Enjoy this intoduction to MediaCircus.TV.

We shot the video for this project a few months ago, and I was interested to see how it would be edited together. Usually I end up cutting footage myself that I shoot, but in this case another editor worked on it. Editing is such a craft, and a storytelling medium, that seeing how another storyteller interprets the footage I shot is not an experience I often have, and it can be a bit uneasy of a feeling, hoping that they do the footage justice.

As you can see below, the results are fantastic! The pacing is great, the music very fitting and the emotion conveyed through the edit fits perfectly what they were working to achieve. Great job all around, I’m glad that I was able to contribute to the final product. I don’t know if the footage from my Sony Z1U camera has ever looked so good!

Here are all 6 videos.

Suicide Affects Us All: You Can Help from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

Suicide Affects Us All: A Story of Hope from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

Suicide Affects Us All: John’s Story from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

Suicide Affects Us All: Pearl’s Story from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

Suicide Affects Us All: First Peoples Perspectives from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

Suicide Affects Us All: Carson’s Story from Manitoba Suicide Line on Vimeo.

I ended up creating 3 separate videos, a 6:45 length feature about the Training Expo which had sections for the Stereoscopic 3d presentation, the Ben Davis Action workshop and the Music for Productions and Composers sessions; a 30 second version was also made. In addition, a separate video was made about the Poor Man’s Process workshop that took a week after the training expo.

FTM asked to have a version delivered that could be given to broadcasters and other media outlets when doing some promotional work. So in addition to a standard definition DVD, they were given MPEG4 files with the H.264 codec, both a SD version and a 720p version, which is the resolution of the original video. In addition, unmixed versions were supplied that had no graphics like name keys and lower thirds and also no music, just actualities and natural sound on separated channels.

Usually when completing projects I would lay them tape in this manner, with both a mixed and unmixed version, but with the advent of more tapeless acquisition formats I find myself less inclined to master to tape as well, instead I will keep hi-rez and medium-rez data versions, it really does depend on the project though, some long form projects I will still put to tape, and I imagine I will work it like that for a while still.

The full videos will be up on the Film Training Manitoba website soon.

I was impressed with the creativity of many of the short films, which showed originality in concepts and execution. The “Last Dance” video, which was lens on a RED One camera, was beautifully shot and well done. I am still amazed that this was put together by high school students, great job! Below is the video preview for the Short Film Night, including an excerpt from “Last Dance”.

Kilinic Community Health Care provides health, counselling and education services for people in Manitoba, with offices in Brandon and Winnipeg; one of the services they run is the Manitoba Suicide Line. The MSL is launching a new website (designed by Tactica) in the next few months to bring the hotline more attention and part of that launch includes video interviews with people affected by suicide.

A few weeks ago we traveled to Brandon Manitoba to shoot the first round of these interviews. I lived in Brandon for many years and got my start in media production while living there as an EFP/ENG camera operator for the recently closed TV station CKX-TV.  I enjoyed the chance to go back there and do some production. The morning of the shoot I had time to head to my alma-matter, Assiniboine Community College, to speak to current Media Production students who are in the same course I took many years ago.

The second set of interviews were done last week at Klinics head offices in Winnipeg.

The interviews were done first-person style, with the subjects looking directly at the camera, so that the visitors to their site will get a more personal message when they view them. Some of the interviewees were people that had attempted suicide, some were family members and/or friends of people that had completed suicide and some were councillors and people involved in their communities.

The subject matter was very different than anything I have worked on before. Talking to people about their very personal experiences in a sensitive subject was a humbling experience, and the people at Kilinic in Brandon and in Winnipeg were great to work with.

The videos and website launch will be highlighted here of course, I look forward to seeing them completed.

MediaCircus.TV was hired to provide HD video recording and playback for the sessions, and create DVD’s for the actors of all of their takes. I was using the Sony XDCAM EX1 camera, which shoots on SxS memory cards, which is a perfect way of working for a project like this.

After a take was completed, I would switch the camera over to “media mode” where the material on the SxS cards would be accessed and  Mr. Davis would review the take with the class on a HD LCD TV, having instant HD playback of the scene that was just completed. It was a very efficient way to work.

Each participant did 3 scenes over the length of the course, with the rest of the time spent observing the others and taking part in the discussion. Myself as a non-actor, watching the process they went through in order to make their performances as real as possible was quite an education. I’ve worked with actors before on commercial and promotion shoots, but rarely in any sort of scripted dramatic venue, which is what most of the performances in this course were focused on.

The classes participants ranged from people new to the industry to folks that have been in it for quite some time. Some people were getting back into acting after taking a hiatus to raise their family, and some of the participants I recognized from from other Film Training Manitoba workshops that I have either attended or been hired to provide video services for.

I’ll admit that I was somewhat intimidated at first working with William B. Davis (or ”Bill” as he suggested I call him)  having been quite an X-Files fan during it’s original run. I rarely get star-struck when working with well known people, and I wasn’t here either, though Bill carried a certain demeanor with him that left me in awe for the fist few days.   

As we would get ready for a scene I would do some basic lighting to flood the area with a lot of light, there wasn’t enough time to do proper dramatic lighting custom for each scene, and that wasn’t the point of the workshop.  Lighting is one of those things that makes a huge difference in the quality of a shot, so even just having flood lighting made a difference.

Between the lighting, the HD playback and the speed with which we were switching scenes (the workshop participants often would help move things in changing scenes) we moved along at an efficient pace and Bill remarked that this was a “high-end” workshop. That felt good to hear. He has been on numerous film and TV sets (including 9 years on the X-Files) , and has been in theatre for many years, and he called our little workshop production high-end. He wasn’t comparing to those big productions of course, but to most workshops that might have a small handycam with a TV set to playback material on, while we had proper lighting, mics, instant HD playback and DVD production and duplication on site. Film Training Manitoba is raising the bar when it comes to bringing in people to train Winnipeg Actors and putting on workshops that will help the participants improve in their skills, and I’m glad to be a part of it. 

 The Winnipeg Actors involved were;

Shannon Jacques, Dana Horrox, Dean Harder, Ashley Hirt, Cindy Marie Small, Sherry Coffey, Krysia Andrzejczak, Dan Augusta, Janet Shum, Jason Malloy, Tyhr Trubiak, Yvette Jones and Ali Tataryn.

In addition, this year as part of the package I am training people on Camera Assist, Editing and Motion Graphics with After Effects, they are Film Training Manitoba after all.

Over the course of the next month the footage that wa shot at the Expo will be edited by 2 students along with the creation of motion graphics to spruce up the final product. Once the training is done then I will take what the student did and make a final video that Film Training Manitoba will use for their archives.

The video I made from last years Expo is now up on Film Training Manitoba’s newly revamped website.

Here are some stills from the video that we shot this past weekend.