Videographer

"Videographer" - wots one of them then?

I've always had problems with this term. Firstly that it's just plain ugly ugly ugly. It doesn't smell, but it sounds bad. To make it work you have to change the 'o' from 'owe' to, er, however you phonetically spell the short /o/ and then put the stress there, just to emphasise the difficulty. Another is status. It's not 'director', 'producer' or even 'editor' or 'script-writer'.

Next it's confusing. The Wikipedia entry was written by someone who confuses 'Videographer' with 'Cinematographer' or with 'DoP/DP', ie. the one who actually touches the camera and only touches the camera. Wrong.

It points to the key aspect of videography - it's misunderstood because people don't know where to place it. It's not part of the film industry (whether Hollywood, left-field, low-budget or whatever) and it's not part of the broadcast industry. And, typically, your videographer is not even part of a team.

In terms of sector - the videographer creates and delivers video product direct to the client. That could be community, event, wedding, corporate, in-house, or whatever.

In terms of mode of operation, typically the videographer works alone or in a small group, perhaps of cascading freelancers who have a similar 'videography' background. The key difference here is that the videographer deals with the whole process themselves. They are not a small cog in a big system (like with the film world or broadcast) typically they work on the whole process from getting the client in the first place, working out the brief, writing the script (if there is one), organising pre-production, filming (rarely as part of a 'film crew'), editing, working on drafts with clients, then purposing in whatever way is required.

When you are dealing with 'the big boys' (yes, usually men) they tend to denigrate this sector - with their 'you don't wanna do it like that' attitudes and more expensive toys. What they miss is the strength and interest of the videography sector. This is not a set of people who are specialist in one tiny aspect of production. This lot do the whole process, and often to a economical budget.

There's got to be some status or class in that. Surely. Which would you prefer - control of the whole process, or to be one small part in a juggernaut? I know what I've chosen. I'm even coming to terms with the term... until someone comes along with something better, that is.

For more of us, see the IOV - there's even a 'find a videographer' function.

I'm a Porsche 911!

"You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it."

... is what they say. I'm a Porsche. Is that cool? I mean, I'd take the test drive, sure, but other than that they don't do much for me. Most sports cars are out-classed by their ads. ;)

Of course I'm one of the elite - they've got that bit right. How about you? Which Sports Car Are You?

But I'm hoping the "911" isn't a disguised warning. Bad choice of model name, guys.

Eight competing video formats?

Jack Schofield presents a lists of eight competing formats for the attention of video consumers. Eight? Isn't that just nuts, even for video?

But is it less or more confusing than that? He gets 8 by adding up all the storage mediums - miniDV tape, small format DVD disks, built in hard drives or flash memory - then doubles it (HD vvs standard definition) to get eight.

Which is grandstanding just a little, if you ask me. And why stop there? Why not look at the types of High Definition, or windows versus Quicktime formats, or the different codecs... Suddenly the 8 is looking a little slim. Perhaps like chaos theory, the answer comes down to the level of detail you choose to look at - like the classic problem of measuring a coastline. Do you measure around every peddle, at low tide or high tide? How much detail do you include?

Anyway, Jack's 8 does point to a basic truth - turbulent times are upon us. For the consumer and for the video professional both.

However, his article contains the basic fallacy number one of people brought up in the analogue era. The existence of competing formats, he says, "raises the question of whether you will still be able to view your movies in 10 or 20 years' time."

Er, nope. That's one question that it doesn't raise. However you capture to the device you hold in your hand the destination is always the same - onto a computer hard drive. Edit. Back out to - well, whatever format is available at the time.

Once in the digital domain we are far freer from formats and devices than we ever were in the analogue era. Maybe Jack will join us at some point?

Meconopsis make-over

Justin Morgan followed the discussion about the idents, and added some thoughtful comments (see this SimplyDV thread). One thing led to another, and Justin has ended up doing an entire makeover for Meconopsis! Good news indeed.

When the first draft design came through, we just knew this was perfect. He'd taken the Meconopsis idea, thought about the purpose and image of the firm, and produced a simplified, clean design that summed up the kind of image we want to present to the world. So, instead of just a new ident, we've got a whole corporate feel and design - letterheads, business cards, library box and on-disk designs... the whole shebang.


For those who don't know Justin's day job is for a large corporate graphic design company (which I'll mention if he wants me to!) and he's interested in writing scripts and producing his own short films, hence his input into Simply DV. Hopefully he'll go independent some time - in which case the space for his website will go here:

... with a strong recommendation from us. He handled the whole process with consumate professionalism, listened closely to our feedback, incorporated ideas, and above all was able to produce clear clean visual design. As you can tell, we're happy bunnies.



Some feedback:

"That's a lovely piece of graphic design, folks. It gives the business a "million dollar" impression. Excellent! (I'm jealous - looking for more business Justin?).

Colin Barratt, video journalist and boss at Simply DV

"Strong, bold, stylish, clean lines, beautiful font, high impact whilst retaining all the classic subtleties you originally aspired to. Shall I go on? (I could (easily) - simple, blue, deep, elegant ...) "

Fiona, video-stills artist

Lewisham Holocaust Day 07

Meconopsis Films was honoured to be chosen to film Lewisham Borough's Holocaust Day. Rabbi Dr. Ze'ev Amir and Steve Bullock, Lewisham Mayor (see pic) shared some closing thoughts but most of the event was thoughtful, moving and beautifully prepared work by talented Lewisham children on the theme of 'the dignity of difference'.

No still pictures of the various drama, singing and theatrical performances as we were too busy filming - they tend not to stand still!

We'll be producing a DVD record of the event for the Borough and for the participating schools and groups that took part.

We used HDV for the wide camera for the first time - so more thoughts about that after the edit. However, Avid Liquid captured it like a dream and the picture quality is stunning. We'll use it to scan and crop to match the standard definition camera we were using for the details.

2nd version of Mec ident

Ok - same again. Following some very helpful feedback here's a new version. Thanks due to Graham, Fiona, Fly, Colin, BM, Justin and others. I hope it's quicker, snappier but has some of the same feel. No audio this time.

(In fact - this time I'll have to find audio to fit the visuals, not the other way round. Help!)



Comments gratefully received> Again.

Meconopsis video logo

Meconposis needs a new logo for a wider set of clients which has to work at the end of different types of video. Obviously it shouldn't draw too much attention away from the main film, but it would be nice if potential clients remembered the name. Or at least didn't think we are too naff.

Mood tones - understated, calm, tension in the sound (did I say remember to have audio switched on?), classic-but-current kind of thing.

God knows whether it achieves any of that - so that's why I'm asking you to play god for a moment. ;)




I'm trying to make it work for the 'YouTube' sized screen as well as for full-screen DV. Does it? On this web page the text is slightly smaller than the text in the blog - but hopefully the eye is drawn in. Do you agree?

Comments welcome.

new Meconopsis Films logo design

This is the print logo to go with the video one. The discrimination between the blues might not pass the print hurdle. We'll see. Any thoughts?

Hair-care and the Holocaust

Two filming jobs coming up - one to film a glitzy show night to mark the end of a 'get the punters involved'-type competition and a London Borough's Holocaust Day. Talk about varied.





No images in this post - it just wouldn't be right. ;)

St Pancras

If you don't know the Midland Grand Chambers then shame on you. Or maybe you don't live in London, or have more interesting things to do, or... (aka St Pancras aka "that huge neo-gothic pile on top of St Pancras station between the new British Library and Kings Cross station").

There seem to be a fair number of people asking about the building. See this thread at Urban75 , continual requests (via the derelict sensation) from bands, theatre groups, artists, chancers and dancers, urban explorers, and even Vicky is setting a story there (so she claims).

I guess everybody's curious because they can't get in as the developers have taken over. As a semi-derelict building thousands got in through Open House. We and others organised art events as well. The clip is a record of an event organised by TDS, Pangaea with Michael Czerwinski and Luna Nera and others (too numerous etc).





Mind you - I'd be curious to know how Paul Holmes got in recently. I have asked him, but he's not saying. Perhaps he works for Manhattan Loft Company? ;-) Anyway - his pictures are worth a look, as are Mike Slocombe's. Or see Jonathon Hall's 'unofficial tour'.

If the video doesn't work try here

Resolution

I know, I know - a bad idea to make NY's resolutions, so I won't. So it's just coincidental that I'm starting this blog in the new year, ok? I'm going to avoid defining it as I'm fairly clear how I'd like to use it, but want to leave it develop on it's ownsome for a while in case I'm wrong about that. Plus that makes for an overly obvious first post. ;-)

Ok, closer to being a NY resolution - I've been concentrating so much on making video for clients, that I've allowed my own stuff to fall a little by the wayside, so I must change that. Btw, how cool is it to discover that there's a Meconopsis variant called 'horridula' (this very one).

I've started work on a kind of disposable throwaway videoart approach to creating a music video that will work for YouTube type spaces. I've already chosen a track, but I can't mentioned it until/unless I get permission.

An interesting possibility with site-specific theatre group Crying Out Loud that might or might not come to anything, who got in touch via the derelict sensation (if you've seen Punch Drunk's take on Goethe's Faust in Wapping you'll know what kind of theatre we're talking about).

I've got a couple of urban exploration trips planned with Bartolomy so who knows what'll come out of that. We're supposed to do some time-based collaboration on his collection of Brian Haw photos. The whole 'Parliament Square' issue is throwing up interesting actions like the lone mass protests and free speech border posts - great that he's recorded some of it. We must make time for that. Sorry.

On the 'resolution' front - there's the on-going nightmare of 'shall we? / shan't we?' upgrade to HD going on for everybody in video. I'm going to have to come back to this one, sorry. It's a bad enough decision for 'early adopter' consumers - for content providers its far far worse. Even if we're only delivering in SD for the moment, there's that nagging feeling that we need HD archives for future use. So there's the whole triple-nightmare camera / computer / delivery set of issues. My resolution on this resolution thing is to use HD when a client requires it (and wants to pay for it) otherwise give it a year to wait for prices and formats to bed down. Remind me to tell you about my home-cinema-buff neighbour on that one. Ok, don't. Be like that.

Let's hope that resolution, at least, is a wise one, and let's hope I stick to the other "sort-of" resolutions. Happy 2007.