Record Store mini documentary

Hi everyone,

This is one of my first posts here. Don't know why I've waited so long!

I shot and edited this video earlier this year. I had such a good time shooting and cutting it, so I just wanted to share it with you all.

vimeo.com/35334800

It was shot with a hacked GH2 and Rode Videomic. I used the Panasonic 8-14mm lens.

Also, I do this for living, so if you know of any companies or people in the LA area who need projects shot and edited, please get in touch.

Thanks for watching.

Very enjoyable, 5thWall, thanks for sharing your work. Fascinating mix of colorful characters, each intelligently & articulately expressing their passion. Some marvelous quotes. Was expecting to hear the virtues of vinyl described as “warmer & richer than digital,” as that’s what my audiophile acquaintances always announce. Charming little documentary, sweet & succinct, never a dull moment, consistent throughout, very professional looking & sounding. Pleasantly impressed with the sound quality of the interviews (Rode Videomic shines). Your music works well, as does the lead in & out, nice focus work there too.

Two comments to contemplate; love the natural lighting, probably my favorite example is when we first see the Asian woman in profile, the light is gorgeous. Some of the reflected light dancing round the walls as busses drive by is also enchanting. However, most of your face time is head on with the guys center screen facing their main window for light. This produces a rather flat skin tone & loss of facial contours. It might be a bit more interesting to have them about 3/4 turned to that light source so we see a bit of shadow on one side of their face while they talk, I’d maybe slide them over to one side of your frame about 15% or so, this just tweaks the symmetry a bit & gives a slightly quirky break from uniformity. Which, ironically, is what these guys are all about. If you skew them towards the dark side of the frame they are turned into the light with an expanse of light in front of them in the frame, this projects a comforting or optimistic sense to your viewer. You could also have one of them facing the other way or skewed more towards the dark side, maybe the guy talking about industrial goth & metal, as it fits the genre better. Most of these nuances are bordering on the imperceptible to the average viewer who has their attention focused on the obvious picture & discourse, but subconsciously these gentle facets register & resonate. Artistic subtle touches draw us in a little more. You might want to play around a bit with your color grading, perhaps this subject matter could use some grain too…?

The other point was when you were zooming in on the white record stack, we’re distracted by the shadow of the cameraman moving across the records.

All in all, a very impressive & professional piece. We appreciate the share. You’ve definitely got the chops, bro, so rounding up work in the city of angels is probably going to come down to clever marketing & self promotion.






J. Matthew
Global•Watch•Media•Consulting
www.GWM2.com

Thanks, J! Much appreciated your comments.

Regarding the color, I have actually done another pass in FCPX, which brings the skin tones back. The piece is supposedly airing on PBS Socal and I had made a CCd version for that after uploading to Vimeo. Perhaps I'll re-upload the CC'd version sometime soon.

Regarding clever marking and promotion... aye, therein lies the rub!

You're welcome, Michael. Your reels show some expansive diversity, not only in subject matter & styles, but shooting environments & end demographics (from war-zone chaplains to MTV 17 Magazine cover girls). Also, from the looks of things you seem to have specialized somewhat in color grading, but I also like your titling.

LA is full of stories of folks who used their creative ingenuity in a fresh new way to promote themselves, originally, boldly, shamelessly & effectively. Maybe start doing some searches for most original self promotion techniques in Los Angeles, & variants of those terms. Make a project of it, take notes, use graphs, immerse yourself into it. Ruminate on those that were successful, begin to think along their lines, then you will see a new avenue. You're obviously bright enough, it's just "thinking different" enough. That being said, in this biz, as you know, it's often... who you know. Perhaps a creative mind can come up with original ways to meet more people at higher levels. Many creative geniuses have applied themselves to that specific social dilemma with effective results.

There's one other problem in LA; that's doing too much. If you want to work inside the big machine, they usually want you to do only one thing well. Sure everyone wants to direct or shoot a big budget feature for a top studio, but you might have to humble yourself & just log dailies, be a PA, or some other menial task until opportunities arise.... & they will.

But I think you seem to have a full production service mentality so you'd probably be going crazy logging dailies for 10 hours straight. Perhaps take a look around at various videographers in your locale, note the specific sector niches they're carving out for themselves (wedding, corporate, promotion, music, etc), apply your creative genius to carving out your own niche, then become master of your own domain (not necessarily in the Seinfeld sense). Perhaps an interesting creative direction would be to target LA's wealthy hobbyists. Where do the rich people (often film people) play? Some are learning to fly, play polo, or whatever the latest millionaire fad is. They don't want to be bringing their film business with them when they play, but they might love to have some video documentation celebrating their extravagant ego gratification. Become the go-to-guy for making the best videos of those. Express your creativity in a genre you are inventing & developing, become the very best at it. That way you get your foot in the door, make money & extensive valuable contacts. But all that's just a testing phase, they'll be watching you, before they let you into their inner circle. Be 100% real & never show any kind of desperation or that you're hungry for work, the town hates that.

I'll never forget years ago I was in a casting session with some studio bigwigs, they were searching for a teen for a feature. Hour after hour, we saw an endless stream, our team was exhausted, all these young actors so wanted this career changing part, but they were too eager. They needed it too much. Hollywood shuns that, because it obscures the natural, makes everything forced, no longer real, suddenly you're ... acting. Then this kid walks in, everyone sat up at attention, he had it, you could see it immediately, until we found out he was delivering the pizza someone had ordered. He wasn't there for the acting job, he didn't care about it. He wasn't desperate. The casting director talked about this incident years later, said he was going to put it in his book, it's that noteworthy, & a perfect microcosm of the industry.

Look into the Hollywood hobby memory ego celebration idea, become the best in your niche, bide your time, make good money & contacts. Study them, make them happy, they'll send you their friends, quietly secretly build your rolodex, then one day about 1-2 years from now, you'll be at an A-List party in the hills, smiling & sipping a glass of Noellat Richebourg, when one of them will take you aside... "Michael, I like you, I'll tell ya what, a very interesting script came across my desk. It doesn't quite fit in with our features this year, but it's important & needs to get made. This is a very unique project & the financing structure is different, I want to do this outside of the studio & ... I want you to do it for us."

I like your insight on the industry...especially since I don't live in LA and its a part of my industry, so its nice to hear about it. On the other hand, I feel like your advice makes someones sell a little of their soul to get where they wanna be. I would like to hear someone say...make what you want to make, do it the way you want to do it. Yeah, dont act desperate...but at the same time go after your ideas and dont just sit on the dock waiting for some industry big wig to brush you by. I love doing audio, video, graphics, editing, and pretty much every part of making a video/movie because I like the bird's eye view of things. Sure, it might mean you are not focused on one particular role...but man, there are sometimes that I wish every camera operator knew what I needed as an editor. I guess what I am saying is....instead of focusing on catching the eye of a big wig at a-list party...maybe they will find out about you because they saw your work and was like...wow, that shit was good. lets see if we can use him.

Great little doc!

I had seen part of that edited down for the Rode Rockumentary competition (I had an entry in there as well).

Some nice camerawork in there, especially some of the glidecam work (audio as mentioned above was very slick).

I have to ask, given that this is a doc about music; how did you get permission for the Thievery Corporation track at the beginning and end of the film?