My wife Robin is a person built with an even keel. She never gets terribly down, nor is she overcome with rapturous joy. She's merely content, most of the time. I am her opposite: extremes of dark despair and unimaginable bliss. I firmly believe that you have to embrace both ends of that spectrum to accept yourself as a full human being; one cannot have the capacity to feel one end of the extreme without also experiencing its twin.
I have now seen my take from the day. I only want to find a six foot deep hole and pile the dirt on top of me. There may be, just maybe, be enough footage for a one minute piece. Five minutes? I doubt it.
Here's the problem: I went unconscious. In the way I always do with a camera in my hand. That's how I photograph, intuitively, sniffing for the right shot, moving myself around a subject and capturing the moment from that point. And then moving to the next moment, and the next. I handled the video camera as if I were taking stills. I find a shot, then another, then another. The footage jumps and jitters like a cross between a bad music video and the Blair Witch Project.
If you had asked me earlier, I would have told you I had rock steady long takes, with an abundance of room around them to edit. That was before I saw the footage. I had no idea.
It is a necessary part of achieving artistic competence to absorb and master the feedback loop, the ability to see the final result while you are engaged in the act of creation. Through all the processing steps from vision to achievement. For me that feedback loop is absent in this medium. And I got bitten.
Of course, I expect my mood to shift wildly a few more times, before all is said and done.
Ain't learnin' fun?!?
Posted by: stephen connor | February 28, 2008 at 08:34 PM
I'm sure I'd feel the same way about contra-dancing... I'm still recovering from the ballet class I took when I was 35 (don't ask).
Perhaps your piece could be the video analog of still photography- fast jump cuts with a rhythm...
Posted by: Bob | February 29, 2008 at 08:27 AM
One word - Tripod.
Something has to stay still otherwise the viewer gets all tossed about. You might try letting it all happen in front of the camera rather than chasing it. Video footage, like digital stills, is cheap. It's a nuisance in the cutting room but it's better to have reams of rushes with lots of dross than not much material.... with lots of dross. Because as you're noticing, there's generally LOTS of dross when you can't direct! Go in later with the camera handheld for those close-up cutaways, and get lots of them, too. They allow you so much more flexibility when editing. It's odd, though isn't it? The process bears almost no resemblance to shooting stills! Good luck, Andy
Posted by: Andy | March 01, 2008 at 09:15 AM