Things are going to get moving soon, I can feel it!

The past couple months have been busy, but not in a film editing sort of way. I was out of town for a short getaway and then a long getaway, the latter including a friend’s wedding in France at which I was the unofficial videographer.

I may or may not have mentioned the sheep shearing video as well…

So I have a lot of footage, at least 4 60-minute tapes, that need capturing and editing. And the elin o’Hara slavick film to finish. And I would like to do something more and bigger on Kinshasa, but I think I’ll need another trip before that happens.

There are several spots that I’ve found where I can edit videos on Macs (the Carrboro Arts Center, The People’s Channel, and UNC undergrad library’s media center) for free, but it means highly prioritizing these projects and making an effort several times a week to schedule ahead, make it to the locations during the hours that they are open, and (often) figuring out how to get home after the bus stops running.

To solve these problems, I’ve decided to take the plunge and update my technology.  I have a Compaq laptop that I bought in 2000, and since my needs began to outstrip its capabilities, I’ve counted on work or public computers.  We have a tax-free weekend coming up, so I see a new computer in my future!

Second project, first finished film

I finished a short (3-minute) video, which is really more of a pitch than anything, called “Conflict in DR Congo: A Crash Course.” Once I have the revised edit ready for public consumption, I’ll post a link.

At the moment, it is being evaluated by a panel of judges for a competition to win tuition for film school. I should know by May 20 if it has made the list of finalists.

From April 9-28th, I was in Kinshasa, and arrived without a suitcase, so my camera made it but several smaller bits did not, and the tripod went missing with the suitcase. I felt a bit deflated about my project, a feeling that did not improve when I asked my friends if they would let me interview them about expat life in Kinshasa and they said no. So I waited until the very last minute, the day before I was leaving, to get some footage for the 3-minute project.

I interviewed a friend and former colleague of mine, who summarized some of the issues surrounding civil conflict in DR Congo, which was acute between 1997 and 2002, but has continued to the present, particularly in the east. This interview is interspersed with some footage from around Kinshasa and some Creative Commons photographs from Flickr.

This project was a huge learning experience, but I think that’s a different post.

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The elin o’Hara slavick project is on hold temporarily. I spent about 10-12 hours editing thusfar, and it will take at least that many again to finish. I found out that I can edit at The People’s Channel for free, as long as I produce something that they can air locally. (Of course – who doesn’t want free publicity?) So I am planning to work in some editing time over the next month or so and get that off my plate.

Lessons learned from first shoot

Shooting our footage was a grand learning experience. We did this in one window of 3.5 hours, from picking up equipment to dropping it off again.

Lesson 1: Plan lots of time. Even checking out equipment took an hour, because we had to ensure that all packs included all items on the list. We also got an impromptu review of how to use some of the equipment, important since I missed both the sound class and the lighting class.

Lesson 2: Take time to set up. Fortunately our interviewee was amenable and relaxed, as we used the first 20 minutes of our session to set up tripods, attach batteries, turn on cameras and lights, plug things in, attach lavaliers to people. Unfortunately, due to our inexperience, we did not notice till after shooting that the beachtek was not plugged into the camera and the lavaliers that the interviewee and I wore recorded no sound.

Lesson 3: Take time to shoot. I was concerned with finishing within our appointed time block, and I was trusting my collaborator with much of the camera work, but I was equally responsible for some problems. In reviewing the footage, of which there is only one take, shaky camera work is apparent, as is accidental zooming out, jerky panning, and variable exposure (most too dark).

Lesson 4: Take time to ensure that the team is on the same page. My collaborator and I disagreed a couple of times, first over exposure and second over framing. Our interviewee specifically requested that we include a certain painting in the frame as she talked about it, but in looking back at the footage, only the bottom corner appears.

A lot of these problems will be worked out in the editing process, but in the future, I’ll be paying much more attention to these elements for starters.