Flying Ferrari

So about this time, Kevin Haggarthy who reviews high performance cars for a living. Lucky ********** should be on a private jet courtesy of Ferrari with 10 other big press members jetting to sunny climates to test Ferraris.

Yesterday he passed by to grab a DVD of the Ferrari shoot we did. The original file because of its post in After Effects held a lot of visual data so the export size came in around 3gigs.

I manged to wash that through the H2 codec with a more fluid data rate so the size is now down to 200mb, and so on a DVD the data rate of transfer from disc to screen is comparable. There should be no stutters.

The only question now is whether I have a career in the future in high performance car shoots. You can judge for yourself here

Traveling light with my movie camera- Gonzo Film Making

Cameras throughout the years

A response to Cliff Etzel at bluprojekt which I think warrants its own thread entitled, Gonzo TV and travelling light with my movie camera.

Of course if you're film making you've got your kit of parts n' all with you, but on occasions it may just be you and your lonesome camera. So, what is a man and woman supposed to do? Here's an abridged.

. . .with my movie camera

Having worked alongside some VJ folk in Berlin who were v. professional I noted they were carrying quite a chunk on their backs.

I also discovered from a fraternity of VJs from four corners of the globe, there are different dialects and approaches to Vjism. Vjism is not a one size fits all.

In the UK, when we started off, (a few years back here's a timeline), we packed, but soon many of us ditched everything for just the camera. I do the same for Journalists I advise on training courses.

• "What you really don't need, leave behind".
• "You sure about those shoes, you may have to run to pick up sequences ?"
• "Yep keep a clean shirt on for those pieces to camera".
• "I'd probably change into some trousers (pants), what if you need to get on the shot to get that shot"

On more advance courses I open them up to filters, steadycams etc, mike arrangements - all solid TV stuff, but It's really horses for courses and what makes you the VJ comfortable.

In using the term "Gonzo", I do so metaphorically, to give people an idea of Vj's personality. But the truth is I have always been light and "aggressive" with the camera. I also shoot "dirty" as a signature. One of the most outstanding directors around to shoot "dirty" is The Bourne's Paul Greengrass.

"Dirty" means there is often no clean line of sight between you and your subject. The camera becomes another person looking to engage, so you often see "warts n all". It also begs a radical form of editing. I hope the auters don't mind but this is Gonzo.

Gonzo should not be misconstrued with shoddy, just as no one would have called Hunter S Thompson's work second rate. And no that doesn't mean I'm comparing myself to the King of Gonzo.

It's the expressional form of shooting and editing, the language that mixes narratives, dialect, and form - doing away with civility. Is Videojournalism the "Rolling Stone" of TV? That's debatable. But Rolling Stone Magazine's eminence in the 60s was its redefinition of journalism.

Video journalism goes some way to doing the same. It's a state of mind as much as a fresh functional form.

A lot of the times I also don't want to be seen filming. There are laws governing "secret filming", particularly for broadcasters. But I'm not secret filming, I just don't want a sign up saying camera/director shooting.

Reason?

I mean to be inconspicuous enough so there's no acting on anyone's part.

I can't tell you the amount of times I've shot footage of the police or been out with them and going light has helped tremendously.

On network TV stories in the past with time and a nice budget, yep I've had the whole shabang. Successor Generations for network Channel 4 News made from South Africa is one example. I even had the DVW900 camera. (see previous post "Small cameras=cheap TV, Yes? No?")

On some shoots on viewmagazine it's been tripoded ( carbon fibre tripod v. light) and miked e.g. Sony Dual Channel Radio mic

For example Dream Girls, which I got two of my former students to do and we had oodles of time.

But stories e.g features, news current affairs "waiteth for no one" - that's my motto.

In docs and current affairs, I prefer to move quite fast around the story, eschew set/up reconstructions and am constantly thinking: "have I got the story". 8 Days is probably the most visible and high profile of this - all handheld sans filters etc.

This doesn't mean if you're packing lights, mikes, filters etc this isn't apt, so long as you can work it pretty fast- great!

Again, it's about choice. I'm no Spielberg, oh no, but on "Saving Private Ryan", they stripped the camera of all luxuries to achieve that "frenetic" look landing on the beach.

When it comes to shooting light I'm not alone, quite a few VJs/ producer /directors I know e.g Claudio Von Planta shoot "neat". A lot of my work is about post - where it's necessary, so untreated video is a boon.

There's a scene in the Ferrari film where a man drops by in his car just to say hello, and I immediately engage him. Though he saw I was filming, I didn't want it make a song and dance about it, so I continued to film without looking at the monitor.

Like I said VJ is a state of mind.


David Dunkley Gyimah is completing his PhD which includes future journalism in video. Go to Viewmagazine.tv for films

Car progs

About to post the full 20 mins of the film on Ferrari 599 GTB soonish.

If anything I hope it demonstrates what you can achieve with video journalism outside the confines of news productions.

I'm no where near doing a first here. Scores of programme makers have used dvcams to make progs.

But I hope what comes through is the mobility and turn around. On the day I filmed it was raining sheets, so that added to the drama. The film took a couple of hours to produce and then i developed this dummy site.
If I were to pursue the car idea, I think the K.app is, it's not a programme on cars per se, but one on the culture and lifestyle that surrounds the car, so nuances such as people talking to the presenter, Kevin Haggarthy, get a look in - where it's relevant of course.

I cut it on my powerbook and then took the final cut into Afrer Effects to add some tints. BBC Top gear can use up to 24 production crew for its show : Editor downwards. Cost? A couple of thousand pounds. A VJ prog maker? Er you do the maths.

Not quote top geat, but one gear - fast and furious. You judge. Up by the weekend. You know sometimes companies give freebies when they like what you've done. D'you reckon Ferrari might give me their 170,000 pound GTB 599?

You gota try