My father saw to it that I had an 8mm movie camera, a film splicer/viewer and access to his projector. He made film commercials for the television station he worked for and taught me a lot about the film production and television production processes. But I had to learn a lot of it on my own since I never had the opportunity to go to a filmmaking school or film and television school. That’s why I call myself a “Jack Of All Trades” in the audio visual and film production business. I’ve also mastered a great many of the associated skills.
A lot of things changed over the years. The technologies changed - Power Point presentations instead of slide shows and overheads, for example. The main difference today is we now do digital video production instead of film and video editing production on a computer with non-linear editing software. Client’s needs have changed too so I decided to specialize in my first love – film production.
While I do hire crew as needed from time to time, over the years I honed some very specific skills that allow me to take on all or most of the roles involved in digital video production. I usually try to do as much of the technical work myself as I can. The reason for this is three-fold.
• First, it allows me creative control of the whole project (within my client’s guidelines of course).
A lot of things changed over the years. The technologies changed - Power Point presentations instead of slide shows and overheads, for example. The main difference today is we now do digital video production instead of film and video editing production on a computer with non-linear editing software. Client’s needs have changed too so I decided to specialize in my first love – film production.
While I do hire crew as needed from time to time, over the years I honed some very specific skills that allow me to take on all or most of the roles involved in digital video production. I usually try to do as much of the technical work myself as I can. The reason for this is three-fold.
• First, it allows me creative control of the whole project (within my client’s guidelines of course).
• Second, I think of my projects as artistic endeavors and myself as the artist. That just makes it darn fun!
• Third, I’m a cheap son-of-a-gun! Why pay someone else to do something I can do quite well?
Recently I produced a freebie documentary for the Richmond Artists Guild, documenting
their efforts to create large paintings of speed skaters to become part of a display at
Richmond City Hall during the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was my contribution to the Guild, the City of Richmond who hosted the display at City Hall, Speed Skating Canada and the Olympics themselves. Also - not bad for the old portfolio.
My job was to concoct a documentary showing the process from sketching through painting in the studio to the judging and final selection of paintings that would be part of the display, which also included antique and modern skates, skating suits and historical information.
To get back to the “Jack of All Trades” theme, here are all the hats I had to wear to
complete this project:
1. Production Coordinator - consulting with Speed Skating Canada and members of the
life drawing group, lining up shooting dates in artist’s studios, determining who needed to be interviewed on camera, getting
all those pesky release forms signed, etc.
2. Script Writer - because I was alone with this project and I’m experienced enough to do so, the script was never written down. I
designed the flow and kept that in mind while shooting.
3. Camera Operator - mostly hand-held at which I’m fortunately skilled. I did, however, use a tripod to interview artists in their
studios.
4. Interviewer - from behind the camera.
5. Lighting Technician - only one light was used in the artist’s studios - the rest was shot under available light, so this wasn’t
much of a challenge.
6. Sound Technician - not much of a challenge as most sound was recorded with the on-camera mic. and only a few interviews were
done with a single wireless lapel mic..
7. General Editing - including standard transitions, titles, lower thirds, etc. I don’t want to make this sound easy as this was
the lion’s share of the work and is where all the creative decisions are made.
8. Animation - key frame animations of still images and titles.
9. Music Composition and Production - OK, my mother was a musician and music teacher. With that advantage I often compose, arrange
and perform my own music (remember, I’m a cheap turkey who doesn’t like to pay anyone for things I can do myself.
10. Voice-Over Narrator - my father was a radio personality before he got into TV. He had a great voice and he taught me to use
mine when I entered radio as a young man. I’ve narrated literally thousands of programs and been MC for live events.
11. Designing Graphics for the DVD label.
12. Authoring the DVD - this one was fairly easy, but this often involves chapters, multiple programs and lots of menu links.
Boy, did my head get hot under all those hats. As this was a freebie I had no choice . . .
I had to do it all myself. But it was the most fun I’ve had in years!
I’m currently learning all I can about 3D illustration and animation, the creation of motion
backgrounds and other special effects and expanding my knowledge of the documentary genre. If you really want to become a consummate filmmaker you must learn all you can about every aspect of the art of film production.
To that end, I’ve spent a year and a half writing a textbook that contains all of the course
material I’ve used teaching at filmmaking school over the last 30+ years. If you’re interested in learning to be a true indy filmmaker check out my book on digital video production at:
http://www.mikesdvp.com
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