I just got back from shooting for my final project, and I'm strangely exhilarated. It was a great struggle to imagine what I might need for transitions, I had to stretch to think of what might work as “carrots” for the piece, and I know I made a load of mistakes and missed a lot of opportunities. But I feel wonderful.
I spent the day with Bruce Daigrepont, Cajun accordionist and host of the Tipitina's Sunday dance for the past 22 years. If I had been doing a photograph for, say, a magazine profile, I might have spent 45 minutes or an hour, generously. Usually it's a lot less. In, bang, out of there. No reason to hang around. Video takes more time, which means you get more time to connect. We get to know each other, enjoy each other's company, and, if I can pull it off, the final work is deeper.
The other encouraging piece of it is, this pro camera (a Canon XH A1), though bulky, is actually light. Compared to my typical location kit, it's a fourth the weight. And, somehow, it feels less intrusive. With a still camera, I'm making a lot of effort to capture moment after moment, and those moments are marked by a loud mirror flap and shutter release. It takes awhile to desensitize my subject. Video is silent. There's no state change between on and off, and it feels like I can merely capture. My subjects seem less reactive.
Alas, the fun part's done. There's a two day effort ahead of me to extract five minutes out of an hour and a half of capture.
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