No freebies!

I saw this video retweeted by @FCPUGIndy today and thought it was perfect. If you're in multimedia, you know how often you get asked to do things for free by random people. "I need this 3 hour documentary edited, it's totally low budget so I can't pay you until it makes a few million bucks, but it'd be GREAT for your reel!" It's just ridiculous how people either want to pay you next to nothing or nothing at all for your work when you are worth so much more.



When it comes to video, there's definitely a place for free work. I do a lot of free work on my own to build up a variety of things in my portfolio, but that's not something I'll do in the future. Working for free can also be a great way to show someone your skills and seriousness about a job, as long as there is some kind of promise of payment when you prove your worth. But generally, if you're lowballing your peers every chance you get, you suck.

The good and bad of student projects

I attended IUPUI's Media Arts and Science capstone last Friday. I knew a number of people from classes that are graduating this year and had projects on display and wanted to support them as they supported me when I went through the capstone experience this time last year. Including my own, I think I've attended 5 of these capstone evenings altogether, and each time I go I have the same kind of observations. I tend to think that way too many of the projects are not at the level a college graduate receiving a BS should be producing. It seems to me like it should be much more difficult to get through that last hurdle of the program and get a college degree.

There aren't an overwhelming number of video projects on display usually, as the Media Arts and Science program is somewhat small as it is, and usually focused more on interactive media or web development. However, this year there seemed to be more on display than before, so I got a good look at the fresh faces of video, or the people I'll be competing with for jobs I suppose. Overall, the video projects were OK. For the most part, they weren't great, creative, interesting, and innovative,  nor were they terrible. They were just OK. Well, except for two.

The good? Maybe I should say great. The great video project, and probably best capstone project I've ever seen, is a short form documentary called Changing Faces by my friend and classmate Jeremiah Nickerson. Changing Faces digs into Jeremiah's family situation which has been largely affected by his father's alcoholism and subsequent suicide attempt. He sits down with members of his family and explores what happened - a subject they haven't discussed before. The emotion is raw yet controlled. The interviews are individual and assembled to tell the story of his childhood and dysfunction throughout, expertly paced with meaningful b-roll and photos. So many things in stand out in university projects that just scream STUDENT FILM HERE, whether it's the hesitant framing of shots, clunky and meaningless editing, lack of cohesive theme, or just plain bad technical aspects. This film was a total breath of fresh air that showed the program can take people with natural talent for storytelling and help them develop into filmmakers. You should definitely go to Jeremiah's website and give this film a watch. It's very impressive that such a personal project can have such an emotional universal theme and appeal.

The rest of this blog entry is going to be me complaining about student projects. If you prefer to leave on a positive note, end it right here and go check out Jeremiah's work.

The bad. Boy, was it bad. I feel like as a recent student of the program I can comment on this without seeming too all-knowing or self-righteous about it. Hopefully, anyway. I'm not going to put links up or name any names obviously, but one project I saw was a movie trailer for a movie that doesn't exist. It's a fine idea for a project and one that I considered as an editing exercise and demonstration but ultimately passed on. Editing trailers is a great skill to have and a perfect way to show your full range as an editor - if you put an insane amount of time into developing the project so it really looks like a trailer. This project basically highlighted exactly what is wrong with very young editors and motion graphic artists. Rather than digging into a very deep program like After Effects and learning the various parts from the ground up, young people tend to Google for the most relevant tutorial and just learn enough to get by. While this might get you through a tiny little problem here and there, you will never really be a motion graphics artist from doing tutorials.

 It was painfully obvious that this project was completely reliant upon tutorials and nothing else. In fact, almost every shot was created with a tutorial from videocopilot.net, an extremely well-known website for AE tutorials. I feel quite bad for this student. His capstone would have been a great independent project to work on in order to learn different aspects of AE. Tutorials are great tools to use for practice, as long as you can understand how all the pieces work in order to adapt it to another effect later on. Simply copying a canned effect you find online doesn't show me you are an artist. It shows me you can push the correct buttons in the correct order to produce a mediocre result.

I truly wish that this person's mentor had stepped in and made him take it a step further, because with that piece as the center of his portfolio, any mograph person worth their salt will never hire him. While the Internet has given us the ability to find all kinds of amazing tools, effects, and instant answers, it also seems to be making new generations of media professional wannabes so much lazier, which is sad. If you want to impress, you have to innovate a little.

Dearest student, if you happen to come across this blog and know I'm talking about you, please take that out of your portfolio. You're worth more than that.

Theater and Post-production

Yesterday, I was watching the RSC's latest performance of Hamlet on PBS for the second time (because it was amazingly good) and was pondering how I miss being a part of theater. Earlier this year I was thinking about volunteering in a production as a stage hand, though I didn't get around to it for a variety of reasons. (Perhaps after baseball season, as I've picked up a second job at Victory Field.) I was in a lot of plays from kindergarten through high school - a lot. Once I got to 6th grade and was able to join the drama club, I did 2 plays a year until I graduated. Unfortunately, since I developed early (you know what I mean) and was taller than everyone else, I was regularly typecast as the mother/grandmother/old lady characters. I haven't acted in a play since graduating from high school (though I did end up having to play a character in a ridiculous short film we did).

The things I enjoyed the most about theater were the camaraderie between the cast and crew and the energy and volatile nature of a play in progress. My mind was wandering a bit on this thought and I began to compare it to what I love about post-production. I realized that performing in a theatrical production and editing a film are so completely different with the same end.

What I like about post is the ability to think things through. I can undo, switch things up, redo entire sequences, and trash things that suck if I want. In theater, once something has happened, you have to deal with it and improvise if necessary to make it work. You don't have a few hours to mull over the best way to go about a scene - once you're in the moment, that's it.

The interesting thing about this, however, is that I'm not the kind of editor to take my time mulling things over.  I've always had a keen ability to look through my footage quickly an efficiently, and instinctively know when to cut things out. I have no qualms ruthlessly going through a timeline, chopping chunks here and there. I rarely dwell on sequences. I just go with my instinct, give it a try, and if it doesn't work, I do it again with minor changes. I enjoy thinking things through even though I don't work like that.

I wonder how much of this editing sense has been enhanced or changed by my think-on-your-feet experiences in theater? In a play, the actors play a big part in the pacing of the play, like the editor controls the pacing of a show. A play does have edits, just like a show - passing of time, flashbacks, dissolves, vignettes, it's all the same, but instant.

Basically, I find it really interesting that the thing I loved most about theater is exactly the opposite of what I love about video post-production.

It's interesting how things that are almost completely irrelevant to nonlinear editing can have a profound effect on it. Another thing? Music. I'm positive spending three years playing the clarinet and sight reading sheet music has enhanced my pacing and rhythm.

I wonder what else there is?

By the way, my favorite role was as Alice's mom in Go Ask Alice, because it was the only play we ever performed with any real emotion to it. I like to think I played it well, though nobody ever gave me any feedback on my performance so I guess I'll never know. The scariest role was the villain in a strange adaptation of Robin Hood.  The original person dropped out right before the play, and me, one of the reject extras that wasn't to be trusted with any real lines, was promoted to her part. I got the privilege of learning 110 lines in 2 weeks in 8th grade. The same day I was required to recite O Captain my Captain for English class, and the Gettysburg Address for history. And that night was the school lock in and I stayed up all night after that day. How on Earth did I ever manage to live like this? Oh, to be 14 again..

Freelancing

Recently, I completed a milestone in my career: my first real freelance gig. It was for a local production house that I've held in high regard for a long time, so it was great (and kind of terrifying) to get the opportunity to do something for them. I have a fellow editor to thank for the gig, as he recommended me. Listen kids: networking works. Networking, mixed with a little luck, good timing, and well, knowing industry people who are kind to you helps a lot too.

The project was a DVD menu for a pretty big client, at least around here. Or at least to me. Since I'm such a complete noob at this side of the industry, I don't know what I can or can't say or show, so I'll just leave it at that. It wasn't a typical DVD menu (at least not originally), and it was a bit of a challenge to come up with a way to make it work for them. The project became more challenging than I anticipated as ideas bounced around, and I spent way more time on it than I ever thought I would. To say the least, working a day job and on an intensive project put me through the wringer in a way I haven't been since I graduated from school.

I knew that I wasn't going to be the perfect little freelancer I wanted to be, simply because I didn't know what the hell I was getting myself into. I dove in and gave it my very best shot, and here's what I learned from the experience that I'll apply not only to future freelancing gigs, but also to permanent jobs:

• Communication is the big huge gigantic key to success of a project. You know how you spend all that time in school, from kindergarten through college, working on group projects and completing all those lame communication exercises? Turns out the entire world relies on your ability to communicate with it effectively. In freelancing, this means learning how to express yourself concisely to another editor or a client, adjusting jargon or industry terms. It means emailing everyone everything at any given time and creating a virtual paper trail. It means speaking up and making people listen to you when they need to be listening to you, or shutting up when you need to be listening to them. It seems to me that budgets get broken, projects get delayed, or errors happen when communication breaks down. A funny thing to "learn" since I've "learned" it forever, but still, an important lesson.
• Even if you spend way more time learning and reading about a topic than a normal person should, you still won't know everything about it. At least not as a young, relatively inexperienced editor. You have to acknowledge that you don't know things to yourself, and commit to getting good at researching the Internet effectively. Or make friends with smart veteran people.
• Try not to be intimidated. This was really difficult. Wet behind the ears, first freelance gig, a real live production house, clients from a big company - duh, intimidation has taken over. It's difficult to remember how much of your own time and money you've invested into yourself and how much you do actually know when you're in that environment, but you need to take a step back and remind yourself.
• If you think something is wrong, go with your instinct to correct it right away. If it ends up not being wrong, oh well. If it IS wrong, you saved yourself some additional work and time.
• DVD technology pretty much sucks and needs to go away. I never really sat and considered how old school the DVD spec is. Freakin' yikes. 
• Do your very best, because it's all you can do.

A different sort of inspirational quotes.

There are a lot of cheesy motivational inspirational quotes on posters in dentist offices or regular offices or school classrooms, but I tend to think they're entirely lame. Here are some of my favorite inspirational quotes from random sources - smart people, regular people, books, television, movies, etc. They aren't the kind of inspiration like "You're special! You can do it!" They're more like "Get off your ass and live your life or you'll regret it."

I put them behind a cut in case the list gets long and unruly.