Okay, so we completed our pilot run. I mentioned we had a few hiccups.
That was probably an understatement.
Going into a project as a novice, I knew there would be corrections. In order to be completely open about our learning curve, here’s the list:
- Problem #1: I ordered an HD camera I thought was a good deal. The camera was high quality, but didn’t have the capacity to record directly onto a SD card. It used tapes, and had to be converted to digital files. This would have cost us a huge amount of time in transferring files. So, we sent it back. That mistake cost the project $70 is shipping penalties. OUCH.
- The fix for #1: The first video was shot completely using an iPhone and a condenser mic. We were actually pretty pleased with the quality, but we may also order a GoPro Hero 4. I’m not ordering it until I make sure we can get the sound we want, because evidently they don’t have a portal for lapel mics and we’ll need to make sure our condenser mic will work as well as it did on the iPhone. If we rule that out, we’re back to the drawing board on a larger Sony HD camera again. I just found that it’s laborious setting up so much equipment, and timing is a key issue. However, with larger cameras, you can set them on your shoulder and take video while walking without bounces. You might notice several bounces in our first piece.
- Problem #2: Rachel’s first try at the large format film may not have worked. Continue reading EPOTM: Next Steps for the Team