Today is my Birthday! 18 years old.  I am officially an adult and can vote!

Last night I took the 5D home to play with the settings and learned a little more about how to use it. In the morning I prepared for the shoot with Trails 2000 at Chapman Hill. Trails 2000 is trying to get a grant to get a new pump track on Chapman Hill and they have to submit a video to get the grant, so that is why they contacted me. They are in a competition right now and the video that gets the most likes wins the grant. The theme of this video has a western theme.  Then the story has a bunch of pro cyclists from Durango come up to Chapman then get sad because there is no pump track. 

It was cool because I got to work with Gordon who is interning at Trails 2000 and we work very well together. It was pretty stressful on my part because this was the first time I was in charge of a client and I didn’t want to mess anything up. Then after a shooting with 15 people and conducting interviews I raced back to the station to make sure all my footage was good.  Also I had some pressure because everything is due by tomorrow morning.

After hurriedly editing and syncing the sound everything turned out really good, and it was very rewarding in the end.   

Today I started out finishing my promo video for IDTV, then Preston and I had a two hour tutorial with the Cannon 5D. This information is very important for me and can be carried over to the Friday Show. We use the Cannon 3ti, which is a scaled down version of the 5D. Jess does have a 5D so it is nice to know how to use these cameras. Some of the things I learned was what an F-Stop is, shutter speed, and ISO. All of these things are ways you can control light in your camera.  

The F-Stop is the lens iris, and the larger the F-Stop the smaller the iris is. And the larger the F-Stop the less amount of light is let into the camera. In photography the F-Stop is called the aperture but they are basically the same thing. 

The stutter speed is the time the shutter is open to allow light to hit the sensor. It is measured as a fraction for example  of a second. The shutter is open for that amount of time, and lets light enter for that amount of time. When you have a lot of light you want to keep you shutter speed faster, and when you don’t have a lot of light you want to keep your shutter speed slower. The shutter controls the amount of time light enters the camera.

The ISO is how sensitive the sensor is to light. When you have a lower ISO the picture is better quality but requires a lot more light. When the ISO is larger it will take less light to form a picture but looses quality. Each time you double the ISO the camera only needs half the amount of light to form a picture. However you could say the ISO setting is how sensitive the sensor is, but what you are actually doing is amplifying the light values your camera is set to capture. This is why the quality of the image goes down as you increase the ISO. You don’t actually capture more light in the sensor, but double the amount of light you do have. (Kind of complicated)  

These are three completely different ways to control light in your camera and understanding all of them will optimize your video quality. 

Today I started off going to a shoot with Deborah at The Center of South West Studies. It was so much fun!!! The Center of the South West Studies is a small museum located by the concert hall at Fort Lewis. They were setting up an exhibit of textiles dating all the way back to the early 1800s, also with an arrangement of varies things that represent the cultures of our region. I had a blast filming everything because I got to intermingle both of my major interests into one thing. My passion for archeology and cultures, with filmmaking!!

After having a delightful lunch with my Grandpa at RGPs, I finished my mentor interview video and started to work on my 30-second promo video for IDTV. I am in postproduction right now, which means I am in the editing phases of the project, but I never would have thought it would be so hard to make a 30-second video. I am so used to having a greater time limit and only having 30-seconds is really hard. I am trying to get this done before Wednesday so I don’t have to stress over it before the LINK exhibition.

This experience has been so great and I can’t believe I am already on my last week. It is so sad I have to go back to school…. 

Today I had a busy morning of interviewing all of my co-works for my final project. I am going to be making a promo video for IDTV that is going to be about 30 seconds long and will air on the channel. The goal of my video is to show people what IDTV does in our community. It is going to start out with a time-lapse of the IDTV sign then go into with behind the scenes of everyone filming the News. After that I will have transitions between some interviews and background footage.

In the afternoon Preston and I went out to some houses in Bayfield to shoot some real estate footage for the Wells Group. The initial plan was to shoot two houses and get back at around 4:00. However once we finished the first house it was already 4:00. I had an opportunity to get a ride back into town with a Wells Group guy but I was uncertain if I would get in trouble if I rode with him because of the insurance policy Animas is doing. So I made the decision to skip Track practice, which I didn’t like but I think it was the right thing to do. But I ended up getting back at around 6:45 then booking it to DHS to go The Sound of Music play.

Today was one of those down days for me. In the morning we filmed the sports then I disassembled the set and put everything away.

One thing that surprised me was Libby popped in and visited me around lunchtime.  It was great to check in with her and get to talk. I showed her what I was doing and told her about my recent project at the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately I didn't get to show any of the super cool cameras because they were all being used. But it was nice to see her and tell her about my internship. 

Then I prepped for my interviews with the crew and wrote the script for my promo IDTV video. Things look good as far as my project, and I am planning to film the interviews tomorrow. After that I have a couple more things to shoot, then I will be in post production. 

Today I finished working on my Grand Canyon feature that possibly might air on TV if the producers approve it. I have been eagerly trying to get the video done the passed three days and this is my published draft. I might have to change some things to air it on TV but the goal of this video is to honor my Dad running the Grand Canyon and the founder of the tradition who has passed away, Paul Pixler. 

Another super exciting thing I got to do today was I got to film at Seasons Restaurant. I shot the chef cutting up an entire lamb and butchering all the meat strait off the bone. It was really cool! Matt thought it was gross but I thought it was cool. It is local raised, just south of Hesperus, and is said to be the best meat in town. I am all for local food! For filming at Seasons I used the Cannon 5D, which is super fun to use. I have some prior experience filming with DSLRs so I had no problem.

After that we filmed “Open for Business” which talks about local business and our local economy. Dan Olsen was the guest for this part of the show San Juan Citizens Alliance and he talked about climate change.

Lastly I helped film the news then rushed to practice!   

In the morning I did some editing in a program called Motion, which allows you to apply graphics to texts and pictures. I put to together a schedule of show times that the public sees on TV. It was a very tedious job since I had 24 different projects to finish. But by lunchtime I got it done.

After lunch I shot some b-roll, which is footage that supports the main idea in a video, and this took me all afternoon. My assignment was to shoot the signs of business that are economic nonprofits in Durango. I shot the Women’s Resource Center, the Durango Arts Center, Music in the Mountains, and the Adult Education Center. The Adult Education Center was kind of a hassle because I am super sore from running the Grand Canyon and I had to go clear across Camino Del Rio to get there. But I got to use the HPX, which is the biggest camera they have. It was a workout caring it all over downtown, but it was good to get familiar with another camera.  

Today Jessica and some quillspreys came in at around 10:00. They took some pictures of me and talked to me about how my experience has been going so far. Of course I told them that it has been great!

Then I went with Deborah (who is their producer and writer) to do an interview at a chiropractor place over by Needham.

At lunch a guy named Sean came in and I filmed a short segment called “Spill it!” and it was really fun. I Saw some of my peers wondering the streets of Down Town and totally felt in my element when they saw me lugging a giant camera around.

And then I went with Deborah again and we went to Pine River Valley Bank to shoot some of their art that they are featuring.

It has been really great. I have not only got to see the world of filmmaking but also the world of journalism which I didn’t expect at all coming onto the internship. 

Today we stared out filming Jordon (who is the sports anchor) doing the sports for the week. I got to act as the teleprompter operator, which I am very used to doing with the Friday Show. So I felt well in my comfort zone with that job. I organized some files from an online account to a Google drive, and this wasn’t the most fun thing to do in the world, but I am not complaining.  

In the afternoon I got to organize all the cords, lighting equipment, cameras, extra… And I loved it! I was a great opportunity to get familiar with all the equipment, and I like to organize these sorts of things too.  

My high light of the day was getting Final Cut X onto my computer. Finally I have a super legit program where I can do really cool editing and make my individual projects look really good. Also this weekend while I am away I am going to be doing a feature of my family running the Grand Canyon. I have a Go-Pro chest mount for inside the canyon and I am going to see if I can borrow a mic so I can get good audio for interviews.

As far as tomorrow my day looks to be very busy. I have Jessica coming in with a loyal Quillsprey, and then I am shooting at Pine River Bank and at the Rec Center. 

Today I started off jumping into Final Cut Pro 7, which is an older version than what the Friday Show uses, but I had fun. I endurably edited a 25-minute interview with Matt Crossett and Judge Reinhold from the film festival, which was cool. Toward the end of it they got into the economics of filmmaking, which it was pretty confusing. Then I edited another interview with Wes Studi, a Native American actor that I absolutely enjoyed editing it. Wes does a lot of films, and he is participating in his first animated film called Planes 2, by Pixar and Disney.

In the afternoon we set up this super elaborate set to film the news. I was pretty confused throughout setting it up because it is so complicated. They have six different lights and three different lighting systems and have a big green screen that they set up every Tuesday. Unlike The Friday Show’s set up, which we never take down, they have to break down their set every week because they share the space with other people.

The most crazy thing I saw with their set up was all the sound equipment, and four different monitors they have. There is this thing called the switcher, which allows them to have multi-camera angles and they edit the video live. Then the switcher connects to the hyperdeck, which makes everything go into one file and puts it onto two different drives.

I had to show up late for Track practice so I could witness the briefs, but from what I am feeling now it was worth it. There are a lot of things I could bring back to the Friday Show just from today. 


Here is a picture of the set: