“How do you know when to cut?” When thinking thoroughly about that question, Tony Zhou found it not that easy to come up with an answer. It’s a matter of instincts, thinking and feeling, but how does an editor think and feel? In a nine and a half video, co-written and -edited Taylor Ramos, Zhou explains what, to him, the key points of focus for the editor should be.
I’m going to go out on a limb and make a bold, sweeping claim, but one I feel is rooted in reality. The new five minute long documentary “Five Stone of Lead” (recent Vimeo Staff Pick no less) from Director Jonny Madderson might just teach us more about story telling than anything else you’ll see this year. To answer how, Jonny (and DP, Eoin McLoughlin) kindly spoke to Resource to provide first hand insight into how they’re succeeding in this new short form documentary-style storytelling format.
The Slanted Lens went back to the basics for this informative video, which covers the most common types of clamps found on a set for a studio or location production. A great primer if you’re just starting out and beginning to assist on larger productions and need to know what the differences between all of these clamps are, so you’re not confused when someone asks for something like a “Cardellini” on set.
A couple weeks ago I attended the first iteration of Adobe Video World, a combination of Adobe Premiere World and Adobe After Effects World, and a one week powerhouse of learning based in San Jose, CA. I’m not normally one for big teaching events like I thought this would be, but it turned out Adobe Video World was exactly what I look for in education: small, more personal and easier access to instructors who were teaching techniques I was genuinely interested in.
I have attended classes/workshops/lectures at Photo Plus, WPPI, NAB, CES and Adobe MAX, and my main issue with all of them is that because of the huge volume of people at the events, either classes are absolutely packed auditoriums and/or the subject matter was far too high level so as to appeal to a larger group of people. I never left any of the lectures feeling smarter or better about a particular skill set, and that left me instead with a feeling of regret and wasted time. Sure, there are exceptions, but for the most part I personally don’t learn well from these giant lecture halls. I think it might come from my education growing up, where my high school and college both prided themselves on small classroom sizes and direct connection with instructors.
That is exactly what Adobe Video World still is, and in my opinion, it makes it the best place to go and actually learn something.
I’ve been doing a lot of work recently on a short, as well as feature length, documentary films in the last few years. One of the challenges I struggled with in almost every case was telling the story in a logical way that not only kept the viewer interested, but also just made sense to common viewer. Here are some tips on what I learned worked, as well as what didn’t.
The title “producer” is oft misinterpreted and misunderstood. In Hollywood, generally the title of Producer doesn’t necessarily mean they do what a real producer in smaller projects or commercial gigs would do. Generally speaking, they just liked a project and dumped some money into it. What does a real producer do? A lot, actually and it’s their responsibility to make sure that the budget doesn’t get broken… among other things. So if you’re given the title of Producer, here is how not to fuck it up.