Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

July 2 @ 7am at Griffith Park I have a group training run with
other APLA fundraising marathoners. Then I run during the week.
The run is October 31, but I was planning to go around the 25th
since I lose a day. I want to be able to get used to the weather,
run there before the actual marathon, and possibly drive the
course. Feel free to email me at jkgaskins@yahoo.com.

Hi. Just signed up. Getting ready to shoot a doc of sorts (could
turn out to be experimental) with a gl-2, me, and a couple of
people helping out to record the music. A US choir tour in Europe
with members aged 8-64. I have some clearance/consent questions,
so I'll head to the mentoring room. Great to be in the fray!

welcome kathryn. i'm pretty new too. best of luck with your
project.

yes, nice to have you here, kathryn.

hello. i've been a member for a while. my place got robbed and i lost
all my equipment so i've laid low, but now i've replaced my cam and
computer and have thrown myself into a bunch of projects.

i'm teaching a friend to shoot and edit an art piece he wants to do
for a show in Ghana this fall. he's a metalworker and sculptor, and
he's filming his West Indian customers, employees and friends.

i've worked on a couple of docs and informational pieces for the local
department of education, done a portrait for someone's reality show
application, and am now working on shooting footage for a doc about
teen performers in a musical.

i use borrowed equipment and/or the client's equipment a lot of the
time, but otherwise i'm using a Panasonic GS150 and editing on FCP.

really excited and feeling blessed by the opportunities to shoot these
new projects. thanks everyone for the community!

well, glad you've finally come forward and introduced yourself,
christina. and good luck with your project. sounds like fun.

Hola!

Benjamin from Puerto Rico. Currently preparing to do a documentary
about the first Puertorrican Governor under USA mandate.
I work as a multimedia specialist for around 18 years. Just finished a
Movie making seminar for new directirs in Puerto Rico and Did my first
shortfilm and creating my first commercial one.

welcome, benjamin. what kind of access do you have with the
governor? seems like that will make all the difference.

Welcome, Benjamin!

Hi everyone---I'm Keri and I have recently been considering creating
a documentary for awhile, but I have no training at all in the field.
There is an injustice being committed, due to ignorance and lack of
education, which desperately needs attention in order to stop the
current atrocities, but that's about as far as I have gotten with the
idea. If the expense stays under $8000, I can fund the project
myself, but I am afraid that I will not turn out a great film or even
finish it. If that happens, I will have failed in helping with this
issue---should I find a professional to assist in the process?

welcome, keri. don't know if you need a professional, per se, but
you do need someone who knows how to shoot and someone who can edit,
not to mention have access to equipment. but hard to advise when you
don't say how long the film will be or what's involved. maybe you can
take this to the Mentoring Room.

Welcome, Keri. Yes, please tell us more.

Hello,
I recently made the career leap from the tech world to documentaries
and docudramas. I've worked on a few small productions, but nothing
that is yet completed. Currently I am working on :

- A 30 minute educational documentary about the Camisea natural gas
pipeline in Peru
- A longer documentary about the environmental and human rights
issues created by the pipeline construction and operation
- A silent docudrama about social stratification in America by
following the lives of illegal immigrants, legal immigrants, and the
poor and the wealthy brought together by a small restaurant
- My father's 35th high school reunion, which has had quite a few
requests for weight adjustment and hair color touchup effects

So I gave up the suburban condo, moved into the city, and am snug in
a basement apartment. I'm taking the next year or so to learn as
much as I can about all stages of production, taking classes,
volunteering on shoots, and being nosey.

I have my own camera and editing system and in the past 5 months
have filmed in Vermont blizzards and Peruvian rainforests. Loving
the independance... Wondering how long the savings account will
last. :)

Looking forward to being a part of the community and being an active
contributor as time goes on.

Welcome, Grace. You have a lot on your plate (though, as a doc
maker, there won't be much food on it). Where is the restaurant
that's the focal point of the docudrama?

welcome, and good luck on all the projects, grace. i assume when you
say a silent doc you mean to music. i'm curious if there's a
particular reason why you're doing it in that style.

Grace is one of the D-Worders who I met "offline" first, at an
environmental film festival. She is crazy. She gave up an I-don't-
know-how-many-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-a-year job in the IT
industry to pursue an indie media-maker life.

Grace, you will miss that job. :-)

I've been a video-maker since I bought my first video camera in 1969.
I've retired from running an art deco lighting business and want to
master documentary making.

I bought a Sony HC42 mini-dv camera and have been exploring the
intersection of art, commerce and politics at street fairs. I've
focused on gay pride fairs specifically because they reveal a
fascinating glimpse of a world many people are interested in but a
society few understand.

I've done interviews at six different gay events. I also explored a
street fair sponsored by a homeless soup kitchen and another sponsored
by a Park Avenue Association in Manhattan on the same day a few blocks
apart.

I've started attending events at the Apple store in Soho. I'm
comfortable but not wealthy. I can afford to spend $10,000 to $20,000
on camera, sound and editing equipment.

Is this the best way to go? I've been reading here and also at DV
Info Net. I'm particularly interested in getting into the new world of
video blogging --"vloging".

Does anyone have any additional resources to suggest I explore?

HI everyone,
I am a newbie and enjoying the site. There are so many questions to
ask, but I figured I'd say hello first! I am working on a ballet
documentary and have just started using FCP. I use to work in Imovie.
Now, I need to figure out how to convert Imovie DV files to the FCP
DV format. Any suggestions? I think maybe this is a rendering
situation, but I a newbie!

Welcome Randolfe and Christian. We generally try to answer the
technical questions at The Mentoring Room topic.

That said, I haven't a clue about converting IMovie to FCP. Randolfe,
I assume you're going the FCP route. Why not just get the most
storage and memory you can, good monitors, and go to town?

New person on site. I'm a student at Curtin University in Westerna
Australia and I joined the site to try and find out some legal
information for a doco I'm planning.

fire away in the Mentoring Room topic, jasmine. glad you found us.

'm glad I found you too!

well, after a few weeks of surfing the web on and off, I think I found
what I was looking for. An online forum specifically catered to
documentaries. ahem, excuse me: to the D-word.

I'll attempt to avoid a long-winded monologue about myself, my past
projects, struggles... et al... and keep it short'n'sweet.

I have two projects that are both shot and have remained dormant for
the last 7 years - ouch - at least. Both focus on New Hampshire
subjects: one involves a barber that sold used records at his shop and
the other centers around two contra fiddlers who are still alive and
playing.

So much time has lapsed since shooting all the footage, I have found
that my initial interest in the material has changed immensely. So
much so that I'm now trying to grasp the same inspiration I was
bubbling with when I captured all the footage - so that I might
finally edit the pieces. Ugh. And I can't even blame the lack or
expense of technology anymore. Now I really DO have all the tools.

(here I go, rambling) gotta keep this short...

There you have it. Time + different sensibilities = box of tapes.

I know there's a story buried in those hours of footage... or at least
I had one in mind when shooting. How does one turn the light on again?
Without that same inspiration I feel the editing will lack a voice -
and that makes for dull storytelling. I'm a different person, but the
footage remains the same. Hmmm...

I've enjoyed reading some of the above posts and look forward to
learning more. Will check back when time allows...

Cheers,
Jeff

welcome, jeff. my advice is to simply view and log your footage. if,
at the end, you aren't inspired then let it sit. if you are, think
about editing a 5 to 10 minute sample for fundraising purposes. my
guess is you'll find your inspiration again.

thanks doug. sound advice.
i feel as though it's a bit like Plato's cave. now that i've had some
distance from the footage and reviewed every angle of it, my attitude
towards the material changed. i'm now looking at it with a more mature
set of eyes - which certainly isn't a bad thing - it just changes the
perspective some.

anyone got a time machine I can borrow?
~ Jeff