Written By Jill Remensnyder

Fade In

Okay, now what? You’ve been thinking nonstop about your story for months and feel like your ready to write the first draft. How do you approach such a huge task? 90-120 pages is daunting compared to 140 character twitter feeds and Facebook posts we’ve become accustomed to. The answer is simple; approach writing your first draft one step at a time.

Some writers are blessed with the ability to sit and write without direction; nothing but an idea, inspiration, and dedication to seeing their idea come to life. The majority of people I meet who set out blindly like this usually end up discouraged or driven to madness when their story hits a brick wall or the characters (and/or premise) that appeared bulletproof in those passing daydreams end up flailing and falling apart by the 2nd Act.

I’m going to let you in on a secret. The first draft should be the easiest draft you write of your screenplay. No joke. The hardest part (next to those rewrites we’ll talk about later) will be writing your treatment and organizing your outline that you’ll use as your blueprint.

You can avoid setting yourself up for failure by taking preparations that will set you up for success in starting and finishing the first draft of your script.

You know your characters and have a good idea what’s unfolding over the duration of your 3 acts. You’ve probably been acting out a few scenes in the privacy of your home and rehearsing some of the dialogue when no one’s been looking. It’s time to get your thoughts in order and do some preliminary writing.

Preparation is Key

As a director would you show up for the first day of filming without any sort of production meeting, or as a DP would you show up on set without a shot list? Of course not. You know that organization and preparation is critical to making your project run smoother. The same rules apply to screenwriting. Make it a habit to take the same care and preparation with your screenplay as you would your shot list or logging your footage before editing. Below I discuss a few ways you can organize your story by writing a treatment, an outline, or applying your story events to a beat sheet.

For the purpose of your first draft think of the treatment as a glorified book report covering the major events in your story. This shortened version of your script introduces all the characters and what the story is about. Do not use your treatment to go into detail about your preferred shooting format or how you’re going to incorporate a killer dolly shot at a great location you hope to secure. Stick to writing about the beginning, middle, and end of your story. This summary isn’t going to have all the details but will contain the larger brush strokes you need to effectively tell your story. When your treatment is complete you should be able to give it to someone else to read and, genre preferences aside, it should make sense.

A treatment is a great tool to have on hand to remind you of your overall story but the devil is in the details. This is where your step outline comes in handy. The step outline is much more detailed than your treatment and will require more attention to detail. Don’t worry about outlining every scene because you’re only going to focus on the main events that make up your story. Go ahead and make note of all those other moments you want to fit into your script. It may not have found its home in your outline right away but once you start piecing the other scenes together it may find a perfect fit. The key is to keep it short, with just enough detail to assist you with writing. Make sure to jot down some of that dialogue you’ve been hearing in your head. Again, don’t worry about working out the whole scene. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.

A beat sheet is similar to an outline except you’re focusing on the major plot points that make up your script. Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat beat sheet is a great reference. He breaks story structure down beyond the 3 Act structure into 15 smaller pieces that cover the pivotal moments in a screenplay. He also gives corresponding page numbers to when certain events need to take place. I’ve heard some writers refer to it as a “cheat sheet” to make sure their script is falling into place.

I am an advocate of using 3×5 cards. You can move ideas around, add additional cards as needed, and see the whole flow of your story. Once you start filling in the blanks you might make some discoveries along the way you didn’t think of earlier.

Don’t rush this stage of the writing process. Keep refining your notes until you feel your story is rock-solid. Feel good about what you’ve got? Take a deep breath. It’s time to start writing…

Making Time to Write

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying about 98% of life is just showing up. The same goes with writing. The biggest obstacle you’re going to face is showing up at your computer, sitting down, and filling those blank pages with brilliance.

Whether it means carving out an extra hour or two in the morning before heading out the door or pushing your bedtime a little later than normal, make time to write. If it means going out of town and secluding yourself in a Motel 6 for a 3-day weekend to work uninterrupted or turning off your phone, locking the front door and living off of the pizza you ordered the night before; do it. The point is to hunker down and write. Once you start writing, you’ll be amazed at how your ideas will flow.

Pace Yourself

For those of you not into the marathon writing sessions I suggest setting milestones. Try setting a goal of writing several pages a day, a few critical scenes, or a specific plot point. Approach the first draft in steps. What I find is when I try to pace myself or limit the amount I tell myself I’m going to write, once I get into a groove I want to sneak in a couple more scenes or I’ve reached a point where one of my characters is about to make a discovery that needs to be explored. Put all your ideas on paper. You’ll have plenty of time to sort out what works and doesn’t when you rewrite. This is the time to pour out of your heart and feelings. Do not edit as you go.

Writing Partners

If you are lucky enough to have a writing partner (one you can actually work with and not end up strangling) you’re blessed with someone to bounce ideas off of. They can help you stay on track and challenges you to expand upon your ideas and take your story to places you never imagined.

For optimum success I’d recommend you and your partner come to an agreement on exactly how you’re going to approach the writing process. Will you go back and forth, each of you writing a portion of the script? Maybe one of you is taking a stab at the first draft and the other will tackle the first rewrite? Personally, I can’t think of anything more stressful than someone hovering over my shoulder as I try to write. Again, whatever works best for you.

In a perfect world writing your first draft should be easy. You’ve done all the legwork with your treatment and outline. You just need to do is set aside some time to write. All you’re doing is fleshing out your rock-solid story in script format, right? Yet, things happen. Are those awesome scenes playing out on paper the same way you visualized them during your morning commute? Does your snappy dialogue and those to die for one-liners sound as great as they did when you rehearsed them in front of the mirror? And those are the little things.

Your first draft will not be your best writing but it’s better than anything you don’t write. Your first draft should embody the passion and ideas that originally inspired you and compelled you to share your story with an audience. There will be some terrible stuff in there. I’m willing to bet you’ll find scenes that make no sense and dialogue that will make you cringe. But, there will also be some really fantastic stuff in there that you can keep and improve upon.

Writing a screenplay is a process. The point is to sit down and do it. With a little blood, sweat, and tears you’ll be typing FADE OUT in no time. Just remember, this is the first of many drafts you’ll be writing.

My name’s Jill Remensnyder and I’m a freelance writer and producer based in Portland, Oregon.  I dove into film production headfirst in 1998.  One term shy of earning my BA in Theater Arts, it seemed logical to put everything on hold in order to write, direct and produce a feature film.  The following year I took my finished film to the Cannes Marketplace and doors started to open for future writing and production opportunities.

Read Jill Remensnyder’s Bio Here

Check Out Jill Remensnyder’s Past Articles

Written by: Shirley Baugher

“Kids today!” How often have you heard that expression used—usually by an adult deploring the behavior of young people? Well, Steve Weiss recently used the phrase in an entirely different context. He was marveling at the accomplishments of a group of student filmmakers at a recent meeting of the Illinois International Film Festival. These young people were part of the Student Film Club, an after-school group of high school students from across School District 186 in Springfield, Illinois; and they were showcasing their first feature-length production: Paper Airplane.

How It All Began

The Student Film Club

The kids came together in 2008 to produce original, creative films that allowed them to engage in all aspects of filmmaking, including: screenwriting, storyboarding, location scouting, acting, directing, filming, post-production, scoring, distribution, and marketing. At first, they focused on short films, with each member taking turns at acting, directing, screenwriting, and scoring. In 2009, they showcased their efforts via a weekly half-hour public access TV show called, appropriately, The Student Film Show. Then, under the leadership of their adviser, Dave Heinzel, they grabbed for the brass ring and decided to make a single movie in which everyone could be involved. The gamble paid off.

Really scary security guards

Before Paper Airplane, Heinzel said some students in the club tended to dominate the process. Others didn’t step up and interact as much. Focusing on a long film allowed individuals to form groups and participate in an area of filmmaking that interested them. Interacting groups could collaborate with each other and have a sense of where each belonged in the process. The group dynamic also allowed students to concentrate on specific tasks that contribute to the overall product: the writing group to create a screenplay; the music group to select and score the storyline; the production group to determine sets, props, costuming, and locations; the directorial group to block the action; the cinematographers to set up and execute shots; and the editorial group to form disparate scenes into a cohesive whole. The process worked beautifully in the production of Paper Airplane.

Paper Airplane

The technical aspects of Paper Airplane are amazing, especially the use of color. The cinematographers nailed the atmosphere of a high school interior: from the muted grey walls, to the brilliant red lockers, to the eerie storage rooms where old computers went to die.

Checking the lockers

Students became focal points as they walked through the halls in brightly colored dresses, hoodies, and shirts. The Security Guards in their ominous black garb stood out in stark contrast to the pale grey walls. The custodian’s blue uniform set against students’ orange sweaters, red hoodies, purple dresses, pink shirts, and grass-green shirts emphasized his tiredness and confusion. The green liquid in the chemistry lab was a powerful portent of what was to come later in the film. Scene after scene dazzled with neon color components—as did the non-use of color in the bathroom scene where one student wearing grey is seated fully clothed in a white tub surrounded by white walls.

An obsession with cleanliness

The film’s plot is pretty much what one would expect from an imaginative high school group: evil principal, abetted by clueless chemistry teacher, scary security guards, and a dorky kid who plots a takeover by undermining the school’s “go green” program. But the plot is not the reason for watching this film. It is the dedication and commitment of individuals and their groups to the overall production, which is nothing short of amazing. Each component complements the other to achieve a cohesive whole.

In the basement

In a video segment taped by a local news station, the students spoke of how being part of the club had influenced their lives. One senior plans to go on to film school after graduation and another is thrilled that her creative writing talent can be put to use in the script preparation. A freshman’s whole view of high school changed because of the opportunity to act in the film. Others loved the feeling of being part of a group and of being essential, individually and collectively, to the success of the finished product.

Dave Henizel, the faculty adviser to the Film Club, spoke of their efforts, their their achievements, and their future plans.

Q. Leading a group of student filmmakers is a daunting task. What inspired you to take on such a project?

A. The school district I was working for had given me a small budget to produce a video for the district, so I purchased a camera and some lighting gear. Shortly after, I heard about a 24-hour student video contest Apple was sponsoring. It seemed like a fun project, so I assembled a small team of students. We wrote and planned our story, but just before the day of filming, Apple cancelled the contest. We made the film anyway and screened it at a school auditorium. The students were so eager to make more films that I couldn’t get rid of them, so I figured it made sense to turn it into a club.

Q. What is your background in the area of film production?

A. I’ve always been interested in photography and film, but it had mostly been a hobby until I started a video podcast series. After making about 100 episodes, I created and entered my first short narrative, The Yellow Car, in a local contest, which I won. That momentum carried into my professional career, where I started incorporating video work into the web and photography I was already doing. I started getting more and more work, both for my day job and as a freelancer. At some point I realized that I was making a career out of film (actually the point I realized it is when I was typing this paragraph).

Watch Yellow Car by Dave Heinzel below

Q. How were you able to persuade the school administration and parents to allow students to devote so much time to this project?

A. Our track record speaks for itself at this point. We’re not financially supported by the district and the club isn’t part of the students’ curriculum. Everyone is doing this on their own time and for their love of filmmaking. Usually the problem isn’t getting people to show up – it’s getting them to go home.

Q. Since high school students tend to have vivid imaginations, how were you able to channel that imagination into the plot line for Paper Airplane?

A. One of the hardest things to do is stay on track. The kids come up with so many great ideas, but I always make them justify why an idea belongs in the story. If they can’t justify why something belongs, or if it’s just in “for fun,” then we have to let it go. Saying “no” is a hard but very important step in the storytelling process.

Q. The color and cinematography in this film are superb. Did the students come up with the color selections in the various segments: the halls, the chemistry lab, the basement hideaway, the locker area?

A. I’d love to say we planned all of this in meticulous detail, but the truth is that most of it was happenstance. We did spend a lot of time in the dungeon and in the chemistry room to make sure things had a certain color quality, and the main characters’ clothing was deliberate. We were fortunate to have a high school to film in that had so much personality to begin with.

Chemistry room

Q. Were any of the characters in the film professional actors?

A. Carrie Kincaid (Principal Gordon), who works in our district’s technology department, is the only actor with a background in acting. Everyone else was learning as we went along.

Principal Gordon

Q. How did you get financing to produce the video and how did you distribute the film once it was completed?

A. We had about $300 in the Film Club budget, all of which was used for meals to enable us to film for long periods of time. Everything else was either borrowed or purchased by our cast and crew themselves. The movie is available for distribution on DVD exclusively from our Film Club’s website.

Q. What project is the Film Club working on now and what are your future plans for the club?

A. The Film Club is starting production on our most ambitious film ever, Welcome to Wonder. The club has spent the past four months developing this story and writing the screenplay. We are planning on filming it over the next three months in various Central Illinois locations. We will edit as we film and have a release planned for early June. After that, who knows?

Q. What did it mean to have Zacuto view your film and offer equipment for future productions?

A. Having Zacuto donate equipment meant so much to our club. The kids were thrilled to hear that someone from the “real world” liked their film and even more thrilled to learn about the equipment. The Z-Finder and Striker will be extremely instrumental in filming Welcome to Wonder, which we will film almost exclusively with DSLRs. We’ve found that this combo will give us the exact style we’re looking for — handheld, but not shaky — while allowing us to set up shots quickly and make sure they’re in focus. This film is going to test us in every way imaginable, from filming outside in the freezing weather to setting up in remote locations quickly to filming inside a very small car. It’s going to be extremely helpful to have a rig that is reliable, stable and configurable.

Steve Says:

We really look forward to your next project and to following the progress of the Student Film Club. This is an ambitious group, and one that will have significant impact on the future of film in America.

The Student Film Club is a group of high school students in Springfield, Illinois that produces original creative films. Started in 2008, the Film Club has created numerous short films, produced a weekly half-hour television program and created a feature-length film, Paper Airplane. The Film Club is currently in production on its most ambitious project yet, a feature film titled Welcome to Wonder that the students have been writing and planning the entire school year.

Check Out Student Film Club videos

Professional HDSLR filmmakers, Joe Simon and Kevin Shahinian, are back with a one day only HDSLR-centric workshop and Zacuto is proud to be a sponsor. The all new cinematography workshop will take place during the WPPI convention in Las Vegas at the Aria Resort and Casino on February 21st 2012. The event is specifically geared toward photographers and cinematographers in the wedding industry looking to take their event filmmaking skills to the next level in all areas.

Steve Towel of Cherry Tree Films recently attended an Event Cinema Workshop in London, England, and had this to say about his experience:

“The workshop was brilliant! I’d like to think of myself as a ‘middle of the road’ wedding filmmaker in the UK (but still a seriously long way of the quality of work [Joe and Kevin] consistently produce.) I was delighted at the amount of information I came away with. Not only having learned a great deal about storytelling and cinematography (as an entirely self taught filmmaker) but also loads of little tips and tricks that make the sometimes difficult job of DSLR filmmaking just a little bit easier. Couple that with the inspiration and enthusiasm I left with, it was a huge success. My personal objectives were certainly met, and I too may have now become a timelapse junkie.”

The workshop will be divided into two parts and space will be limited to 15 attendees per session. The exclusive full day course will include presentations on timeless storytelling techniques, in-depth HDSLR filmmaking workflows and essential tips and tricks for photographers and filmmakers of all skill levels to get the best out of their gear.

Part one of the Event Cinema Workshop will focus on the fundamentals of cinematic storytelling, an introduction to narrative theory, basics of structured storytelling, cinematography tutorials, lighting and camera placement, a review of essential gear for HDSLR video with production workflows, and tutorials on adding movement using sliders and stabilizers for HDSLRs.

The event will take a one hour break for lunch and then regroup for the second part of the workshop. Part two will delve into cinematography skills essential to creating love stories, engagement sessions and concept films for weddings, fundamentals of motion picture directing, directing techniques used to illicit convincing performances from non-actors, post production workflows for HDSLR video, a brief analysis of editing a short film (color grading, sound design and music theory will be covered) plus a review of recorders, microphones, and techniques for recording audio in the chaos of a live event.

“The Event Cinema Workshop in Cancun, Mexico was a fantastic experience that provided me with not only an education but also inspiration and a renewed excitement for my career,” says Heirloom Pictures Filmmaker, Marcella Hoekstra. “I have to say I walked away from the experience feeling like I had received so much more than I expected. All bases were covered from creative to technical to business. I was grateful for how generous [Kevin and Joe] were with [their] knowledge.”

If you’re interested in attending the February Event Cinema Workshop, you have the option of selecting a single session for $400 or take advantage of an advanced registration discount by booking both sessions together for $700 for the complete workshop experience.

For more information or to register for the workshop, please visit http://eventcinemaworkshop.com/.

For a year, Hell and Back Again, Danfung Dennis’ powerful depiction of the horrors and daily violence of our ongoing war in Afghanistan, has been all the buzz among journalists and film reviewers:

“Hell and Back Again is a tour de force stacking one astonishing shot atop the next.” New York Times 2011

“…Artistic reach meets hypnotic intimacy in Danfung Dennis’ vital war documentary.” The Los Angeles Times 2011

“…an astonishing achievement in war journalism and documentary filmmaking.” CNN 2011

“Hell and Back Again takes an intimate look at the price soldiers pay both in battle and at home in the service of their country.”  Christian Amanpour for ABC News 2011

“Zacuto USA selects Danfung Dennis, freelance photojournalist who covered the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Featured Filmmaker for Hell and Back Again.” Steve Weiss, president of Zacuto USA, November 2011. His selection was prophetic.

“For outstanding achievement in documentary feature filmmaking, the Academy nominates Danfung Dennis’ Hell and Back Again.” Academy Award Nominations, January 24, 2012

Above: marines in battle at Fishook River Valley

How It All Began

For four years, Dennis went on an odyssey through the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. He crawled on his stomach and hid in ditches and behind trees to bear witness and give photographic testimony to the Hell of war. In the summer of 2009, he joined 4,000 U. S. Marines and was airlifted into the deadly “Fishook”, a Taliban-controlled river valley in Afghanistan. He took the American public into battle and made the first theatrical film actually documenting the experience of war. Through this film, Dennis aimed to shake people from their indifference to war and to bridge the disconnect between the realities on the ground and the public consciousness at home. “By bearing witness and shedding light on another’s pain and despair, we are trying to nvoke our humanity and a response to act,” Dennis said.

Dennis didn’t end his war in the Hell of the Fishook Valley. He brought it back to North Carolina in the person of wounded Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris, who was so battle-scarred he couldn’t distinguish his welcome-home party from tanks thundering over an Afghan battleground; or the aisles of Wal-Mart from an enemy village; or his wife’s loving voice from the screams of battle. They were all just another corner of Hell.

Above from left to right: Nathan and his wife, Ashley & Homecoming

The film was an instant critical success. Danfung Dennis won the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents and was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmakers Magazine. In 2011, Hell and Back won the award for Best Documentary at the Sundance film Festival, which was followed by a nomination for Best Documentary at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Above: Danfung Dennis

The best was yet to come. On January 24, 2012, Hell and Back Again, received an Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Documentary Feature Film.

Kudos to Danfung Dennis, and to his brilliant editor, Temple film student, Fiona Otway. We’ll be watching and rooting for you on February 26.

Read Danfung Dennis’ Featured Filmmaker story

Watch Danfung Dennis, Hell and Back Again Trailer Below or Watch the Hell and Back Again trailer on Critics, Season 2

Well maybe not exactly, but for me, wireless audio is a last resort. Signal always wants to travel the path of least resistance and air is resistant. The same concept applies many times to wireless internet vs. direct ethernet connection.

The goal is always to travel through the least amount of devices and through the shortest and least resistant path. Because you are using the wireless system to “carry” the signal, two more devices (transmitter + receiver) are added to the chain which causes more noise. Fortunately, technology has given us many options to record our audio without wireless. Field recorders are becoming more mainstream and most record directly onto media like SDHC cards. There are 2 types of field recorders – full size and pocket size.

Full size recorders usually pack better quality parts and more channels giving you more options and better pre-amps. They give you a warmer and less noisy signal but may be too bulky to hold or wear. I use them when conducting controlled interviews or dialogue where there is not much movement. I can also send feeds from a mixing board into this field recorder.

Pocket size recorders are extremely portable and easy to hide in a pocket or clip onto a belt. I use these with good quality lav mics for interviews, lectures, dialogue, walking/taking shots, etc.

The disadvantage of wireless is a huge deal to filmmakers. You have no control over possible interference, dropouts, and most wireless systems only carry the signal. They do not actually record it. The signal to noise ratio is noisier than a wired signal because the transmitter is literally sending the signal through air to get to its receiver. Although there are some really good wireless systems out there, the problem is that they will cost a lot of money ($2000 +) and still don’t guarantee a cleaner signal than a simple wired signal.

Using wireless is a choice you have to decide based on your own experiences. In some situations I would actually choose to use wireless lavs so I can monitor the audio on the actor and make sure there is no noise from clothing scratching on the mic. When wireless is needed, I currently use the UR series from Shure which is a high-end solution and much cleaner than most. In addition, I would back up that mic with a wired pocket recorder.

So to summarize, I will mostly choose wired over wireless because wired field recorders will give me a better quality signal. I won’t have to deal with wireless interference and I won’t have to invest as much money. I will warn you about electronic devices like cell phones being near wired or wireless. Some cell phones and similar devices can create interference on all recorders and wireless systems so always keep that in mind.

Here are some setups I personally use:

Sit Down Interviews and Scenes with Minimal Movement

Shure VP89M medium shotgun mic wired to Roland R44 field recorder

Wedding

1/4” instrument cable or XLR cable wired from mixing board to Roland R44 field recorder

Roland R05 pocket recorder wired with Sanken COS11D lav mic for groom or podium in church

Walking, Talking Shots

Roland R05 pocket recorder wired with Sanken COS11D lav mic and hush lav sleeves to reduce clothing noise

Run and Gun DSLR

Rode VideoMic Pro wired to DSLR – Not the best quality but acceptable for run and gun

Check Out Adam Forgione’s Video on  ”Is Wireless Dead?”

Adam is the owner of Pennylane Productions, an international award winning event filmmaker based in New York.

• “Voted one of the best event filmmakers in the world” 2 years – EventDV 25

• Winner of 21 International Creative Excellence Awards

• Director/DP for Canon USA Promo Shoots included at CES, NAB, and CANON EXPO shows.

• Speaker/Educator for Canon USA at CES and NAB Shows

• Director of Motion Picture “The Key”

• Accomplished musician – Former keyboardist for Ritchie Blackmore 1997-1999 Tours

• Accomplished sound engineer and music producer

• International eductor and speaker including In[Focus] Events, Masters In Motion, and other conventions

There is a sequence in the 1999 film “What Dreams May Come” starring Robin Williams in which Chris, his character, has died and finds himself in a heaven more beautiful and amazing than anything he could have imagined. It is a “Summerland” of rolling green hills, lush grass, and flowers of blinding brilliance. The film won an Academy Award for art direction, and its color had not been matched—not until a young American photographer named Anna Fishkin went behind a camera and started photographing sunsets in Tulum, Mexico. Gorgeous, breathtaking, magnificent, splendid, and stunning are inadequate descriptions of her famed sunset series. All you can do is look at them and say, “These cannot be real”. They are. Fishkin captures color in a way that reveals the true natural beauty of the sunset phenomenon and quite literally blows you away.

The Woman Behind the Camera

To look at Anna Fishkin, you would expect to find her in front of a camera, not behind it. She has the exquisite features and classic good looks of a high fashion model or a ballerina. And, indeed, she spent some time early on as a performing artist in Minsk, Belarus where she was born. She attended dancing school in Minsk, and as a young performer danced both on stage and on the streets of the city during important Soviet holidays. Stage life, dance and music were an important part of her childhood.

The Fishkin family left the Soviet Union in the 1980s as part of a wave of Soviet Jewish immigration. The refugee experience had a profound impact on Anna’s psychological development. She lived for a while in Vienna and then in Rome, which she came to love—so much that when her parents migrated to the United States and settled in Chicago she says she “cried for a year”. She simply did not know where she belonged or what she was destined to do.

She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Columbia College. After graduation, she worked for ten years as a graphic designer in Chicago. Her career as a photographer began only a few years ago. Her then-husband had started his own film and video production company, producing commercial and corporate films. Anna started showing up with her camera on locations where he was shooting and documented what was going on behind the scenes. As she captured images of the starring chefs, musicians, performers, and athletes she became fascinated with both the people and the process. Her images were used to promote the films, and the feedback was immediate and positive. The neophyte photographer never looked back.

An Interview with Anna Fishkin

Q. Why did you decide to leave graphic design and make photography your career?

A. Funny, but I didn’t really decide this. Life just kept giving me opportunities to shoot and I took them. Until two years ago I didn’t even think of photography as work, much less a career. I studied black and white film photography in university, then for years shooting and editing remained a hobby. It came as a surprise when people started buying my prints, and I realized that perhaps I could turn my hobby into a career.

I’ve found that I’m much better suited for photography than graphic design. Photography is intuitive and visceral, while design is a more rational and intellectual process. Photography involves risk, movement and interaction. As a designer I was mostly sedentary and solitary. Photography is immediate and highly subjective; design more remote and elegant. I appreciate how both disciplines are able to express such different aspects of beauty, but photography gives me the license to go to places and witness events I could not otherwise experience. And for me that trumps everything! I love the rush, the unpredictability, and the relationship I develop with everything I photograph. Photography keeps me connected to the kid inside; it allows me to continue playing in the streets.

Q. How does your background in design influence your photography work?

A. The influence is huge and extremely important. Being a designer puts you in the role of a conscious creator. A good designer must question assumptions, must understand previously established rules, and often must break them in order to evolve and provide better solutions. In the design process every decision you make, every detail and pixel has to have purpose and reason. Admittedly, I wasn’t the best designer in the world, but I was lucky to have worked with and learned from some of the best people in the business for which I am grateful. They helped me think like a designer, and this thinking goes into every image I make. I apply the questioning of the design process to the observable world in my lens. No matter what my subject is – landscape, people or interior space, I’m always asking why does my subject exist exactly the way it does at this particular moment? Why does it make me feel the way it does?

There’s a lot of psychoanalysis involved in both design and photography. Approaching my work analytically allows me to go deeply into my subjects, and satisfies my probing nature. As a web designer, and later as a creative director, I gained an understanding about the commercial and marketing aspects of photography. Today’s photographer much also understand the role of the internet in the rapidly-changing industry landscape. All in all I feel like my design career did so much to prepare me for what I do now.

Q. With all of the photographic possibilities in Chicago, how was it you ended up shooting in Mexico—especially in Tulum, which is not exactly a well-known tourist destination?

A. My entire life I lived in big cities. After I left Chicago, I spent some time in Toronto and then New York. I began to feel as though all these cities were blending into one endless megalopolis. I was going through a very rough time in my personal life and was craving a good dose of silence. One of my dearest and oldest friends had introduced me to Tulum back when it was nothing but a tiny Caribbean fishing village, and for many years I kept returning when I felt burnt-out from the corporate life and needed to disconnect from civilization.

Vacation time was never enough, and I harbored a dream of one day getting off the grid and living near the ocean. Two years ago, when I lost everything and had nothing to hold on to, I knew it was time to live out my dream. With the encouragement and support of my amazing family and friends, I arrived in Tulum without a return ticket. I had no thoughts of pursuing a career in photography there. I just arrived and started shooting nature as a way to redirect my attention from personal pain. The first Tulum Sunsets series was the result.

I had only planned to stay in Mexico for a couple of months, but opportunities came up, and I stayed on. I embarked on a journey of self-rediscovery and was finally able to overcome the identity crisis created by my Soviet-American-Jewish-Christian background. I was learning so much, both about myself and photography, I kept shooting and began sharing my work online. People started to notice. When a few prints actually sold, I was able to fund a three-month trip to explore Mexico’s Pacific coast – the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Baja California Sur, Nayarit, and Jalisco. Subsequently, I traveled to all the significant Mayan sites on the Yucatan Peninsula including Merida, Valladolid, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Ek Balam, Calakmul, Kohunlich, Loltun, Campeche, Tulum, and Muyil. A couple of months later I was invited to join a group traveling to Central Mexico, so I visited Mexico City, Teotihuacan, Cholula, Puebla, Oaxaca and Monte Alban.

All these travel opportunities allowed me to remain in Mexico. Tulum became the base from which I could work, plan, and connect with people from all over the world. Before I knew it, two years had passed.

Q. How did your photography blog Everystring.com come about?

A. Well, as Mexico continued to reveal more and more of its mysteries and as my archive of images kept growing, I decided to build a blog-driven photography website where I could share all the incredible views and tell stories about what I was witnessing. It’s also impossible for me to separate my work from my life, so Everystring is not really a blog about my work, but about my life’s journey. Sharing what I create gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. Things just keep getting strung together into one big creative process. Hence the name – Everystring.

Q. What keeps you in Mexico still?

A. I’m attracted to countries where the indigenous way of thinking contributes to the collective modern psychology of the people. For example, while Mexico is largely a Catholic country with a culture greatly influenced by the economy of the United States, the indigenous influences are very much alive as well. People in Mexico haven’t lost their connection to the earth: they still notice the changing colors in the sky; they understand wind and sounds of birds and animals. They have a different perception of time and they rely on instinct and feeling much more than left-brained Westerners. There are 56 indigenous languages spoken in Mexico and a multitude of Indian tribes still preserving their old way of life – the Mayans, the Lacandones, the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, the Tarahumaras and the Huicholes are just a few.

The values of indigenous people contain so much psychological depth, ingenuity and sophistication. If we really understood all the intricacies of their adaptations and meanings behind their rituals, we would be more dedicated to preserving and learning from them. This desire to learn to see the world from the indigenous perspective and to photograph it using this enhanced vision is what keeps me in Mexico. That’s really the philosophy behind the Everystring project.

Q. What led you to focus on landscapes and sunsets rather than people—your first subjects and seemingly your inspiration for becoming a photographer

A. Timing and circumstances. I was at a point in my life where I was so nature-deprived, it was overwhelming when I rediscovered it. Being away from urban noise allowed me to become aware of elements in my environment I had ignored for many years. I felt as though I was seeing nature for the first time. I wanted to capture the feeling of rebirth I was experiencing. Nature itself collaborated with me by showing me splendid sunset displays. Sometimes the particular color combinations I witnessed in the sky only lasted for three minutes, but being present in that exact location for those three minutes and being able to record the scene and to share it with the world was both a gift and a privilege. The more time I spent observing and noticing, the more I was able to see.

Lately, I’ve been venturing out to shoot many different subjects: kitesurfing, portraits, architecture. There’s so much I can focus my lens on, and everything is interesting! As far as I’m concerned, everything I photograph is nature – I don’t even try to separate the genres anymore, it’s all just light, shadow, colors in between and compositions created by movement.

Q. What commercial work do you do and what personal projects are you working on now?

A. You know it’s amazing how all the personal work I’ve been doing is what actually gets me commercial projects. I am so grateful to the people who get curious about what I’m doing, who get inspired by my blog and ask me to shoot their hotels, real estate properties, portraits, events, etc. Because of them I’m able to continue working on my personal projects. This fall I was in Europe for a month and started shooting a series of urban landscapes that focus primarily on light and illumination. I started doing this because I was curious about what effect the lighting of the place has on its inhabitants. After I record these different places, I like to look at them in sequence and compare the moods of cities across the globe. I like imagining what kind of person I would be had I grown up in that place, what kind of personality I would have.

Another series I’m doing is documenting women who, despite the psychological burdens of Western society, choose to live by their own individual values. In general, with most of my projects I’m always trying to satisfy some personal curiosity or asking a question about why things are the way they are. By taking pictures I keep hoping that some answer or insight will be revealed because I’m basically addicted to these Eureka moments in my life. Aside from photography, I’m also slowly working on a series of pretty crazy drawings and writing short stories.

Q. The first thing people notice about your work is the amazing color. Your colors are so brilliant, the images almost seem like oil paintings—fresh from an artist’s palette. How did you develop this keen color sense?

A. It’s a matter of training yourself to notice color relationships in your environment. I’m an extremely visual person and color has always been my favorite part of life experience, that’s why I’ve had many years of practice noticing and experimenting with different color combinations. Way before photography and design, when I was very small, I drew, painted and collected postcards and little wallet-size Soviet propaganda calendars. I still have my calendar collection. It was the only thing I considered valuable enough to bring to the U.S. when we immigrated. Then there was the incredible Soviet animation I grew up on – beautiful short films made between 1950’s-80’s.

The move itself—from the grayness of Soviet Union to the splendid colors of Italy—was like flipping on a switch in my brain. I was so overwhelmed during that period from all the new colors I was seeing. I think to this day I’m still under the influence of that experience. Formal art education followed, then a career in graphic design, always accompanied by my love of fashion with all its colors, patterns, textures and prints. After spending so much time in Mexico, I have developed a whole new approach to color. I find myself going deeper into it, examining all possible sources of the scene’s natural illumination and observing how my own vantage point affects the experience. Light itself tends to be my subject. I also love watching the people from different regions in Mexico incorporating color from nature into their craftwork. I learn a lot from their process.

Q. Tell us a little about your publications featuring the land, landscape, and natural beauty of Mexico.

A. For many Americans, Mexico is synonymous with beachside resorts and package deals. On the flip side of the coin is the negative image proliferated by the media that portrays Mexico as the declining backyard of the United States

deviled by safety issues, drug trafficking or immigration problems. If you allow the media to shape your opinion of Mexico, you will glimpse only a fraction of a very complex larger picture. The truth is, when you step away from all the tourism advertising campaigns, media coverage, and politics, and when you start meeting and talking to the real people, you are humbled because you realize that you know absolutely nothing.

My first real understanding of this country was recognizing its vast diversity: the different terrains, climates and cultures; the high level of people’s self-awareness and understanding of the world; the large number of foreigners who live here; all the different languages spoken (sometimes by one individual!); the variety of indigenous Indian tribes and their art. Mexico is both ancient and cutting-edge modern at the same time. These days it’s reconnecting with its multi-layered international history and opening itself to the rest of the world both economically and culturally.

Because Mexico as a subject is so huge, I decided to focus on specific images I thought were psychologically fundamental to individual regions. So for Baja California, I chose the waves and the cactus; for Chihuahua—it was the peaks and the valleys of Copper Canyon; for Nayarit and Quintana Roo—I studied the sky and the sunsets. I wanted to use these images as a way to create new associations with Mexico.

Q. How can we obtain copies of your work?

A. People often just email me  if they want to buy custom prints or framed limited editions. Licensing for commercial use of any image can be purchased directly on my website. Also on the site you can order prints in different sizes and finishes or get downloads for personal use. Plus there’s a selection of beautiful photography books and a 2012 calendar agenda.

Q. Where do you see your career going in the future? Do you plan to stay in Mexico, or will you return to the United States?

A. I see myself traveling the entire world, continuing to explore new locations, while creating images and content for Everystring.com.

Q. Will you ever return to your first loves: music, dancing, and performing?

A. To be honest I don’t think I ever left them because photography allows me to remain connected with these first loves. Music inspires and helps to identify various emotional states in my images. Editing and drawing to music transports me. Because of all the years I spent dancing, I gained a visual and emotional understanding of the body, which is so helpful when shooting people. Having performed under the direction of some amazing choreographers back in Russia, and having studied a little acting and spent so much time around the film and production community, I am able to direct and to communicate more empathetically with my subjects.

I generally try to not classify myself into any one creative category because there are just so many ways to express yourself, and so many tools that allow you to make and share images. Photography is just one of these tools. I want to remain open to whatever means of expression my creative process calls upon in the future.

Anna Fishkin is a photographer, visual artist and writer. She grew up in Minsk, Belarus, and was educated in the former Soviet Union and United States. Her university years at UW-Madison and Columbia College were followed by a decade-long graphic design career in Chicago. Next, modest exploration of acting and self-revealing creative writing courses at University of Chicago led to a graduation from commercial life and a subsequent move to Mexico.

Currently Anna is based in Riviera Maya, from where she travels and photographs various regions of Mexico, with a goal to gain a deeper understanding of how the country’s incredibly complex collective psychology, rooted in ancient pre-Columbian cultures, relates to modern human experience.

So wonderfully done. I often talk about questioning and how it should be done and you did it here, man, and you did it brilliantly. You asked the right questions to get emotional responses. Laughing is so important and I love having that at the end of a piece. All emotions.

People don’t realize that the formula for a documentary is the same as a feature. Characters need to transform so we can grow with them. You did that so beautifully here. You interviewed them as lost souls and then interviewed them as people with hope. This is not easy to do and I don’t know if people realize that. I know I’ve been there. Again, your style is so unique to you. Your cinematography, storytelling, lines, screen direction and editing are great but the most important factor in a documentary is story and you did that and more.

I will give one small critique. After the Dr. at the beginning talks and we move off to Africa, I did get a little lost as to what was happened. It’s like he needed to tell us that he was a part of this organization. I might have missed it because the shot was so intense.

Well told story. I love everything. We are going to do some live shows at Zacuto on different subjects. One subject will be interviewing and the art form of how to formulate questions that get responses that are emotional and not editorial. I want you on that show.

Thank you again. It is a pleasure to watch work like this. ~Steve

Rodney Charters, the cinematographer probably best known as the DP on the TV series “24″ and “Shameless”, recently did a live review of the new Canon C300 camera with fellow filmmakers, Lan Bui and Drew Gardner. The camera was outfitted with Zacuto’s C300 baseplate and EVF. Charters seemed to really like the camera as well as the Zacuto gear.

“Well done to Weiss and the boys at Zacuto. I like this a lot,” says Charters of the Zacuto Canon C300 camera support rig. “You can sit all day with this on your shoulder. This feels amazing. The weight of this is ridiculous.”

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see Lan, Drew and Rodney shoot anything with the C300 in London, but they did have quite a bit to say about the camera’s physical features. The group goes over everything from battery life to audio and video inputs, ergonomics and back again. Rodney also really seemed to like how small the camera is, making the possibility for shooting inconspicuously much more feasible. This was pretty surprising considering Charters mostly works with big, heavy cameras like the Arri Alexa.

“The rig is light and has no need for counterbalance,” says Zacuto Product Designer, Steve Weiss. “It gets the camera where it needs to be, back on your shoulder, not out in front of you.”

Charters further explains that he wants Canon to offer the C300 without the XLR/monitor add-on that mounts to the top of the camera to get below the elusive $10,000 price point. He goes on to say that because the C300 stamps each frame with timecode, it’s not really a problem syncing up audio from a secondary audio capturing device. It would definitely make sense for some people and other manufacturers could possibly create an XLR add-on that comes without the screen.

Charters and Bui try the camera with the Zacuto EVF and really seem to like the setup. The rig is light and the EVF lines up perfectly to the users eye line. They built a stripped down version of the Zacuto C300 Recoil. The fact that the EVF is powered separately instead of phantom powered through the camera seemed to be a big advantage as well. The Recoil concept by Zacuto is a whole new way of looking at camera use.

“The finders I am using now are the Alexa finder or the Bomb from Red. They need power form the camera,” says Charters. “The advantage [of the Zacuto EVF] is that is has a battery on it.”

Check out the whole 35 minute video review below!

I have been providing the film community with several articles educating filmmakers on how to capture excellent audio. Now, it is time to give some video tutorials. These first two videos demonstrate how to capture car interior sound. In this first video, I will discuss 3 simple techniques, microphone types & placements for car interior sound.

In the part 2 video, you will hear the audible differences using these methods discussed in the part 1 video. There will always be continued debates in regards to equipment selection, choices & methods, however, the objective of these tutorials, both written & video, aims to provide cost effective and practical solutions to independent filmmakers without breaking the bank balance. The main goal in this video is to illustrate the point that you can yield very useable & desirable results. Keep in mind that these results will vary depending on microphone types, recorder types, analogue to digital conversation quality, different placement & mounting options, proximity, etc. The important part here is to capture clarity, and keep experimenting to yield better sonic fidelity. All audio samples of dialogue in the following in-car video are unprocessed and have no EQ on them. Only a low-cut filter was applied. This is a good starting point, and provides more latitude to mix & process during sound editing or at a later stage. Enjoy & Learn!

Clinton Harn is a producer, filmmaker, session musician, drummer and recording engineer.  His involvement in tertiary education has spanned the last 15 years and includes concepts, realistic and practical tips and methods for achieving professional results in the field of small business, filmmaking & audio recording.

Read Clinton Harn’s Full Bio
Check Out Past Articles by Clinton Harn

“We used a spherical lock to allow the shoulder pad to articulate and the shoulder pad is made from an ultra-soft synthetic polymer. This polymer was first used in the medical industry and its super soft gel is the key to its softness,” says Zacuto Product Designer, Bob Zajeski. “The outer fabric is a specially coated Lycra which allows pressure to be absorbed by the ultra-soft synthetic polymer inside and the shoulder rails are machined as one piece for strength and lightness. The Scorpion’s design had to be thoroughly tested and redesigned so it would support the weight of the rig.”

Watch Steve and Jens tell you all about the Scorpion below!

Zacuto didn’t want to release the rig before they were completely satisfied with it, but now after almost a full year of adjustments and modifications, Zacuto is extremely excited to announce that the Scorpion is now for sale and ready to ship to our customers around the world!! This brand new DSLR camera support rig features a new ball-joint technology that allows the user to fine tune the camera rig’s positioning while still maintaining that familiar Zacuto look and feel. While the shoulder assembly may be completely new, the Scorpion still utilizes the DSLR Baseplate, Z-Lite weights and other classic Zacuto parts, so owners of these Zacuto accessories can easily adapt their current rig into a Scorpion by adding the Scorpion Shoulder Assembly.

“The Zacuto Scorpion rig is ultra balanced and comfortable,” says Hollywood Cinematographer, Jared Abrams. “I did not have to take it off once during the shoot. It really is the best DSLR rig I have ever used.”Zacuto lent the Scorpion prototype out to a few notable professionals for a couple of test runs. Here’s what they had to say:

To see Jared’s video review of the Scorpion, click here.

“This is a serious bit of kit for serious jobs. As you would expect it’s incredibly well made,” says Director of Photography, Philip Bloom. “The shoulder pad is very comfortable, the ball joint makes it fit your body perfectly and the handle is a simple but clever idea very well implemented. When you want to put the camera on the tripod simply take it off the QR plate and stick it on your tripod which has a corresponding one. Also it’s very balanced when using the handle just walking with it.”

To see Philip Bloom’s video review of the Scorpion, click here.

The Scorpion’s new form-fitting shoulder pad is what sets it apart from other Zacuto DSLR shoulder mount rigs. The Zacuto shoulder pad uses a cutting-edge permeable gel padding that conforms to any user’s body providing maximum comfort for long shooting days. This unique design lets the user articulate the shoulder pad in multiple directions allowing the rig to fit any shooter’s body type by simply turning a red lever.

The Scorpion’s collapsible handle is another new modernized feature. This handle is great for lifting the rig onto your shoulder or for capturing low sweeping shots. When not using the handle, simply turn the Zacuto quick-release lever, fold it up and tuck it away for storage making your rig more compact. The handle can be positioned up or set down into the shoulder pad.

The Scorpion also lowers your rig’s center of gravity which makes it easier to position your EVF and balance your rig. At the center of the Scorpion is the highly adjustable DSLR Baseplate, which allows users to mount any DSLR camera to the rig and mount the rig onto a tripod. Like all Zacuto DSLR kits, users can also quick release the camera from the rig by turning the red knob on the side of the baseplate and pulling up on the camera. This unique feature allows users to quickly switch between using the camera on its own or as part of the rig.

The Scorpion’s shoulder assembly connects to the back of the DSLR Baseplate via two 2” M/F rods. The rods screw into the back of the DSLR Baseplate and connect to the front of the Scorpion shoulder pad via 15mm quick release ports, making the switch from shoulder mount to tripod quick and easy. The Scorpion can be used on either the left or right shoulder.

The Scorpion kit also includes a 7lb Z-Lite Double counterbalance weight and dual handgrips with 4.5” rods. With the shoulder pad and counterbalance weight coming directly off of the back of the baseplate, the rig is perfectly in-line with the camera and ready to be used with a Zacuto EVF. You can mount your EVF to the side of the rig using the included EVF mount.

This kit is compatible with any 15mm lightweight accessories. If you’re interested in adding a follow focus or any other Zacuto accessory, please visit our online store or contact your local authorized Zacuto dealer. The Scorpion rig challenges the conventions of previous DSLR support systems and is guaranteed to be one of if not the best solution to DSLR camera stabilization.

Check out the instructional video below for more information on operating the Scorpion.