

WORKING WITH YOUNG film makers gives me the opportunity to learn shortcuts. The biggest shortcut I've learned is trusting 14-16 year olds with caring for DV cameras because that trust has resulted in the camera operators telling me how they're able to record for up to six hours on a single battery. We've also learned there's value in making scratch work and we're doing that with the help of
Qik.com. The singlemost important factor we've faced is weather. Today's shoot happened under clear skies and that's a problem because the earlier shoots were overcast. Ah sure, that's what post-production is for! We're also learning a lot about white balance and noise on the set. The biggest challenge is getting bit players to understand that their phones make electronic noises even when switched to silent mode. We have several more afternoon sessions left and it's going to be challenging because the closer it gets to December, the wetter most weekends turn out to be. On top of that, the daylight is getting really sparse as the year drags on.
The Kodak Zi8 (above) is the handheld DV camera we recommend for pocket video production.
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