Turn and Burn

In the last month, I have been subjected to some of my favorite parts of production; the last minute project. Usually many people in production cringe at the prospect of a last second project with a tight deadline, but its one parts of video production I enjoy. It can really help to hone your skills and efficiency. In the last few months I was thrown four projects with a week or less turn around.

The first projects is the Chapman Law School Deans message. We had two days from concept to final edit to place this project online before the end of the academic year. We shot with one HPX300 on a dolly with an iPad teleprompter. We took one hour to light and set audio, and after three takes we packed up and headed back to the office. 

The second project was a promo for the University business school. This project needed to be completed a week from the shoot. After meeting with the dean of the business school and the marketing account executive, we agreed on a creative direction. The initial difficulty with this project was that we would not see the location until shoot day. However, this ended up being a small issue. I planned on using smaller cameras, HDSLR, which increased our mobility. I also planned to bring some additional lights in case we ran out of daylight. The project was shot in one day and final edit was five days later after several rounds of review. 

The third project was a very last minute project. I was approached to shoot a green screen video to promote sports week for the university. The only problem with this shoot was our studio did not have a green screen built yet. So not to be deterred, I drove down to Samy's camera and picked up a 'Tech green' backdrop for 50.00 dollars. I worked with the sports department to obtain student athletes the next day. We were able to get seven athletes to volunteer their time. I was able to direct them with little after to get the actions needed for the shoot. After completion the video was given to our motion graphics artist to drop out the green and add the graphics. This is the final project.

Although these projects do add a bit of stress, especially to an already heavy workload, I do enjoy the occasional 'test' of my abilities. Its one of the few ways to keep me sharp and learn new ways to think creatively.