Closing out 2009

I walk every morning and regardless of the weather I go outside even for a few minutes, to get my bearings in nature. Today’s there’s a soft snow falling and as I stepped outside I saw a herd of 8 deer passing quietly through the woods.

Times Square, New Years Eve

Most days I take this time to think about the upcoming day but this morning I started to think about the past year.

Like most people I talk to, I can’t say this year has been the greatest financially, but I managed and I’m grateful for all the opportunities I had. And rather than stress too much about the down time, I channeled my energy into creating new work and a new website. The redesign of the website consumed more time than anticipated but things like that usually do. And to some extent it continues to be a work in progress.

The Delta Blues Project

2009 was very rewarding for me in terms of my personal projects. My Delta Blues Project, which opened in 2008 at the Fullerton Museum, in California, was shown locally. Finally my friends and neighbors, who have heard me talk about my work over the years, could now come and see it on exhibition.  Freedom’s Ride, a documentary about two diverse group of high school students who traveled from New Jersey to Alabama, retracing the Civil Rights movement, aired on various PBS stations and continues to be shown at educational venues.

I started writing – for myself and on commission. I have discovered that I love to write. I never would have expected that because I’ve always struggled with words and usually defaulted to communicating visually. But it’s the things that I struggle with that seem to give me the most rewards.

Locally in my town of 5000 people. I have become part of a small grass roots group called TAG. We are a non-partisan group that seeks transparency and accountability in our local government. My husband and I trained a small army of volunteers on how to operate a video camera so that they can shoot town meetings. Since May, our town meetings have been televised on our local public access station, MendhamTV. What a difference that has made as far as how the citizens of my town have become more involved in their community. I’m really proud of being a part of that.

It’s been a year of change and growth. Now on to 2010. Tomorrow is the start of a new year and along with that new hopes and dreams. But it’s really just another day – a day we can shape any way we want to.

Mistakes People Make When Starting a Video Production Business

• They focus too much on the “tools” and not the “technique”. These days video equipment is relatively cheap. Therefore the entry-level bar has been lowered for video production. Learn your skill set and be unique – have your own vision or point of view that separates you from the rest.
• They skimp on the audio, tripod and lighting. The camera is just one piece of equipment you need. You also need independent external microphones to be able to capture good audio as well as a good tripod with a fluid head. If you’re going to be shooting indoors or doing interviews – you’ll  need some lighting equipment. You can either go the route of hot lights or LED panels which are portable and cool but costly.
• They forget about the editing and output. Shooting  is one thing – editing it and getting it “out” is another. Learning to edit will make you a better shooter. You quickly realize in the editing room what you SHOULD have shot in the field.
• They don’t diversify. This is important when first starting out. It will pay the bills and will help you get better at what you do. And it may also help you in find your niche.
• They forget about marketing. Lots of people have equipment and even more people have great ideas but if they don’t promote their business, they’ll spend their days waiting for the phone to ring.
• They don’t realize that business is about people – not just the tech. Work on your people skills and your business will flourish.
• They don’t network. Networking of course is critical for  getting new business.  It’s also beneficial to network with other people in the video production business. Video production is all about collaboration, so it’s essential that you get to know shooters, sound mixers and editors. Join listserv groups and go to meet-ups in your area.
• They under-estimate what a job will cost in both time and resources. There are many facets to video production – the shoot, audio, editing, music, graphics, motion graphics, scripts, voiceovers and delivery. If you won’t be facilitating all those facets – then you need to determine how much it will cost and present that in your estimate.
• They don’t draw up a production schedule. This is essential to keeping a job on target. Make sure that each step of the project has a delivery date specified and signed off on.
• They don’t realize that they are under insured. Many people coming from a still photography background don’t realize that their current insurance policy does not necessarily cover video production.

The Power of Nostalgia

I’m not one to “look back” much, but I watched a story today on the news magazine show Sunday Morning about nostalgia that got me thinking about the past. Apparently, according to the “experts” who were interviewed on the show, being nostalgic

Gang of friends. I'm on top step.

and looking back into our past isn’t such a bad thing for us to do.

But being nostalgic wasn’t always looked at as being “good” for us. In fact in the 17th and 18th centuries, nostalgia was considered a medical disease and as recent as the 20th century, it was classified as a psychiatric disorder.

Nowadays, many psychologists think it’s healthy for us to look back at our past and recognize that we have overcome hardships and setbacks in our lives and in doing so we gain the inner strength we need to move forward. With time comes perspective and with that comes a certain resolve.

Advertisers have capitalized on the power of nostalgia for years. They pitch and promote new products by connecting them to people’s fond memories of the past or how they perceive the past to have been. Pepperidge Farm commercials were intended to provoke memories of home baked goodies from our childhood and associate them with their products. Or as the fictional character Don Draper from Mad Men said when referring to the power of nostalgia “ It takes us to a place where we ache to go again – it’s delicate but profound”.

So as we close out another year and in fact the first decade of the new century, take a few moments to think about the past. I think most of us will realize that all the obstacles that seemed insurmountable at the time, ended up being necessary for all the other things to happen in our lives. Just like George Bailey in the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” found out when he had been given a glimpse into how things would have been different had he never been born – he really did have a wonderful life. He just needed to look back and take notice.

Merry Christmas

Tuba concert, Rockefeller Center, NYC

I’m home and looking forward to spending a few days with family and friends. The presents are bought and wrapped (well almost) and it’s time to just enjoy.

We all spend so much time “connected” to computers, ipods, iphones and every other device, we forget to enjoy some of the simplest things in life like a nice fire or a good bowl of soup on a snowy day. So for the next couple of days I will take joy in really “connecting” with the people I love through conversation,  good food and lots of laughter.

And I will be grateful for what I have and think of those less fortunate. I’ll remind myself to be kind to others and recognize the power of that.

It’s a time for love and peace and taking time to breathe.

Striving for Perfection

Perfection is over rated. In fact many times in our quest for perfection, we actually stop ourselves from our pursuits – both professionally and personally. How many times have you talked yourself out of something because things weren’t perfect? Like “It’s too cold today to take a walk” or “I didn’t get around to dusting the piano so I won’t have company over.”

Nothing’s ever perfect or like Hollywood leads us to believe. And if you buy into that – you’ll end up never quite feeling like things lived up to your expectations and being miserable in the process.

This past weekend for me certainly didn’t work out the way I had planned it to be. My daughter’s scheduled 5PM flight out of Chicago on Friday night – normally a 2-hour flight – arrived at Newark at 1AM! The two parties we had planned to go to on Saturday were both postponed because of a big snowstorm.

Not my Christmas tree.

And normally we would have already picked out our Christmas tree and trimmed it by this weekend but we just didn’t get to it.

Because of the snow – we didn’t make the 40 minute drive to the party we had planned to go to but went to a neighbor’s for an impromptu dinner instead. And the tree we picked out was one that hadn’t been chosen by others earlier in the month. But it did have character and we trimmed it the same as we do every year with popcorn and cranberries and ornaments that we have collected from our travels all over the world.

And on Sunday after we shoveled out, we made the 40-minute journey to the party that had been postponed from the day before. There were about half as many people there that had been invited and along with that the food that they were supposed to bring. But even though the ham was still in Connecticut and the salad was in Staten Island we didn’t really care.

Oddly enough even though none of the original expectations of the weekend were met – it was the most perfect weekend I can remember. Today the sun is shining on a beautiful pristine blanket of fresh snow – a great day to take some time and go out for a walk.

The Family Story

This time of year we all try to spend more time with our families and loved ones. It’s also a time when we reflect on the people who are no longer with us. For the most part we rely on our memories and some scattered photographs or home movies.

Mooney family dressed up for Easter. I'm the child smiling.

Some of the fondest memories I have of my mother, father and grandparents are of us sitting around the dinner table, long after the meal was over and listening to the family stories. Of course each person would tell the same story in an entirely different way – the way they remembered it.

Every family has stories – mine certainly does and I have started to collect information, photographs and even recordings of family members while they are still around to tell them. It’s such an easy thing to do with all the tools that technology has provided in the way of cameras and audio recorders.

I often think that as photographers and filmmakers we are not only the keepers of our own family stories but we are documenting the stories for other families through our images, recordings and videos. Here’s a recording of my Uncle Dorlen talking about fishing in Northern Michigan in the winter.

Family gathering at my Uncle "Frenchy's" memorial.

Essentially, we are creating an archive of our loved ones and the memories. And that is the most precious gift that I can give someone through the talents of my craft.

I was recently looking at someone’s vacation snapshots and it occurred to me just how precious those images are, certainly for the people in them and the people they know. I have always taken the family snapshots and have recently started video recording my relatives telling their stories through their own voices, preserving them for future generations.

So think about that – even if you just take out your iPhone or Flip this holiday season, start capturing life’s moments. You’ll be glad you did.

Mistakes Still Photographers Make When Shooting Video With a DSLR

• They don’t understand the importance of audio and don’t use external microphones. Audio is everything in video.
• They think in “moments in time” and start shooting video too late or stop shooting too soon. You need to let the camera linger longer.
• They don’t shoot sequences with a beginning, middle and end.
• They don’t think in “storyboard mode” – You should ask yourself  “How will I get into and out of a shot and what’s next in the story?”
• They don’t shoot enough B-roll with variations in angles and focal lengths – very important in the editing process.
• They move the camera instead of letting the motion take place in front of the camera.
• They turn the camera vertically. There aren’t too many vertical TV sets and monitors.
• They don’t use a tripod forgetting that video is “time in motion”.  It’s one thing to hold a camera steady for 1/60^th of a second and quite another to hold the shot steady for 10 seconds.
• They don’t consider the frame rate and how that will affect workflow and editing.
• Aren’t careful keeping their sensors clean from dust.  Retouching video is a lot more involved than spotting still images.
• They “throw” some video clips in with the still photography job, not putting an added value on them and thus setting a bad precedent with clients.
• They don’t consider the output and the type of file to be delivered.  There are dozens of formats and codecs in video.  Choose according to your target audience and viewing platform or device.

Reconnecting with The Ancient Ones

What started out as a mileage run to the West Coast on Friday, turned out to be a day of interesting connections.  My plan was to fly out to San Francisco on Friday morning and return the next morning.  I needed one more flight – the cost of a cheap ticket – to reach the next level of my airline elite status. I have a pretty full travel schedule next year and the upgrade in status will be beneficial.

Since I had the time, I decided reconnect with an old college friend whom I hadn’t seen in over 25 years.  He picked me up at the airport and from the moment I got into the car until we parted company later that afternoon, it was like we hadn’t missed a beat.  Both older, yet fundamentally the same people we were back in college.  There was a comfortable feeling being with each other even though so many years had gone by.

Later that evening I had drinks with a colleague whom I had met a few years back at SATW’s (Society of American Travel Writers) conference in England. During the evening I mentioned a personal project I was embarking on “People Making a Difference” and queried him about story ideas and people he may know. That conversation led us to talking about the travels we’ve each had over the years.  We quickly discovered that we had made similar backpacking odysseys back in the early 70’s. We began to retrace the paths we had each taken - I spoke of traveling from Cairo to Beirut, then on to Damascus and through Iraq to Kuwait. He followed with a nearly identical itinerary and picked up the journey from Kuwait by boat to Abadon, Iran and overland to Afghanistan.  We soon realized that we had been to the same places during the same period of time.

We both commented on the fact that we never come across people in our lives that have had that kind of parallel experience.  He then told me a funny story. He had traveled back to India with his grown son when a young traveler came up to him asking for money so he could get something to eat.  My friend told the traveler about his own journeys when he was his age. The young traveler responded by saying “Whoa – you’re one of the Ancient Ones”.  My friend relayed this story to me and pointed out that traveler’s comment had been spoken in a manner of respect, the same manner of respect with which native indigenous peoples refer to their elders or “ancient ones”.

It was an unusual day where I set out to take a trip for the sake of miles and ended up reconnecting with my past on a couple of different levels.  I tend to look forward in my life rather than at the past but sometimes reconnecting with your past connects circles and reminds of us who we really are. I kind of like being an Ancient One.

Video News

I came across some interesting things this week, so I am passing them along.

One was the much anticipated announcement of the debut of the Scarlet – a new camera from the same company that makes The Red. There have been a lot of rumors about this camera over the past year and it will be rolled out in 2010.  Check out Philip Bloom’s blog about it. And here’s another post on FreshDV with information about the Scarlet.

If you’re a Sony EX-1 shooter, here’s an interesting tip along with a how-to-video on using the Zacuto Z-finder with that camera. This viewfinder was made for the Canon 5d, but Martijn Schroevers found a clever way to attach it to the LCD of the Sony EX-1.

Next up is yet another new video camera format from Sony – NXCAM. The NXCAM can record 1920 x 1080 images at 24Mbps (50i or 25p), as well as supporting 720/50p and Standard Definition recording.
Very interesting but I wish these camera manufacturers would standardize formats and codecs.

I also came across a very interesting company called Wistia. They allow you to share and host your videos but in addition they offer heatmap tracking which gives you a visual spectrum of how your visitors watch your videos and what attracts them or confuses them.

And to give you an idea of how much web video viewing has exploded, here’s an online channel Expotv where consumers send in video product reviews. No fancy production values but an interesting concept of sharing information that has really caught on.

With all those news items I figured it was about time I changed my header – gone is that template blue – replaced by something more relevant to the blogger.

Watching TV Without The Sound – A Lesson In Editing

Every morning I spend an hour on the treadmill while plugged into my iPod listening to music. Sometimes the TV is turned on but with the sound turned off. I have found that just “watching” TV and in particular the commercials, is a great way to learn editing technique. I’m not distracted by the audio so I can better see how the elements get cut together.

Commercials need to get their message out in 15 seconds so the cuts are generally quick and the story needs to be told in an efficient manner. Action-reaction shots, cutaways, close-ups, sequencing – all stand out to my eye because I’m not distracted by the sound. It makes for a great lesson in editing. I notice the visual storyline – what shots are bumped up together, how long they stay on the screen and how they all make up the whole in presenting the message.

Conversely, if I have the TV on in another room (with the audio) and I’m just listening, I can usually get the message without seeing any visuals. That’s why great audio is essential – it drives the story. If people can’t hear something or understand it because the audio is poor quality, the piece fails to engage.

So try it sometime. Watch TV without the sound and notice how the story is told through the visuals and how they are cut together. It will help make you a better editor. And then try watching a video that you create with and without the sound. It’s a great way to see if you are telling the story that you meant to tell.