Mike Cohen's Blog

Having experimented with HDV as documented in previous posts, this week was one of the first occasions to shoot a full day of open surgery with this format, using the Sony V1U.

In the viewfinder or flip-out LCD screen, one cannot really see a difference in clarity. Focusing is, in fact, more difficult, especially since there is often some distance between the screen and my eyes.

If I lean in too close I could potentially lose my balance, which is usually precarious to begin withstanding on three stacked 1'x2' step stools. Thus I alternate between autofocus and manual focus with frequent use of the push auto button to let the camera check focus.

Let me elaborate. If shooting wide, the autofocus works pretty well, as the background is the primary target. Hands working in the wide shot do not alter the focus too much, due to the focal length. When zoomed to a closeup or extreme closeup, the autofocus goes haywire, always trying to focus on the nearest objects, which inevitably are the constantly moving hands closest to the camera, yet the least important part of the image, although it varies.

Thus, I try to find a moment when the hands are out of the field so I can grab focus on the background, then go to manual until I move the camera. I move the camera a lot.

With a strategy for focus sorted out next comes exposure. I experimented with no zebras as well as the selectable 70% and 100% zebras, just to figure out how the levels relate to iris position. I prefer to shoot with the zebras off normally. As you know, most DV and HDV cameras use an electromechanical iris control, not a true iris ring like on more expensive lenses. I'm not sure if the V1 is electromechanical or pure electronic. In either case, the dial is in an improved location versus the PD170.

The V1U's LCD display does not always produce a discernable difference between slight iris adjustments. Again, I keep iris on manual, but frequently use the auto button to check a level. However the nature of open surgery is a severe contrast ratio that few video cameras can handle with elegance. The highly focused OR lights are pointed at the working area, sometimes only a few square inches, while the skin and blue drapes are bathed in shadow. Thus a wide shot has a bright center surrounded by shadow. If the universe has a bright center, we're on the planet that it's farthest from. Thus again, the auto iris may need to be tweaked to expose what you are actually looking at. If you want to see the setup of the wide shot, you have to live with the bright spot in the middle. In most cases, however, you are on a medium or closeup shot.

Now on to framing. I keep the on-LCD display set to show 4:3 and 80% protection lines.

While the eventual DVD version of an HDV project will likely be 16:9 anamorphic, not 4:3, the presence of the 4:3 reticle gives me a real-time indication of the framing differences from the 4:3 cameras I have been using since the late 1980's. In other words, the shots can in fact be more creative. The law of thirds in widescreen is a beautiful thing.

Next step is to fly home, capture the HDV into a Premiere project, and get editing. I recently discovered that you can start a Premiere project and designate one of your two LCD monitors for full screen monitoring. This does not do DV any favors, but HDV looks as spectacular as it can look without buying an HD monitor and 3rd party card or software. To view HDV at 100% within the Premiere interface is darn near impossible.

Oddly, Premiere does not know to move your windows from the video playback monitor to the active window, so you can get some hidden windows and dialog boxes. Just select one of the default single monitor workspace setups. Premiere CS4 supposedly makes this full screen monitoring much easier.

I tell my friends and family that a day in the OR shooting surgery is some of the most fun I have. The addition of HDV and the nuances described above, aside from keeping me on my toes for 12 hours, makes things really exciting.

That being said, nothing hits the sopt after a long case better than a delightful tray of hospital cafeteria food. Some hospitals actually have fast food restaurants - seems sort of counter intuitive - but many hospitals have pretty good food. It's like being back in the college dining hall. 

Thanks for reading.

Mike Cohen

My back it pained me to lift

this heavy load. The airline fees

they did avail. 'Til one day

early in the century we

found the thing to fit the

mold. And so it is I tell

her tale.

She was not much to

look upon, this gathering of

buttons and gears. When

hoisted upon the shoulder

a child's toy it did appear. But

taken on a flying machine

it was such a pleasure. Relaxed

became my back muscles, the

pain they did not fear. The

quality and versatility of her

functions I had heard. How

could this be for so small

an object whose chips are

just one third? But pointed

at an open wound with colors

of the flesh, the picture, movement

and depth of field they did

indeed impress.

Through thick and thin, rain and

shine, even airport delays. I never left

my dear V.X for 700 days. Yet over time

her body changed, from slim and sleek

to faded grey. The eyepiece tore, it was

no more, but still her functions I

adored. Hundreds of hours upon her

heads, the transport never ceasing. Still

over time with fire wire her usage was

increasing.

Now we faced two thousand eight, V.X. was

finally waning. Her body broken, scratched

and bent, yet still her functions functioned.

A chance encounter on the street, my eyes

connected with hers. A sleek new body with

more controls, my new love she did await me.

A sharper image for my eyes, the time had come

to say goodbye, my darling V.X. don't you cry, we

won't be far apart. But please don't fret, my

dear V.X., my new love does what you do best, but

then she shows me all the rest of what

you were surely lacking.

Let me now conclude, my lovely tale

of love found, lost and found. I try to be

not rude, my new love weighs more by just

a pound. Please walk with me, yes fly with

me, to the corners of the earth. My new love,

V.1.U. you have my heart a new life together

causes mirth. So sad to say farewell to my

first love, oh dear V.X. But younger, better,

V.1.U. has made my first, my ex.

Thanks for reading. I was inspired while flying home and reading Hamlet. I do not claim to have any idea how to write correct iambic pentameter, but this was fun.

Mike Cohen 

I know, I know, the over used line from Hamlet has been beaten to death by writers and marketeers. But I am a writer and a marketeer.

Several years ago, once Blog became a commonly used word, I of course started a blog using Blogger. I wrote about my travels, both for work and for fun. My audience consisted of my dad, my brother and my aunt Rita.

Thus, when Creative COW made blogs available, I was eager to get started. Initially, I thought I'd write about my early experiences in production. But after a few posts, I had used up the major experiences of my training. Then I switched to travels and shoots, but again, there are only so many really interesting stories to tell without getting repetitive.

Thus, I have more recently written about whatever comes to mind, but always trying to stay relevant to some aspect of media production or business, or the business of media production. 

After a few months, and some fun posts, I was invited by fellow COW Nick Griffin to be a co-moderator of the Business and Marketing forum here.

http://forums.creativecow.net/forum/businessmarketing

It turns out, readers of the blogs and readers of the forums are not actually the same people. I think Google has something to do with this. Speaking of which, before the blog started, my name was just one of a thousand Mike Cohens in a Google search. Now I am number 11, top of the 2nd page of results. This is actually an improvement since the last time I checked. Actually, I also have the #16 spot for my Vimeo page - if only I knew how Google came up with these results.

Thus, I now contribute to the Business and Marketing forum's discussions, some of the best on this site in my biased opinion. 

Fast forward to February of 2008, I was asked to write an article for the Creative COW magazine, yet another piece of the COW pie with its own audience of readers. COW pie? Seriously? Let's move on.

After some great editorial work by Tim Wilson, and Ron's ability to layout an entire magazine in a few days, the issue (#9) went to press over the Summer. Download your copy here:

http://magazine.creativecow.net/downloads.php

Or subscribe for free.

Now the fun begins. I have received a few e-mails from former colleagues and freelancers I have worked with, saying they read and enjoyed the article on Medical Video production, one of my specialties.

Next I received a few e-mails from folks who have both read the blog and the article, either asking me for a job, or just to say hi. After a blog about using my music library, I got a nice letter and some promotional gifts from the music library. Also, my blog encouraged one of my readers to subscribe to the same music library - no small investment by the way. In fact this guy is now my friend, although we have never actually met. We did graduate from the same program a decade apart.

Finally, there have been a few posts on the Business and Marketing forum from people who have either read the blog or the magazine, or both. In fact a surgeon who I did not know was given a copy of the magazine, read my article, then contacted me through the forum.

Thus, while Creative COW has distinct audiences, with some overlap, for the Blogs, the Forums, the Magazines, and presumably the newsletter (I found through a Google search that I was in a newsletter - sorry guys, I don't always read them since I am on the site so often), I have experienced the effects of crossovers among the audiences and the outlets of distribution (forums, blogs, etc).

I would encourage anyone who has stumbled upon the Blogs, either via a web search or an outside link, to check out the forums, even just to introduce yourself, or to ask a question. Cows are gentle creatures, although we can also get excited about topics we like. The forums are an especially great place for young people or those just getting into the production business, even hobbyists, to ask questions and seek advice. However you are better served for asking "how do I do XYZ with a particular program" versus asking "how do I edit? I don't know what I'm doing."

So, going back to my headline, To Blog or Not to Blog...I think the answer is clear. 

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Tim for the suggestion.

Mike Cohen

Last season I started watching Terminator; The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The first episode was not impressive, but it got better and is now a pretty good show. You certainly need to leave your logical mind at the door, but it is fun. This week's episode takes its cue from past seasons of 24, also on FOX. The episode had fewer commercial breaks, all of them from Dodge, promoting the very truck featured in the show. Seriously, most people I know fast forward through the commercials anyway.

Here is the problem for me. Sarah, John and Derek Reese (Michael Biehn's brother) are on the run from both the law and the various pre-Ahnold Terminator models (if these things are made in a factory, why do they all look different?). However the cars they drive get nicer with each episode, culminating this week with the exact same Dodge pickup being promoted in the commercials. Presumably they steal a new vehicle whenever they need one, but this pushes the limits of believability (in a show about cyborgs from the future).If you want to be inconspicuous, don't drive around the latest model. Didn't these people see Goodfellas?

Now no one believes the show is a real life documentary, but a certain suspension of disbelief applies to any dramatic show. Once you see the proscenium arch, if you will, you are disengaged  from the action and you realize you are watching a tv show. Blatant product placement is one way to break that 4th wall and remind the viewer that they are watching a car commercial in the guise of a tv show. I don't think the show has completely jumped the shark, but it comes close.

On the other hand, we all realize that these shows are expensive to produce. However, most action sequences take place on deserted roads, in abandoned factories or inside homes. Thus far, the show has avoided any big action pieces from a Michael Bay movie, thus cutting costs. Someone has to pay for these free shows.

Lately I have been watching videos on Hulu.com. The website has made deals with studios and networks, to give away content, much like broadcast television, only with limited commercials. I predict that one day, individual shows will be subscription based. You only pay for what you want to watch. iTunes does this, but as an option to watch shows previously on broadcast channels at no charge. I see that one day the free broadcasts will go away, because the audience will be so fragmented that advertisers won't want to waste their money. Instead of paying $59 a month for every channel, why not pay $10 a month for a connection, then an incremental charge per program viewed, up to a limit selected by the viewer. You never know.

Attention ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for choosing Creative Cow Airlines. We have a few important safety reminders for you. Please stow your belongings in the overhead compartments and keep the aisles clear. Please observe the lighted signs and placards to the left and right of this blog...

Last week I had to go to New Orleans for some pickup interviews and b-roll. I booked a reasonably priced ticket to fly out on Sunday, got to the airport early, paid my $140 for luggage. Let me stop there. In an effort to keep ticket prices down, US Air now charges $15 for the first bag checked, and it goes up from there. Excess baggage fees have always been a staple of travel. Back in the 90's when I was flying with my herniacam and sciaticapod, 3 to 5 checked bags was the norm. These days with DV and HDV cameras, we check a golf club case (tripod, cables etc) and in this case a light kit and small luggage cart. I stuffed my change of clothes and toothbruch in the tripod tube. But $15 for the first bag? This will only dissuade people from flying.

Next to security. Place laptop and DV camera in a bin, place shoes on belt, place belt in shoe, place laptop bag on belt, place camera bag on belt, walk through magnet, wait for items from belt, carry all to seating area, get recombobulated. No worries. I had to chuckle that the old lady in a wheelchair was made to take off her shoes and walk under her own power through the magnet. I feel safer already!

Next to board the plane. You would think 50% of the passengers had never been on a plane before. Certainly there are some first time flyers, but the guy who took my camera bag from its spot in the compartment over my seat and shoved it forcibly into a smaller spot elsewhere so he could shove his own bag into my original spot had clearly done this before. In a highway driving situation, this is like cutting someone off or passing on the right. Oh bother.

Next comes the drinks. Coffee is now $1, soda is $2. Still cheaper than the prices in the terminal, and possibly incredibly profitable for the airline. I got the coffee, and was actually offered a refill for free. 

My connection was in Charlotte, America's Front Porch. I don't know if that is the actual slogan, but this airport has weary travelers in mind with its free wi-fi and abundance of rocking chairs. I had a 2.5 hour layover, so this was a nice benefit.

As you can see, I used my time wisely:

Arrival in NOLA was uneventful, albeit muggy. Rental car pickup no problems and the ride to the dreaded French Quarter an easy drive. I say dreaded not to be mean, just because first impressions go a long way. Even before Katrina, the approach into downtown New Orleans has been a bit rough. These days with the abundance of boarded-up buildings and dilapidation, Canal Street has looked better.

That night I ventured up Bourbon Street, and remembered why I hate Bourbon Street.

Good dinner at the Redfish Grill then back to the suite. Next morning after a $27 room service breakfast I tried to follow the directions to the hospital, but got a tad lost. I did get to see some of the Garden District, including some nice homes, some smaller homes and a few piles of debris that were once homes.

The shoot itself went as planned, although it was Monday morning in a busy medical office, so there was a fair amount of waiting. I simply setup in a doctor's office and waited for him or her to become available.

After a full day at the hospital, and some giggles with the residents, we headed to the Park across from Tulane to get some shots of the doctors hanging out with their kids.

Next back to the hotel, dinner at Bayonna - an excellent restaurant away from the madness, and then back to the hotel once more. This was something called hanger steak - I'll have to look that up. It was goood.

Tuesday AM I got to the airport, got on an earlier flight for only $50 (the US Air telephone system wanted to charge $150 plus an unknown fare difference). A visit to Starbucks for an overpriced coffee I can make at home for 30 cents and back home in CT by 6:30pm.

The drive back through Hartford reaches its apex with the view of a skyline I have called home (not really home per se, but more figurative as representing my home region) since 1990.

Impressive, isn't it!

Overall, no hassles and some good food along the way is always a plus. Indeed, regardless of the destination, and with appropriate expectations, business travel can be the big easy.

Thanks for reading, and happy flying, wherever your final destination may be.

Mike

As many readers know, Richard Nixon famously lost the first televised debate against John Kennedy because his five o'clock shadow made him look old and haggard on television.

Tonight we had the first Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. I'd like to offer a few observations, taken straight from Intro to TV Production 101, a course which the campaigns and tv networks ought to revisit.

The last live Presidential debate that appeared on American television was between Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. I think it was a draw, like most debates full of talking points, sound bites and cliche. Perhaps Smits had a slight advantage given Alda's diminished bump after naming Jamie Farr his running mate.

The stage set seems to be a universal fixture of all debates, whether on a fictional tv show or in real life, which lately has resembled a fictional tv show. Tradition is all well and good, but the setup of two podiums and moderator in the middle is not conducive to direct debate between the two candidates. As observed tonight, the candidates tend to respond to the moderator, and look not at each other but at the moderator. The problem with this from a pure tv production point of view, is that eye-lines are off kilter and sometimes reversed. As the following screen shots depict:

Here, the two candidates are looking at Jim Lehrer during a question, or perhaps responding to the tally light on the wide shot camera. Looks ok.

Next, we see Obama, on house right (stage left) speaking. He correctly alternated between looking at the moderator and at his opponent.

Although not always:

Next we have McCain who must hate Obama, because he tried very hard to never look directly at him, and most of the time was looking to his left, which is a bit odd for someone on the left side of the stage (house left, stage right)

However, to be fair, the podiums (podiae?) are angled on stage, so the speakers are half facing each other with an easy view of the moderator, and presumably, offering the left and right sided cameras a 2/3 view of their heads, rather than a head on or profile. Thus, when McCain appears to be looking to his left, he is really looking at a right angle from the stage to the moderator, while Obama has a more flattering position at his angled podium, looking to the right to view both McCain and the moderator.

This situation is made worse by the split screen view, showing one candidate's reactions (McCain smirking, Obama nodding and making notes) while the other is speaking.

See what I mean. If McCain was not interested in facing Obama, his disadvantageous stage position made his intellectual position magnified. Thus, McCain's inferior stage position could be his five o'clock shadow, making him look even more disengaged than he really is.

The cardinal rules of the vectors is basic TV 101. Even though the speakers and cameras were positioned to maintain the integrity of the vectors, the podium angulation combined with the split screen, and a real or implied decision by McCain to avoid eye contact with Obama worked to McCain's disadvantage. Such observations are lost on the average tv viewer, however the average tv viewer's brain interprets subtle nuances without the conscious mind's involvement. Perhaps in the next debate McCain will get the superior stage left podium, just to be fair.

The other cardinal rule of television that struck me almost immediately was McCain's tie. Sure HDTV and digital televisions do not have the moire problems of analog television, but I and about 200 million of my closest friends still have analog televisions. Again, while the vibration of the lines on his tie may be lost to the average viewer, it can be subliminally disconcerting. Obama's people must have a copy of the Herbert Zettl classic Introduction to Television Production. Aside from the dated pictures of porta-pak u-matic cameras and 2 inch quad machines, the fundamental aesthetic principles are sound.

McCain's tie (oh my eyes. Pay no attention to the scan lines from my digital camera)

Obama's tie - still a pattern but no wavy lines

Finally to the journalism aspect of the debate. Jim Lehrer of PBS attempted to get the candidates to address one another, to no avail. I don't know if he was trying to make them take a swing at each other or what, but Obama and McCain acted like two kids on the first day of school being pushed towards each other by their parents, "Go on Johnny, say hi to the nice little boy. That's it, he won't bite."

Finally the gloves came off and the two men started getting into a proper debate. But when things started to get interesting, Lehrer moved on to another topic.

A good start, but we really need to see the two candidates (plus third party candidates should they be acknowledged by network television) on a stage with full camera coverage, but no moderator. Let them show that they are educated adults who can have a civilized debate without any hand holding. One might argue that a debate needs a moderator. But I would argue that the moderated debates of recent history have discouraged any useful dialogue - useful that is to the viewer.

As my college journalism professor used to say, ask real questions and then let people give real answers. Sound bites are ok for the nightly news, but voters want substatial discussion, something that is absent from most political discourse.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

Ok, maybe that headline was a bit sarcastic, but I have just returned from a 20 mile bike ride (inspired by watching the Olympic bike event) so I am a bit oxygen deprived. Bear with me.

What I am getting at is a review of the NBC Olympic coverage.

Let's start with the opening ceremonies - China's so called coming out party. Whatever.

It was certainly spectacular with very nice tv coverage. But seriously, I could live without Matt Lauer's incessant political commentary. We know, Iraq, Iran, North Korea etc all have problems. We get enough of that from the regular news. Same goes for you Brokaw! Let Bob Costas talk about sports and shut your traps for once.

Ok, got that off my chest.

I seem to recall Lauer and Costas trying to suggest that the "footprint" fireworks were in fact being shown on tape, but this comment was not mentioned a few days later when "footprint-gate" revealed the truth about the opening ceremonies. I'm not sure if this was the US media trying to discredit China or what, but everyone knows these types of events are designed for television. And as we COW members know, live television does not always go according to plan.

Took a few paragraphs to make this post somewhat relevant to our readers, thanks for sticking with this.

Next on to the 12 hour time delay. China is 12 hours ahead of the east coast of the US, approximately. Thus, US Prime Time is actually 8am China time, which is ok because a lot of big events seemed to happen in this time slot. Thus, we can in fact watch live events without staying up until 3am.

The only problem with live events is, of course, commercials. The same 10 commercials it seems. The most interesting commercial was this morning (or last night/tomorrow morning - now I'm getting confused). The moment after Michael "Superman" Phelps won his 247th gold medal, there was a Visa commercial, narrated by Morgan Freeman, congratulating him. This shows some good planning on the part of Visa and NBC.

Speaking of Gold Medals, I say this every 2 years during the Olympics. Why must tv commentators focus so much on the Gold? Winning a Silver or Bronze is still pretty darn good. I'll take 3rd place in the world, thank you very much. Here's what I mean:

Swimming Expert 1, "And here comes Joe Schmoe, less than 100 meters left, he's faltering. Not sure he has what it takes to get the gold. What do you think?"

Swimming Expert 2, "I agree. Joe won't be getting the Gold at this games. And China takes the Gold, US gets the Silver and Mexico the Bronze. Ohh, poor Joe Schmoe. He must be so disappointed."

Expert 1, "You're right. To come all this way and only get the silver. What a loser. He should just drop out of the games."

Expert 2, "I'm standing here with Joe Schmoe, his dreams of Gold squashed by his Chinese rival. You must be so disappointed and heartbroken."

Joe Schmoe, "Actually, Silver is pretty awesome. And the US team has broken 10 world records. So I can't complain."

Expert 2, "But what about that elusive Gold. Don't you just feel like dying?"

Joe Schmoe, "No, it's ok. The Chinese put up a good fight. I'm just honored to be here."

Expert 2, "Oh. Ok. I see..um, back to you."

Luckily, my non-TiVo DVR lets me pause live tv, thus allowing me to watch time shifted live tv, eliminated commercials and horrible commentary as illustrated. And, just this morning, in the case of the US women's basketball team wiping the floor with New Zealand(the whole country, not just their team), I could fast forward through the second half to get the final score of 900 to 50. Good effort New Zealand. Even better effort Diana Taurasi (of UCONN fame!).

____

What I am getting at, tv commentators, is you need to be a bit more optimistic. Just being in the Olympics is an honor. There is no need to sensationalize everything. But then, it is the job of network TV to sensationalize everything. What do I expect.

Wow, that was pessimistic! 

This year, NBC has a great website for the Olympics.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html

In fact, assuming the Silverlight servers are not choking like they were last night, it can be a better experience than watching television.

You can watch the live broadcasts, including having any 4 feeds going at once, not that this is very useful, but it seems to be a selling point of Silverlight vendors. Silverlight, by the way, has pretty darn good streaming video quality. Once you are able to use a non Microsoft tool to create Silverlight content, it may give Flash a run for its money. But don't hold your breath.

Back to my point about the website. You can choose to watch time delayed live events, and here's the best part...WITHOUT COMMENTARY. There is a God.

Call it the unfiltered version of the Olympics. The C-SPAN of sports. The Italian Stallion..oh wait, still oxygen deprived. Sorry.

The other piece of good technology application is NBC's DirecTv Olympics menu. You can hit the red button on the DirecTv remote and reveal an on demand menu system.

You have instant viewing of the current schedule, with instant access to the NBC channels without going to the usual program guide or remembering the channel numbers. You also have a medal count, and a daily trivia game.

This could be a preview of good things to come in the slow amalgamation (convergence for those in the industry) of internet and television.

Speaking of convergence, when I am not watching the Olympics, riding my bike or reading the COW, I am at my new favorite website, Hulu.com. This site has very good quality Flash video of hundreds of old and current tv shows and some decent and not so decent movies, with limited commercial interruption. For example, I watched the entire 3 season run of Arrested Development(not all in one go, it took me at least two sessions), and am now working on Burn Notice, with the occasional episode of Emergency or Galactica 80 thrown in for good emasure. Ok I was kidding about Galactica 80, but it is there if you want it. If I had my computer hooked up to my television, the site would be even better. Netflix sells a $99 box that lets you stream movies to your tv, but 80% of the on demand Netflix movies are not movies anyone would ever watch.

Ok, a slight divergence to talk about convergence, but the overall goal of this post was to use the Olympics and related web based video programming to show the good, the bad and the ugly of live and non-live television. Hey, I think I just found my next movie to watch.

Thanks for reading.

I'd like to say I have been so busy catching up on work that I have not had a chance to write new posts. This is partially true.

Partially, I took a week to visit my folks in insanely sunny Florida, helped my wife through some medical troubles (no, for the last time, I did not film it) and have in fact been pretty busy at work.

Oh, and I discovered I know a lot of people on Facebook.

But back to the important topic of workflow.

As described in excrutiating detail in previous posts, I make the most of to do lists, post-it notes, scraps of paper, e-mails to myself, Excel spreadsheets and various other attempts at self-organization.

I recently completed a project which was an excellent exercise in organization. I will describe it in generic terms, but give some specific example of learning points.

The Documentary/Promo/Movie Trailer to Promote a particular career

Ok, I guess that wasn't too generic. It is an interesting project.

We pitched a casual documentary style approach, using inspirational interview clips and relevant b-roll, good music, and little to no narration.

Once we had cleared the various PR hurdles, we got three great days of shooting at several medical schools and hospitals, including a c-section. I developed a list of questions, and while conducting each 30 minute interview came up with follow-up questions designed to get people to talk about what they do best(which is not talk about what they do best. What they do best is do what they do best.) It is my job as producer to draw out performances, even and especially unscripted candid interviews. We also tried some possibly hokey segments, some of which will never see the light of day!

The next step was to digitize (capture) all of the raw footage, 4 66 minute DVCPRO tapes and about 15 mini-DVCAM tapes. We shot primarily with 2 V1U cameras in DVCAM mode (incidentally, the two cameras did not match as I'd hoped they would) and shot a few interviews with the DVCPRO, although we could have left this at home and saved gas.

After 3 days of digitizing, while doing other work of course, the next phase begins - logging. Rather than logging the tapes before capturing (digitizing) I capture and then log.

Step 1

Take each interview subject and isolate unedited on its own sequence. In some cases we shot an interview with two V1U cameras, with the lenses practically touching, one wide one tighter, to facilitate editorial or time based edits without jump cuts or dissolves. This is a good way to simply edit out long pauses, ums, ahs, coughs, or retakes. But one can also compress a long thought into a short one. Since the V1U has no timecode output, we try to have each interview subject clap their hands, which is an easy way to sync things up. We generally had a lav going into only one camera, so you find the good audio, fill left or fill right, and turn off the track from the other camera.

Step 2

With each person on his or her own sequence (timeline) I next chop up the timeline into topics. In other words, I edit out the sound of me asking a question, so I am left with the person answering the question, with black spaces. I like to do things methodically, so I do this for every sequence, before actually viewing the material in real time.

Before proceeding to the next step, just for some psychological reason, I like to know how much material I actual have to now go through. So I ripple delete the spaces on all the timelines, so I can write a time next to each person's name. My yellow lined paper now looks like this:

Harrison Fjord - 22:00

Barbara Edyen - 7:00

Bruce Willjyis - 4:15 (boring)

Peter Jaquson - 11:15

you get the idea - I can now tell myself, "Self, you have 1hr 33 minutes of interviews to watch."

Not so bad.

Step 3

With everything chopped up, I now go back to actually listen to the material and make notes. On yellow lined paper, I write the person's name and then a few words for each unedited chunk of interview:

Steven Shmeeldurg

1 - why he got into his career - money of course!

2 - met his wife on a project

3 - When he knew this was the career for him - he could produce mediocre work and still get rich

4 - etc

5 - so forth

6 - so on

After this step, I now have a few sheets of lined paper. Now to select my, er, selects. I do this on paper, placing a check mark next to the clips I want to use. I go through each timeline, and just eyeballing the clip number, move the selects to a higher track. With this done for every speaker, I then copy and paste the selects to a new timeline, and watch it all in order. I save this timeline as edit 1.

Now I save as edit 2, and start weeding out the, er, weeds? My goal is as short as possible to get the message across. The goal was stated as between 3 and 20 minutes, whatever works. I wrote on my yellow paper:

Edit 1 - 23:00

Edit 2 - 17:00

Edit 3 - 14:00

As the amount of material is reduced it becomes increasingly more difficult to make cuts. I got to about edit 5 and maybe 7 minutes of really good gems.

The page down - spacebar to play - delete to delete keys makes things a bit easier in this process, although you need to use the mouse anyway.

Now for about three weeks (3 months) I had been brainstorming ideas on how to actually cut this together. The brainstorming started before we actually shot anything, but not knowing if we had a chance to get the kind of material I was envisioning. The plan came together - somebody call Howlin' Mad Murdoch.

With my shortest-humanly-possible-without-losing-some-nice-moments version in front of me, I came up with an editing format I was happy with, and realized I need to add some more time in the form of b-roll, SOT and some more interview segments from a second set of questions. Time rose back to about 15 minutes. Some efficient use of the three camera setup for one SOT sequence and some thoughtful cutting of the interview segments got me down to about 11 minutes. I next added a title sequence and conclusion and hit 12 minutes and change.

I watched this edit (7) another time or two and tweaked some edits on each pass.

Now to add the music and hopefully make it more engaging.

I recently added a bunch of new CDs to my Firstcom contract, so I grabbed a few of the new titles, and found some contemporary sounding music. I decided there should be music under the whole program, including the interviews and SOT segments. Since there is no 12 minute track in the Firstcom library (I know, Sonicfire Pro could do it) I decided to use different tracks based upon the mood of the music and the subject matter being discussed (someone call Steven Shmeeldurg, maybe he can use that technique!). 

Some of the Firstcom discs include just the audio CD, so you need to rip the music. Others include a DVD-ROM of AIF files, including both the full mix and the separate instrument tracks. The separate tracks makes things more fun and you have more control over the mood. This also helps transition from one piece of music to another - you can bring in the drums or piano before the previous song fades out - hopefully this makes it less jarring. But kids these days are used to quick changes, right?

With the music added, I spent a few more hours perfecting the mix, and then time to render out to FLV for web viewing. Oh wait, have to color correct the multiple cameras, right. Premiere has numerous color correction tools, and it took a little while to find the right combination or 3-way color correction, Proc Amp, HSL, Levels and Equalize (not all of those and not the same cobination on all clips). Not bad for a first pass, we can tweak it on the final edit. Remember this is for the firtst edit.

I posted it online before heading home for the evening (incidentally, all of the above took about 4 days of focus.)

Once at home, I watched the full video over my DSL - always a good idea to check out your work via a home computer setup. Although we have cable modem attached to our network at the office, the home DSL experience is a good test.

It looked pretty good, so I e-mailed the client a link.

The next day most of the feedback was very good, a few comments about music choices and some of the interview clips, but these things are very easy to fix. I was also asked for a script. I quickly made a two page Word doc listing the times and brief summary of each sound bite, just so people could refer to this while reviewing. Once we lock things down for the final, a full transcript will be needed for approval. It is a good idea to have a transcriptionist in your rolodex (what's a rolodex?) for these purposes.

I should add that during the final day of editing, I was getting the inexplicable "Sorry, a serious error has occurred, Premiere needs to close." error, usually when doing anything in Premiere involving doing anything with any function. Not good when you are almost done with a project. On a few occasions I lost about 10 minutes of work. It seemed the faster I worked, the less frequent were my manual saves, and Premiere's auto saves were set to 20 minutes.

After a few frustrating incidents, I set auto save to 1 minute intervals - a little annoying, but even with frequent crashes I did not lose too much work. I dealt with this hassle so I could finish the project.

Once the video was online for client viewing, we determined a few things about my computer. First, someone had installed AOL instant messenger without permission - whether or not this was the culprit, it wasn't helping. Next we tested the RAM and that checked out. So next was a reinstall of all Adobe products. This seems to have fixed the problem, although I have still had a few Serious Error crashes, but nothing like before. I'm sure we will figure out the problem eventually.

Thanks for reading.

Mike 

And so my Spring travel season comes to a close. Like the annual monsoons in India, my Spring travel takes me to conferences and various shooting locations, as recounted in previous posts. The only problem with so much travel, is one needs to get into the swing of things to actually cut the videos and move toward project milestones and eventual completion.

I have blogged before about project management, workflow and organization, but I feel it necessary, especially for independent contractors and some of the younger folks who read these blogs to reiterate the importance of being organized.

Getting organized can be easier than staying organized. I tend to change up my methods periodically. Whatever method I use, I follow one maxim: use paper.

Here you can see my current incarnation of brain management - the linear calendar.

I'm not a big fan of the GANTT chart. Perhaps it was the late 90's MS Project experiment that had me spending more time managing the MS Project file than actually completing the tasks which ruined it for me.

So I call this a linear calendar. Rather than using a standard blocky calendar, or any of the online google-type calendars, I like a simple linear representation of about 2 months, all on one sheet of lined paper, with plenty of room to estimate time to dedicate to tasks.

This is an alternative to my usual sticky note lists of tasks to do. Simple lists of tasks are ok unless you have some specific deadlines. The linear method is flexible and shows me where I will have some free time, breathing room or bottlenecks. We will see how this works anyway. Actually getting the work done, regardless of the method, is of course the key goal. Write your tasks on toilet paper if it works for you.

After days and weeks of travelling, collecting spent tapes in my satchel, I am always faced with a week of digitizing. Technically it is capturing, since DV tapes are already digital, but digitizing is the word everyone seems to use.

Here is the importance of having 2 workstations - one for digitizing and one for working in the meantime. For this particular project, I will take a deck home for the weekend, and once every 83 minutes or so I will look up from my latest issue of Creative COW Magazine and change tapes.

Other workflow improvements....

Another workflow improvement I use is pre-labelled blank CD and DVD discs. As pictured here, I use a generic label, making the added Sharpie text look much nicer than it would on a completely blank disc.

Once the editing actually begins, workflow is ever important. In the case of medical topics, we often shoot with 2 or 3 cameras. Setting up my Premiere sequence with the video synced up but visible like so helps expedite the initial edit.

Sometimes multiple PIP setups like this remain in the final edit.

Now, if I could just organize my receipts...

Thanks for reading.

Mike

It's Saturday morning (at least it was when I started this post). Sleeping past 7am can be a real treat. Make a cup of coffee (as much as I like the convenience of highway gas station coffee, making it at home is so much nicer), eat breakfast whenever, and plan out my day.

Now certainly weekend time is valuable and precious, however it is also an opportunity to be productive without working too hard.

Here's my home office setup for the weekend. The morning sunlight casts a comforting glow on my workspace, normally provided by fluorescent lights:

This gives the phrase Capture Window new meaning - it is nice to be able to capture video while looking out the window, reading, eating or catching up on a week of TiVo recordings.

Other exciting tasks for the day include cleaning the kitchen, recycling cans and bottles and trudging out to my local grocery store for leeks and some cheap wine for cooking (forgot them yesterday - so much for saving gas, although I suppose I could ride my bike.)

So how does this fit into Workflow, or the COW in general? In my opinion, anything that increases efficiency, such as digitizing video while wearing my pajamas and watching the latest Dr. Who episode is a desirable workflow improvement. The COW is, after all, about combining the knowledge and experiences of thousands of media professionals for the greater good.

The greater good? What is this a Barack Obama speech? No, what I mean is that our goals as media pros include making our businesses profitable, and if capturing video over the weekend, a task which requires almost no effort, can increase throughput of project work by a modest amount of time, then it is time well spent. After all, the video deck sits idle most weekends and evenings.

Now if there were only a dishwasher that loads and unloads itself - I'm on my second load of the day already...

Thanks for joining me on another lazy Saturday.

Mike