The Way We Watch

The On Location Audio Engineer You Never Want To Let Go

 
I received lots of good feedback on twitter on the Editor You Never Want To Let Go post.  Here's the next one in this series of people you never want to lose:  On set audio people. 

In all my projects (over 200) I've only worked with one female audio engineer and the rest were males.  I'm not entirely sure about why that is.  My guess is that some jobs require booming which can be physically challenging. 

If you are a female audio person, chime in and let me know how you started so we can get more of you in the industry.

So here we go. Top ten qualities of an audio engineer.

1.  He smells good. Clean breath and no BO. Yes, you read that right.  Audio people have to get very close to the talent.  They have to attach a tiny microphone on someone's lapel.  If you smell bad, then that's going to effect my talent somehow and probably negatively. 
2. He looks like his mother would be proud of him.  Have you ever asked a female talent who is wearing a blouse to string a mic up her shirt.  If you look like a bum, the whole thing gets awkward.
3. He knows that the cans on his head are not the way the audience will hear what he's hearing.  The best audio people will ask how is the tape is being used?  Will there be music?  Will it play over a loud speaker or on the web?  With the information in hand, a good audio person will edit in his mind what ambient distractions are worth doing a re-take for and what can slide by.
4. He's discreet.  The audio guy will be the first person to know if something doesn't sound right.  I appreciate engineers who can pull me aside or find the right moment to say, "Hey, something didn't sound right on that last take." The wrong way to do it is to whip off your cans and shout, "That one sucked, people!"
5. He treats his equipment like a newborn.
6. He's great with figuring stuff out.  The best audio people that I've worked with, I like to imagine, have at some point in their childhoods, took apart radios, computers and other electronics just to see how they worked.  Then, they had the brains to put it all back together.
7. He's a team player.  Yes, sound is their domain.  But the guy you want, pitches in after he's all set up.  He's putting tone down in the camera.  He's taping cords to the floor.  He's tested his feed and checked playback.  
8. He has no ego.  Great sound people love to support.  It's in their blood.  They are essentia, yet the great ones blend in as just a part of the crew.
9. He's slightly crazy.  Yes, to be in love with sound and sound alone - you have to be a little nuts.  They know more about audio than you'll ever want to know.  And that's a good thing.
10. A great audio guy reminds you to get room tone before the talent has left the room. 
    

Tell me about your audio engineer...

Photo credits: Rusty Sheriff creative commons license.

 

The Video Editor You Never Want To Let Go

Look for video editors that have these qualities:

• He has ten years of experience.  There's just no substitute. Editing is a skill like any other.  But if you haven't put in the time, you're not going to be on my "go to" list.
• She looks at all the footage.  Sounds nuts not to look at all the footage but it's easier not to.  Some editors just grab the first things they see.  I've seen people do it.  There's no short cut.
  
• He's musical. As a general rule, the finest editors I know also are pretty competent musicians. It makes a lot of sense... editing is all about timing. Having an ear for beats is invaluable.  Certainly there are exceptions, but it helps.
• She's funny.  Editing is about surprises.  You want to shake up the audience to keep them watching.  Someone who can make me laugh tells me she can catch me off balance with her edits as well.
• He dabbles in After Effects or Motion.  Certainly some projects don't require it, but the editor who can nimbly switch from AE to FCP is a keeper.  It also shows me that you're willing to stretch and learn new things.
• She is a collaborator.  Is it going to be a battle every time you elongate a shot, delete a white flash, or have to trash the last hour of work? Stick with editors that listen and then make your ideas better.
• He is persistent.  Editing requires time in the seat. A 9 to 5 mentality is not going to do it for me or the project.  And it's not only time, it's a drive to make it work, to finish and to conquer.
  

 
What makes your editor great?

Photo credit: CC Techhie

Making Great Video Stories Part 1 - The Process Video

 
The number one way to start telling a good story is to pick a good story to tell.  Sounds simple?  Not all stories lend themselves to video. The first test of whether a video is merited for any story is -- is this a visual story?

To tell the truth, I'm not a huge fan of much of the video I see on the web.  Just because you're talking into a camera and telling me what you think -- doesn't necessarily create compelling video story making. I mean if you are George Clooney or ScarJo, I'll watch anything.  But if you're not...

STICK WITH PROCESS

Show me a process.  Show me how things work.  Show me a cycle from begining to end.  Layer the details along side the process and your information is easily digested.

Recently, I with Wheelhouse pitched to The Daily (the iPad only newspaper) a story of a street artist in New York City who paints the most unbelievable Renaissance style chalk drawings on the sidewalk.  I've passed his drawings for years walking around town and always wondered who he was. 

VIDEO ENHANCES THE STORY WHEN YOU CAN SEE A PROGRESSION

I looked up Hani, the sidewalk artist, on the web and sure enough he had a website with clippings of articles done on him in the New Yorker, The New York Times, The Daily News and others.  Was it a bad idea to do a profile on him since others had already discovered him?  I don't think so.  To me, what was missing was a video that showed him working from beginning to end - how he creates these sidewalk masterpieces.

The editor at The Daily liked the idea and we set out to tell his story.

SHOW THE PROCESS WHILE TELLING THE STORY

I knew I wanted the visuals to drive the story so I made sure that I could capture Hani completing a portrait in 8 hours. 

We picked a subject (Madonna and Child) that he could finish in that time.

I taped him with an unmanned HDSLR camera shooting a frame every 30 seconds.  I also filmed him with a separate camera for about 6 hours doing various time-lapses on specific parts of the drawing so that we could see the drawing build over time.  We also captured B-roll of Hani interacting with pedestrians, setting up, and walking away.

The process of him making a portrait was the perfect B-roll to play over his interview.  In the interview, he told us where he was from, what motivates him, his dreams, and what his paintings mean.

A much easier production would have been to interview him and show his collection of stills of past works. Hani had a treasure trove of stills of his recent work. But that would have been BORING. Easier. But dull. Show the process.

Here's a link to the finished video:

(Can't see the video or want to see it in higher
resolution?) Try this http://bit.ly/mofwsD

If you liked this post, check out Part 2 of Making Great Video Stories - The Obsessionist VIdeo.

 

Woody Allen On How To Succeed In Anything

"When I talk to groups they always ask me for advice and I can never really give it, because there is no set way a person gets into the business or becomes a director.  Everyone does it differently.  They do it by hook and crook and manipulation.  Marty Scorsese goes to film school and becomes great, and Leni Refenstahl [laughs] courts Hitler and becomes great.  So the only advice I can think of is that it's only the work that counts.

Don't read about yourself, don't have big discussions about your work, just keep your nose to the grindstone.  And don't think about any of the perks. Don't think about the money or laudatory things.  The less you can think about yourself, the better. 

It's like being a baseball pitcher; the less you're conscious of your motion the better you pitch.  Just do good work, don't waste time thinking about anything else, don't join the show business circus, don't pay attention to the distractions that people send your way, and everything will fall into place.

If people don't like your work, keep doing your own thing and either they'll wise up or you'll find yourself out of work and deserving to be.  If people hate your work, let them-they may be right.  Or not.  And if people even call you a genius, it' very important to run because you have to ask, If you're a genius, then what is Shakespeare or Mozart or Einstein? 
                                     -- Woody Allen in conversation with Eric Lax

Good advice whether you're producing video (my profession), blogging or wanting to direct movies.  Keep your head down and focus on the work.

If you're interested in the book (Conversations with Woody Allen), you can click below.  The conversations take place over 36 years and it's amazing how humble Mr. Allen is.  He's created a career where he gets to make a movie a year - play clarinet on Monday nights - and make it home for dinner with his family. He considers it a job.

He's not interested in creating great art.  He spends his time serving the process - solving puzzles.  In conversations with Mr Lax, Mr Allen is always working out a plot problem in one of his scripts... he takes long showers to clear his mind - we find out - even when he doesn't need one.

Allen doesn't get all stressed out while shooting (it appears).  A scene is to be shot - a discussion ensues with his DP in the morning and they work it out.  He's not the Hitchcockian director who storyboards every shot.  One thing that struck me was the amount of re-shooting Mr. Allen has put into his films.  When he experiences a dip (my words), he throws in the towel and re-shoots the scene.  No angst.  He just does it.

I had some issues with the book.  The interviewer, Mr. Lax, is not as probing as I would have liked, and a lot of his questions are repetitive.  But, all in all, this is a great peek into the mind who made one of my favorite films of the seventies (Manhattan), and then almost thirty years later -- knocks 'em dead -- with Match Point and Barcelona.

Bonus: 1/14/10 Eguiders just posted this rare interview with Woody Allen on The Tonight Show circa 1966. 

Film Posts You May Have Missed

 
image credit: E. Bartholomew (see link at bottom)

I've had a lot of film savvy folks join me in the blog in the last week so I thought I would compile my best Film posts.

• 25 Films To See Before You Die
• Missed Opportunity at Academy Awards (Why The French Love Jerry Lewis)
• The Ten Best Movies Ever...
• Cross Genre Dressing
• This Recession Is Your Man On Wire - Document It
• All I Really Know (about Social Media) I Learned Being a Production Assistant (PA)
• YouTube Interviews With Film Directors You Should Know

Agree or disagree?  Let me know and tell me your favorite films too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uber-tuber/ / CC BY 2.0

YouTube Interviews With Film Directors You Should Know

If you're a follower of this blog, you know my taste in movies. I've searched YouTube for some interesting interviews on film makers and how they think. Here's the best of them:

Stanley Kubrick

This short six minute clip of a longer piece focuses on Kubrick's early years as a bad school student (except for science). Instead of a school student, he became a student of photography - from taking pictures to selling them. I like his explanation of coming up with a generalized approach to "problem solving" as a way to help you in any thing.

Orson Welles

It would be great to see the entire interview of this. "Friendship is more important than art," remember that the great Orson said that.

Here's another Orson clip where I can't tell if he really believes what he's saying. Love that extreme close up.

Hitchcock - Form vs. Content

"What is in a film that makes an audience go through these various emotions," asks Hitchcock in this clip. It's not the content of the story. It's his technique of the subjective camera.

Francis Ford Coppola on The Conversation

Coppola considers The Conversation to be his best. Rent it if you haven't seen it. It's a million miles away from The Godfather.

The Late Bob Fosse

Rare interview of this theater film double threat. Any frame from any one of his movies is more inspiring than this interview, but it is good to see him in the flesh. You wanna say, "Put out the cigarette, Mr. Fosse." Unintentional funny: that last musical out-tro.

Charlie Kaufman

Writer of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and now director with his latest movie Synecdoche, New York. He's got to have one of the most creative minds out there. I like what he says about our culture only accepting one kind of narrative arc. He ends with, "Be diligent and some what courageous."

Woody Allen May 2008 Interview

In this interview from Time.com, Allen gives a great performance. Answer #2 is a home run.

Otto Preminger From 1972

"It would be wrong for me to tell you what to think." That's the essence of his film making style in a handful of words.

Ridley Scott On Creating A Convincing Universe

Sounds simple to say but what separates a dull genre picture into something more: good art direction choices.

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Cross Genre Dressing

What if you took a Martin Scorsese movie and made it a musical?
You would get New York, New York.

What if Hitchcock really wanted to make a movie like Otto Preminger?
You would get The Paradine Case.

And what if Dirty Dancing was directed by David Lynch.  You would get this: 

Click on pic. The embed is turned off on YouTube. Thanks to Creative Review for the original link to this video. 

Viral Video Thursday #3

Creative inspiration. Where does it come from? Albert Einstein is quoted to have said, "Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."  Of course some inspiration is just stealing. But in terms of movies like genre films - the whole idea is to borrow from the genre and make it your own.

Is it possible that this viral video...

 

Amazing Stuntman - video powered by Metacafe

...was the inspiration for this hoping to be viral video:

Thanks to The Halo Group and their blog for pointing me to the Levi's video.

Related Posts From The Way We Watch

Viral Video Thursday #2

Viral Video Thursday #1

25 Films To See Before You Die