As many of you know, I recently left my staff job I had for the last ten years. For those of you who are wondering where the editing tip of the week has gone or why there hasn’t been new content on barryclegg.com, fear not. Over those ten years I got to work on multiple projects which I will talk about about over the coming weeks. Some of the best stuff I got to work on, and some of the stuff I am most proud of, were the many pro bono videos that were used for fundraising and awareness.
There are lots of tools I have in my arsenal, but the one I am most proud of is telling stories. Starting in 2006, I started working on the New England Women’s Leadership Awards held annually by the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Dorchester. Each year the club honors 5-6 women who demonstrate traits ranging from pioneer, community spirit and leadership. This project was something I was honored to be a part of for three years from 2006 – 2008. In all, I edited a total of 15 profiles, all of which are special in there own way. I did my best trying to pick one from each year, but in all reality any one of them could have been featured in this post.
If you grew up in the New England area, you will recognize Joyce Kulhawik as the arts and entertainment reporter for WBZ Channel 4. This was the first video I cut for this project, and one of the reasons I chose it was that it set the tone and feel for all the videos to follow. The artwork you see at the head of the video is actual artwork done by children in the Boston area at the Dorchester Boy’s and Girl’s Club. As you will see in the videos below, it is the brand of the awards. WBZ sent us a DVD of some of Joyce’s reports which helps the piece along by giving you a little insight to who and what she does. They were also good enough to send along the piece of Joyce participating in the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days, which included Lisa Hughes.
Staring right with this first video, I knew that the story telling was going to be key here. It all started with the project’s director/producer Katie McKinley. Katie took the time to really dive into each recipient’s story and find the best moment’s to tell it. Once the main outline was done, both Katie and myself worked on the A-Roll edit to make sure that each key aspect was represented. It was a great collaboration that lasted through the life cycle of the project.
One of the things that was great about the first round of videos was the classy interview setup done by Pete Sutton, the Director of Photography. Some may say that it is simple, but as I said before the stories is what drives these videos, not the elaborate set on the shoot. In year two, logistics made it impossible to recreate the same type of setup since the subjects were not all going to be shot on the same day in the same location. A decision was made to shoot green screen and use the artwork as the background in order to keep consistency.
The next time you are in the supermarket, make sure you keep a lookout for Dancing Deer desserts. Trish Karter has created a company with a spirit that most would only describe as inspiring. An environment that never looks at profitability over the human condition. Trish’s philosophy that the golden rule applies not only in life but in business as well I think is something we should all strive for.
Like with Joyce, Dancing Deer sent us a B-Roll DVD of their bakery. You may be wondering what exactly all those employees are doing and why they are dressed somewhat unconventionally. What you are seeing is the typical birthday celebration that happens at Dancing Deer. No matter who or what your role is at Dancing Deer, you get the same company wide celebration as the next person. In most productions, when you have an interviewee sit down you have them say and spell their name and give you their title for lower third information later. I think this is the only time I have actually USED that part of the interview, and when you hear Trish’s answer you can tell why.
Kevin Youkilis, Tim Lincecum and Nick Swisher…what do they all have in common? All three played for the Cape Cod Baseball League, the country’s premiere summer league for elite college players. For anyone who has spent a lot of time on Cape Cod, you know that Cape League baseball is fun, competitive and best of all, free. One of the major reasons this league is so unique is the fact they still use wooden bats. Most baseball players never use them until they reach the professional level. Judy Walden Scarafile started as a baseball writer for the University of Connecticut and stayed in the sport her whole life and since 1991 has been the president of the Cape League.
For Judy’s video we had access to some clips from the documentary”Touching the Game.” I highly suggest you watch it, it is a great story and a great documentary. One of the things I love while editing pieces like these is finding great natural sound in the B-Roll. In fact, all these videos have great little bits from B-Roll that help tell the story. So they next time you are shooting B-Roll, remember to leave the camera mic on and don’t talk over it.
The reason these stories were able to come to life was the great work by the production crew, Director of Photography Peter Sutton and Location Sound Engineer Chris Engles. You can read more about Peter and Chris at their respective websites.
Peter Sutton – http://petesuttonfineart.com/index2a.php Twitter: @PeteSuttonFA
Chris Engles – http://chrisenglesphoto.com/ Twitter: @ceshoot
