LOCATION IS EVERYTHING

FIRST DAY OF SHOOTING

Last week I took a long walk around my neighborhood in search of interesting shooting locations and found tons of potential spots. There are plenty of empty parking lots, vast public green space (note to self: watch out for dog poop, spring is near), creepy alleys, etc. What I enjoy most about this area is that it is anonymous, there are no billboards, no advertisements, very little traffic, not too many passersby at this time of year and the buildings are nameless... It could be anywhere, it could have a different meaning for different individuals. And it is meaningful to me. I decided on a very large 'terrain vague' by the Canal, close to Guy St.

Today I went for a first try at shooting with a wireless camera and reciever, a miniDV deck and a tripod. 

Soon enough, I realized that winter and electronics don't mix. After only a few minutes, the camera's battery cable broke. I switched to the other camera (the infra red one, I believe), but after another few minutes, the batteries died one after the other.

I still managed to capture precious images and, more importantly, to try my ingenious 'cardboard and duct tape' rotating mechanism. And it works just fine. I have decided not to go with the constant rotation but with 8x45˚ separate shots. After speaking with a techie friend, I came to the conclusion that synchronizing 8 channels would be pretty much impossible. And I do want 8 channels so it's a decent compromise. 

I am also very satisfied with the look of the footage that I shot. I posted some snapshots I took from my TV on my other blog. I will post some clips soon. Over the next few weeks (probably during the spring break) I will go for more tests and hopefully it will be a little warmer outside. And sunny, because I like the blue sky contrasting with the white snow. For some reason I had always envisioned it in black and white, but I'm loving the wireless camera's warm/cold color contrast.

To be continued.

TO ROTATE OR NOT TO ROTATE

I'm having trouble with the rotating platform. I guess I overestimated my skills in electronics. Plus I'm not very satisfied with the tests I did in the editing room. A classmate I was telling my project about suggested that I shoot each channel separately. I could just place the camera in the center of the space and rotate it by hand, 45° (for 8 channels, 90° for 4, etc.) at a time. I would loose some fluidity and simultaneity, but it would make it a lot easier to assemble afterwards. And since there won't be a lot of movement in the environment and in the subjects, the differences in time should not be too noticeable. Another advantage is that I would not have to synchronize all the channels by the frame since they would all function independently. I could use 8 DVD players and start them approximately at the same time and have the same effect. That would sort another major problem and make presentation easier (and more site-specific friendly).

I will continue to work on the rotating platform for a little while, but if by next week I haven't figured it out, I will use this other technique instead.