When starting a project it is easy to get ahead of yourself. You have a million ideas rushing through your head and the phrase “Go big or go home” is your motto; this is exactly how i felt I had when I set out to begin my multimedia project on Lily on Film.
My excitement led me to come up with an idea a little too large for my reach at this point of my experience level. This excitement also led me to stray from the logistics of working on a timeline and access to my subject.
This thought process quickly led to many problems once the pre production phase began. The first problem I ran into was crafting the long-form narrative that would be the centerpiece of my project. Crafting this into a well-rounded and impactful profile on Lily was a hard task. I had so many exciting things I wanted to mention but my execution left my narrative confusing and disinteresting. To help organize my ideas better, I drew ideas about writing a compelling profile. “A traditional profile blends facts, biographical information, quotes, and visuals. Then it’s all arranged in a narrative that has a clear beginning, middle, and conclusion,” this advice from the profile is something I plan to incorporate in the editing of my narrative. So now back to the drawing board….
Currently, I am in the process of fixing this problem. I am working on refining and narrowing my scope to better create a profile on Lily Cruse. I was to create a dynamic story that embodies the unique aesthetic that Lily’s brand exudes.
The second problem I faced was the fact that my subject, Lily, lives roughly nine hours from me. The problem really came to light when I realized that I would only have one true visit to Tampa to gather all the visual content I needed. This resulted in an immense amount of stress and pressure to ensure I got what I needed on that visit. To counteract this problem I have come up with alternative routes to my original plans of a documentary video and instead, narrowing it to shorter, more interview-style videos throughout my landing page.
The final problem faced was technical difficulties, of course, these happened while I was on site filming. My camera began to fail, crashing and canceling the recording, and was having a really hard time with white balance. In ‘Design is Storytelling’ the author discusses camera equipment and techniques to improve your knowledge of your camera. Having this reading helped me to troubleshoot and refocus my white balance to solve my problems.
All in all, the lesson I have learned in production is that sometimes going big might not be your best route. Sometimes it is more important to refine your skills and look at your projects with a more realistic perspective.
Advanced Multimedia Storytelling 