Thursday, March 19, 2009
Fun in the Mud
Don't think I mentioned this. Last Friday, I spent around 6-7 hours in Schenk Forest, which is owned by NCSU and used to teach forestry students. It was raining. It was cold. It was muddy.
Why did I do this? For the love of filmmaking, of course!
Evidently, the ROTC officers at NCSU want to spice up their website by including some sort of marketing/promotional video. Or something like that. I'm still not sure exactly what they're going to do - they basically said they would take whatever was made. A good of mine, Will Lamb, who some of you might remember from Lemon Meringue Pie (the tall guy), personally requested me as a cameraman for the job. He's in ROTC, so he knew he probably wouldn't be able to film stuff himself, and he had worked with me before on LMP and the Dark Knight promo we did a few months ago.
So I rented an XL1 from the film department and dragged it out into the woods, hoping and praying that the rain wouldn't cause it to short circuit and break.
I spent the entire time at the same general location, watching squad after squad train in one specific scenario: a bunker assault. I was located on a hill with a "bunker" and three "enemy soldiers." Their job was to figure out how to quickly and efficiently kill/capture the enemy and search the location for intel. Everyone was armed with paintball guns, and one guy had a fake grenade. All in all, it was a cool exercise, and I only got shot at once.
I got about 3.5 full runs through the exercise on tape. Unfortunately, as I had just used the camera a few weeks prior when acting in that "Office" spoof (which is nearly finished), and wasn't using any external equipment, I forgot to check the sound quality. Turns out, someone had switched the audio input to "external mic" and forgotten to switch it back! As a result, there was no audio. Not cool.
Sound problems aside, Will was able to use the footage (as well as some he shot himself later in the day with a small handycam) to put together a small "teaser" for what will hopefully become a larger project. Will is probably the most talented editor I know personally; he knows the right filters and effects to use to add that extra touch of professionalism. I hope to work with him some more in the future.
Anyways, here's the teaser he edited together using some of the footage. It's hard for me to tell which of the footage is stuff I shot and which was his. But basically: if it's shot from behind people, following them, it's probably him. If it's from the side or the front, it's probably me. I do know that I got the grenade shot and some of the guns being fired and the captured enemy stuff at the end, as well as most of the stuff at the beginning of people walking/standing around.
Why did I do this? For the love of filmmaking, of course!
Evidently, the ROTC officers at NCSU want to spice up their website by including some sort of marketing/promotional video. Or something like that. I'm still not sure exactly what they're going to do - they basically said they would take whatever was made. A good of mine, Will Lamb, who some of you might remember from Lemon Meringue Pie (the tall guy), personally requested me as a cameraman for the job. He's in ROTC, so he knew he probably wouldn't be able to film stuff himself, and he had worked with me before on LMP and the Dark Knight promo we did a few months ago.
So I rented an XL1 from the film department and dragged it out into the woods, hoping and praying that the rain wouldn't cause it to short circuit and break.
I spent the entire time at the same general location, watching squad after squad train in one specific scenario: a bunker assault. I was located on a hill with a "bunker" and three "enemy soldiers." Their job was to figure out how to quickly and efficiently kill/capture the enemy and search the location for intel. Everyone was armed with paintball guns, and one guy had a fake grenade. All in all, it was a cool exercise, and I only got shot at once.
I got about 3.5 full runs through the exercise on tape. Unfortunately, as I had just used the camera a few weeks prior when acting in that "Office" spoof (which is nearly finished), and wasn't using any external equipment, I forgot to check the sound quality. Turns out, someone had switched the audio input to "external mic" and forgotten to switch it back! As a result, there was no audio. Not cool.
Sound problems aside, Will was able to use the footage (as well as some he shot himself later in the day with a small handycam) to put together a small "teaser" for what will hopefully become a larger project. Will is probably the most talented editor I know personally; he knows the right filters and effects to use to add that extra touch of professionalism. I hope to work with him some more in the future.
Anyways, here's the teaser he edited together using some of the footage. It's hard for me to tell which of the footage is stuff I shot and which was his. But basically: if it's shot from behind people, following them, it's probably him. If it's from the side or the front, it's probably me. I do know that I got the grenade shot and some of the guns being fired and the captured enemy stuff at the end, as well as most of the stuff at the beginning of people walking/standing around.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 3/19/2009 12:29:00 AM 
