First Episode Oct 13th!

Oh geez... that's not that far away, either!

I had my first 'on the field' experience with all my new equipment last Thursday. I followed around a grad student that is originally from the Midwest and is new to Portland. She will be the subject for the first part (of three) of the first episode. I have to say that it went really well! I always shoot too much video so I won't get to use 85% of it, but that's alright. Stock footage!

This was what my first day shooting was like:

• I got up at 5:30am and made myself presentable.
• Rigged up a carrying strap for my tripod (looks awesome).
• Got to the subject of Ep1:Pt1's house at 6:30am.
• She left for the bus at 7am.
• Followed her on to the bus and got a day-pass.
• Rode ~25mins to Pioneer Square.
• Got on the Max & rode for ~45mins.
• Got to her college and hit a snag...

So, I enter the building with the subject and we are immediately greeted by a security guard. He asked if we had permission and we said, "Not really" kind of coyly. I had to stop filming at that moment but getting the subject in the classroom was essential (though I didn't really think so at the time). The guard let us go up to a person's office that could help us. From there we were led to numerous people all bending over backwards to get help me get what I needed. It was actually a fantastic experience, even though I'm not a fan of bureaucracy. The people of this university never made me feel like I was inconveniencing them at all - very polite, proactive, and courteous. End result was I ended up staying/following the subject around all day, in the classroom, in a lab, and even got to relax and talk to her on the ride home. I got tons of great footage and she gave me a great interview at the end of the day!

I'm going all out for this video. I'm getting b-roll of stuff I don't necessarily have to get - makes it feel more complete. And I want this to be complete. I worry that I won't have as much time for my next part (2 of 3) for the first episode, but I'll just have to pull it together. I hope to get all 3 parts of the first episode out over the next 3 Thursdays. That's one a week! I have to do this for myself though. I have to see if I can handle such a grueling schedule. It might not sound it, but it is quite grueling for just one person to get everything you need for something like I'm doing and turn it over and out in that time frame and still have it be a quality product.

Editing has been a chore for sure. I keep finding things I can make better now that I have the time to produce in post. Overall, I know this is going to come down to the wire. I wanted to have a tease for the first episode done by today, but editing for this first episode keeps taking priority. For tonight, I believe I'm going to try to complete it as much as I can (with only 2 things left to shoot) and then work on a tease from the ground up tomorrow first thing. Should be done by the end of the business day... Like I said; it's hard doing this by yourself...

Blog Post Afterthoughts:  Having the audio and video collected seperately has not been as hard as I thought it would be. ALSO! I am now being followed by the Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams! This of course after being turned down for an interview... I'll get him for a future episode though, for sure :-)

Portland Fact: Portland was named after the town in Maine after Francis Pettygrove, one of the city founders, won a coin toss and go to name is after his hometown! The other founder, Asa Lovejoy, wanted to name it after his hometown of Boston. The coin they flipped to make the decision is called the "Portland Penny" and is on display at the Oregon Historical Society Museum.