Strandbeestmovie - Weblog

back at home

I am back in Germany and I think I am satisfied with the results. To be honest I am never satisfied but I had a great time in Ypenburg and now I am looking forward to begin with the editing. It will be hard to have a first look at the fooatge because you immediately see all the mist chances, mistakes, problems and technical difficulties and often you are not able to see the good results. So for me it is important to let pass some time after finishing the shooting.

Ypenburg - 5

It is my last day in Ypenburg and I am very satisfied with the things that happened during my visit. I always thinking about the question, how to make the evolution of the strandbeesten visible. And perhaps I find a way to show it in my film.
When I am back in Germany I want to start editing. There is so much material and I have to try to find a first structure for some sequences.
I want to buy a MacBook for looking at the material and make some rough cuts. Then I have to find a way to put the footage on an Avid to share my work with Stefan.
In London we started with a Sony HDV, because it was not possible to get a workflow for such an amount of data for the DVCPRO HD P2-system. I think I want to go on with the P2 system because I am very gald with it.
The only problem is the data storage. I had to work for 1.5 hours in the night to burn the data on a DVD. Sometimes it would have been nicer to go to bed without sitting on computer for 1.5 hours, but this was not too bad.
My plan is to come back in January and I deeply hope that there will be some snow on the hill. Not very often there is snow in the Netherlands, but I know we will have snow in January.
I don't know if anybody took the opportunity to look at me during my filming inside the cabin and I don't know if there ever was another documentary film where you have been able to see a live "making of", but if anybody see me on Theos webcam I am curious about his or her opinions.
I am happy to go back in the evening and I am looking forward to come back again.

Ypenburg - 4

It is not so easy to work alone on a documentary film. You have to carry all the heavy stuff alone and you have nobody to discuss. But the most difficult problem to solve is to record good sound.
Here on top of the hill I am filming outside and inside the cabin, so I do not have the time to change the mic every time. Outside it is not possibel to use the bulit in mic from the camera. So I developped a way for my shooting with two wireless transmitters. One is connected to a lavalier mic that is attached to Theo. The other transmitters is connected to a mic with a wind shield and a boom. I try to put the wind shield mic next to the action and so I got two signals, from one Theo and one atmo from the boom mic.
The advantage of the Panasonic camcorder compared to HDV cameras is the possibility to record four channels. Channel 1 is Theo, Channel 2 is atmo and Channels 3/4 is the built in mic of the camcorder.
This solution is compromise and not as good as wokring with a sound recordist but I think it is working well.

Ypenburg - 3

The storm is over. Fortunately nothing is really damaged on the hill. This morning I filmed the graveyard of the strandbeesten, the fossils on the hill. And Loek comes to the hill.