Thanks to our RAW Team!

This December, the Bad Ferret Films team wraps our third year filming for RAW Natural Born Artists, and LA-based arts organization that supports local artists with showcases in cities around the globe. If you aren't familiar with these shows, here is an example of the work we do for them, the most recent promo video from the Richmond showcase:
 

After another great year, we want to say thanks to the team members of the RAW shows we worked this year.   We filmed over three dozen showcase in six different cities form NY to VA. So, while this isn't a complete list of the team members we worked with, it highlights some of the dynamic creative professionals we have the opportunity to work with through our association with RAW.

• Daraja Asili - DC/Richmond Showcase Director - Daraja Consulting
• Elisa Wells - Baltimore Showcase Director - Multimedia Creative and Arts Professional
• Jessica La-Rotta - New Jersey Showcase Director - Director of Events for Elite Styles Events
• DJ LoudTone - Washington DC events DJ - http://www.loudtoneinc.com/
• DJ Sean J - A/V Tech and DJ - http://www.djseanj.com/
• James Nasty - Baltimore DJ and Producer - http://jamesnasty.com/
• Christine DiCarlo - Performer/Presenter - http://www.rawartists.org/christinedecarlo
• Micah BamBamm White - Comedian - http://www.mbbwhite.com/
• AJ DUNK *all caps* - Comedian - youtube
• Cori J - Presenter - online
• Vernon LeePow - Photographer and Explorer - http://about.me/vernonleepow
• Nate Tyler - Fashion Photographer - http://nate-tyler.com/
• August Joseph Heisler IV - Richmond Events Photographer - http://www.augustjphoto.com/
• Carly Sullivan - Production Assistant/Illustrator - portfolio
• Heather Kirkpatrick - Production Assistant - online

Thank you guys so much for another great year!  We are looking forward to working with RAW next year, and can't wait to see what exciting performances, artists, and fashion we get to film in 2015!

Great Interview Tips

If you are involved with video production for businesses, chances are interviews make up a large portion of the footage you actually shoot for clients.  That is certainly the case here at Bad Ferret, where easily 75% of our projects involve either formal studio interviews or, less frequently, "man-on-the-street" feedback interviews. For example, we have worked with RAW: natural born artists since 2011, and the interviews I have conducted for their artists alone number in the thousands.

Here are some simple best practices I have learned from years of conducting these interviews.  Hopefully these will help you with your next interview, whichever side of the camera you are on.

1. EASE THEM INTO IT: Always start with a few questions to put your subject at ease.  We always have our subject say and spell their name for accuracy.  For longer interviews, we'll often ask a question or two we know will be a throw away, just to get therm talking.  If they express a concern, reassure them about that concern specifically.  I frequently have an exchange with interview subjects where they ask if they look alright, and I assure them that if something were amiss we would tell them.  "It's my job to make you look good," I tell them, I've got your back.
2. STOP IF SOMETHING IS WRONG: All kinds of things can go wrong during an interview.  The talent runs their hand through their hair and gets a lock out of place, the mic or a piece of clothing slips an introduces mic noise, background noise kicks in, the talent moves out of good framing or out of the plane of focus.  When this happens, you aren't doing yourself any favors by continuing to roll on footage that is not usable.  For on-location interviews, especially, it can be difficult to ask someone to go back and repeat a thought or phrase they just expressed clearly.  When something occurs that will mean you footage is not usable, stop immediately and politely inform the subject that they have not done anything wrong, it's just a simple fix that needs to be made before they continue.
3. GIVE CLEAR DIRECTION: Chances are your interview subject isn't going to know where to sit, stand, put their hand, where to look, or what to say.  They will need direction on all of these things, and may feel uncomfortable if you aren't offering it.  That doesn't mean you should just rattle off a list of instructions.  I try to make direction casual and clear.  Think of the way a good nurse can put you to ease asking you to undress.  They don't just order you to do so - they simply and casually let you know that "what is going to happen next is..."  Interview subjects can be just as uncertain stepping in front of cameras and lights - giving clear direction will put them at ease.
4. LISTEN: Interview subjects, especially those who aren't used to being on camera, will sometimes talk in circles and repeat themselves.  It is important to listen to what your interview subject has expressed, so you can adapt questions either to cover information that hasn't been made clear or to avoid repeated information.  If someone answers a question clearly before I get to it, I can skip it, or rephrase it to get at deeper or different information.  If a subject is responding very literally and briefly to open-ended questions, I may have to elaborate more in the way I ask it, to help them open the question up.
5. OFFER ALTERNATIVES: The key to a good interview is getting good information, and that means the subject has to be clear about what they are saying.  Sometimes a question just doesn't connect with the subject, and they don't have an "in" for how they will approach responding.  Make an effort to understand why a question is being asked, and what the editor or producer will need in order to make use of the footage you are creating.  For example, one of the questions we ask in the RAW interviews is "where do you want to see your work take you?"  For most people, this is a clear question, and something they have thought about a great deal.  Some subjects, though, don't know how to respond because the question seems too large, or too vague.  When people struggle with this response, the alternative we use is "where would you like to be in 5 years with this career?"  This alternative reduces the scope of the question, but provides the same general content (hopes/aspirations) for the editor to include in the final edit.
6. TREAT THEM LIKE TALENT:  When the day gets long and I have already conducted dozens of interviews, the last thing I want to do is deal with prima donna tactics and people who are v-e-r-y i-m-p-o-r-t-a-n-t.  Unless you're paying someone to be on camera, they are either volunteering their time for your client, or they are your client.  Either way, it is probably a good idea to make sure they feel like they are the most important thing happening in the room at the time, regardless of what else might be on your mind or how you may feel about it.  If you are paying them for their time then they work for you, and it is just as imperative to let them know that they matter.  People need to feel like they matter, and in a business that requires ambition and self-reliance you have to make room for a certain amount of self-importance in the people you are dealing with.
7. COMPLIMENT THEM:   (See number 6) Having a camera pointed at you can be embarrassing and awkward, or it can be elating and empowering.  A big part of what colors that experience for people is how the other people around them are relating to the situation. We always make an effort to communicate to the person on the other side of the lens "you are great.  we are here to witness how great you are." 

For people who are not actors or otherwise used to being in front of the camera talking to a camera is hard.  They are worried about how they look, how they sound, if they are saying intelligent things.  Being on camera is not easy.  That's why people get paid to do it professionally.  There is a skill set required that all people simply do not have naturally.  But we live in a time when on camera presentation is becoming commonplace for everyone.  Establishing a presence, knowing how to come across clearly and pleasantly isn't something that only actors and TV personalities need to do.  It's something we ask of business owners, artists, craftspeople, and customers and employees of businesses.  

As a producer, one of my most important jobs is to set the tone of the interaction.  In the Playback Theater work I used to do, we called this "holding the vessel."  In a business setting it's more akin to corporate or organizational culture.  On larger shoots, there is someone there whose entire job is just that, setting the tone.  When you're shooting with a small team, though, more often than not the person shooting is also doing the interview and interacting with the other parties involved with the shoot.  In that situation, they are the producer, responsible not just for getting their shot, but also for coloring the experience of all involved.  What people need most of all is an ally who is working with them to make sure they put their best foot forward. 

Crafting Videos: Marketing vs. Journalism

While studying visual journalism in school, marketing was the furthest thing from my mind. To be honest, I didn’t know much about it and didn’t care to. Advertising and marketing seemed one in the same: artfully showing the value of a product or service for sales purposes. Yuck. Two years later and here I am, mixing the journalism skills I learned with this complex industry of marketing.

As it turns out, crafting a video for journalistic use is not much different than doing so for marketing use. For instance, let’s compare a simple business profile video and a feature multimedia story. 

• Chances are – unless it’s solely a natural sound piece – both will require an interview or voiceover, some kind of talking head telling a story so that the audience isn’t lost on the subject matter. 
• Then, to supplement the interview, the video will usually include b-roll, additional footage that shows detail of what the subject is talking about. 

Both have the same basic formula: interview intertwined with b-roll. The difference is purpose.

The purpose of journalism is to inform the public on local, national, or global current events, while the purpose of marketing is to sell a product or service. Other than technical specifics, successful videos of either subject tend to contain the following characteristics:

• Story: Journalistic videos are often based on a written article or can stand alone as a story. As humans, we are attracted to stories whether they present the pressing details first (as in journalism stories) or they follow the events of a typical plot line (as in films). There has been a trend in recent years for companies to include a story element in their marketing/advertising videos. Brands are encouraged to tell their unique story through commercial videos because it gives their customers an idea of their values and how they operate as well as a sense of experience rather than plain information.

• Emotion: If it wasn't for emotion, there would be no reason for stories. We are emotional beings. Regardless of a story's content, it evokes some kind of emotion in each reader or viewer. Personally, I recall more heartbreaking journalistic pieces, while others may be more in sync with cheerful videos. Along with storytelling, companies frequently use emotion in marketing videos in order to attract people to their brand. To this day I still get a dreamy feeling when I see anything Disney-related. Perhaps I watched The Lion King a few too many times in my youth...

• Truth: Whether you believe it or not, journalism is meant to be ethical, honest, and unbiased. Unless it's from a sensational tabloid, there is truth in a news story. Otherwise, what would be the point of producing it? People want truth, not lies. Marketing is no different. For the most part, there is an element of truth in a company's marketing plan because they are trying to attract loyal customers who continue to use their product. Companies that do lie through marketing are usually rewarded with backlash and a decrease in customers. 

While journalism videos are meant to inform and marketing videos are meant to stimulate sales, both hold more similarities than differences. Next time you see a McDonald's ad (whether you enjoy fast food or not), take a moment to analyze the elements. How do they use emotion and truth in their ad to tell their personal story and attract customers? After all, there is a reason they are the number one fast food brand in the world.

Pillars of Horror

My trembling hands grasped the balusters of the stairs just outside my bedroom door as I peered through the narrow space between. Sweat covered my palms. The pounding of my heartbeat echoing in my ears was almost audible, like distant drums of a native tribe. Down below from my hidden vantage point, my father sat watching a horror movie.

A giant shark burst from beneath the water as if almost jumping out of the TV screen.

I bolted back to my bedroom. I was only six years old. This was the first horror movie I'd ever seen. Jaws (1975).

Since that night I have only seen a handful of other horror movies that offer the scares, thrills, and adventure as fluidly and flawlessly as Jaws. Why is that? Why are great horror films so scarce? I believe the answer comes from first understanding, "What is a great horror movie?" In trying to explain my theories, I considered there to be three important pillars of a great horror movie's foundation: atmosphere, authenticity, and attachment.


Atmosphere

Atmosphere is a rather broad portion of a film's presentation. However, to simplify it more, the right atmosphere creates mystery. There is a certain barrier every horror film must break within the viewer: knowledge. The modern moviegoer lives in a time where knowledge is always at their fingertips. The world isn't shrouded in as much mystery. Because of this, horror movies must find a way to take that knowledge (don't confuse this with understanding) and deconstruct it, if only for just an hour or two. An open mind is where fear cultivates.

In a way, mystery in turn builds more atmosphere. There must be a constant cycle between the two. Without it, the audience is much more prone to pulling themselves away from the story and mood. I've noticed a recent trend in horror films is for many scenes to take place in the daylight. I'm not implying that horror scenes can't happen while the sun is shining - it can be done - but those scenes lose a fraction of their threatening tone because the characters seem more worried about sunburn than the carnivorous beast chasing them. There isn't mystery.

One of my favorite films, The Thing (1982), used atmosphere to continually keep the audience perplexed. The confined quarters that the characters are trapped in is essentially a complex maze. The cunning layout of intertwining hallways disorients the audience. The knowledge of the space is stripped from the viewer, resembling a morbid game of hide and seek with the "monster". The intelligent art design contributes to the mystery of the movie as well. Every room within the remote research facility is cluttered with "stuff". There are really no empty areas within the rooms, which plays on our fear of the unknown. The Thing could be hiding anywhere.


Authenticity

This leads into the next pillar of horror: authenticity. The fears need to be genuine. Can you recall a nightmare in which your whereabouts within the dream are oddly similar to an actual place you know of but just slightly different? Those kinds of dreams are unnerving because they blend imagination with reality. Horror movies that keep you on the edge of your seat use real fears even if the setting isn't. For example, Alien (1979) preys on our fears of darkness and confined spaces. Mankind isn't anywhere near deep space travel but the fear of being lost in an unknown environment is more than releatable. Along those same lines comes the fear of dying alone. Isolation is possibly the most impactful and visceral terror in a horror film's toolkit. Every horror movie in some way, shape, or form utilizes isolation because it is one of the most genuine fears.

Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is another great example of real terror. The characters are isolated within a remote motel. The motel's parlor is comprised of unusual objects and taxidermist fancies that evoke death no matter where one looks. Holes in walls behind pictures bring out the phobias of being watched and stalked. Showers become a new territory of death. However, the greatest fear of them all, is Psycho's honest realization that we all can go a little mad sometimes. The contemporary deviation towards hyper-realism seems to forget that audiences don't need to be overwhelmed.


Attachment

The final pillar of a horror film is attachment. By this I mean attachment to the characters and the story. I firmly believe that the viewer cannot have one without the other. A solid story needs great characters to live and great characters need a solid story to live forever. Since great horror needs real fears, real fears come from real characters, characters that the audience must feel for and root for.

Modern horror stories tend to involve characters that make irrational choices in order to conform to predetermined cliches. As with any genre of movie, there needs to be a reason for the choices that characters make. If the audience understands the reason for characters actions, the viewer is much more inclined to root for them. The prevalent scenes of women in baths is a common staple of horror movies these days, yet those scenes aren't as creepy because the audience simply doesn't care. The viewer needs a reason to care.

Jaws is one of the best horror movies to date because at it's core are simply great characters. The choices they make are relateable, their feelings sympathetic, and their fears are our own. When Quint speaks of his experience after the Indianapolis sinks, the viewer is in the red waters beside him living the story. As a whole, that's what audiences do when watching horror films. They live the story.


Many years ago, as I watched my first horror movie through the comfort of my secret hiding spot, I lived a story that frightened me. The scary films of today lack that capability. The horror genre has become muddled with inauthenticity and detachment. There is an absence of mysticism. I will never forget the odd excitement I felt after watching a great horror film for the first time. My only hope is that I will be able to experience it again.  

Enter the H6

At Bad Ferret, we have had two distinct audio solutions that we've used for the last couple of years. For our big audio package for large multi-track audio performances or events we utilize a Tascam US-1800 audio interface plugged into our production laptop. This setup enables us to record up to 16 indendent audio feeds each at 96kHz/24bit. This is the primary setup we used during filming Massé for audio capture. Our other solution has been recording with a Zoom H4n portable field recorder.  This is our most common solution, and is primarily used to record a couple mic inputs, again at 96kHz/24bit. I would guess about 80% of our client work uses the Zoom H4n with either our Shure wireless  lav or a Rode NTG2 shotgun mic, or both.

The H4n has worked well for us. My only real complaints was it's method of needing to navigate menu screens to adjust the volume of each channel, and that the preamps would begin to introduce noticeable noise if you started to push the levels at all. The later could be a problem when using the H4n with the Rode NTG2, as these mics don't have the hottest output level. So at times I would find myself needing to boost the levels in the Zoom to get the NTG2's levels where I wanted them, and starting to introduce unwanted noise.

Now we have recently purchased a Zoom H6 for Bad Ferret, and things have changed... for the better! The H6 preamps, so far, have proven to be superior to the H4n's in both noise floor and overall gain. With the NTG2's I can raise the levels to where I want and not get an appreciable increase in noise from the preamps. I also seem to get more overall gain out of the H6 preamps compared to the H4n.  Mind you, this is all my opinion from informal testing, but to me the results are very positive. The H6 also has volume knobs for each channel's gain, so I no longer have to scroll through menus to change levels.  Just these two points here make me a very happy guy.

However, there is still more benefit from the H6 to enjoy. It is now capable of recording 6 channels of audio in 96kHz/24bit. It comes with four XLR 1/4 inch combo jacks each that can supply phantom power. You also have the XY mics or the mid side mic that comes with the unit. In addition, there is the option of a shotgun mic attachment or a dual XLR (no phantom) attachment instead of the mic options that came with the H6. We purchased the additional shotgun mic. So far in my informal testing I've found the H6 XY mics to be slightly superior to the ones on the H4n. They are heavier and feel more study to begin with, and sound wise they "seem" to capture a slightly fuller sound. The shotgun attachment mic is also nice. It's side rejection seems comparable to various on-camera shotguns I've used in the past like the Rode Videomic.  Voices come through nice and clear. If I had any thought about it was that it seems a little weak at capturing very low tones. However, for voices this isn't much of a concern for me, as I usually have the lows toned down when recording them.

The one real negative I have is the performance of the mid-side mic. In my testing with it, I noticed a higher noise floor than the other mics. I went online to read up on it and mid-side mics in general as they are not a type of mic I know a lot about, and I found that several others had noticed the same thing. In use, it does give slightly better positional information of sounds than the XY mic, and in a quiet situation when you could keep the level very low it might be perfectly usable. However, I don't see it as being much use to me in the normal situations that Bad Ferret works with.

One last note I would be remiss not to mention is that it has a "backup" mode where you can record duplicate versions of tracks 1-2 on tracks 3-4 with a -12db pad. I can see myself using this safety feature regularly, especially when recording in loud situations.

So for me the H6 retains our great portable audio solution while adding in a couple more channels, and at the same time offering a noticeable increase in fidelity.  I'm very pleased with what is turning out to be a worthwhile upgrade.

Jay Taylor

From the Field

Usually when we reference work “in the field” we really mean “from the venue”, “in the corporate offices of _________”, or “on location”, but this June brought us the first actual FIELD experience for Bad Ferret Films.  Over the weekend of June 21st, we shot the Trilogy Lacrosse Baltimore Masters Tournament on behalf of Prodigy Launch. This live event filming was different from our usual event filming in a few ways:

1.  We were shooting on someone else’s equipment.
2.  We were shooting continuous one-camera coverage of each event
3.  We shot for 13 hours straight without a break longer than 10 minutes.

1) I hate shooting on other people's equipment.  I can do it.  I will do it.  We shoot on plenty of rented gear when a job calls for it.  But there are always going to be things you do because you must and never enjoy and this is one of those things for me.  My shooting style is heavily kinetic, and as a physical person I am always very aware of the interaction of body and equipment.  This could be because we do so much live filming on motion rigs and moving through crowds.  While moving through a crowd, or filming live music, or even catching a moment between actors there is a flow to how you interact with the camera.  And filming on someone else's rig puts a kink in the flow.  Working the equipment becomes mathematical, while shooting on your own rig allows you to dance.

2) Continuous coverage is nothing like creative coverage.  Now I could have told you this going into this project, but before this weekend of shooting it was something I knew only academically, not in practice.  It took a few games to really lock in on the flow of filming - this was exacerbated by the fact that neither of us knew anything about Lacrosse beyond the fact that it was a field sport.  We film plenty of live events, but we usually have 3 cameras running.  Each camera is responsible for getting the best coverage it can and no one camera operator is ever the only person with the shot.  Single camera coverage means there is no finding or setting up your shot, because you are already filming when the action changes, and you either catch it or you don't.  Once we got into the flow of the game there were moments that were fantastic - you see where the pass is going and land on the player down the field just in time to catch the mid-air steal!  And then you think I am awesome! That shot was perfect! I nailed that...wait, where's the ball...goddammit WHO HAS THE BALL!?  You have to be on your game the whole time.

3) Long shooting days are long. I am no newbie when it comes to long days on location. We’ve filmed upwards of 18 hours straight on indie film projects, and frequently have stretches where it’s one full day of filming after another (I think our longest stretch was 20 straight days of filming in a row while working on Massé).   Filming like that requires a particular kind of stamina, the kind where you just don’t let yourself sit down for longer than 10 minutes in order to maintain momentum, and can fuel yourself on redbull and/or coffee and snacks for days as long as your body is too busy to notice.  But this was something else entirely.  On day one, prepared for June heat, we froze when it was rainy, overcast, and windy all day long. On day two, more reasonably prepared, we baked in the sun for 10 hours.  13 hours of continuous filming when you are the only coverage means your body must be "on" and your brain must be "on" the whole time.  There were moments when both of us had to take our hands off our cameras to get our shivering under control.  On the whole, though, since the down time was almost nonexistent, the days went incredibly fast.

As a camera operator, the basics of filming are always the same:

• know your equipment 
• know yourself
• know your objective 
• get your shot

 I would film sports again in a heartbeat, and we had a great time (even if this rant-y post doesn't sound that way!).  But after spending a weekend working with sports videographers my appreciation for trained, specialized camera operators working in their field is immensely deepened. 

Upgrade Season!

Summer is upgrade season here at Bad Ferret, and this year, we are very excited to be adding some new gear to the kit, including upgrades in cameras, audio, and lighting.  We're starting the summer of 2014 by kicking off the new blog, launching a sale for discounted web videos for small businesses, and adding some new team members to the creative team at Bad Ferret Films.
In addition, we'll be filming on a variety of cameras over the summer, and will be posting reviews here as we work with different workflow on location.
Check back here to keep tabs on what we're up to as we continue to expand and improve our services and equipment!