My Travels:
Jonathan Shuler is at home in Placentia, CA, United States.
Category Archives: Video
Another reason to trust your project to people beyond yourself. (Some people any way…)
Also posted in FAIL, Field Production, Lessons Learned, Sudan, Travel Tagged Erik Hersman, flights, juba, Martin Kariuki, South Sudan, South Sudan Emerging, visa 1 Comment
Initial impressions of CoreMelt’s Lock & Load X
Also posted in Geek Tech Tagged CMOS, CoreMelt, Jon Shuler, Jonathan Shuler, Lock and Load, Lock and Load X, Shutter Roll 1 Comment
Further Proof that you need to be a little “off” for this job.
I sometimes think that if we lived in a more “tame” world, then the rugged cameras and over built gear would not be necessary and we could all run around with the latest consumer grade gadgets. The world is not a very soft place as it turns out, and so we haul around 20lbs cameras with bulky tripods. National Geographic’s Bob Poole is a guy I admire a lot. It’s not just that I envy his hair (which I do), or that I hope to have that instinctive eye that he has despite carrying around a huge 2/3″ ENG kit, I admire his willingness to experience something that civilization has spent a lot of energy trying to avoid for the last 4000 years.
Also posted in Field Production, Just Because, Travel Tagged Bob Poole, Mali, National Geographic, Sand Storm, Tempet 1 Comment
Tomorrow, Kenya Decides
Just a quick video I pulled together in a few hours for the Ushahidi’s Uchaguzi deployment. Very Excited about tomorrow, heading out to observe the polls and follow a monitor around.
Also posted in Field Production, Owned Narrative Tagged Constitutional, Kenya, Referendum, Uchaguzi, Ushahidi, vote 2 Comments
Sony’s NEX VG10 might fill the gap… for now.
Also posted in Field Production, Travel Tagged 2, 5D, Field Production, mark, NEX, review, Sony NEX VG10, Travel, VG10, Video, videography 3 Comments
Zen and the Art of Collaboration
I recently co-produced two pieces for Ushahidi regarding their work in Haiti shortly after the earthquake. I helped concept the stories with Sara George, Ushahidi’s producer, and then we brought in Andrew Berends to direct. Andrew was already in Haiti shooting for Frontlines and had a great sense of the ground. You come into these types of projects with a particular idea of what is going to happen. You see the arch in your head. You hears the character’s voices… and then you get the actual footage back from the Videographer. Andrew did an amazing job when you consider that he really had about 36 hours to pull both stories together. We got a lot of great B-roll and decent interviews.
In this sort of situation the largest hurdle to overcome is one of expectations. Sarah and I had individual ideas about how the stories should go. Andrew had his own understanding of our expectations plus an understand of how realistic those expectations where (which I will never really know). I know he had his own expectations for the projects as he sent the footage back to me, where I tried to let go of my original ideas about the story so I could find the amazing stuff Andrew found.
Lesson learned: your mind can’t really be big enough in Non-Fiction story telling.
Also posted in Geek Tech, Health, Lessons Learned, Uncategorized Tagged Andrew Berends, Haiti, Jonathan Shuler, Production, Sarah George, Ushahidi, Video Leave a comment
Are we done with DSLR Video?
Also posted in Lessons Learned, Uncategorized Tagged 5D, Bokeh, Canon, DOF, HVX 200, journalism, Journalism 2.0, P2, Travel, Video, Vincent Laforet 5 Comments
Tea Workers
Tea Harvesters in Bangladesh earn roughly .75 USD per day. This is only enough to keep them alive.
Also posted in Anablog, Bangladesh, J 2.0, Uncategorized 3 Comments
Ups and Downs:The Art of Making, Hacking, and Hunting to create a documentary in South Sudan
A coffee induced moment of clarity:
It looks like it’s working, though the charger is a little hot…. I may have to keep an eye on the rig when I do go to charge the battery in the future.
But it’s working, and right now that’s a good step.
Waiting is the hardest part of working here in Juba for me. I don’t mind the power outages, I know how to prepare and work with them. I don’t mind having spotty internet or unreliable connectivity. I wish I had less gear to haul around, but that’s more about choices I’ve made than the environment. What’s been hard is waiting to start.
It took half a day to get all my journalism paperwork squared away so I could shoot in public legally. It wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to get my first interview with Kuol. I have exchanged a total of two text messages with KongKong, both short, both mildly hopeful. He’s working out of town but might be back for a few days before I leave. That’s all I know right now
The weather is hot, the light is difficult, and contacts take time to establish. communication is slow.
But if you are patient, if you have planned and shored up your loose ends. You can pounce when the opportunity strikes.
Oh God, that I can be a patient man.
I hate waiting.