Practising on live shooting

I have been invited to Youth Arts Concert to be the videographer and photographer for that event. It is on sunday @5pm but I went there at 11am for set up and rehearsal before the events started. I bring my gadgets (video cam, dslr and tripod) and set up on the spot. To make things easier, I arrange a table in the center of the hall and set up my tripod on top to cover the whole stage, I will be doing some panning and zooming in this shooting. The show started and amazingly there were about 150 people showed up and cheer for the performance. I got so stuffed up with many things as I have to shoot videos, photos and put up slide show on the wide screen according to the schedule.

I have sent some photos to the local press the next day, it made up to the newspaper and I am quite happy with it.

Editing will be the next step. Stay tune for that.

Words with an Artist

I had engaged some a few conversation with some aboriginal artist here, I have found interesting thinking of an artist, a friend. His name is Brandon, he is a song writer, singer and a guitarist. He shares his past to me, how he engages with music and his dream in future.

I asked him what he wishes to achieve most in his music career. Without a doubt, he says that he wanted to be famous, to be known by people outside of this community. His dreamt to be on stage when everyone cheer and shouted his name. I chat with him about my passion in doing videos and my plan of working together with the guys.

He did not hesitate and wishes we could work together achieve both of our dreams. He planned to show me around Tennant Creek to find some good spots for next shooting, I am happy and cant wait for it.

Videos videos videos

Had my first annual meeting last sunday, im there to screen up the slideshow that I have created for each presenter. It was a great experience and get to know many people in the group. This week I had clearer views of BRA direction after having a meeting with the staffs on monday. I have plan to have a sightseeing to Devils Marbles with the guys in music centre, however we canceled our trip and decides to go somewhere else the next week.

I have met T.L, he is an aboriginal guy, few years older than me. He was introduced to me because Adrian wants him to learn cameraworks from me. I had a talk with him and move on with shooting some shots within the surrounding. It is not easy to communicate with him as I felt he is kinda forced to learn something new. I have given him basic walk through on camera movement, editing and introduce final cut pro to him. We sat together in front of the square screen, I showed him the editing progress and we edited a short clips with just transition and words.

I would like to make some live music recording session with the guys to keep myself get use to this camera and have a good relationship with those guys. I suggested to Alan about making videos on youtube for publicity, he thinks that its a good idea but need to have a proper plan together with the guys.

I viewed many videos uploaded on youtube, they given me some ideas in creating a live acoustic music. It will be even harder for me because the music I will be doing is not a "mainstream" music that everyone will likes it. Will prepare well before I start this project.

weapons aka equipments...

This week basically I gone through all the film equipments available in BRA. It is surprising to see BRA owns a number of video cameras, most of them were tape video camera which I never use it after my college time. However, I found a pretty decent video camera which BRA bought in last year, CANON XF100 with FULL HD. I quite satisfy this camera although it is not native for FCP, at least saves lots of time than capturing on tapes. Besides that, I had sums up all the equipments available here as I had to keep track on the in and out of them.

I spent most of my time on checking and testing all the equipments here, make up a list of equipment which needs to repair and some missing accessories. I labeled all the equipments and arrange them well. Found a site than given me a well guide in how to take care of camera, http://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Your-Camera. Furthermore, every time the equipments back, I will clear the memory card and fully charge the battery for next use, is the best practice to do so.

I had moved in my new place this week, BRA art house. It is pretty big and I love my room. I had turned my room into a editing suite with my Imac, Ipad, Laptop. It will be my best place to spend my editing process in.

First week in Tennant Creek

Its 2am after 13 hours ride from Darwin and finally I am here to Tennant Creek. Thanks to Alan provided his place for me to stay for few days. Alan bring me for a short tour around Tennant Creek, it is a very small town but its much better than I expect. My first visit at Barkly Regional Arts and get to meet the staffs here. Alan gaves me a brief about my job scope and tasks, I signed the contract after understanding and read the terms and condition.

Adrian, the manager of Winanjikari music centre shows me around WMC, it is a big music practice space for band to learn and jam, and theres a recording studio beside. I have been introduced to a few aboriginal musicians after seeing their jamming sessions. They did a sound recording as well and will send it down to Sydney for mastering. Adrian gaves me the link of WMC blog which updates week http://winanjjikarimusiccentre.blogspot.com.au/.

I am lucky to have an Imac to use for my work which is similar as my own, had a look through the media folder which in the media external harddrive, theres plenty of pictures and videos which previously taken by different people. I have met Emma, the Youth Arts Manager, and been told to assist her for shooting at Tennant Creek Primary School on the next day.

I had a great time doing video shotting at Tennant Creek Primary School, its about the kids doing wall painting with the artist. They kids here were very interested to do arts and creative in it. They took sprays to create pictures outline and some of them fill up with different colours. It took about 2 hours to finish up the wall. I work on the editing part the next day using Final Cut Pro and will be uploaded on my vimeo.