Recharge needed, now

 

I've put in 30 hours in front of Final Cut so far this week. This is the aftermath of my April shoot at St. John's College for a series of short vids for the website, and some longer ones for an admissions portal. The last 12 hours has been to get to a rough cut of one 5 minute piece, documenting the 28th Annual St. John's/Naval Academy croquet tournament (later this summer, after the client gets it, I'll be delighted to share it with you). What I want to know is, how in the world do you Same Day Edit wedding people pull this off? 

I am maybe a third of the way through the project (and there's three more jobs behind it in the queue). But I couldn't look at a screen any more today. I tried reviewing the clips for the next vid, but nothing was registering. I was spent. 

One cannot do creatively intense work without recharge. The stores need regular replenishment. We need influence and sensory input from outside. Which is what sent me, finally, down to the Fill this afternoon.  

The Fill is in full summer dress, with head high grass and fully leafed out Cottonwoods and summer birds. Swallows careened over the open water. Savannah Sparrows sang their grasshopper-like song from deep beneath the prairie grass or, sometimes, from a blackberry cane. An Osprey fished just offshore. Redwing Blackbirds screeched and chased each other, as their mating territories are breaking down and conflict is the rule. 

I slowly did the entire gravel path loop, with a long lens and tripod, working to get bird photos. I'm used to this place as a winter landscape of sere brambles, and I'm always shocked to see it so verdant.  It was like a new place for me. 

I came home, continued my avoidance of editing by processing the photos for the day, and writing this blog post. Tomorrow I'll be back at the grind. 

Comments

[Steven Alexander]

I don't know how you approach a video shoot, but unless you have a script/storyboard and shot to those ideas, you will spend too much time in post-production finding your way to a meaningful product. Having a plan but remaining open to unexpected is the only way I know of to reduce editing time. I was a cinematographer for 25 years, sandwiched between years of still image making, and without seeing the finished product first and following that concept while shooting and in post, I never made a satisfactory end product.

[Doug Plummer]

If I were doing scripted videos it might make sense. But these are entirely unscripted, unplanned situations that I'm documenting. They aren't slick, corporate style videos by any stretch.

Brian Storm (mediastorm.org) recently presented a workshop here, where he explicitly said storyboards don't have a place in this new style. It was nice to see a match to my working method.