Feels like just a few weeks ago that I was announcing “They’re Off!” — referring to the departure of mother-daughter documentary film-making team Gail Mooney and Erin Kelly. Well, it was actually the end of May, and since then Mooney and Kelly have had one hell of an adventure. Arriving back home only yesterday, Mooney proves her amazing video editing skills and gives us all a great taste of “Opening Our Eyes” with this wonderful behind-the-scenes short.
Aug 31 2010
Learing on the Job, Or Not?
“I’m not sure I’d agree with you as far as learning multimedia on the job,” Gail Mooney commented to one of my recent posts. I’m glad she brought the point up. In writing about the new multimedia project I have taken on for Human Rights Watch, I wrote: “Photographers can learn multimedia skills on the job,” and explained that thinking this way is what allowed me to take a leap and offer HRW services requiring skills I am still learning.
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 Continue reading “Learing on the Job, Or Not?”
Jul 28 2010
Love Your Family, Be Wary of Your HD-DSLR
Since writing last night about a blog post by Gail Mooney, she’s written two more, and also done some major reporting Down Under for her “Opening Our Eyes” documentary project. Go Mooney!
Here are two key lessons I take away from Mooney’s “The Importance of ‘Family’” and “The Hard Part About Working with DSLRs”, both of which I encourage you to read — gaining insights from both Mooney’s Humane Side as well as her Tech-Nerdy Side:
• Family matters more than anything. So keep on building, loving and appreciating your “family,” even if these people are not related by blood.
As Mooney says of a young homeless man helped by the Oasis project: “His wants are simple – to love and be loved. How very basic and yet so tragic that being part of a family seems so out of reach for so many.”
• HD-DSLR cameras are not the best tools for recording video for making movies. HD-DSLRs are a major pain for capturing video, so (at least for now) for the best, most hassle free video-only shooting we’re better of with HD video cameras.
As Mooney says: “Yes, the visual [of HD-DSLRs] is stunning but I can’t help but think how many moments I may have missed that I probably would have gotten if I had been shooting with a video camera.”
Let’s go to the video. . .
To honor both family and not capturing video on HD-DSLRs — I used my measly Canon G9 — I share a home movie I made a year-and-a-half ago. Back then these wackos were just the wacky family of my girlfriend. But now, with the wedding set for January, these wackos are my family, too. Yes!
Jul 27 2010
It’s Making Movies, Stupid!
“After 11 years of shooting motion and over 30 years of shooting still images, my mind seamlessly makes the switch a hundred times a day between thinking and seeing in ‘moments in time’ or ‘time in motion’”, Gail Mooney shared yesterday in “True Convergence with the DSLR Cameras,” a great blog post from her “Journeys of a Hybrid.” Mooney speaks of how photographers new to video tend to get consumed by the technical challenges and “forget that they need to think and shoot differently when shooting video.”
This is something that I have been struggling with in my very initial steps into video and multimedia. I notice that I either shoot all stills or all motion. My mind is not only not switch seamlessly, it’s hardly switching at all. And when I am in video mode, I hardly know what I’m doing. And why should I? While I’ve been making still images for 20 years, I’ve only played around with multimedia a tiny bit over the past year. How would I know how to make a movie?
To make a movie. That’s the real challenge of photographers “moving into motion”: embracing video capture, as well as audio capture, as well as the editing these element together, or even “just” editing still images and sound into multimedia pieces. This “move making” factor might seem incredibly obvious, but I think few of us really realize this.
Maybe you realize this. But if you do, do you really realize this?
I ask because I recently finished up a 4,000-word article sharing photographers’ insights on embracing video and multimedia and, as good as the article is — I’ll share it with you when I have the PDF — I think I fail to communicate this obvious-subtle idea: Moving into motion is all about making movies, and making movies is hard.
Because of all the TV programs and movies we consume, we have a sense of how movies work, which is great. But, just as casual photographers Continue reading “It’s Making Movies, Stupid!”
May 25 2010
Opening Our Eyes: They’re Off!
Today, May 25, 2010, marks the bicentenary of the revolution that marked the beginning of Argentina’s road to independence. It seems appropriate that Chance decided that today would also be the day that Gail Mooney would set off on her 3-month, round-the-world trip to create “Opening Our Eyes”, a documentary film project she is making in partnership with her daughter, Erin Kelly.
I say that the connection to Argentina’s revolution (and ultimate independence) is appropriate because of all the photographers I know personally, without a doubt, Gail Mooney is the most revolutionary- and independent-minded.
Since I introduced “Opening Our Eyes” in March, the project has taken much fuller shape. You can get a good sense of the trip at the main website. Keep in mind that a year ago Mooney hadn’t even thought up this trip. From initial concept to flying out of Newark airport today, Mooney and Kelly have orchestrated all details of this massive undertaking in only a little over six months.
Be sure to also check out “Journeys of a Hybrid”, Mooney’s excellent blog full of insights — from the personal and creative to the technical and business side — from a photographer who has lived her life to the fullest, and who seems to be just warming up.
Mooney, who has been in the business for 33 years, has focused primarily on still photographic coverage of travel assignments for magazines. However, she has also worked plenty in the commercial realm in partnership with her husband, Tom Kelly.
Mooney not only made a smooth transition to digital photography, but she is one of the new bread photographers who is fully embracing the possibilities of video and, just as fully, the exciting possibilities of Web publication and social media.
Good Lu. . .
Mar 05 2010
Still, Video and Social Media: Gail Mooney Will Open Our Eyes
“We are two people — a mother and a daughter — embarking on a journey around the world to document and film the stories of individuals — ordinary people who are following their own dreams, passions and ambitions and doing extraordinary things.”
This is from the Gail Mooney’s new website, “Opening Our Eyes: Global Stories About the Power of One.” As the site explains, Mooney — an accomplished documentary photographer and filmmaker — will be heading around the world with her daughter, Erin Kelly, to gather the material they need to create a feature length film.
This is a project worth keeping tabs on. For one thing, it’s Mooney’s latest personal project, which are always impressive, as she uses them to push her photography forward, both creatively and in terms of business.
“Opening Our Eyes” is particularly interesting to those of us in the industry because Mooney will be pushing her limits in terms of working in both still and motion, employing light and affordable equipment. In short, she will be heading into waters that many of us will heading into ourselves — still & motion — and she does so with the insights of an impressive background in traditional still and motion.
Mooney is in a perfect position to show us how to capture both great stills and motion, ensuring that both get put to the best use. (To see what Mooney’s capable of, check out her shorts for “The Delta Blues Musicians” and “Freedom’s Ride.”)
Freedom’s Ride from Gail Mooney on Vimeo.
This is not to suggest that “Opening Our Eyes” will be about photography for photographers. Hardly. As always, Mooney will focus on the story — on her subjects — focusing on the task of best communicating that story to the most appropriate audience. Continue reading “Still, Video and Social Media: Gail Mooney Will Open Our Eyes”