So I’ve been trying to work with audio recording for a long time now and it’s been a huge hassle. So much so that I actually considered turning my film into another silent film. Instead, I have very short, unfortunately shoddily recorded scenes with dialogue that really detract from what I was trying to do in the first place — create a seamless, non-amateur looking and feeling film. I’m really happy with all of my work in terms of cinematography and general direction… but audio recording has been such a big obstacle that it’s going to affect the quality of my movie.

I was advised to use the Zoom handy recorders from Media Loan, so after receiving training I did some tests. My editing software did not work well with the recorded audio files and made it extremely choppy. Sad, because the clarity was very nice. I worked with one for a few days and then had to return it with no useable footage/audio.

After that sad debacle I decided to use my roommate’s binaural microphones to record fairly clear, three dimensional sound. Cool thing, especially when I had two actors standing a little too far away from each other to be picked up at the same level.

Here’s a short Wikipedia article on the use of binaural recording – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

I used it a few times with good results, then slowly realized that the footage I had gotten really did not look good. It was really washed out and dark for some reason, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. I chose to reshoot the footage, and after an actor had to bail because of scheduling conflicts, with a new actor and a better location. I was allowed to shoot inside the Texaco near Evergreen campus for a few short shots then used the parking lot for my sequence. Unfortunately we were unable to use the area we needed for shooting because a group moved in, and even after agreeing to vacate the space for our use proceeded to stick around making noise and eventually returning to the area before we had a chance to finalize our other shots.

This meant we had to use the open parking lot where there was a lot of exposure to wind and the passing cars on Cooper Pt. not 30 feet away. It was tough to get the correct shots and the sun was shining so brightly that it was difficult to get the actors in focus and properly exposed without the background being completely blown out.

Unfortunately, this means that I will be having to dub over the footage with a USB microphone during the final editing today and tomorrow. It’s going to be very tough to match quality and pitch, and to counteract this problem I have about 10 minutes of audio recorded to use for background noise so we won’t have to use much audio at all from the actual shots. Sucks to have to do it this way, but it’ll be rewarding to do some new things with editing that I haven’t touched before.

So I’ve been trying to work with audio recording for a long time now and it’s been a huge hassle. So much so that I actually considered turning my film into another silent film. Instead, I have very short, unfortunately shoddily recorded scenes with dialogue that really detract from what I was trying to do in the first place — create a seamless, non-amateur looking and feeling film. I’m really happy with all of my work in terms of cinematography and general direction… but audio recording has been such a big obstacle that it’s going to affect the quality of my movie.

I was advised to use the Zoom handy recorders from Media Loan, so after receiving training I did some tests. My editing software did not work well with the recorded audio files and made it extremely choppy. Sad, because the clarity was very nice. I worked with one for a few days and then had to return it with no useable footage/audio.

After that sad debacle I decided to use my roommate’s binaural microphones to record fairly clear, three dimensional sound. Cool thing, especially when I had two actors standing a little too far away from each other to be picked up at the same level.

Here’s a short Wikipedia article on the use of binaural recording – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

I used it a few times with good results, then slowly realized that the footage I had gotten really did not look good. It was really washed out and dark for some reason, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. I chose to reshoot the footage, and after an actor had to bail because of scheduling conflicts, with a new actor and a better location. I was allowed to shoot inside the Texaco near Evergreen campus for a few short shots then used the parking lot for my sequence. Unfortunately we were unable to use the area we needed for shooting because a group moved in, and even after agreeing to vacate the space for our use proceeded to stick around making noise and eventually returning to the area before we had a chance to finalize our other shots.

This meant we had to use the open parking lot where there was a lot of exposure to wind and the passing cars on Cooper Pt. not 30 feet away. It was tough to get the correct shots and the sun was shining so brightly that it was difficult to get the actors in focus and properly exposed without the background being completely blown out.

Unfortunately, this means that I will be having to dub over the footage with a USB microphone during the final editing today and tomorrow. It’s going to be very tough to match quality and pitch, and to counteract this problem I have about 10 minutes of audio recorded to use for background noise so we won’t have to use much audio at all from the actual shots. Sucks to have to do it this way, but it’ll be rewarding to do some new things with editing that I haven’t touched before.

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!

Hey there everyone, just figured I’d give you all an inside look at what a shoot for me generally involves.

For a simple equipment list, I have a small piece of white poster board I use as a reflector, a Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, a Tiffen polarizer and .6 neutral density filter all held up by a Manfrotto tripod.

For the past few shoots, I’ve had a few props such as journals and quarters, so that has been a huge part of my preparation and execution. The most notable thing about this is that I keep forgetting these props and I have had to reschedule specific shoots maybe 3 or 4 different times. With my actors all in classes of their own, it makes it very difficult to coordinate everyone effectively. There have only been a few days where the weather has been uncooperative but even then I was able to make accommodations. Too bad it decided to really only rain well enough three days out of the last four weeks. That means whatever I got on those days… well that’s pretty much it. I’m finalizing a few of my main shots right now and have begun vigorously editing. This isn’t the project I had imagined when I first entered this class/fabricated my proposal, but I’m liking the direction it has taken.

When I’m looking to shoot a scene, I’m always looking for the most interesting angles, viewpoints and depth of field. I love advanced camera techniques and it makes me sad that I couldn’t find the required parts for my steadicam system because I am now having a lot of trouble deciding whether or not those shots are really important enough. One of my friends recently invested in a legitimate Glidecam system but he hasn’t expressed interest in letting me use it so we will see if tomorrow I can throw it all on and get some of the shots I had hoped for.

I love the look and feel of sprawling landscapes, same with dilapidated buildings. I love wide shots to death, but I’m beginning to see that my camera just looks a little too digital for me while the closer shots look much more cinematic. Of course this has to do with depth of field and a few other things but I’ve always had a big problem with close shots as they require absolutely meticulous planning both on the director’s and actor’s part. I’m not sure how to rectify my feelings other than color correcting the shit out of all my footage, so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

I have a bunch more to add here but I’m running a tad late for a shoot today. Ta ta!

Hope everyone has a good week preparing for their presentation!