Case Study: Motivatie

First steps in filmmaking

“The first step was mastering technique and composition with my new digital cinema camera, modern zoom, three classic s16 PL lenses and a tripod. Shortly after I added lights and a light meter, a monitor and a handheld audio recorder. After a lot of experimentation I was set to go. I already had a subject matter in mind.”

“I practiced martial arts as a teenager and consider it to be beneficial for mind and body. But the sport is often frowned upon and perceived negatively. A documentary short film with motivated practitioners might help to increase the awareness about the benefits of martial sports. The challenge would be finding practitioners and their coaches willing to participate in my film. Fortunately, I found that most where open to my proposal.”

The real challenge

“When I started filming I was subsequently confronted with the real challenge: being a ‘one man band’ filmmaker. So what’s challenging about this? Once I started to play it ‘solo’ I realized that I needed to be everywhere at the same time. I was handling stuff like filming and interviewing simultaneously. To illustrate this I remember setting up the equipment for recording and then diving into interviews. This meant that there was not much leeway for me to adjust the settings to changes in color temperature or to unexpected background noise. Also, your interviewee does not have composition in mind as he or she sways from left to right and then bends forward and backward out of the camera’s line of sight. Even when you have one eye fixed on an external monitor it is still tricky. Needles to say that there were many surprises when playing back the footage in my non-linear editing system!”

“Filming the action at competitions went smoothly. The key to it was capturing the right emotions on camera. In martial sports there are always emotions to deal with when winning or losing a competition.”

The difficulties of going solo

“The main problem I encountered during filming was bad sound recording. As mentioned earlier, I used a handheld recorder. It was great for ambient sound but you really need something like a directional microphone to capture clean audio during interviews. Honestly, the results would be better if I had a cameraman and a sound guy to deal with these issues while filming. But that would have compromised my 360° learning experience.”

“After ‘picture lock’ I dealt with the audio by taking my sound mix to a mastering studio and removing as much noise as possible. It’s not perfect because it tends to sound unnatural after processing. It became even more apparent after the live percussionist recorded the pristine sounding rhythms that I wanted for the film.”

A learning experience

“What did I learn? Although ‘one man band’-filmmaking is great fun it is also very unpredictable. As a concept it must be counterintuitive for trained filmmakers. I would never recommend it when are working for let’s say a client. But if you have the time to experiment I suggest to go for it. Next to filmmaking you learn a lot about yourself and I am sure you will enjoy the process.”

“Although ‘one man band’-filmmaking is great fun it is also very unpredictable.”