Imperial Theatre
The Imperial Theatre has a rich history, richer than many of us realize. It’s a local gem, a truly iconic piece of Saint John. As a group, we were grateful for the chance to learn a bit more about one the best known structures in Saint John; and personally, I appreciated the reminder of how much I enjoy live theatre.
The team:
Mason James, Manan Patel, Emily Smith, Darren LeBlanc, Manvi Vaya
The tech:
DJI Osmo Mobile 6; iPhones; ZOOM audio recorder; 6 foot Kodak tripod, 8 inch gorillapod, Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro
Challenges:
AUDIO, AUDIO, AUDIO, AUDIO – “understanding” (/”trying to undestand”) the sound tech, which seems reasonably simple to operate, but in practice felt more like luck when it actually worked out. Also on an audio note, understanding how to look at audio feeds, and understanding what different appearances mean for rendered audio. Listening on headphones vs ear buds vs on MacBook speakers or my TV. It seemed to sound different on EVERY device, and not just different, but different clips were different in different ways, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out why.
Filming in low light – the auditorium at the Imperial is stunning, but it isn’t bright in there. The restriction of filming with cell phones only made getting crisp video difficult. One of the perks of cell phones is that they auto-adjust to get a photo in whatever light conditions, for our purposes, this meant increasing ISO and pulling grain into the video in order to compensate for the lower light conditions. Shoot, reshoot, hope the grain wasn’t too bad as the screen got larger.
Other tech – the gimbal was great, but it was almost too responsive, I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to learn how to make it move fluidly, there were some clips where I got the movement just right and it appeared seamless, but the vast majority involved a lot of cutting to remove jerky movements. Likewise, trying to film a space horizontally that isn’t level can be hard on the brain, especially with a gimbal that orients itself on ideal planes irrespective of the environment.
Storyboarding – I personally learned a lot about how particular the process needs to be. But I wouldn’t have learned it without the experience of having not been specific enough.
Time – as with life, time is the most important and limited resource we have. Every time we don’t have enough time, it should act as a reminder of how to manage it better next time, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be quite as simple as that. I’d have been very appreciative for at least 2 more sessions of shooting video. Likewise I’d like to have had more time with the sound equipment, and a sound room or a proper interview space with consistent acoustics.
Chasing Windmills 