A few more looks from our latest project, 3 DAYS IN PARIS.
Those that check in here to Stark Insider from time to time will know that we released our first “3 DAYS” short last year. 3 DAYS IN SONOMA was shot over 5 years using 9 different cameras. At the time, in early 2018, I thought that was the video edit from hell.
3 DAYS IN SONOMA
A woman in wine country. A woman in trouble. Again.
A short film by Clinton Stark featuring Loni Stark.
How wrong I was.
The follow-on, 3 DAYS IN PARIS, was shot, of course, on location in Paris over a 2 week period.
I used a compact Sony Alpha a6500 camera which performed pretty well. Decent battery life. Pretty images — aside from the ugly rolling shutter when the camera was moved too quickly. Easy to handle. If the Panasonic GH5 had been released by then (January 2017) I would’ve far appreciated using it instead, however, it wouldn’t be available for a few months later. In the end, I filled up about half a dozen 128GB SD cards.
Just reviewing the footage and tagging it — almost 2 years after it was shot — was a laborious task in itself. Copious notes helps. Then we needed to shoot additional scenes here in the San Francisco Bay Area to round out the storyline. And then we had several audio sessions… foley, ADR for the main dialog, etc.
In my experience, I’ve learned that over 14 years of working on Stark Insider video projects that you’ll likely spend the majority of your time editing. Not shooting. Not planning. Not marketing/promoting. Yes, those are important, essential. But editing is where it all happens — or doesn’t happen.
As exciting as it might seem to run around, say, the Embarcadero with a gimbal, shooting all sorts of exciting 4K footage. The reality is that none of it will matter. Until the video files find themselves on a timeline, where someone will need to spend hours upon days upon months making it into something other than just unfiltered, raw boredom.
But in the end that’s the fun of the whole enterprise. Taking some idea in your head, coming up with some sort of creative treatment, storyboarding the thing, and then seeing if you can somehow bring it to life.
Whether it works or not?
I like what legendary filmmaker Robert Altman once said, I believe it was on the audio commentary from the stellar and very Bergman-like film Images (1972) and I’m paraphrasing perhaps: “A successful film is one that is complete.”
3 DAYS IN PARIS
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