Over the past two days I have been to three lectures of sorts. I went to listen to what people had to say about aid workers and journalism, what A crude Awakening was like and finally today to a talk about whether television should be trusted. All of these events were good and will get a proper write up within the next day or two.
Last night I went to the Kendra event not knowing what to expect from the event. It started at 6pm and ended by 9pm and i had the opportunity to meet with a few people of which Brendon Kenny of VK media and the Jummp project.
A large amount of metadata is currently being discarded without understanding its value! JuMMp aims to promote interoperability for metadata and signalling information exchange. This will enable contextual navigation within live and recorded content for users of digital devices such as PVRs, games consoles, mobile phones and computers – providing value to end users and to all stakeholders in the content chain.
It’s an interesting project and you can participate in the conversaton and learn more through their facebook group. It’s an interesting project with some very interesting backers so I look forward to seeing how they implement this in the wild.
Other people I met with are Mark and Alex of Astream – a streaming service provider, Darren of Ioda, an independent online distribution Alliance and Dennis of zzizzlfilm – short film distribution for filmmakers by filmmakers. I was also introduced to Nick, product development Director for Bsky and a few more people.
It was a good event with many interesting people to meet and whenever the next event is organised I will make sure to turn up.
Today I went to film some friends playing a gig by the lakeside in Nyon and it was a great occasion. The sun was shining, the air temperature was good and many people that I had not seen in many years were present.
The shoot involved two cameras. One was at the back as a safety shot whilst I got the fun camera at the front. There was one electric guitar, one acoustic, and one bass. There was also a drum kit and a synthesizer. The music was good but I forgot my hearing protection so I had a slight ringing by the end of the event… all in a day’s work.
I managed to get the whole concert filmed without getting tired which is great. I’ve been using the camera I used for the past 7 years so it’s normal I’m so comfortable with it. I watched the footage and I’m happy with it. It’s good, a nice variety of shots, switches at the right moment from the key instrument to the next.
Bart Simpson was sitting on the drum kit and then got to dance with a girl who was meant to sing, the only problem is the sound engineer didn’t make her mic loud enough. It’s normal since they didn’t take enough time to prepare everything before having the gig go live.
I’ve captured all the video footage and it’s ready to be compressed and uploaded to Facebook. I’ve actually annoyed them and got a “You recently uploaded a video to Facebook, and it could not be processed because it was too long.” message. hehe, that’s normal for me.
I’m uploading those videos to the video section of my website and they’ll be available on the RSS feed within the next few days. I need to count about two hours of processing per video clip unfortunately. With the Macbookpro I’m waiting for it should be faster.
Today was in some respects a perfect day and I’d like more of them to be like this.
Last night’s drive was amazing. It’s just the type of drive you want to have. It starts in the middle of the afternoon as a friend helps you load the car and you set off for a 900 kilometer drive. At the beginning you have to deal with London traffic/congestion. After this you’ve got part of the m20 that’s closed so you need to take a slip road. As I got into France I was welcomed by a lot of snow coming straight at me, like the windows screensaver from a decade ago. That meant I couldn’t really drive as fast as I wanted. Still made good time. For most of the journey the road was fine.The part I really loved is when I got off the motorway to go via the Jura. At this point it wasn’t snowing too much but as I progressed up the slopes and let the Garmin Nuvi 250 guide me along the path so I saw a little snow, and it started to stick. As I drove I had to stay awake and battle with the ever present threat of loss of adherence. That was the fun part of the drive. The road was covered in a thin layer of snow and people were driving more slowly. At moments I was chasing a snowplow across the mountains as it was salting the roads.At other moments there was no snow plow and I lost traction two or three times but kept the car in control. I occasionaly thought that I wouldn’t make it up the hills but I did, and I loved the view. The trees were covered in snow and they were lit by the grand phare. It’s memories from childhood. I’m glad I’ve spent so much time playing in car parks covered in snow to learn how the car behaved.At five in the morning the last thing you want to learn is how to drive in snow. Luckily I do.It made a nice transition from the student life I’ve been living over the past three years and the job seeking following that. I wanted the drive to be a transition from one phase in my life to the next. Now I’m  an employed graduate who’s working in Switzerland as of next Monday. This next chapter of my life should be fun. Â
One of the best things about being a student is that you can work on projects without having to feel bad about not making any money. In particular, I’m thinking of the dissertation. It’s a point where you’ve got ten thousand words to write about subjects you love.
As you’ve got to do so much research you’ve got a reason to buy tens of books and DVDs and watch them, enjoying every minute and taking the occasional note.
As you progress and you start writing you’re there, being your own boss. You develop your structure and you see what you’ve achieved. You think about what is already said and what else must be written. You write it down, re-write it. You find there’s some information missing so you’ve got an excuse to get sidetrack to look for some in-depth material about that.
You come back to the original text and you’ve just added 200 words. paf. Done, great. My project has progressed ;).
Of course, the more time you give yourself the more fun the project will be. If you give yourself ten weeks then you’ve got lots of time so it’ll be lots of fun because you can sidetrack all the time. if you’ve got 6 weeks you’re under pressure but not quite in the same way. If you’ve got four weeks you may have to be very disciplined. If you’ve got two weeks then forget about sleep, about friends, about sunshine and everything else. You’ve got to plod along and distractions will destroy your chances.
Anyway, I want to get the writing part done by the beginning of April so that I have four weeks to edit. Editing can be quite amusing when you’ve got time.
Enough procrastinating, time to go back for five minutes before the next distraction comes along
Teamwork is a pain because it requires the collaboration of others. As Social Media people this may not sound like a challenge to you since you love having un-conferences and such but to others it’s a real challenge. Someone currently living in my home was telling me about how she would have to do the work of two people because the person whom she was meant to do teamwork with did not understand the question.
That’s where doing my university course has it’s merits. Whilst it’s called a Mickey Mouse course by those that choose to do more scientifically based studies there is great value in this area of studies. One of those is the ability to lead a team, to be no more than a cog and more. Over a period of weeks I was producer on three out of four multicamera programs we did during the second year. The team was comprised of about 20 people. Three crews of three for getting stories, three camera operators for the show, one vision mixer, one PA, one AP. one director and so on. You get the picture.
Add to the size of this team that they’re students and you see where the problems will occur. The first one is motivation. You need to find the people that agree to work with each other, check that they have the cameras and that everything is in working order. You need to make sure that what they are gathering will fit into the subject of the program.
That’s another phase. Script writing. On two out of three programs everything went well. The person that was asked to write the script did so and we had the presenters to deliver the dialogue. The problem occured one day when I had depended on a person to write the script but nothing had been done. It meant that the show would be less organized. Our guest also cancelled on us 30 minutes before the show so phone calls had to be made to know what the key points were.
The other two shows went well due to the amount of work that went in. I’m naturally lazy which means I’m great at deleguating certan jobs. I enjoyed handing out the filming assignments, making sure that all the footage was shot, that the material was ready and that everything would go well during the show. I also liked that I could really depend on my PA for the paperwork side of things.
Through professional placements I have had before doing this university course I was experienced enough with the technical side to resolve most problems without too much trouble.
Through that experience what I learned is the importance of understanding what your role is and knowing how to react immediatly in case of problems. If there’s no script find someone that you know can write to prepare the script. If there’s no presenter select the same person rather than do it yourself. As producer your role is to oversee the whole project. You’ve got to be strong charactered and confident. You also have to be patient. That can be quite a challenge.
When you work with people who know little or nothing about computing you need a lot of patience. “Do I look worried?” is a question I love to ask people I’m helping with their editing problems, “no”, that’s when I answer “Only worry if I look worried because that’s when something bad has happened”. As a result I hope it helps to put them at ease. I remember working with one person who knew absolutely nothing about computers and she’s about my age. She was so nervous and so worried that it took all my self control to remain calm. I did remain calm. It’s a high pressure environment (especially in the real world) and it is essential for everyone to be calm and pull their own weight.
Through a variety of experiences in television work and student work I have learned about teamwork and what works best. As a result I feel that I have an advantage over people have never had the opportunity to have such big groups to work with. I enjoy teamwork and I’m looking forward to many more assignments in the near future. I’m impatient to get back into a professional television working environment where everyone knows their role and works well as a team. Hopefully with my efforts that will be soon.