Great stories come in all shapes and sizes, and there’s no follow-the-numbers chart for how to make one.
That said, after producing hundreds of films at MediaStorm, we’ve identified some common approaches that help make documentary stories more meaningful and powerful.
It is always a good time to learn, but nothing better to get you motivated than the going-back-to-school feeling at the end of the summer! Whether you are a student or a seasoned professional, MediaStorm has incredible, and extremely affordable, online training options for documentary filmmakers, editors, photographers and video journalists alike. Our MediaStorm Field Guide is a must have interactive companion for documentary filmmaking. Broken down into clear chapters, it offers useful checklists, a quick reference to fundamental concepts, and specific multimedia examples. Everything you need to create impactful stories! MediaStorm’s Post-Production Workflow is an essential tool for any editor or independent filmmaker. It provides you with the full 200-step workflow MediaStorm uses everyday to edit its work, including self-developed tools and software suggestions to organize and select assets, transcribe audio, color correct your video, and archive your files effectively, among many other steps. A thorough process developed over…
This article is part of a series of posts with tips and tricks from our producers' experience working with Adobe Premiere Pro CC after years of working in Final Cut Pro. To read more about why we made the switch, check out this post. Knowing exactly what images and videos are used in the production of a film is a critical part of the MediaStorm workflow. We need this information in order to know which low-res footage needs to be purchased then swapped out with licensed hi-res footage, as well as which images must be toned then replaced in the timeline. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this in either Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro 7. So MediaStorm built the Asset Parser. Using the parser is easy. First, you’ll need to export an XML file from your editing software. In Premiere Pro, make sure your final sequence is selected…
As I explained in an earlier post, a through edit is a marker that indicates where you’ve sliced an asset but no frames have actually been omitted. To turn on this functionality, from the Sequence menu select Show Through Edits. Now, when you make a cut (Command-Shift-K), you’ll see the through edit icon. Adobe has conveniently used the same icon found in Final Cut Pro 7. If you’re like me, you’ll probably collect a lot of these during the course of your work, places where you thought you’d make an edit but ultimately didn't. In time, they become a distraction. Fortunately there’s an easy way to batch delete these markers. Simply hold both the Option and Command keys while lassoing your clips with the Selection Tool (A). Your edit points will be selected. Next, hit the Delete key and your through edits will be deleted.
I’m a big proponent of working within a set of limitations.
I’ve purposefully done this numerous times both at MediaStorm and in my own work: from setting out to make a film that’s exactly one-minute long to creating a fictional movie with the attributes of a documentary. Setting yourself up against restrictions can be a powerful means of encouraging creative problem solving.
But with Travel Anonymous, a MediaStorm collaboration with photographer Jeff Hutchens, I could literally do anything. Nothing was out of bounds.
Case in point: at one of my first meetings with Jeff, he told me he liked the idea of using only the tiniest portions of his images. A corner here, an interesting blur there. To work without regard to the “sacredness” of a photographer’s pictures felt both exhilarating, and quite honestly, a bit blasphemous.
There was just one objective: to convey what it feels like to travel so much that you lose all sense of time and place. This was to be an immersive, sensory experience.
Early on, though, I was confounded. (more…)