Passion driven

Alright I just uploaded my little Panama flick "Passion driven". Yeah, it took me some time but it's online now. Here are some words about it:

I've learned a bunch of things doing this little project on my own. A real learning by doing experience :) This movie is full of compromises. You can also see it as my first camera test with a Panasonic GH-1 because I got the camera just a few days before leaving for Central America in July 09. I'd say 85% of the movie was filmed handheld without any kind of stabilisation-rig or even a LCD-viewfinder. I had a tripod at the beginning but it didn't make it to the end of the trip... So I can tell you that it was (and still is) pretty hard keeping things steady (and in focus) with those hybrid DSLRs without any stabilisation-support. But it was also fun as hell. Some (shaky) footage was supplied by my buddy Hari straight out of his little Pansonic TZ7. We had a cheesy waterhousing for the TZ7 with us but couldn't really use it because Hari dropped his camera on his third day on the trip. So the LCD was dead and he could never see what he was actually shooting. With that said the next drawback was that somebody stole my iPod where I stored the external & better recorded audio of the interviews. I think this sucks the most. So I had to go with the shitty sound by the little in-camera mic. Summarized that makes no in-water footage, lots of shaky footage and shitty sound. Not the best circumstances for making a surf-related flick. Whatever... as I said above I learned a lot :)
The same applies to postproduction. For the first time I did a 32bpc color-correction (linear color workflow) including the right color-management in After Effects. An arduous task for my four-year-old macbook pro. But for some reason I still have the Gamma issue (colors and picture looks flat) when exporting for the web, also with the x264 open source codec. This is a common problem since over two years on a Mac exporting h264 Quicktime videos. Let's hope Apple will fix this in future. So all I could do was trying to match the original colors by adjusting it later in the Quicktime player.


Passion driven, Panama 2009 from rawmeyn on Vimeo.

Due to the bad quality sound I uploaded a textfile of the interview here.
For better colors and playback I recommend downloading the source-file from Vimeo (you need to sign up a free membership) or just here.

All things considered I'm still happy with the result. It makes me wanna go on a trip again... so it's totally cool that we are leaving for Morocco in two days ;)
But this time more experienced, even more motivated, with more cameras and generally better equipped. Can't wait for that!!!

"I am a firm believer and that life is to be reached out and taken by the throat, shaken, and lived as intensely as you possibly can." - Russell Slough

Music in order of appearance:
"Feedback In The Field"
Plants And Animals

"We Are The People"
Empire Of The Sun

"Spendin' Days"
Japanese Motors

"Gravity"
Lusine

"The Boys Are Back In Town"
Thin Lizzy

"Bright Neon Payphone"
Cut Copy


UPDATE April 2010:
When I was in Morocco this March a sad message reached me. Russell died. But I sent him and his son Jay the video as promised a few days before. Later Michelle, Russells taughter send me following message: “My dad just passed the way this morning. Just to let you know he was VERY VERY HAPPY these days with the interview you did. My brother took the laptop to the hospital this last week and showed him the video. I cannot explained to you how excited he was. My brother is planning a memorial at the beach (We are throwing his ashes at El Palmar as he wanted). Thanks for everything.” Michelle Slough

Rest In Peace Russell.