Returned

When I traveled to Mississippi to make The South Lost The Civil War I always felt the sense of leaving, returning home, at the time being Orlando FL.  Now living in Brooklyn, NY I feel like I couldn't be further from the south, the heritage I've so terribly dealt with; until my father found documents.  These documents show another heritage, a northern heritage.  It seems my fathers side of the family resided in North Brooklyn, just a few miles from where I now live.  The addresses show Greenpoint, a historically Polish neighborhood, and Bushwick which was once Polish and now predominately Puerto Rican.

Having always known about my Polish heritage, but never seeing the proof, the document, always gave me a disconnected feeling.  Today it feels different, living in New York City and still feeling like an outsider, never able to understand the life here, but having the proof of roots.

Notes

The South Lost The Civil War - A Selected Scene

The South Lost The Civil War - Selected Scene from Chris Walker on Vimeo.

In an earlier post I mentioned one of my favorite scenes from my last film, The South Lost The Civil War.  This was shot in the Mississippi Delta in March of 2008.  The themes presented in the film  offer a glimpse of life in an almost forgotten region of the country, a place I had not known, yet had so much history with my family.

This location took place in an old schoolhouse now used for community events such as weekend concerts like this.  

Sony EX1

I've been told time and time again, go HD.  If I want to be taken seriously as a shooter in this industry I need to step it up from my old 3chip Sony VX-2000.  Here is where the new Sony EX1 comes in.  This camera has 1/2 inch chips compared to prosumer 1/3 inch chips and is completely tapeless, recording directly to memory cards.  With the two slots available in the camera up to 70 minutes of shooting is possible.  My main concern for this is the way documentaries are shot, with higher shooting ratios and often distant, dangerous and remote locations where having a computer on hand to dump footage into would not be practical.  What I like about this dilemma is that the 70 minutes is in the highest quality 1080 resolution.  This camera allows lower resolutions of 480 and 720 resolutions and records with a Variable Bit Rate or VBR which allows for more definition in the areas needed, thus saving space on the memory cards.  The workflow excites me, dumping footage into Final Cut without having to deal with log and capture and the real time it takes to capture the footage shot.

I came across this on Vimeo, its one of my favorite examples of the quality of image this camera produces.

3 Seconds HD from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Less than 24 hours later

I awoke to an email concerning my last post, less than 24 hours after posting, regarding my idea and treatment for the subway musician documentary.  Her name is the "Saw Lady" who plays the saw in the subway platforms of NYC.  She has apparently gotten some notoriety playing Madison Square Garden and currently on tour in Poland.  She came across my blog and is interested in the project.  This project even in the very first stages of development is shaping up to be a good one.

She even has a website.  I'm currently researching cameras and think I have one pinned down.  More on that in the future.

First draft of untitled NYC doc

Untitled New York Doc.
Treatment Draft One |August 6, 2008|

Focus

New York City, the busiest place in America. Many eyes witness and observe the immense buildings, people living vertical lifestyles. A city underground with subway tracks and platforms, musical performers beat drums made of buckets, strum their guitars in hopes for spare change. To the eye of a long time New York City resident, this is no such attraction. But to the tourist or recent transplant to the city, the street performer is a wonder all in its own.

This documentary will focus on the observations and timid eye of a recent transplant and focus mainly on the subway street performers who seemingly live down in the city below the city. What does this city look like? Feel like? An honest answer cannot be given by merely visiting and documenting what is seen. This film will give a point of view from a new comer, trying to understand and interpret a new culture.

The Demo Reel

Chris Walker 2008 Demo Reel from Chris Walker on Vimeo.

The time has come for me to post my freshly cut 2008 demo reel.  The footage is comprised of many documentary projects, some I have directed and some not.  Being in New York now has given me some ideas on my next short form documentary, following the mood, tempo and observational style of my previous film The South Lost The Civil War.  A new camera is coming soon as well, I plan on shooting the new project in HD, something that is new to me.

I have found how hard it is to break through the industry in this city and in keeping my mind sane will be making this film on my own, with sights set at festivals (although I have seemed to not enter my previous film in a single festival).  I hope to expand on my voice I think I have found in making The South.  Look out next week for a posting of one of my favorite scenes in the film.