Hello from Haiti.

I had a feeling there would be a lot of SOUND that I'd want to remember also... it's a bummer that I didn't get to use my sound rig as much as I would have liked... there's a fairly common bird down there which has the most distinctive song I've ever heard... I jokingly called it a crow speaking french. Amazingly enough I don't think I have ONE sound bite of that damn bird, which makes me sad.

Well the good news is that I brought the stereo Oktava rig and I did get to use it a few times. This is a band of 4 guys called Trubadu... I took down their names because I really enjoyed their music... it would be pretty cool to do a record with some guys from a 3rd world country wouldn't it? The thing I kept thinking about is that there are so many people there who are desperate to work and SKILLED... all they need is a way to market their product to the world. I enjoyed this music enough to buy it... I put $13 in their tip box since they let me record them... and for Haiti that was huge money.

A couple times in this sound bite you can hear a woman in high heals cross between us... and this was at night so you hear crickets too. I recorded about 15 minutes of music from these guys.

Serge is on maracca and lead vocal.
Daniel is guitar.
Rory is hand drum.
Manfred is playing a bass instrument that he sits on... it has 4 wooden tabs on it and he pulls a piece of plastic across them to "strum the bass" as it were.

CLICK to listen to Trubadu via Oktava ORTF

Let me say it again... wouldn't it be cool if somebody who could make a difference WOULD make a difference? Imagine these guys being able to live even at our country's poverty level... they're probably at about 1/10th that level right now. If you know somebody who may be interested in this music for pay then PM me... in fact I'll probably end up posting various ways to contribute to some worthy causes in Haiti. If you can't tell... I was really affected by this whole experience.

The funny thing is you haven't seen anything yet... there's stuff on some of the tapes that's pretty impressive. It's gonna' take weeks and weeks (probably months) to sort it.
 
Incredible. Sounds like you were truly effected by what you saw and you will never be the same again. Not a bad souvenir. :) Wish more people could experience what you experienced.

Let me know if there's anything I can do.

Interesting music. It's a Haitian version of a Spanish song. :)
 
Dumell was one of the most incredible people I ever met... he is who I had in mind when reading your PM. I just have to digest everything from the past week before I can think about the details of what I can do... I haven't even been home for 10 hours yet.

Anyway, this is Dumell wired up with a Countryman B6 and G2... it was windy this day so I had him stand on the side of a building... throughout the project I felt really happy with the quality of audio and video.

Everybody should get a wide angle adapter. We bought a Century .6 just before this trip and that was the best $350 ever spent.

The quicktime file sounds terrible... I need a different compression scheme then sorensen... so this is a wmf file.

CLICK HERE Dumell with B6 and G2

I accidentally have one of the production tapes... so that's the only way I was able to post this now. I'll be doing some logging next week and then I'll show you some really good stuff... not that this isn't good, but I mean good dramatic and good fun stuff. Some guys were actually on rollerblades on those rediculous roads... pff, american's are pansies... you need nice pavement to rollerblade? Okay so these guys grab our back bumper and Dumell gets the forerunner up to 45 mph and these guys are jumping holes and avoiding rocks and stuff in the road... the guy on my side was wearing a red cowboy hat... I yelled, "photography si vous plais!?" (haitiens do NOT like to be video/photographed w/o permission!) and he nodded... so I hung the DVX out the window and got some GREAT footage of this guy... who was weaving, jumping, and showboating an inch from death as I asked Dumell to slow down... but Dumell says, "dey know what dey are doing".
 
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Great video. Thanks for showing it.

Dumell is right, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll eat ever day."

Welcome back home. Get some rest.
 
MattinSTL said:
Everybody should get a wide angle adapter. We bought a Century .6 just before this trip and that was the best $350 ever spent.
Click to expand...
This is totally not the right place to ask this question, but how did you feel about not being able to zoom through it? Did it bug you?

The guy in the clip was incredibly articulate. That was very cool to see.

That 200' wall is insane. No safety bars? Totally makes sense, but that's just such a foreign concept to me. Crazy.
 
Dumell is very articulate, intelligent, charismatic, trustworthy, funny... basically I was with that guy for most of my time in Haiti and he is just flat out incredible... that was just a snippet of a 15 minute interview with him... if you found that little bit interesting then you could be glued to everything he says the entire time. Editing this project is going to be a joy because we have so much usable stuff... we were shooting for a 30 minute program and it could easily hold you for an hour I'm sure... now about that WA...

The lack of zoom through on the .6 wasn't a huge problem for me, but there were times when others in the crew were struggling with sound or lighting fill and I'd feel compelled to hand off my cam because the priorities of the shot changed... nearly EVERY time I did that the other crew members struggled with the lack of zoom through. The really aggravating thing (for them) is then they got caught in a "loop of confusion" where they'd attempt to focus at high zoom ranges and then when they'd zoom back out they'd still be in high focus numbers and it was a cluster F of trying to get the shot back before anything important and spontaneous was said. Of course you could just say that the real problem was a lack of familiarity with the DVX in the other crew members at these times... or maybe a lack of understanding about the relationship of the .6 WA and the DVX.

With the original DVX you can zoom to 65 and still get a good focus... the focal numbers in the LCD were never lower then 25 and never higher then about 30-31... so overcompensating on the focus ring was easy to do... I didn't have any problems with it though... most of the time I was shooting from full wide to maybe a zoom of 50 and that meant the best focus was generally 25-27... so it was easy. I was racking only 1/8 turn of the focus ring.

Sorry to over-explain, but the bottom line is that YES the lack of zoom through was a problem several times... but NO it was not a problem FOR ME. Would I rather have had full zoom through? YES... Ideally a .6 with full zoom. The .7 is a lot heavier though... and I frequently used the cam as wide as the .6 would allow. If I were to buy another WA adapter I would try to get full zoom through... with this run 'n gun type of shooting I was often times holding the WA in one hand... popping it on and off. The bayonet mount was a VERY good thing to aid in this... after a day or so I could get that adapter on or off within the span of one short sentence... so if something important happened I could get the adapter off and get close quick... and after the moment I could get it on and get wide again.

But anyway... you see why I said I'd RATHER have had a full zoom through... but the biggest point I want to make is that even if you can't afford a full zoom through the WA adapter was a godsend MANY times. Our project wouldn't be half as good w/o it... we FedEx'ed it here the day before we left... last minute decision... and that was the best impulse buy ever. I had no idea how much a good WA could impact the overall look of the DVX.

The WA was on in the clip above, but that isn't a good example of how great it was... I need to get some other stuff up to really make the point... and it will. Much of the footage was simply gorgeous with the adapter on... like a new camera. I can't believe I went this long w/o one.

What really sucks is that on the trek up to the Citadel it was really hazy, so I opted for my polarizer and left the century in the truck... I was shooting off the top of the walls by hanging my cam out over the drop... we were really racing against the clock and it was like easter egg hunting for shots rather then really appreciating what we were seeing... so I didn't have any time to double check what I was getting... after we got back to the hotel I realized the WA was the way to go... I really wanted to see the wall and the drop at the same time... it's still cool though, but the footage doesn't have the stomach drop effect of seeing that the cam is way out over the edge like I wanted it too.

If you can afford full zoom through then get it.... if you can't then practice getting the WA on and off and get the cheaper one... either way the only disappointment you're gonna' feel is that you didn't get one sooner.

Same goes for any of you guys on the fence about a B6... does that thing sound great or what? I'm loving all the audio that came through that little mic.

And let me repeat that a Photoflex 5-way was invaluable the whole time... there's no electricity out there and we used the flex constantly... especially with the huge challenge of really dark skin and bright sky. On the clip that I posted you can see the sky blowing out and we actually had the silver flex trying to bounce in fill... w/o the flex many shots would have been either fully blown or fully silouette.
 
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Wow, that's an awesome answer, thanks Matt! I'l definitely be picking up a WA for my next project. My pocketbook will decide which one I go with.
 
hey Matt in Haiti, from Justin almost in Haiti

hey Matt in Haiti, from Justin almost in Haiti

Hey Matt...
Got my shots on Friday. Youch!
Getting the flex tomorrow. Also getting a Vidlite for interiors.

We found a cool Haitian-born crew guy who's coming down with us. Look forward to seeing your footage.

Getting our typhoid and tetanus shots Friday, and then good to go.

Good luck man!

Justin in NJ
 
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hey Matt -

Question about the photoflex. I have two flex fills - one double sided gold and silver and one white.

Did you use all the spectrums of the five way?

By the by, sounds like Haiti was a real head-trip When you get a minute, I'd like to yack before I go. I'm fully expecting to have my head explode, and I'm pretty sure that there's no real way to describe what you saw and what I'm going to see, but I gotta know anyway!
 
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