Sunday, June 25, 2006

The Sunset Blues Commentary

the whole point of the video was to inspire youth to utilize media in Christian ministry.  the video was made with materials that could be found around the house, such as skateboards and desklamps, and the software i used was all free.  my main editing program was Avid FreeDV, and for some particular effects, i used iMovie (which isn’t free, but Windows Movie Maker is).  all the DIY equipment and free software was used to tell the youth, “You can do it too!”  so on to some more light-hearted stuff, such as what went on in the shoot.

i found the location thanks to howard, my high school classmate who’s living in toronto at the moment.  he lives in an apartment in the northern part of downtown, and the roof was where we shot the entire film.  the first time i went to the roof, i knew that i’d be either doing a photo shoot or a video shoot.  the view’s amazing, especially during sunset.  sadly, i couldn’t showcase more of toronto’s sunset skyline because we were running out of time and had to rush through some shots. 

there were also other technical difficulties that slowed us down.  we ran out of power during the crucial sunset shots because the only two power outlets nearby gave out no electricity.  zilch.  i guess they were for decoration or something.  our power extension wasn’t long enough, so we could get to other power sources.  my video camera, which was borrowed from the university of toronto, also had almost no battery life.  it was pathetic.  the battery would drain in a couple of minutes.  i guess that’s the problem of borrowing equipment from a big university like UT.  who knows how many students have used that camera beforehand.  because we had no power, we also couldn’t use our light!  now that was pretty devastating, but luckily, there were some lamps that were built into the wall, and we cheated a bit to use those to light our shots.  if you look closely at the closeups on my eyes in the later half of the video, you can see the reflection of the lamp off my glasses.  those lil lamps saved our lives, because without those, we’d be in deep water with no rubber duckies to cling to.

because of the technical difficulties, i couldn’t get the shots i had planned out.  i had initially planned to use a pulley system with strings and hooks to hoist the camera high into the air and capture some amazing shots of the toronto skyline.  sadly, we had no time to setup, and i had to scrap my plans and make do.  i bought all the string and hooks from the hardware store, but i didn’t end up using it.  at least i got to test it out when i got back home.  i’ll be sure to try it again in some later video shoot.  it seems like every video i’ve made, there have been some sort of technical difficulties.  it’s annoying, but i guess it’s part of the game.  perhaps one day i’ll finally have a perfect shoot where i can plan out my shots and execute them perfectly.  maybe when i graduate and have more time on my hands…

with every video, some props are due, and i want to thank the guys (and one girl) who came out to help me shoot this.  they couldn’t have been more patient, and they stuck with me late into the evening.  thanks donald, felix, ho-ming, and mel!

Posted by Nehe555 on 06/25 at 07:12 PM
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