This last weekend I had the opportunity to shoot and edit a Behind the Scenes video for TEDx Vancouver. This video was edited in the same day, and was screened by 2500 people at The Orpheum Theatre at the end of the event as part of the show closer. Wow….I’m still buzzing! I’m going to detail what went on behind the scenes of the behind the scenes – but I have to first start by plugging the TEDx team. This is one incredibly talented group of young professionals! Everyone was on top of their game in terms of their individuals roles and responsibilities, and the team collectively worked together really well, which was so impressive, and just an honor to be a part of.
I initially approached the team with a few different creative concepts. They were receptive to all of them which gave me so much freedom. When I learned that the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was actually performing the evening before the TED talks…..and that they needed to have everything set up in less than 10 hours – the timelapse concept was a no-brainer
I brought with me two DSLR cameras, a bunch of cool lenses, a slider, glidecam and intervolemeters for the timelapse sequences….Oh, and I can’t forget my trusty 2nd shooter. Martin Glegg – check out his stuff @ www.martinglegg.com. This was our first time working together, as Martin is new in town – but this guy is solid….and what a trooper! He just came off of a 12 hour shoot earlier that day and was booked for a shoot the next day, so he probably only had about 4 hours sleep in between 30 hours of work. Amazing.
SDE’s or Same Day Edits are getting to be pretty popular in the wedding filmmaking world, but this was my first time doing one. Normally, I love being able edit a video, leave it for a few hours and then come with fresh eyes, but definitely did not have that luxury in this instance. To be safe, we mapped everything out exactly to make editing as precise as possible, including a “test video” that was shot one week prior to the event, and a defined storyboard and shot-list so we knew exactly what content to capture. The “A” timelapse camera took 1 frame every 20 seconds, with a fast shutter speed to allow for a nice crisp image over about 8 hours in total. The “B” timelapse camera was closer to the action took frames every 2-4 seconds with a slow shutter speed to allow for a really cool motion blur effect.
I anticipated that the event was going to start around 9:30 AM, but the opening act didn’t start until 10:30, which left just a few hours of ingesting media, coverting, editing….rendering, exporting….compressing and delivering for a 3:00 PM deadline. Phew! This one went right down to the wire. I didn’t have any time for color corrections and probably would have changed a bunch of little things with more time, but all in all, I feel pretty good it, so I’m going to say that the shoot was a success. I also just learned that they replayed my clip this morning on Breakfast Television and my corporate videography company, Georgia Street Media got a plug, so I can’t be anymore thrilled about that….