits the mood I’ve been recently.
Alright, sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been busy with trying to organize what I’m going to do this summer. Like getting a job. Because, you know , I’m poor.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to put off the documentary because of audio issues. I.E. Meaning I don’t have the proper audio equipment yet. I’m saving up for it though and it won’t be long.
But on a better note, I’m going to be working on a film crew this summer on top of the poor college student job as well. So I’ll be busy. I’ll be working with a guy named Tony (http://vimeo.com/84005828- a link to his documentary The KOMU Experience), who originally got me into videography and the panasonic lumix gh3, on a psychologist thriller that will be about thirty minutes.
I’ll update you more later as I learn more. That and I don’t know what I can or can’t say.
All I know is that I’ll learning ALOT! So basically, I’m jumping up and down like a two year old about to get her favorite ice cream.
I’ll put in a post analyzing some of the lady gaga music videos because… well because I’ve started getting into that habit since I started learning about videos.
So until Monday when I might be learning more about this stuff.
You may be asking, what’s with the photo and what does it have to do with audio editing?
Honestly? Not much. I just took this picture yesterday and I’m fond of it so yup, wanted to show it off a bit. Now that I look at it, I should’ve stepped back a bit farther or used a different lens.
Anywho, for my last project for convergence class. I had to edit audio. I had to take out all the uhms and breaths and put it all together. Maybe it was just me, but it was difficult after awhile because I kept listening to the whole thing over and over again.
After awhile, I could barely hear anything. It’s like my ears lost the sharpness after awhile if that makes sense. Rather pain in the butt, but hopefully I’ll get better at it sooner or later. It’s like eyes getting blurry after looking at a computer screen for too long.
It’s very important when working with video. I’m not sure if my future job will require that I be great at audio, but it can’t hurt to know. So mentally note, audio editing on my list of things I need to get better at.
I think I’m a visual person though so it’s just a pain in the butt to me with just listening.
Anyway, I’ll probably keep up with this blog. This blog was originally for a class as some of you may know, but I’m fond of this blogging thing and it’s fun to share my videos and pictures online.
So that’s that.
Since I have free time now, I’ll finally get my spring break video done and I’ll work on the inspiration video with the Alan Watts lecture on it.
And the documentary I need to get working on too. I’ll probably interview my sister next and then during the summer I’ll probably go see my mother’s family.
You think interviewing family is going to be easy? Nope, I think I’ve mentioned that I haven’t talked to my mother’s family in… probably a few years.
And I need more b-roll.
So in class, we talked about photography and how people use photoshop to make things look better even though it’s not a good thing. You know, ethics and all that jazz.
We didn’t talk about video and how easy it is to make someone look bad, beautiful, hateful, and all the things that people can be at a click of a button, but I’m sure it remains.
Yet, do journalists follow this kind of thought process when it comes to video?
Let’s change the color on this shot to make him/her look healthier. Let’s only cut this sound bite because we only have so much time. Take out the uhms and shutters (which isn’t hard to do), but what does that mean? Is that ethical?
Probably not. I can understand why to take out the uhms and the shuttering, but what can we do at this point? We only have so much time on the air.
Even CNN saturates colors, I think to make certain things standout. Or at least, I think they do. I’m not an expert. It’s easy and it can make a certain color or a certain object standout.
I play around with editing a lot, but what are my morals? Where will I stand at?
And I have officially entered uncomfortable thoughts. I want to make things look sharp and beautiful, but I can’t always do that. And there are some things, a lot of things, that can’t be made beautiful and shouldn’t.
I could be wrong though. I could be over thinking it.
I’ve always had a fondness for Anthony Bourdain. He’s a good writer and has somehow mixed food and journalism together to make interesting shows about a place. He can weave a beautiful story with food. I started paying attention to more than just the content of his shows though when I started Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a different show or maybe I haven’t just noticed it before, but the shots in this show are beautiful. BEAUTIFUL! During the show, I kept asking, “Wait, how did they get that shot!? Tell me!” Maybe it’s a perk of working with CNN? Sure, there is more than one person with a camera so you’re bound to get a lot of b-roll. (“You can never have too much b-roll.”) And a lot of awesome shots. Sure, there are a lot of jump cuts and shaky cam shots that would’ve bugged my teachers, but they’re beautiful. The colors pop out and the editing it fairly good. HOW?! I want to get those shots. Maybe if I carry a camera for hours on end I’ll get something interesting like that. I just… I just… can someone teach me that? Please?
Learning to be a Visual Storyteller 