Over the course of our two day commercial shoot for Shepherd's writing center I took on several different jobs. Initially (during day one) I stayed in the booth and observed. I have had trouble wrapping my mind around the audio booth; figuring out what all of the switches on the board do has proven as difficult for me as simplifying my understanding of sound as a concept (which is qualitative) to sound as physical waves. I watched peers direct, technical direct, and operate the sound board. I did a lot of listening the first day, to both our client/director (the writing center) and to students and our instructor. It was interesting to see how ideas for the commercial clashed, how separate concepts became melded together.
I was much more hands on during the second day of shooting. I operated a camera; this mostly consisted of setting up the shot (listening to the director, taking his direction) and then holding the camera in place. I assisted with audio, placing mics on talent, and was floor manager (relayed messages from the booth to the set) for one go-round.
While my second day of shooting was much more active I feel that I was actively learning both days. My second day I expanded my "techie" knowledge. I became more comfortable doning a headset, more willing to raise my own voice and give direction. I started to become comfortable with the camera. I learned that talent
do not want you to touch them which makes placing a mic a more complicated task than it seems it would be. My first day of shooting found me adjusting to the whole process. I have always envisioned filming being more set in stone, harder to change. Nothing, I discovered, is fixed. The entire process is this really
cool fluid thing that requires more input than any other creative medium I have encountered. Sitting down to write a short story isn't like this. I found it both jarring and fascinating to be a part of. Additionally the ability to just keep going despite mistake was something I hadn't considered. We were working with non-actors, genuine writing center employees and affiliates, and had the unique challenge of shooting them. We set up a white board with the script written on it, ideally so that they could read a few lines then turn to the camera and recite them. The process was meant to repeat in that fashion, leaving us the room to edit and fit together a commercial that would appear to be rehearsed. Naturally the board became a crutch and we noticed more and more our talent's eyes drifting toward it rendering the footage virtually un-editable. So on the second day of shooting we removed the board entirely. We had someone feed the talent their lines from a position beside the camera. We were put in a positon where we had to problem solve without going out and buying some "magic fix-it"or taking weeks to brainstorm a new strategy.
What I took away from the experience was, above all, the need to be flexible in the study. Studio production puts you in a collaborative environment where you are never (regardless of the job that you hold) totally in control. You have to learn to roll with the punches.
This is the first panel of page 17.
Here is the second panel. Originally I just added the colors that I thought were most fitting. However, after fiddling around with some of Pixlr's effects I found one I rather liked called "Old Photo":
