moe_snodgrass
Well-known member
Thanks in advance for looking this over. I’m planning a one-hour environmental documentary that I think I would have to shoot alone. I have experience with 16mm and video but my one page resume is really just a single page.
The question: in practical terms, can this succeed as a bare-bones doc with a one-man crew? The shoot will go like this:
1. I have two hardwired lavaliers, a shotgun and the DVX. I don’t have the DVX yet so I can’t do any tests for this hair-brained scheme but the mics have the needed zeps and socks.
2. About 10% of video shot will be interior interviews of experts in 6+ cities that I would have to fly to (assume all releases/permits etc are in order).
3. About 70% of video shot will be interviews of laypeople outdoors in daylight.
4. About 20% of video shot will be of mostly-static landscapes shot outdoors in daylight.
5. Edited the ratio will be about 20 minutes of each of the above, experts, laypersons, and static landscapes.
6. The outdoor locations (the 70%) will be accessed by light pick-up truck throughout the public lands of the desert southwest, that is, the National Parks, Forest Service and BLM lands of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
I think I need to do it alone because:
1. It will be easier on the pocketbook
2. I think it will better serve the invisible wall concerning the interview subjects—I don’t care so much about the audience in that regard.
3. There’s no way to predict how long it will take to get the lay interviews I’ll need that will support the thesis of the film. I’ll get them but it could take literally six months. I don’t have the $$ to pay a crewmember and doubt many would find it palatable or could hang through the process even if paid.
4. In this situation, a crewmember might be as much a liability as anything.
I’m an experienced desert traveler blah, blah blah and my truck is already outfitted for the journey. Logistically, my planning is rock solid. I have vastly more experience in the outdoors than in doc filmmaking.
Technically, a viewer will know it’s a doc so if a mic cable shows I’m not really greatly concerned. Likewise if levels are slightly weak here and there, again, it’s a doc.
As I try to do my own reality check I see the biggest obstacle as trying to light it alone. Even though 90% is outdoors in daylight, I’d still need to bounce some fill and diffuse some direct sunlight here and there. As I think how I might improvise this alone I figured (for example) I could park my white truck just behind the camera to add some fill and maybe use a space blanket to either bounce or block some light here and there.
With resourcefulness my intuition tells me that it could be pulled off alone and have reasonable quality (for a doc). Do you think it can be done? Do see any other pitfalls?
Thanks again,
Moe
The question: in practical terms, can this succeed as a bare-bones doc with a one-man crew? The shoot will go like this:
1. I have two hardwired lavaliers, a shotgun and the DVX. I don’t have the DVX yet so I can’t do any tests for this hair-brained scheme but the mics have the needed zeps and socks.
2. About 10% of video shot will be interior interviews of experts in 6+ cities that I would have to fly to (assume all releases/permits etc are in order).
3. About 70% of video shot will be interviews of laypeople outdoors in daylight.
4. About 20% of video shot will be of mostly-static landscapes shot outdoors in daylight.
5. Edited the ratio will be about 20 minutes of each of the above, experts, laypersons, and static landscapes.
6. The outdoor locations (the 70%) will be accessed by light pick-up truck throughout the public lands of the desert southwest, that is, the National Parks, Forest Service and BLM lands of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
I think I need to do it alone because:
1. It will be easier on the pocketbook
2. I think it will better serve the invisible wall concerning the interview subjects—I don’t care so much about the audience in that regard.
3. There’s no way to predict how long it will take to get the lay interviews I’ll need that will support the thesis of the film. I’ll get them but it could take literally six months. I don’t have the $$ to pay a crewmember and doubt many would find it palatable or could hang through the process even if paid.
4. In this situation, a crewmember might be as much a liability as anything.
I’m an experienced desert traveler blah, blah blah and my truck is already outfitted for the journey. Logistically, my planning is rock solid. I have vastly more experience in the outdoors than in doc filmmaking.
Technically, a viewer will know it’s a doc so if a mic cable shows I’m not really greatly concerned. Likewise if levels are slightly weak here and there, again, it’s a doc.
As I try to do my own reality check I see the biggest obstacle as trying to light it alone. Even though 90% is outdoors in daylight, I’d still need to bounce some fill and diffuse some direct sunlight here and there. As I think how I might improvise this alone I figured (for example) I could park my white truck just behind the camera to add some fill and maybe use a space blanket to either bounce or block some light here and there.
With resourcefulness my intuition tells me that it could be pulled off alone and have reasonable quality (for a doc). Do you think it can be done? Do see any other pitfalls?
Thanks again,
Moe
