Hi, Danny here, I wanted to share some photos and notes about our adventure shooting & editing for Unicef in Liberia for our 3 video series – Restoring Liberia’s Lost Generation. Unicef tasked us with creating documentary films to support their work in Liberia in job training and conflict resolution.

We Traveled across Liberia for 10 days shooting from Buchanon to Bomi. We shot in the capital city of Monrovia to document a young woman running her own small business in the market. We shot in small villages at soap and fish and coconut processing centers and conflict resolution schools. It was a great time. We ate many more chicken tenders than expected, thanks Monroe’s Chicken (“the love of chicken brought us here”). We shot a ton of footage and then we put it all into 3 pieces – 2 short focused topics and 1 long wide ranging documentary that visits all the locations and areas covered by the program. We are very proud of the results – which you can see here:

https://vimeo.com/album/2059164

For me it was great to be back in Liberia. I spent a few months in Liberia in 2005 as a cook with Mercy Ships and have had the opportunity to go back on projects for Charity: Water, Concern Worldwide and Twestival. Liberia is one of my favorite places. It’s an adventure, beautiful beaches and a chaotic big city. And still home to a few friends from the old Mercy Ships days.

THE TEAM: It’s always fun to travel with a photographer. Mostly because he takes great photos of you working looking glamorous, changing the world. Being a hero. Also sleeping on the plane. From left to right: Scott Cook – Photographer, Marshall Head – DP, Danny Miller – Director and excellent fake sleeper.

BEHIND THE SCENES INFO: We were actually fake sleeping here.

The obvious downside to traveling with a photographer is being documented wearing pants like Marshall has on in the above photograph here. Some call them zip-aways. I prefer to call them shants or pantsformers. Also as you can see in this picture (if you can look past the bright light of the shants) Liberia is a pretty amazing place. It can be stunningly beautiful – like this beach we spent time filming the coconut climbers.

At a Gari (dried cassava) processing facility. We covered so much ground on this trip often only able to stop in each location for part of day (with hours of driving in between) that it really helped to have 2 people ready to shoot. Depending on the location we would use 2 cameras and split up to find stories. It worked really well, each of us could spend more time with the people and find the characters we needed. In this photo you can see Marshall is in more traditional pants while I am wearing a more embarrassing baggy “hiking” pant. We honestly didn’t realize how silly our pants looked until we saw these pictures. Also Marshall is using a fake director’s viewfinder in this picture.

TECH DETAILS : We shot on a pair of Canon 60ds with our trusty Contax Zeiss primes (Marshall loves the 50 1.4 and the 85 1.4 is my favorite) our Tokina 11-16 zoom and a rented Canon 24-70L. Our general set up during 2 man interview set ups is Marshall on the camera and I running audio through the Zoom h4n and conducting the interview – in this case mostly through a translator. Though Liberians speak some English, Liberian English takes a lot to understand. It’s a challenge to keep up with. We brought along our Cinevate Atlas rails (small enough to throw in a suitcase) and a lightweight Manfrotto tripod. It’s sort of our Rough N Ready kit that can survive checked baggage. Everything precious gets carried on in a Pelican rolling case.

Just want to share this photo to show what a boss Scott Cook is. Check out his work at http://www.scottcookphotography.com. This is one of the coconut harvesters in Sanwin featured in the 101 ways short subject piece.

On the roof of the dilapidated Ducor Hotel in downtown Monrovia.

LOCATION: I am using this slick picture of me to talk about all the locations we shot in. We covered the gamut. National Stadium (pictured above), on top of an abandoned hotel (2 photos up), in a fish smoking building, soap making facility, gari making facility, on the beach, in huts and shacks and homes all over the country, in government offices and on the streets of the city. We had the opportunity to really see Liberia – and it was very cool.

Well, I think that is all I have to share. Ask me some questions about Liberia. I love to talk about it. And we are looking forward to going back this year to work with Unicef again on their next project in country.

Thanks for reading. Please watch and share the videos, they mean a lot to us and we put a lot of time and energy into making them worthwhile.

]]> http://studiosayso.com/?feed=rss2&p=745 0 http://studiosayso.com/?p=627 http://studiosayso.com/?p=627#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:06:10 +0000 admin http://studiosayso.com/?p=627 Hi, Danny here, President of Studio Say So.

We had one morning, Bo Outlaw, Stuff the Mascot, a very loud boombox playing “U Smile” on a loop and a great group of nurses and patient volunteers – so we made this fun lip sync video to promote a competition to win Justin Bieber tickets. Check it out!

A few exciting things (for us at least) that I want to share…

1a. The concept & scale of this project (and how we tackled it without a big team or huge budget).

1b. How we go about integrating with a large client (who handles a fair amount of marketing and creative work in house) and “becoming part of the team.”

2. some techie cameraphile thoughgts on our first chance to shoot on the Canon c300 and Zeiss Cp.2 lenses.

1a. THIS WAS A REALLY BIG/COMPLEX PROJECT! No, I’m serious.

We shot over 40 actors/extras with over 120 camera set ups at more than 10 locations over the course of 2 days. All of that for a 1:15 spot. We shot it all with a crew of 5 (including production manager from the client & our makeup artist). But our basic shooting crew was a director (me), DP (Marshall) & all around assist (Michael). This was a big project with a conservative budget so we had to tighten up and prioritize where the money went. That meant a small crew. The small crew caused all the expected issues (slower lighting set-ups,everyone had to multitask, everyone was a grip, less people for me to order around while sipping on an espresso, no craft services to have my fresh juice prepared for me when I arrived on set each morning). But overall we found that the small crew was a really big advantage for us on a shoot like this. We moved FAST, like crazy fast. Almost all the actors worked with us for less than an hour, many for only 10-15 minutes. We were changing set ups constantly and the small crew kept us nimble. We focused on a limited lighting set up for most locations (outdoors – natural and reflectors/indoors – almost all single softbox and practicals). Our makeup artist, Paulette Schoen, is a genius and she was able to give us exactly what we needed (generally a ton of faux-sweat and in one case facial injuries) very quickly. Also, maybe most importantly, the team in house at FH was instrumental in organizing and planning the shoot. They tracked down costumes and hired actors, secured locations, dealt with waivers and paperwork, ordered lunch, and overall made it a great work environment. They laid the groundwork for us to succeed on this shoot. All this leads into

1b. BEING PART OF THE TEAM

We have done a few projects with the digital marketing team at FH, we know them well. They are sort of a hybrid group. They manage web and video for FH, they have an in house writer, some graphic designers and a team of marketing folks. They approached us with the concept (and first script ) for this piece and we worked with them hand in hand for each step of the process. This is sort of an unusual arrangement (at least for us). Most clients come to us at the very beginning of the process. They have a need and we do our best to create a video that meets that need. But with the digital guys at FH we really come alongside them and walk through the process. They created the script and they gave us a shot at reworking and tweaking it. The key for us in that sort of relationship is becoming part of the team (bolded, so it burns into your cerebral cortex – i learned that talent from watching powerpoint presentations). We trust them, they trust us. We can throw ideas around and get them shot down, they can air out their needs and seeds of ideas and we can work to hone that into something that really works on screen (like we think this piece does). Our relationship with this team is essential to making projects like this work. Honestly, without getting too preachy, relationship is really central to everything we do. We are always working with some sort of a restraint or handicap (and I assume we always will be, no one has given us avatar money…yet). Of course it’s not always money, sometimes its timeframe or location or a subject’s willingness to talk. In every one of our jobs the essential ingredients to success are creative problem-solving and relationships. Our relationship with this team allowed us to overcome the challenges on this project and get the result they (and we) were aiming for.

2. the Canon C300 (and Zeiss Cp.2 Lenses)

We shoot a lot on dSLRs (mostly the Canon 60d, but also the 5dm2 and 7d). They are great for a lot of what we do, produce an amazing image, can get into tight spaces and are very versatile. But for this shoot we were really trying to evoke a Nike or Olympics commercial vibe. We wanted a deeper image that could hold up to some more serious color-correcting. So we decided to rent. Part of our job is keeping up with the latest gear, seeing how we can adopt new technologies and all that jazz (mostly I just like to look at cool new gear). Recently there has been an absolute flood of new cameras on the market. Without getting too into the ins and outs of all the cameras available, we decided to rent the c300 because of a combination of cost, availability, reviews and footage and pieces we have seen shot on it recently. It seemed to do most of the things we were looking for on this shoot (one conspicuous feature it did not have was 1080p slow motion, if the fs700 had been released at the time of the shoot i think we may have opted to rent that for that reason specifically – it’s a classic sports look)

At any rate we thought the camera (and cp2 lenses we rented performed well)

I am going to share my thoughts then Marshall will chime in (to spit a guest verse) because he handled the camera most of the time

Pros:

-Amazing latitude/dynamic range. We had some outdoor shots in the heat of a clear day where we have an african-american actor and the beautiful white clouds above him fully exposed as well. We used no reflectors or lighting at all in that shot.

-Really easy to use in a variety of ways – we used it handheld, on a glidecam 4000, on a cinevate atlas FLT slider and on a tripod. It was great across the board.

-As a director I loved the EVF and monitor combo, I could peek over Marshall’s shoulder and look at the monitor while he had his eye in the viewfinder. that was great.

-Internal NDs are amazing

Cons:

-Buttons and navigation sucks (the thing has a million buttons but it seems like you use the same couple over and over, not intuitive)

-same slow mo abilities that my 60d has (720p for anything beyond 30fps limit at 60fps)

-sort of an awkward shape to get used to.

Marshall’s Thoughts:

Basically everything Danny said. It is a great camera, it was very nice to be back shooting on a true video camera instead of DSLR, which we have been shooting on for what seems like forever now. Like Danny mentioned the internal ND filters were great . We usually have to be really careful using our ND’s with our DSLR because it can in bad conditions soften the image, however the internals on the C300 seemed to hold up pretty good for us outdoors. The one big con for myself as the operator that day was the interface for controlling things I need to change frequently. For example there are dedicated buttons for many features which I do not use on a regular basis (maybe because I am not cool enough).  However when I went to change ISO, White balance, or shutter speed (the three things I need to change most often) none of them have a dedicated button. Our 60D has dedicated ISO and Shutter speed buttons. Instead the C300 has one button to rule them all and you press it multiple times to adjust different settings. This made me slower at times and with a schedule like we had, slow is bad.

Other than that I have to give it credit for producing great images and serving us well for the 2 days we had it. Do I think we should own a C300? No. Its a great camera, but it doesn’t seem like it has staying power like some other cameras. For example it is already looking like it will be out shined by its big brother the C500 and I am sure newer and better models will come out soon. So there is little point in dropping 17 grand on a camera that will be replaced because it is missing key features like 1080p slow mo and RAW shooting capabilities. (We personally don’t have a need for RAW shooting yet, but if I am gonna spend that much money on a camera I want it to be useful to me in the future). Now back to your host:

Anyways, I really only dove into the production aspect of this project, we had an extensive planning period and a pretty rapid edit and grading period, but that is for another blog post (or not). Overall we love the final outcome, we love working with this client and we were excited to work with the c300.

We are lucky enough to have a good working relationship with the marketing department at Florida Hospital for Children and they really allow us room to create interesting video concepts and execute them. When they introduced us to Makenzie Peters and her story, they allowed us to brainstorm with them and develop some ideas on how the story would be told. For us, like any creative company, it is a huge privilege to be trusted with shaping the story from the start.

The Concept

One of our standard practices when making this type of mini-documentary type about people is that we always try to meet the subject in a non-filming situation first. We don’t want the first time they meet us to be when we are pointing a camera in their face. If we take the time to get to know them as people first, a week or even weeks before shooting, we not only get an excellent time to scout out the story, but even more importantly they get to know us. When it comes time to shoot they already know us, they already trust us, and they already are comfortable opening up to us on camera. Also, the questions we ask the first time we meet them help them develop even better answers the second time around.

After reviewing our notes and trying to write out a couple of different ideas and outlines, Danny came up with the concept of filming underwater. Makenzie talked a lot about how much she loved swimming and had not been able to do it because of her epilepsy. It turned out to be a great way for us to communicate the feeling and stress of having a seizure. I also feel like it brought us a really strong opening to grab the viewer. The visuals turned out very dramatic, we even found ourselves cutting some of what we shot because it was so disconcerting to see a small child floating ‘lifeless’ in the water. My hope is that the visuals set the stage and drama for the rest of the piece.

Shooting Underwater

This was our first underwater shoot. We ended up using this housing with a Canon 60d. It was a lower cost option that ended up working out great. We found it a bit little tricky to work the focus and actually see what your doing while underwater, but if your give yourself time to get a good shot and shoot a lot, you will be happy with the results.

Most of the time I would look at my setting and length from subject while above water, and then just try and maintain that distance while swimming. One big obstacle with the housing we used was that there is a lot of air with in the container that the camera is in. So taking it to any depth and holding it steady becomes a battle. There were two things I wish I had: A counterweight on the housing, just heavy enough to combat some of the buoyancy it had. And a decent pair of flippers, because swimming without your arms (cause you are holding the super bouyant camera housing) was not easy. As far as camera settings the only odd thing we did that I think worked in our favor is that we shot at 10000 color temperature to warm up the colors. The water was so blue that even after adjusting we had to warm it up in to get the finished look.

Adobe Speedgrade

This project was also unique because it was our first time using Speedgrade on a professional project. SpeedGrade is a product now included in the Adobe suite that is used to “Open the full dynamic range of your footage through a sleek new interface” – i.e. to color your stuff. Prior to Speedgrade we did a lot of our looks through FCP 3 way corrector and/or Magic Bullet’s programs. However now that we have left FCP behind, we are looking forward to a loving long-term relationship with Adobe, and so… Speedgrade. Some of the interface is a little odd, maybe because Adobe just purchased SpeedGrade they haven’t had a chance to make it comply with the rest of the suite (interface and short-cuts). However, after getting past some interface hang ups, some as simple as a different shortcut to save your work, I found it to be a really powerful program.

The biggest difference for me was the ability to do color correction in a layering system similar to photoshop. This made it easy for me to understand how different custom layers and presets interacted with the footage, because you could take an opacity slider for each layer and pull it in and out to see the changes. Not only is that useful for noticing the changes, but obviously its effective at controlling the change. For example, if I have my layer effecting a set up clips (lets say it is all the underwater clips). I can take layer and apply general color correction changes. Then I can take a preset look like Cinematic and apply it over the same set of clips. On Mackenzie the result came off a little too dark and dramatic for my liking (or the clients). The Cinematic preset has crushed a lot of my darks into oblivion. However, have no fear because I can pull the opacity of just the preset down to a place that makes my sequence look great with out compromising color quality.

All in all, we are pretty excited about this piece. A lot of what we do is mini-docs and testimonials and we are constantly looking for that thing that will grab the viewer and connect them to the story – for this piece it was shooting underwater. But ultimately with a story as compelling as this one, we are just there to watch it unfold.

I (Danny) directed the shoot. We had a crew of 8. 4 guys on Canon DSLR cameras and L lenses led by DP Marshall Head. We worked with Jim Dotson of Muskrat Ranch to tame the audio in the giant empty warehouse space. We pulled all our vehicles into the space and draped packing blankets everywhere to dampen the echo. We also had to scare off a large flock of birds, wait for the police to stop circling our block and take a time out for a series of helicopters and dump trucks.
We shot the roundtable set up as well as 3 stand up pieces in front of the Art wall, all in one day. The resulting videos are the centerpiece of the Second Stories campaign, tasked with raising 10 million dollars over 3 years.

Check out the campus videos as well.

The video was shot in March in locations around Downtown Orlando with Danny directing and Marshall as DOP.