Road to becoming a Documentary Cinematographer

This year I have decided to step out on faith in a Big way. I am planning to travel to Tanzania (yes, in Africa) and create a documentary on the work being done by Global Vessels International for the Havaliah Village Orphanage.

Important Information

So SpaceAge Consulting has decided to take on a project unlike anything we have done before.

We have chosen to work with Chosen Vessels (www.globalvessels.org) and travel with them to their upcoming missionary trip to Arusha, Tanzania to support Havilah Village Children’s Orphanage. Our project would involve traveling with the group in July of 2013 and documenting the work being done to support those children at the orphanage.

We are currently raising money for the travel, equipment and insurance cost that would be involved in such an endeavor. Not only will this be a chance to do something that we haven’t done before (film a documentary on location) but it would give us the opportunity to do some good as we highlight a need that is real and bring attention to those less fortunate than ourselves.

If you are interested in donating to the project please let us know. If you have any suggestions on equipment we could/should bring feel free to provide that information as well. Currently I am looking into using the Canon XF100 along with testing out the Canon 6D and a 24-105 lens. I understand that may seem very Canon heavy but it is what I’m used to and I know what works and doesn’t work. I would hate to travel to Africa and discover the equipment I have cannot do the job we need it to do.

While I would love to work with Red equipment (or the Canon C300) it is just not within the budget. I would consider a Blackmagic Cinema Cam as their Production cam will not be available in time for the trip.

Coming Soon!

As promised I will have a video review of the JVC GC-PX100 soon. I have put in my rental order to Lensrentals.com and it should be here on April 18th. I’ll take it through various environments over the 4 days that I have it and put together a video blog and some final words about the experience.

As always, stay tuned…

https://www.lensrentals.com/img/49/149161092581

Artist Profile – Featuring Harold Watson

http://bit.ly/Take2_HW

Video Interviews shedding the spotlight on local, up and coming musicians, singers, authors and performers.

 

Customer service still exists….

Kudos to Lensrentals.com!

A few weeks ago because of a comment made on this blog I was introduced to a new camera soon to hit the market: the JVC GC-PX100 . Because my pockets are not (yet) deep enough to buy every new camera for testing I go through rental companies to “Try before I Buy”. Lensrentals.com is a company that I have used in the past as when I was able to write the article about the Canon XA10. So I went to their site to see if they list the JVC GC-PX100  or something in its class as being in stock to rent. Unfortunately they did not carry anything like compariable to the JVC. On a whim I sent an email to their support personnel about the JVC GC-PX100  wondering if it is something they carry or would even consider carrying. Not only did I get a reply but the reply blew me away.

Failed Experiment

My home-build video editing machine is a i7 2600K w a 250GB boot drive, a 2TB editing drive, and a 2TB external drive. I included 4x4GB Dimms and a 650w power supply. I had purchased three (3) 2TB Western Digital RED drives to place in an external device but the device turned out to be an utter disappointment so it was returned immediately. SO I found myself sitting with 6TB of storage just sitting there with no home and I decided to put it my editing machine in a RAID 5 config for 4TB of storage and 2TB of parity. And then the trouble started.

Back for another run

As usual I had a long layoff. I’ve got to learn to write even when I am busy!

There is a lot to catch up on including (but not limited to) an A/V install in West Virginia, new equipment reviews and a run down of a video shoot that I did.

As always, stay tuned!