Cairns’ sculpture is powerfully evocative and his sentiments about music and friendship in relationship to the visual artist’s life will be of interest to photographers. Although I can share all this about Cairns, I only know the artist through this five-minute video created by Richard Anderson. This speaks to the incredible storytelling power of documentary shorts. It is also reason to applaud Anderson for taking a great leap forward in his video-making pursuits.

Last month I reported that Anderson was just getting started in video by learning multimedia techniques by experimenting playfully. His latest creation, a personal project, proves that Anderson is getting great results — fast.

Check it out this video for inspiration from both Cairns and Anderson. Take particular note of how Anderson puts his photographer’s eye to excellent use. His framing of Cairns among his sculptures is fantastic and not typical of standard documentary interviews. And Anderson’s still images make wonderful b-roll that clearly reveal Cairns’ vision of impending disaster.

“When pinched for time, the trick I’ve learned is that it helps to listen carefully and remember the good soundbites. Then you go looking for them, rather than having to scroll through everything.

“After I found the soundbites I wanted, I laid them out in a timeline and slept on it.  Came in this morning with a fresh mind, I cut out 60%.  From there it was easy: I just needed to hide my cuts with relevant b-roll (didn’t even look for the best) and color correct the clips to match (sort of). Really down and dirty and certainly not polished, but I wanted to get it out for the ASMP Best of 2010 online issue.”

OK. Good fast and smart answers for fast and smart video editing. But I wanted some clarification, and I figured that Mooney would have answers that would of interest to all you Faithful Readers who are trying to improve your video editing skills. Here are my follow-up questions and Mooney’s responses, which she gave me permission to publish, “bad work habits and all.”

Q: To remember the good sound bites, do you note timing or use some aid to locate them easily?

A: I rely on my memory and make mental notes when I am doing the interview.  The real zingers stand out.  But I do try to make a notation on my question list as far as at what point in the interview the remarks were made.  Looking at my watch – not very scientific but it gets me in the ballpark.  If I were working with a crew – I’d have someone keeping track of this by writing down the time code on the digital recorder or camera.  However, that is one big shortcoming of the Canon 5D Mark II – no time code!

Q: Can you clarify “go look for them, not having to scroll”? Are you saying you ONLY listened at first, not watching as well? And what do you mean, exactly, about not having to “scroll” through all?

A: Every “camera file” is a QuickTime file that I can scrub through — with the playbar — looking for the right soundbite.  I do this with the camera file and camera audio even though I won’t use this audio. It is quicker for me.

Q: When you laid them out on timeline was this video and audio together?

A: I bring my video clip (camera file) into Final Cut Pro – as well as my audio files.  After I import the files, I do loose in and out points on both and then bring them down into the timeline.  I can either match (sync) them by looking at the audio file peaks when I “clapped” or used a clapboard or I can use a software called PluralEyes which I hear is amazing in syncing sound with video.

Q: If your audio was not synced to video (as in, audio interviews without video), would you still have approached this first part the same way? (I am facing this now with still images and audio from a tango event.)?

A: Then it’s a bit easier in that you don’t have to sync anything.  So, I would pull out my best soundbites, lay them down in an order that best delivers your message and then pick the right visuals to illustrate it.  That’s how I work – but many other people pick their images first. No right or wrong way.

More Editing and Video Storytelling Insights from Mooney?

Check her great Journeys of a Hybrid blog!

Learning on the job can mean taking a calculated leap, with plenty of support - like this woman boarding a train in Lima, Peru.

I think that Mooney and I are probably really on the same page, and simply looking at the fine line between offering services we are not capable of delivering professionally and offering services out of our skill range but that we know we can deliver. When it comes to still photographers offering video and multimedia services, we can do this by outsourcing services or, more specific to my point, knowing through experience that we can learn the skills called for — before and during the job.

Not Pro Cake Baking

It would be an unprofessional disaster if I sold professional services to bake a wedding cake this weekend. I just couldn’t do it. But regarding my offering multimedia services to HRW, there are a few thing to consider that put this “learning on the job” in a different category:

• I studied multimedia in college pretty seriously, making a polished project that was used by the United States Post Office for public education. (Yes, the technlogy was very, very different.)
• I’ve been playing around with modern multimedia, learning some skills and — just as important — identifying the many skills I still have to learn.
• I’ve been interviewing numerous photographers over past three years on the topic, processing their advice by writng articles.
• Many of these photographers have become friends and have made it clear that they will support me when I need help with my own projects.
• When I pitched the project to HRW, I made it very clear that this would be a relatively simple project, fundamentally using the skills I already have (if not yet at the most professional levels).
• I was honest and direct with HRW that I would be learning on the job, and that we would need to consider this in terms of both project timeline and our working relationship.

Learning on the Job IS Professionalism

None of these points are to argue with Gail Mooney. She’s been working very, very hard for more than a decade on her film-making skills and she’s still learning. This must be respected. It is why I wrote a post about how hard it is to make movies, in which I encouraged photographers to not underestimate multimedia/video, nor bite off more than we can chew.

Many photographers are watching video and multimedia go by like passengers on a train. How to get on board?

However, in my post in which I encouraged photographers to learn multimedia on the job, I balanced this caution with the need for excitement and finding creative ways to enter realm of multimedia, saying:

“Offering services that force us to take our game up a notch is not the same as someone who has never held a camera going out and bidding for a major photography job. Clearly, that would be unprofessional, and ridiculous. But to bid for a photography job that requires honing skills is part of the profession.”

The Proof is in Gail Mooney

Again, I’m not trying to argue with Gail Mooney. To be quite honest, as I write today, I have more than a little “gulp” sensation about being able to deliver what I have promised to HRW. I’m trying to psych myself up, but I do wonder if I didn’t take on too much, and this worrying doesn’t feel good. However. . .

I am encouraged by Mooney’s post yesterday about her “Opening Our Eyes” project, in which she reports on “My Screw Ups Shooting Video with a DSLR.” Clearly, learning on the job is something that is part of the process. Sure, Mooney could point out that this is a personal project, not work for a client. But I know Mooney, and while she always gives delivers 100% professionalism to clients, she puts even more heart, soul and skill into her personal projects.

You see, Gail Mooney had suggested that I make the Zoom H4n my tool of choice for recording audio for multimedia projects. Instead of just taking her word for it, I spent a lot of time reading reviews on traditional sites and blogs to see if I couldn’t get something just as good for less than $300. Finally convinced to go with the Zoom, I hit a major stumbling block. What accessories to buy?

From Mooney and others I knew that multiple external microphones are critical for best sound recording. But as I looked for a cheap mic or two, I quickly learned there is no such thing as a cheap mic. Most are more expensive than the recorder itself, and that was already straining my budget. Most frustrating, I had no way of knowing if I would really need one, at least at this point in the game.

I simply had no way of knowing how the Zoom recorded in the real world — at least not until I stumbled upon the test by onelonedork. His great, dorky test test shows the position of the Zoom, and helped me realize that, for now, I would be fine with the recorder alone. No accessories needed. I could simply buy the Zoom, begin recording interviews and ambient sound with the on-board mics, then consider further purchases after I’ve created some content.

Wait! I stumbled upon one more nerdy, wonderful audio test (by KalaniPrince) that made me decide that I just had to shell out $50 bucks for a little fuzzy hat for the zoom. It seems ridiculous to pay 1/6th of the price of the recorder for a bit of fuzz, but this video made it clear to me that it’s a must

The Wonderful YouTube Community of Multimedia Nerds

There are tons of YouTube videos featuring Zoom audio tests with all kinds of mic configurations. Besides helping me quickly come to a final, confident purchasing decision, they also reassured me that (of course) Mooney had been right that the Zoom is the machine of choice.

Just as important, they showed me that YouTube can be an invaluable place for learning multimedia/video technology. This makes sense, of course. People making quality videos need to perform lots of tests, and so why not make these test public? This creates a community-oriented network of nerds-helping-nerds. Viewers provide lots of great comments that further add value.

Sure, in today’s world there is sense that we can learn anything on YouTube, but when it comes to learning program functionality on YouTube I tend to end up more frustrated than helped. Programs are complex and my questions are usually very specific, and I seldom find the answers I’m looking for on YouTube. However, when it comes to seeing unfamiliar audio/video equipment in action and watching videos in which the tests are part of the video itself, there’s no beating the support from the Multimedia Nerds of YouTube.

The reason I’m sharing this video with you (as I did my FCE compression test) is the same reason I’m posting these down-and-dirty experiments to YouTube: to help me get over my fear of new technologies, specifically in the realm of multimedia editing.

I over think way too much and often get stuck deep in the creative-technology mud. This time around I was about to get stuck with FCE, which looks like Final Cut Pro to me, and which made me want to crawl back to iMovie. I realized I could think and think and even practice and practice, but never make any substantial headway. What was called for was learning by engaging in quick, learn-one-skill projects and publishing them.

Sure, my tendency is to only share polished work, and sharing crappy experiments makes me go “gulp” in a very real way. What if someone actually sees this???

Yeah, what would happen? Nothing, I suppose, but thee real point is that I’ve noticed that photographers who share their experiments in a public manner advance much more quickly than those us who get stuck — over thinking and not creating, publishing, learning and moving forward.

I have to give a super BIG thanks to BIGlittleBROTHER for this one! He really helped me get rolling with Final Cut Express (see last post), and his approach to explaining allowed me to adapt his methods to suite my specific needs.

No wonder his tutorial has gotten 46 thousand views!

This past weekend I grabbed my G9 and pretty quickly had this:

Clearly this sucks. Horrible compression from hell. Worse than “dumb” iMovie would help me produce. However, I have succeeded in getting the footage in and out of FCE and on YouTube fast, and that was the point.

For “Take II” (below) I referred to a FCE tutorial on Lynda.com, and found some help on how/where to compress for broadband, getting this:

Not bad at all, but I wanted to see if I could find better, “ideal” settings I could use.

I found clear, awesome instructions on best HD compression for YouTube in Final Cut Express/iMovie from BIGlittleBROTHER in his awesome YouTube tutorial. I wasn’t shooting HD, but I thought I’d give it a try, and got “Take III”:

OK. Clearly I’m all stretched out, but I think BIGlittleBROTHER was on to something. The compression seems to be looking better at the 360 setting than in “Take II”, and I think it even gets better when I watch it at the 720 “HD” setting, although I’m not really sure.

I make a guess at how to get the aspect ratio normal and end up with my fourth and final take. Take a look at “Take IV”:

Satisfied!

And that’s it! I’m satisfied. Actually, I’m not really satisfied. There is so much beautiful video on the YouTube and this looks like poop. And I confess that I’m still these results all neurotic like (Is “Take IV” really better than “Take II?”). But wait! I’ve got to remember that

A) I’m dealing with a file from a Canon G9, not a 5D Mark II

B) These settings will do for now!

I just wanted to figure out how to get files through FCE to YouTube so I can move onto editing. I will continue to learn about compression as I move forward.

The Settings

Except for the fps and size (that I set to match my camera), all these settings are stolen from the very helpful video by BIGlittleBROTHER.

Format: QuickTime Movie
Compression Type: MPEG-4 Video
fps: 15 (to match camera)
Quality: Best
Size: 1024×768 (to match native size)
Sound: AAC
Rate: 44.1
Quality: Better

I’ve been using iMovie (post version 6) exclusively for more than a year-and-a-half, and the program began to frustrate me almost immediately. iMovie is certainly simple but using it has felt like trying to edit with handcuffs on. I quickly found there were certain things — seemingly very basic things — that I simply could not do. (I was disheartened to read many reviews that said that the “improvements” to iMovie made the program much worse than version 6.)

However, I reminded myself that I was learning basic editing and producing pieces that were making friends and family laugh, and I couldn’t justify the expense of Final Cut Pro ($800) or Adobe Premiere ($800).

Final Cut Pro Wary

Even if I had the cash for Final Cut Pro, I’m not sure I would have shelled it out. Everyone says the FCP learning curve makes learning Photoshop seem like a breeze. About a year ago I had the opportunity to play around with Final Cut Pro on a friend’s machine and the experience left me shell shocked — completely intimidated. I didn’t feel like my hands were handcuffed; I felt like I had no hands. I just couldn’t do anything.

I was starting to appreciate the benefits of iMovie, but I really needed to advance, but I held off buying, obsessing about FCE’s functionality.

What’s Wrong with FCE?

Upgrading to FCE would seem to be a no-brainer, but I found lots of detailed complaints about the program on the Web. There were also lots of five-star raves. I’m not sure exactly what the love/hate discrepancy is about, but I worried about being one of the FCE buyers who say, “Not worth it!” Maybe I really needed to go all the way to Final Cut Pro?

There seems to be a number of concerns with Final Cut Express in terms of codec issues that keep users from directly importing their video. This would certainly be a major problem — needing to use timely, frustrating workarounds.

I’ve also read about problems related to needing to “render” clips each time edits are made, which apparently can cause a major drain of time. Honestly, I still don’t understand this exact issue, but I didn’t want to be a victim of it.

Another Option?

A professional video editor told me that if iMovie was ingesting my Canon G9 files so would FCE. He also said that learning FCE would directly help me in my (presumed) path of eventually upgrading to Final Cut Pro, and would even provide a good base of understanding for working with the likes of Premiere. So fine. I was all set to buy, but then. . .

For a couple weeks I got stumped by the idea that instead of FCE maybe I should buy FotoMagico, highly recommended by Tony Wu (who is now using Final Cut Pro and who also said I wouldn’t go wrong with FCE). FotoMagico seems like a great, photographer-friendly program, and something I’d like to check out. But with FotoMagico costing $160, it seemed to make sense — derr — just to get going with FCE, even if I later end up working in both Final Cut Pro and FotoMagico and/or Premiere.

Seems Like Final Cut Pro To Me

Having finally bought and loaded Final Cut Express onto my machine, it seems incredibly powerful. I realize that it does not come with the sound editing software that is part of Final Cut Pro (Soundtrack Pro), and this makes me pause. Will this be a problem? Of course it will be a problem. One of your major goals, Ethan, is to edit sound. But this won’t be a problem right now.

Ethan, put this all in perspective: You’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of “horrible” iMovie and so of course FCE will be a great, next step — even though you will likely run into problems and frustrations. Now that you’ve got it, just put it to work, see how it goes.

What Video Editing Software Do YOU Recommend?

Are you a still photographer and an experienced video editor? If so, I encourage you to weigh in on this issue of Final Cut Express Vs. Final Cut Pro Vs. Premiere Vs. Who Knows What. Beyond tit-for-tat comparisons (always welcome), what specific and or general considerations should we keep in mind about video editing software as we work on bringing motion into our craft?

Carla, on sound, interviews Claudia, on tango.

You can check out the down-and-dirty gallery of images I’ve selected to form the base of the what Ralph Clevenger calls a “music motivational piece.” As you can see, none of the images are stellar, but that won’t be critical — once they are zipping by to music. You can see that I was taking Mary Lynn Price’s advice and working to record the full spectrum of activities in wide, medium and close-up shots.

My girlfriend, Carla, did a great job recording sound, although I didn’t do a great job of instructing her how to do so. I wasn’t clear on what audio I wanted. I also wasn’t clear on how to shoot video segments, which I did frantically with my Canon G9 in between photographing stills.

Frankly, I found the experience overwhelming and confusing. And that wasn’t because there were more than 100 people stuffed into a very tight area, making it very difficult to move around. The real problem was that I was not clear on how I would be using the images and/or video and/or audio to create my piece. However, I wasn’t dismayed.

Thanks to advice from many photographers, I realize that creating multimedia is all about editing. And now I have some raw material to get into Final Cut Express and get editing. As I figure out what I can make, I will undoubtedly learn how I can better balance capturing stills, video and audio to record this kind of event for multimedia.