...Hi, everybody, I am back from my first foray into documentary Oz.....I'll ask my question first...
Does anyone know the best way to quickly pull together a website? Unfortunately, I don't have any idea of how to go about doing this and the person who was to pull this together for me failed to do so. I gotta find a film society. I think I will join the one in Detroit. (Boz, if you're reading this, you should, too, if you haven't already)
Anyway, I have the address, I have paid for the 'upkeep' and will have the site for about 2 years which sounds about right for now. On it, I intend to put everything good or bad, from how the shoot went, to how I found funding, to what I had to do to make a camera light. The problem is getting my site online. I may have to do this myself which would not be a good idea, but if I have to, then I have to. Any and all assistance will be appreciated.
...As for my first shoot for this doc...well,...you ever see a documentary called "Lost In La Mancha"? That is how it went. If there was something that I couldn't put my hands on and fix or have any control over to correct, that is what went wrong. The band, Suffocation, was very gracious and patient considering things were going poorly. I am sure that they thought I was trying to drag things out which I wasn't, but I do think that I kind of wore out my welcome. There are things I can do in order to NOT have that sort of thing happen again and I hope to incorporate them so that the next shoot does not mushroom cloud.
You all have heard me say, never underestimate the power of good crew people. Truer words have never been spoken...
At the ABSOLUTE LAST MINUTE I found a camera person. He came reccommended from about 3 people who I kind of knew, one I know well, and I decided to take a chance on this person....this was my first mistake. We drove from MI to Anaheim, where I got to meet Zensteve! Yay! Nice guy. the three of us sat and talked alittle and had breakfast coffee. Zen strikes me as a terrific person and I am glad that I met him
...
...so, this camera person, I was willing to bring onto the project if we got along well and worked well together...uh, he bailed after the second shoot. That was two days into the shoot. He was prone to being 'bitchy' and would walk off in a huff if I didn't agree with him. In the interest of being professional, I was ignoring his little tantrums and trying to get on with the production. Basically, we were driving in circles in San Francisco, a city he said he knew (Ha!). After driving up 1/4 of the gas in my car, I made a carefully executed turn through a red light (no cars coming either way, no cops.) to go back to the last place I recognized. He decides he has a problem with my driving and bails. That is it. That's all it took for this person to quit this shoot. I can't make up a story like that and I am still amazed at how unprofessional that it was for him to do that.
You can bet that I will never work with that person again, but life is too short to hold a grudge like that and I have decided to go through my life without any ulcers. But his departure locked me into driving for 3 weeks, sometimes with no sleep through areas that I was unfamiliar with. Sound fun? Sure it was
Even the band warned me about all the driving and as much as I would have liked to have been able to just pack in the rest of the shoot, I couldn't. I had been given a leave of absence from work and I have to be back at work on Monday.
...well, that is just one of the things that went wrong. Let's see: my brand new camera light, that I pre-production checked and double checked and triple checked, decided to not work when it got to the field. I was going for ambient light which will work, but no light, no go; Almost every shot I set up with the band before their shows, was blown out audio-wise by the soundchecks of the other three bands; coordination with arrival, departure, and directions to the venues were bad; Hmm...I got cussed out in Saskatoon, twice for doing what I was there to do(and people who know me, know that I do not let anyone cuss me out or even yell at me with no retaliation) but I was in 'someone else's house' so to speak; I was unable to get all of my interviews because of the lighting, audio problems and all these things were compounded by the fact that with all that driving I was only half awake until I figured out how to get some sleep and then be able to get to the next venue and I didn't figure all that out until the last week.
....well, I learned alot from this shoot. ALOT. I think I can avoid alot of pitfalls on the next shoot. The good news is that I did get some of my interviews, about 2/3 of them, but there are some assertions that I would like to make that cannot be supported because the answers are not there. Another good thing is that I got some good footage. I love my camera, but it isn't my baby anymore, so I can actually use it as an instrument as opposed to worrying about getting some tape on the handle, (how I made a camera light). I learned that I do know what I am doing production-wise: you can't really correct bad lighting or audio once shot and I remembered this throughout the shoot, however this is what dragged out the shoot.
...Ultimately, I think that as always (especially if you are familiar with tv news) I have to take responsibility for everything that went wrong on this shoot. I am sure that I tried the patience of the band and I felt bad about that. But when it comes down to it, I am glad I did this shoot. It could've gone better, it should've gone better, but I ain't dead. I hope that I can get some real grant money (I had just enough to do this shoot) so that I can get a real second person who actually wants to be there. I am looking at this shoot as honestly and critically as I can because I refuse to lie to myself or have any delusions about how it went good or bad.
...damn if this wasn't a learning experience, but I have to regroup and get on with the next step of this doc which is this freakin' website. If you want details about this shoot, that is where they will be once I get my site online. And I will be doing this kind of detailed 'analysis' for every shoot I go on for this doc....
So, somebody pour out some advice for me and this website, if there is a way I can do this quickly, no I don't know anything about dreamweaver or any other program, that's why I was having someone else do it for me. I know how it should look and behave, I just need to get it online.
...and it is really nice to be back here with people who know production. I know I will be able to get lots of advice from my online family and maybe I can help some other people working on productions with things to avoid or things to try to do, it wasn't all bad. I hope so. I am not willing to give up so soon...or maybe I am just hard-headed. 
I look forward to all advice and questions if there are any...
--spinner
Does anyone know the best way to quickly pull together a website? Unfortunately, I don't have any idea of how to go about doing this and the person who was to pull this together for me failed to do so. I gotta find a film society. I think I will join the one in Detroit. (Boz, if you're reading this, you should, too, if you haven't already)
Anyway, I have the address, I have paid for the 'upkeep' and will have the site for about 2 years which sounds about right for now. On it, I intend to put everything good or bad, from how the shoot went, to how I found funding, to what I had to do to make a camera light. The problem is getting my site online. I may have to do this myself which would not be a good idea, but if I have to, then I have to. Any and all assistance will be appreciated.
...As for my first shoot for this doc...well,...you ever see a documentary called "Lost In La Mancha"? That is how it went. If there was something that I couldn't put my hands on and fix or have any control over to correct, that is what went wrong. The band, Suffocation, was very gracious and patient considering things were going poorly. I am sure that they thought I was trying to drag things out which I wasn't, but I do think that I kind of wore out my welcome. There are things I can do in order to NOT have that sort of thing happen again and I hope to incorporate them so that the next shoot does not mushroom cloud.
You all have heard me say, never underestimate the power of good crew people. Truer words have never been spoken...
At the ABSOLUTE LAST MINUTE I found a camera person. He came reccommended from about 3 people who I kind of knew, one I know well, and I decided to take a chance on this person....this was my first mistake. We drove from MI to Anaheim, where I got to meet Zensteve! Yay! Nice guy. the three of us sat and talked alittle and had breakfast coffee. Zen strikes me as a terrific person and I am glad that I met him
......so, this camera person, I was willing to bring onto the project if we got along well and worked well together...uh, he bailed after the second shoot. That was two days into the shoot. He was prone to being 'bitchy' and would walk off in a huff if I didn't agree with him. In the interest of being professional, I was ignoring his little tantrums and trying to get on with the production. Basically, we were driving in circles in San Francisco, a city he said he knew (Ha!). After driving up 1/4 of the gas in my car, I made a carefully executed turn through a red light (no cars coming either way, no cops.) to go back to the last place I recognized. He decides he has a problem with my driving and bails. That is it. That's all it took for this person to quit this shoot. I can't make up a story like that and I am still amazed at how unprofessional that it was for him to do that.
You can bet that I will never work with that person again, but life is too short to hold a grudge like that and I have decided to go through my life without any ulcers. But his departure locked me into driving for 3 weeks, sometimes with no sleep through areas that I was unfamiliar with. Sound fun? Sure it was
Even the band warned me about all the driving and as much as I would have liked to have been able to just pack in the rest of the shoot, I couldn't. I had been given a leave of absence from work and I have to be back at work on Monday....well, that is just one of the things that went wrong. Let's see: my brand new camera light, that I pre-production checked and double checked and triple checked, decided to not work when it got to the field. I was going for ambient light which will work, but no light, no go; Almost every shot I set up with the band before their shows, was blown out audio-wise by the soundchecks of the other three bands; coordination with arrival, departure, and directions to the venues were bad; Hmm...I got cussed out in Saskatoon, twice for doing what I was there to do(and people who know me, know that I do not let anyone cuss me out or even yell at me with no retaliation) but I was in 'someone else's house' so to speak; I was unable to get all of my interviews because of the lighting, audio problems and all these things were compounded by the fact that with all that driving I was only half awake until I figured out how to get some sleep and then be able to get to the next venue and I didn't figure all that out until the last week.
....well, I learned alot from this shoot. ALOT. I think I can avoid alot of pitfalls on the next shoot. The good news is that I did get some of my interviews, about 2/3 of them, but there are some assertions that I would like to make that cannot be supported because the answers are not there. Another good thing is that I got some good footage. I love my camera, but it isn't my baby anymore, so I can actually use it as an instrument as opposed to worrying about getting some tape on the handle, (how I made a camera light). I learned that I do know what I am doing production-wise: you can't really correct bad lighting or audio once shot and I remembered this throughout the shoot, however this is what dragged out the shoot.
...Ultimately, I think that as always (especially if you are familiar with tv news) I have to take responsibility for everything that went wrong on this shoot. I am sure that I tried the patience of the band and I felt bad about that. But when it comes down to it, I am glad I did this shoot. It could've gone better, it should've gone better, but I ain't dead. I hope that I can get some real grant money (I had just enough to do this shoot) so that I can get a real second person who actually wants to be there. I am looking at this shoot as honestly and critically as I can because I refuse to lie to myself or have any delusions about how it went good or bad.
...damn if this wasn't a learning experience, but I have to regroup and get on with the next step of this doc which is this freakin' website. If you want details about this shoot, that is where they will be once I get my site online. And I will be doing this kind of detailed 'analysis' for every shoot I go on for this doc....
So, somebody pour out some advice for me and this website, if there is a way I can do this quickly, no I don't know anything about dreamweaver or any other program, that's why I was having someone else do it for me. I know how it should look and behave, I just need to get it online.
...and it is really nice to be back here with people who know production. I know I will be able to get lots of advice from my online family and maybe I can help some other people working on productions with things to avoid or things to try to do, it wasn't all bad
. I hope so. I am not willing to give up so soon...or maybe I am just hard-headed. I look forward to all advice and questions if there are any...--spinner
Welcome back.