Mexico City

Interesting.

How did you feel about wandering Mexico City with a prosumer looking camera? I fly through now everytime on my way from Panama to L.A, and I want to spend more time in Mexico and do some filming (Spanish stuff), but I've been a little nervous considering the recent reports of violence and the like. We used a DVX on the streets of Guatemala, DSLRs in Colombia, and of course I'd go anywhere in Panama...but I feel slightly uncertain about Mexico with a partially gringo crew and a decent little haul of equipment.
 
I had no problems. I always preferred to shoot in a slightly crowded area. That way anyone who might think of stealing it would be seen by several bystanders.

I was worried, of course, but it was also insured through my parent's home owners insurance.

As long as you're with a couple of people, there really shouldn't be any problems. I saw plenty of people with DSLRs which probably cost more than my DVX.

As for the violence, it doesn't happen anywhere near as much in Mexico City, than it does near the border.
 
It looks like you're trying to do an urban landscape sort of thing, I think.
I would have liked to see more people, but it seems they're intentionally missing, other than the back of the street vendor at 1:07.

Interesting shot from the (bullet?) hole in the glass to the cool building behind it.

Cool "Traffic" color grading on the... traffic at :46

I like the statue at 1:34, nice grading too.
I'd like to see less traffic and more statues and structures that speak to the uniqueness of Mexico City, even the funky buses they have.
Such as the angel on the circle downtown, or buildings that don't look like anything in the US.

The B&W traffic and police cars could be anywhere (though it's a great cut on the music!)
The buildings at 2:14, again, could be anywhere, they don't scream "This is Mexico City."
2;49 does say "this is not an American city."

Don't mean to be repeating myself, but this is Mexico City, not Kansas City.
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Great music (Amores Perros ia awesome!), it's very moody and I guess that's what you're going for in your images. More moody shots for this would be cool.

Some shots could be shorter too, IMHO, a slightly quicker pace of editing.

But I like what you're working on here, keep at it. :thumbsup:

How long will your final piece be?
 
Thanks! The thing about Mexico City, is that it in fact could be any city. That's a wonderful thing in my opinion, but it does take away some uniqueness. The problem with shooting there was that most of the time was just spent driving around. I'm sure "driving" shots will get old, but I can't do too much about it. It wasn't the easiest place to try and film.

Yes, that was a bullet hole about 4-5 inches in diameter. I suppose it was an attempted assassination.

Ha, you got the "traffic" grading. Not all the shots looked good with such exaggerated colors, but that one just seemed to work. It did end up being sort of punny, haha.

This was just thrown together, so some of the static shots are indeed too long (like the rack focus from the tree to the buildings in the background). I'll shorten them in the final video.

Here's the problem with filming people while you're in the car: The only time you can get good shots is at stoplights, and most of the time you need to hold the camera out the window. However, at every stoplight you get tons of street vendors, window washers, etc. walking around the car, making for a slightly dangerous environment to film in. I did keep them out on purpose for this cli, though.

It's also hard not to have hours of traffic footage, when that's how 90% of your days are spent there ;D

And I'll certainly try to show the uniqueness of the city, but it really is harder than you'd think. Aside from a few details, the city is just like any American or European city.

I'm not sure how long it'll be, but I'm guessing between 10-20 minutes.
 
Yes, Traffic, very punny! :grin:

I'm sure it's a challenging place to shoot, and no I don't think it's easy to capture the essence of that or any other city, but it's a good goal to have in mind, that's all.

Depending on types and variety of your footage and uhhh... "focus" of the film, just might want to keep on eye on your run time.
Better an awesome 5-7 minutes than a not as interesting 10-20, you know?
But that's your call, obviously.

Amores Perros and Traffic, you have good taste! :thumbsup:

Buena suerte and happy editing!
 
Of course. I'd rather not have a 20 min piece. I'd like to keep it under 15 minutes. If it ends up being too long, I may even split it up into 2 parts.

It's always an interesting process to shoot over 4 hours of footage for a 10 minute piece :D
 
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