Mediated worlds

Comics Doc Tape Diary #10

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:32:00 -0700

Finished up the last of the creator interviews today. Now, I need to step back, look at my downloaded footage, and my notes, and start to construct a structure for the film. Once I have a broad outline, I will go to the interviews I conducted with faculty and grad students from PSU's Urban Studies program to find relevant pieces of context to pull into the film. I also have about an hour's worth of tape from the 2008 Stumptown Comics Fest to review and download.

While I have noted places where the sound was not quite perfect due to static or mic bobbles, or where there were issues with settings for the image, on balance, principal photography went surprisingly well. No huge disasters on tape.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #9

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:25:37 -0700

Another interview and supplemental footage reviewed; clips downloading now. First mic in the frame, but I should be able to crop it out pretty easily. A few bobbles, too. Realizing that I lost some momentum when I hit the gap a few weeks ago. This is important mostly because I am still in this phase of tedious work before getting to the creative side (again).

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #8

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:33:34 -0700

All of the tapes have now been logged and I have resumed reviewing and downloading. So far I am doing these tasks in quick succession instead of reviewing the remaining tape and then going back through to download clips. More mic bobbles; also looking at footage in a location where sound recording was a challenge due to environmental noise. I hope to be editing before the end of this month.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #7

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:30:30 -0700

I am currently downloading the last set of clips from the tapes/interviews I have reviewed so far. The freedom of truly independent filmmaking is wonderful, but it does come with downsides in terms of resources, including time and labor. The good news is that once I do have all of the tapes logged and reviewed, and clips downloaded, I can work as an individual and make real progress on the film. When the final tapes are ready, it should not take much more than a week to finish this stage of the process.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #6

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:51:31 -0700

No tapes to review the past few days, so I began to download clips from tapes I have already reviewed. In the past, I have tried to break clips up at a fine level, but here I find myself choosing longer excerpts. I think this is in part because I have become more adept at creating and using subclips in Final Cut. I have also had some experiences where I wish I had maintained the integrity of a particular interview, shot, or scene even though my intent was to use just a few seconds.

I am thinking about backups, too. I have a Time Machine drive formatted on-site, but want an off-site backup as well. Initially I thought that Jungle Disk would be one response, but the wireless connection on the Mac Pro is so wonky, I'm not sure I would ever be able to complete a transfer, or download the software. So, until I get that solved, I am thinking about a drive that I keep at the office most of the time.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #5

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:04:31 -0700

Yesterday, I reached the breaking point mentioned in the previous diary. Hopefully, I will have more tape by the end of this week.

The interviews I watched in this last round included one from a highly practiced subject. A subject who is used to being interviewed can be helpful because they are easy to get talking and are often quite articulate. On the other hand, they may also have a standard set of answers they give to questions which may or may not be quite what you're looking for, and it may take some extra work to move them off of those responses. This isn't necessarily different from less practiced interviewees, who often need other kinds of prompting, but it does present an unique challenge.

Mic bobbling was at a minimum on these most recent tapes.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #4

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:25:20 -0700

Only one interview today, another example of a conversation that comes across better on tape and after reflection than it did in person. However, it is also another interview with probably limited utility for the final film. Much less mic bobbling on this tape than the last two.

I am approaching a possible breaking point in my review. My remaining interviews are largely, in whole or in part, on tapes I don't have in hand, but on ones in the queue for logging. Hopefully, some or all will be ready to go by the end of this week.

I also have two "big picture" type interviews that I am planning on viewing after looking at the rest, but may change that order if the last of the logging takes too long.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #3

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:59:13 -0700

Watched the first really good interview that I probably won't be using much of in the final film. There are a few subjects I spoke with who will end up not quite fitting into the big picture as well as others. I am considering ultimately releasing all, or at least a substantial chunk, of my raw footage online for others to view and play with. That's one way to ensure that the stuff on "the cutting room floor" doesn't end up simply forgotten and unused.

Noticed more mic bobbling, and seemingly more intrusive this time.

Having to defer some tapes as I wait for companion cassettes to be logged. I will likely be taking the next few days off from tape review. Generally, I am torn between wanting to power through the material and taking a more measured approach to ensure that my judgment stays clear. So far I have taken a measured approach looking at two to three interviews a day. With pauses for note taking, a thirty to forty minute interview has been taking about an hour to review.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #2

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:24:17 -0700

Today, I encountered the first interview so far that is marred by one of the sound people moving the mic around; bip, bip, bip, bip. Fortunately, this isn't constant and I should be able to cut around the bobbles. I also hit one of the two tapes where the video mode had been shifted accidentally in the bag and went unnoticed until after several minutes had been recorded. At the time, I chose to play out the tape in the incorrect mode, but switched to the proper mode when a new tape was started. That may not have been the best choice. It might have been better to record the whole interview in the wrong mode and then conformed it all later. I won't really know what the effect of this choice will be until I get into editing proper. Finally, on the flaws and mistakes front, I learned that one of the people who worked on the tape logs managed to record over about two minutes of one of the interviews. I don't think I lost anything
valuable, but it was a shock. Am glad that this particular person did not get a chance to do work on the logs in an extensive way.

I've also noticed that my in-person perceptions of the interviews are not always born out on screen. I have found subjects that seemed kind of flat during recording coming across much better on playback. The differences are not dramatic, but enough to be encouraging. Less common is for a dyamic in-person interview to be turned flat in review. This is also encouraging, obviously.

One of the hardest things about this process is listening to my own voice on tape-after-tape.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #1

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:31:27 -0700

I started reviewing my interview footage yesterday and I have a few early thoughts on what I've watched.

Subjects who like to talk are good. You have listen to much more than you will need, but you're also more likely to get good material (I also have to say that some of the less relevant discussion I've heard in these first few tapes is as much a product of the questions I asked as it is a product of subject answers).
More than before, even, I wish I had had a DP to work with. I undoubtedly would have done more set-ups with individual subjects, and would have ended up catching some little things that slipped by last summer, lack the reflections off of the glasses of one of my better interviews. Having written that, the video generally looks good. Rich, vibrant colors and clear images.
Sound quality is excellent. Buying a field mixer before the shoot was obviously a good investment, as was the sound workshop I attended at the Northwest Film Center and this little tool.

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