Archive for April, 2009
The Power of a Team
Posted by mikehedge | Filed under Uncategorized
Creating this team was a lot of work. I believe that the power of us as a team, will eventually create such an amazing film. Can’t wait! Exciting!
Planning… and… Gear
Posted by mikehedge | Filed under Uncategorized
Here’s a post from the New Breed project from the Workbook Project. Follow our posts on New Breed at http://newbreed.workbookproject.com/category/as-the-dust-settles/
Hey! Thanks everyone who reads New Breed. I really think it’s a great way for us to share tips and ideas. Thanks Lance and Zak and everyone who helps build this resource.
I feel that there are a million things I could share or talk about it. But here is one that is very important. Gear.
Our film was a unique project. I had about 25 people working with me on it, and with that many people it gets nearly impossible to manage the amount of gear needed to document the experience. If I was doing it all over, I would do things differently, but you learn as you go.
Roughly 6 weeks before Burning Man, my documentary was approved. Meaning that out of the hundreds of project proposals, As The Dust Settles was picked as one of 12 projects allowed to shoot out in Black Rock City at Burning Man 2008. Everything from then on became a mad rush of phone calls and emails and scouring ebay for gear for the project.
I spent a couple weeks buying all sorts of gear including:
- Finding 3 RED ONE cinema cameras owned by 3 different shooters
- Canon XTI DSLR cameras
- Canon EOS Lenses and ND filters
- Canon TX1 720p HD pocket cameras
- Samson Zoom H2 and H4 audio recorders
- 0-360 Panoramic Optics
- Dakota Alert MURS Long Range Walkies
- RODE NTG-2 shotgun mic
- PCLIX timelapse controllers
- Dozens of 16GB SDHC Class 6 Cards
- Dozens of 1 Terabyte hard drives
- 100 disposable cameras for the Anonymous Camera project
My brother Andy took charge and engineered and built a whole camera dolly that could be towed behind a bike, and a huge PVC cube, which would become our temporary living quarters out on the playa.
Buying Burning Man tickets 3 weeks before Burning Man was difficult, but not impossible. Here’s a shot of all 18 BM tickets we bought. We have a production blog going at: www.asthedustsettles.com
I have thought about the gear that we got for this project for several months now. If I had to do it all again, I would split up the gear, and invite people to be part of the project who had their own gear.
Buying/gathering all the gear was costly and also puts most of the risk on one person. If each person has their own camera and gear, then it puts the responsibility of the gear on many people. I feel that people are generally more responsible when dealing with something they own rather than something which they have invested no money into.
Mike Hedge Producer
www.asthedustsettles.com
