Robert Penn - Digital Content Production

Seminar Documentation

Footage that documents presentations by your company's key staff can be used to inform and train your staff.  This digital content can also be placed on your organization's website to disseminate knowledge your company wants to share with other organizations.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts several presentations that are designed to share the experience its staff has accrued over the years.  This year, the Kennedy Center undertook a complementary Internet initiative.  Posting excerpts on its website makes the knowledge base available to constituents unable to attend the in-person presentations.

The Kennedy Center hired Robert Penn productions to document two sessions of their Programmatic Marketing seminar held during May 2009 at the Desmond Tutu Center in New York City.  The three presenters appear above in a still taken from the footage.  Natali Fusillo, Marketing Manager, David Kitto, Vice President of Marketing and Sales and Scott Bushnell, Advertising Creative Manager, outlined the techniques they use to generate interest and drive ticket sales for the many venues at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C.

Location Shoot in Sierra Leone, West Africa

I spent Easter directing the photography (DP/Cinematographer) for a documentary film in Gbenikoro, a village in northeast Sierra Leone, West Africa.  It was scorching hot and the Sound Engineer, Ben Clore, a talented 31 year-old Virginian who was on his first trip to Africa, frequently asked for a break.  I empathized with him but kept shooting because I knew that the Director, Kewulay Kamara, and Producer, Steve Zeitlin, wanted to document as much of the memorial as possible - processions, discussions, musical performances, speeches, recitations, and bovine sacrifice.

Kewulay (above right) was born in Dankawali, a nearby village in northeast Sierra Leone. He moved to the United States after secondary school for college and is now a dual national.  Finah Misa Kulé (which roughly means The Lineage of People destined to Voice their King's Heritage and Vision) deals with tradition and persistence.  Kewulay began by writing and staging a live performance with traditional music similar to the way oral history is recounted in many African villages and courtyards. This helped him order his general approach to what promises to be an powerful, cinematic family epic.

Thanks to digital P2HD technology, we were able to review the footage at regular intervals. While we sat in Freetown's Lungi International Airport waiting to board our return flight, Steve (above second from left) looked at more of the footage that Kewulay and Ben (above far right) had reviewed until the wee hours of our last night in Sierra Leone.  Steve was also pleased.  Ben, who as I said was a great crew mate, explained to Steve that I consistently got the subject's facial detail while keeping the brightly sunlit sections within limits so the editor could bring out detail in post-production.  I think it was then that Steve fully realized the challenge a DP faces when cinema verité style shooting African subjects in the noonday equitorial sun!  The 2/3 inch chips in the Panasonic HPV 500 were a great asset on this shoot!  Thanks, Steve, for renting that camera.

Ben and I shot the production stills included above and in the following slide show using Canon and Nikon point and shoot cameras.

One Shot, the Digital Film

Ronald K. Brown collaborated with Charles "Teenie" Harris (Sr.) years after the latter died.  "Teenie" Harris was a great Twentieth-Century American photographer.  Ronald K. Brown is a great contemporary American choreographer.  The resulting dance, One Shot, got it's name from a "Teenie" Harris fan who said he always got his photographic story in one shot.  The digital short I produced tells how the collaboration came about and shows it, too.

Movement

 
Assignments that involve movement, such as, dance or theater documentation challenge the production crew, especially in high contrast and/or low light settings.  Supplemental lighting is not permitted during most live performances and video cameras do not "see" as well as the human eye. In addition, medium and close-up footage will sometimes exhibit visible differences that must be matched in post-production to the compulsory wing-to-wing lock-down wide angle shot.

For the production or research archive, the director's or choreographer's vision must be accurately documented, including the darkness.  This record informs students, researchers and historians and will continue to do so for years to come.

A lot must be done in post-production to prepare the record for the casual viewer - and it must be achieved without sabotaging the artist's vision.  Since I love to edit in response to and in synch with movement, I finalize the edit first. Correcting lighting is the last thing I do before making the master tapes.

Crew

Finding crew members can be time consuming.  It is as important to network to experienced people for critical jobs as it is to connect to prospective clients.  Years ago, a fellow filmmaker recommended a camera operator to me.  I have hired him several times since then.  He is consistent, inventive and attentive.

I met a Production Assistant by chance.  He agreed to assist me on a pro bono shoot I did for a non-profit organization.  I was working ENG on a big demonstration.  He completely had my back, which was critical since the demonstration included a parade down an avenue that was only partially closed.

Earlier this month, I got to work with these two crew members on a gig.  They did excellent work.  The camera operator worked as Director of Photography and the PA also served as boom operator.  I directed the four-person interview for a library.  It is hard to cover 4 people with 2 cameras, especially with no sound person.  However, I planned plenty of set up time and was fortunate enough that the four people on camera were enthusiastic and liked my sense of humor.

Digital Content

Many current assignments are Internet related.  Whether creating new footage for an existing website, re-cutting old footage for a new website or developing a website for film and video content, the requirements remain the same: start with high quality footage, edit with a small screen in mind and then encode for Internet streaming.

Even though some details cannot be seen in small Internet windows, it is still best to have clean footage from the start.  When content looks foggy, fuzzy or watery due to low quality original footage, editing errors or poor encoding, some people will watch only a few seconds.  Others will not watch at all.

When we started this short, Flying Legs Crew, we knew there would be three camera crews shooting mini-DV footage under a variety of conditions.  I shot 22 of the total 39 hours of footage and then took the best from all three crews, as well as some clips shot by the director, to make this 4.5-minute story.  I encoded it for the Internet using Cleaner 6.5.  The results exceed those possible if we had started off shooting lower res footage or used less versatile encoding software.

 

(Video) Shooter for Hire

A colleague raised seed money to shoot footage for a proof of concept reel.  He took me as DP/cinematographer on the location shoot.  Only problem, no production assistant or sound recordist.  One stop production here!  Get your one man production crew!

I planned as much as I could and got smacked with airline overweight charges for my thoroughness.  However, I am happy to report that I used almost each microphone and every bit of lighting gear with the exception of the light reflecting panel and clamps.

Did I suggest there was only one problem?  In a manner of speaking.  The shoot took place over several days in remote locations in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Electricity is rare.  When a business or residence has electricity, it is supplied by gasoline- or diesel-powered generator.  Each generator sounds like a tractor and smells like an idling motorbike - not good when you are recording audio.  We found inventive solutions.  Some night scenes were shot in the afternoon.  A very long extension cord to a portable generator re-located far, far away from the set made documenting a critical night event possible.

The highways were more tracks than roads.  However, the drivers were well-seasoned.  One had to navigate deep, water-filled ruts and drive up - climb - slick rock faced hills.  He really had to use "the force."  Hydroplaning does not fully describe the situation.  He got us through with only a little rocking, careening and swerving.  Each time he got us over what seemed to be the impossible stretch of road, we cheered him from the bottom of our hearts!

If you are thinking of visiting Sierra Leone, by all means go!  The war ended five years ago - Blood Diamond depicts history not news.  Everyone I met was friendly and accommodating of my American ways while gently educating me about local customs and realities.  The Freetown beach I visited is great.

If you dislike rain - do NOT go between June and August.  On July 2, 2007, the day I returned to NYC, the rain in Freetown fell at the rate of one inch per hour - over the entire city!  That's like standing under a million garden hoses bundled together - with unlimited water pressure!

Shooter for Hire II

I completed a very exciting assignment night before last, but I cannot talk about it. That's right. The footage belongs to the client. Furthermore, the content has not been edited so there isn't much to say? I followed some people around and documented four days of their lives. Interesting lives. Interesting footage.

One afternoon, I had to change white balance about 5 times because we went from store to outdoors to the next store and back into the sunlight again. What do you do when there isn't enough time to take a white card out and reset white balance? Use a wall or someone's white t-shirt. It worked. One time, no one had on white clothing and the walls were covered with merchandise. So I set the camera to the white balance from a previous location that had similar lighting. I guess I'll get a call from the client if my light-mix memory (flourescent, natural, incandescent) did not work on that occasion. LOL

I love what I do.

Plan Shoot Edit Burn

You can learn about my services at http://www.robertpenn.net 

Weddings and other Ceremonies

There are many ways to videotape a wedding. And many types of edits. I use the documentary approach to tell the story of the happy day.

Two cameras at the actual ceremony are essential. One starts near the entrance and the other waits on the altar just like the groom. This allows the edit to cut between the excited well-wishers and the anxious bride. The same applies to reception lines, speeches, dancing and goodbyes.

Though the happy couple may someday want to relive their most wonderful day by watching hours of footage from stepping into her gown to unfastening his tie after the first dance, most family members and friends will be happy to receive a 30-minute edit of the day's events. Thanks to DVD autoring it is possible to supplement the short wedding film with a slideshow of stills extracted from the footage and/or taken by a still photographer.