A Taste of Hammonton

When I go home, I can look forward to fresh produce, italian delicacies and most importantly things made by this woman: 

This is my Grandmother. Lucia Ezzi Curcio... and these are her amazing Pizzelle

I grew up around lots of farms and farmers markets:

With lots of produce:

And flowers:

And lots of little Italian Markets.

We like things to be delicious.

The 135th Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival

So, the little town from which I hail... Hammonton, NJ (also known as "The Blueberry Capital of the World") holds this yearly festival on the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
 

While I don't know too much about the history... I do know that it started with a few farmers in 1875 and that I've been going since I was a child. You can get a more detailed, if not necessarily definitive, history of the Saint and feast (though not really Hammonton's version) here.

The feast is celebrated every July 16th with a procession of the saints. Some of you may or may not have seen something similar in a certain revered gangster movie sequel. In our little town, it is less about the intrigue and more about simple faith. You have money pinned onto the saints and in return you receive a scapular or prayer card.

It's quite a thing to see, though not as well attended these years as I remember (or, for that matter, as my mother remembers when it was an event in the 60s).

Here are some of my favorite moments and tidbits of the day:

If you are dying for some more Our Lady of Mount Carmel action... you can see more images here.

Lessons of a One Woman Crew #2 -- "Shooting to Edit"

Or- How to Stop Worrying and Love your SD Camera

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Panasonic DVX100B. This was my graduation gift in May of 2008.
It made me super, incredibly happy.

Alas-- 24 months later, DSLRs that shoot incredible HD are now running the same price as the lovely little SD Camera above... or well... ok. Some of them are cheaper.

What, do you ask, is the difference?
Let me show you:

 Panasonic - SD

Canon - HD

The differences are many. They include not only the fact that my SD doesn't shoot in native widescreen. In terms of picture, in strictly non-technical language: The light bleeds a lot more. The colors are not as crisp. The pixels in the image are not as defined, so you can't zoom, etc. 

What isn't apparent here--is that the movement actually looks different. With multiple compressions, you loose some of the smoothness- I've found.

Anyway- quite simply- the quality, in terms of "life-likeness" in SD is not as striking as HD. 

So, why-- do you ask-- have I not switched? 

Well, first of all. It's expensive. I simply can't afford to buy an HD camera in the way that I would like. I want to do it right-- buy the right lenses, arm myself with the right tools. It takes some savings. 

But-- there's also certain advantages that I'm beginning to understand about the use of SD. Primarily:

-- ACCOUNTABILITY

In HD, if I need a close up to cover a dialogue edit or slip, I can zoom in and crop and create fake movement that you can [mostly] not tell that it was changed in post -- See Above. 

In SD-- not really possible. You can't zoom into the image without significantly degrading the quality, thus you can't cover your ass by adjusting your shots in post-- what I call "faking" above.

In SD- you are forced to shoot like a storyteller. 

By "shooting like a storyteller" -- I mean-- you have to force yourself to make the picture constantly interesting and think like an editor in terms of your composition. You must  give yourself options between close up shots, wide shots, different angles in wide, smooth  movements. With HD, you don't have to shoot this way- because all of these things (save a wide shot from a close up) you can really, honestly, fake. So, SD makes you accountable for what you shoot in a more immediate way. And you are forced to act like a storyteller as you are capturing the image, as opposed to leaving it to whoever is doing post. I call this "shooting to edit" because, in a way, you are creating an assembly as you shoot. You are limiting your edit to what you capture, and thus you are essentially "storyboarding" even during doc shooting. 

I recently finally read the amazing book "Hitchock" by Francois Truffaut in its entirety.

 (If you look closely - you can see that the book above has a picture from Notorious. I like to accompany my education with margaritas. It makes the knowledge go down easier...)

In it (I warn that this is broad paraphrasing), Hitch talks about how he used to shoot sequences in such a specific way so that only he was able to assemble them. In this way- not only was he economic in his shooting, but he also prevented the studio from recutting his footage, and occrance that would likely destroy his vision for presenting the story. 

I like to think that using my SD forces me to act the same way. If I have to shoot with the edit in mind, it is likely that I will be the only one to put it together. Thus- the piece is always "my" way of seeing-- and it forces me to be more aware of the story I want to tell from the outset. 

Cohesion.

Lessons of a One Woman Crew #1 -- The Line

Several weeks ago, I shot this little video for NYPL with a few friends. The goal was to try and create a vague semblance of a story-- a hint of a story-- so that the conceit could honestly be that the whole minute and a half was about the kid at the end, as opposed to the chase in the beginning.

I wrote a script, I got it approved, I wrangled some friends... and I set off.
The one thing I did not do.... was finish my storyboard before the actors got to my apartment.

This, ladies and gentlemen, proved to be a problem. Because regardless of the fact that I've been shooting video since I was 16 years old... I still fall prey to ridiculous mistakes when I have not planned.

I thought I could definitely wing it. I knew what everything wanted to look like in my head. So I just set up the camera, made the colors look pretty-- attempted to get the exposure perfect with the clouds changing every 10 minutes... Should'a all been ok. But-- without that shot list...

Do you know what "the line" is? It's one of those silly thing things that people learn about in Film Production 101 and then make fun of people for screwing up. For all of you lay individuals here is a brief explanation, with LOVELY in-design mock ups by-- yours truely (so i'm not a designer. Sue me).

When two individuals are talking (here, seen from above) "the line" is drawn between the middle of their faces.  Across this line, the camera SHALL NOT cross, for continuity to be correct. Basically-- the reason you keep the camera on one side of the line, is so that the eyes of each person talking look in the correct direction. When you cut-- one person will look to the left and the other to the right- and they will appear spatially accurate in the frame. The audience will know that the characters are talking to each other because, as person two will appear on the right side of the screen looking left, and person 1 will appear on the left side of the screen looking right (see below).

And all is right with the world. 

However-- if you cross the line with the camera-- 

Then you get this:

  And people get confused, and pulled out of the picture... and etc. 

So-- why is this relevant? Because I crossed that line. I was all good and fine up until they turned the corner. But, after the running boy (Carl) turned the corner -- and the evil feet person (Gabe) followed-- the line that had been created between the two changed. And-- as I controlled the color and exposure,  people in the background and actors in the foreground all by my lonesome... without a diagram of where the relationships between the bodies were ... I shot Gabe's close ups on the wrong side, so he was look right, when Carl was on his left.

So- Gabe. I am sorry that we lost your great moment. Because it was really excellent. And Amy's great face-scar makeup.

The lesson learned here-- is that you should ALWAYS prepare. ... Even when you aren't by your lonesome (but especially, especially when you are). 

Since then, I have even diagrammed out the potential movements of the Food52 shoots, which-- actually, has helped editing significantly. 

And that, is my first Lesson from a One Woman Crew. I am SURE this will become a weekly, if not bi-weekly affair. 

Itching for Travel

I have spent the last several hours attempting to plan a vacation. Since it's not working out so well... I decided to relive my previous adventures and found some really great pics from when I went to Ecuador in March of 2009.

These are a very very small fraction of the trip-- but it was, sincerely, the greenest place I've ever seen. 

And, at night, the stars actually appeared in relief. In the states, they always seem 2D. Alas- no photo would do those justice.