“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
For those keeping score, I am now working part time at the Bank of New York Mellon for the next 6 weeks in order to be able to focus on building givkwik and related mobile fundraising applications for the iPhone, such as for raising money for the Red Burns Scholarship Fund. I will also be taking one more course during the Summer Session at ITP: Game Design. It should prove to be a very interesting and exhausting several weeks. Wish me luck!
For my final project for Video for New Media, I decided to work on a dance movement project that featured Yours Truly and my girlfriend Pamela. It’s called Shadow Dance and it shows us and our shadows dancing the mambo and interacting with each other in real life and in the shadows.
The assignment for Wednesday’s homework for Video for New Media class at ITP was to create 3 one-minute video blogs. For my submission, I decided to focus on my good friend Serge’s experience of learning how to box. Ever since Serge took up boxing, his life has changed, and for the better. He has a lot more confidence now, he’s lost a ton of weight, and is finally believing in himself and strategizing more for his long term goals. I am very proud of Serge and hopes he keeps it up. While I’m not personally a fan of doing anything that involves getting repeatedly hit in the head by another half naked man, to each his own, of course.
For the shoot, I took a Panasonic DVX, a Xacti HD, a Nikon D90, a shotgun mic and a lighting kit. My girlfriend Pam was my Production Assistant, and she took several pictures (400) using the D90. I intended to do use the multiple cameras for different editing angles (such as focusing on the feet), but I neglected to set the proper aspect ratios between the 2 cameras, and the Xacti footage ending up being more widescreen. I generally placed the xacti in a fixed position, which is probably counter-intuitive to its portable design, but we didn’t have enough hands/heads to pay attention to it all.
I tried to be discrete in terms of my capture, I wanted the subjects to act as naturally as possible. I knew coming in the type of angles and shots I wanted to take. Typical prep shots (hand wraps, shadow boxing, etc) but didn’t do too much directing. This made me focus on getting more value from the footage I ended up with than setting out to do something in particular. That’s not to say one is better than the other, however.
The video blogs are split in three, and the titles indicate Rounds 1, 2 or 3. I encourage anyone to watch them in the appropriate order, so as not to ruin the “reveal.” This was a fun little project, albeit grueling. I think it’s a worthwhile topic to pursue. Serge has a big personality (big mouth) and doesn’t mind being a ham in front of the camera. The story of his particular “ascenscion” might also be inspiring to other slow (but steady) starters out there.