About a week and a half ago, my professor and PJ advisor, Kent Miller, gave us an hour to go shoot a video in my JRN 423 class. We had to be back by 8 p.m. and have our pieces edited by the end of class.
I was terrified; working with new equipment is so daunting to me. Considering there was a time when I choked at the idea of using lenses besides my kit (and I'm still mildly wary of strobes) you can imagine my horror at the requirement that I go out and make a video in one hour. I felt like the water-phobic little kid whose parents' method of teaching her to swim is tossing her off the dock into a deep, fishy lake. The kind with sharks in the bottom.
Upon expressing my uneasiness to friends or mentors, I've been met with kind words and the assurance that video isn't all that different from still photography - to which my reaction is always extreme frustration. Still photography means you can move around! Video cameras have to have tripods! Audio mics must be used! THINGS MOVE IN VIDEOS! ...etc. There is so much more to screw up with when shooting video! I really thought I might hyperventilate.
After a few frenetic minutes of cruising Mission and the downtown Mount Pleasant area for stories with my friends Tanya and Paige, I decided to comb the music building and make art about an artist. I was turned down by several students before finding my subject. Not encouraging, considering the fast-narrowing window of time we were given.
But everything turned out okay. I shot the same way I would with my still camera, with a little more emphasis on image stability. It's not like I made something for NatGeo TV, but it turns out everyone just might've been right.
Shooting video really isn't so bad.
(And no, that doesn't make my mind all that calm about my next video project. Because next time, I'm going to actually USE the external mic for sound, and oh! my! gosh! That's new equipment...)
By the way, I totally think I can make the black and white better now.
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