I guess my first difficulty is I haven’t started on it yet.

Honestly, these projects are hard for me.  I’m not creative in the linear format of working in the process.  It’s never worked for me.  When I played in bands, and even when I write music now I don’t start by writing some works and finding music to fit them.. I might scrawl a few lines, and play a few chords.. but it doesn’t come together for me until I hit record and improvise it for a bit.  It works so much better for me to have a shot at it and see what works, find some sort of cohesion between all the crap I’ve come up with.  It’s not really the best way to do video because it really does take a lot of planning to get a well polished finished product.

I’ll have to sketch some stuff. Write some stuff. Make shitty venn diagrams of reasons the Ninja Turtles kept April O’Neal around.  My project’s probably going to be ok. I might write a song, or make a how to video on making toast.  I don’t know until I’m forced in to a last minute situation, which unfortunately is how I turn out some of my best work.  Perhaps it’s my condition.

How do you know what you’re going to shoot before you do it?  How do you know the subject is going to be portrayed exactly how you vision it? Do we just hope for the best, and when it doesn’t work that way, do it differently and pretend that’s what we meant for it to be?  I mean really, that’s what I would do. So I’m going to B/S this paper work in the order I’m supposed to, but just like last semester I’m going to make it happen as it happens and hope I can make it make some sense. Goodnight moon.

Live production is a difficult task.   There is a short window to get things done, once chance, you can’t screw it up.  Planning is important.  What do you need to do to get the results you want?  Are you prepared for it? Have everything you need? Does everything work? A big fat checklist to go down and then you have to perform.

You can’t do live, on set videography if you don’t have a lack of regard for others in the room.  It’s your job to get the shot you need.  Stand on whatever you need to do, lay on the floor, block the audiences view.. that is if you’re a roaming camera.  I had a photography teacher tell me that you have to do whatever you have to do to get the shot, and I mean anything.  It sounded difficult, and being fairly introverted it was a scary thought.  Putting your eye on to the view finder helps a lot though, it’s like your making you’re own movie and watching it as it happens.. Just pretend it’s you and the subject.  Tends to work.  Oh yeah, and don’t forget to not suck.  I mean don’t jerk the camera around and get shots that are easy to edit.  Quick takes don’t work, you need long holds on each subject.

One camera won’t do it, but a roaming camera is so so important to getting a little excitement in a live/on scene shoot.  Three cameras is ideal though, and having the foresight to know where to put your other two really helps.  A long shot that stays fairly wide and steady gives you a good base to go back to if you’re other two cameras are moving/out of focus/shaky/boring/whatever. You’re third camera should have a variety of shots somewhere between the long and the roaming camera.  This is all subjective and opinion based on my little knowledge and general lack of interest in the field though.  All close ups are boring, all long shots make it look like ants, and if every shot looks like Michael J Fox is holding the camera, it ain’t gonna work.

Group projects are not my forté.  I’m not a big fan of working with others. I mean, in a work environment it’s great, we are working on the same schedule and for the same goal.. but in an eduction environment when you have to work with others it’s difficult. Everyone has jobs that put them in different places at different times.  Our class schedules are different too.  Some of us have personal responsibilities that effect the schedule too.  In the last class it was harder because we had to work together to get things done in a manner that worked the best for each of us.  Not too easy considering some of us work full time, while others sleep full time.

This class doesn’t seem as difficult, and I’m glad because I feared that I would have the same task and schedule management problems (and anxieties) that I had last semester.  Since the teacher is scheduling our group projects on site it’s been significantly easier.  Working in two man teams makes it easier.  No need to establish a leader, just discuss what we need to do and get it done, and try to divide the work evenly.  I appreciate that and lost any anxiety regarding my schedule after the talk we had at our first event.