progress report: traveling gear & despair

phew, this is a long one. oops.

LET'S START WITH THE FUN STUFF:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to show y'all the gear I needed to bring with me in order to film two VERY DIFFERENT videos while away from home. Karen and I went on a trip and filmed "we like watching birds" and the upcoming* untitled 360 degree video during that trip, and the picture at the top of this post is all I brought with me in order to film them both (*This video may no longer be upcoming). I've labeled all the items with numbers and shapes (triangles were used only in 360, circles were only used in "watching birds," and stars were used for both). Here's what they are:

1. Smallish camera bag: I tried to use the tiniest camera bag that could feasibly carry all the main gear I needed on any given day. Sometimes camera bags can get really bulky, but this could carry the cameras/props pretty well without getting to be too much (and it ended up being a prop as well since I just kept wearing it in "we like watching birds").

2. Zoom Recorder: Since my camera doesn't have two mic inputs, I needed a Zoom Recorder in order to capture both of the lavalier mics required for "360."

3. Switch, with Monster Hunter: Extremely necessary.

4. Samsung Portable SSD: I was still editing "Just One Day" while on this trip, and this SSD kept all of the film grain footage I needed. It's also good to have an SSD just in case you get way more footage than you were expecting. Better to have too much space.

5. GorillaPod: I needed to set up the 360 camera on top of our rental car, and this was the easiest way to keep it in place without damaging the car.

6. Sony 24-70 Lens: A good all around lens. I use it most of the time, except I didn't end up using it much because...

7. Sony a7R IV with a 70-300 Lens: ... this lens was much more effective at filming birds from very far away, which is what I was mostly using it for. Again, I bought this camera this year, and god I love it so much. It's so simple to film with it, and it has made set up so much easier for me.

8. SD Card Reader (with a big SD card): I always forget this, but it might be the most important thing when you're traveling. Unless you have like 10 huge SD cards and aren't planning to edit anything on the trip, a portable SD card reader is a lifesaver.

9. USB to USB C adaptor: Also incredibly important, considering how my laptop has no USB ports anymore, just USB C. It's tiny.

10. Two Sennheiser Lavalier Mics: I used these for "360," and I needed both in order to make things easier for me in the edit.** (**This proved not to be the case.)

11. Macbook Pro: Used to edit everything. 

12. Ricoh Theta 360 Camera: A simple 360 camera that doesn't have great picture quality, but would work for my purposes.

13. Portable USB Charger: I was extremely worried about the 360 camera running out of battery while we were filming, so I had this, but I didn't end up using it at all.

14. Geekoto Travel Tripod: I have a big chunky tripod for home filming, but this thing is the best for when I need to film things outdoors/far away. It's extremely light and very stable, 

15. Sony MDR-7506 Headphones: Comfy. Which is good. Because I spend all day with headphones on. I've had bad headphones before, and it makes life terrible. These do not make life terrible.

And there you have it! It's a lot of gear when I write it out like this, but in total, I could fit it all in a 3 bags (camera bag, backpack, and the built-in Zoom case), which is about as much as I'd ever like to bring on a trip. In the future, I think I'd plan my videos a little better so I wouldn't need to worry about things like the 360 camera, but hey, sometimes you gotta try something new and experimental, because it might work out!***

***It seems like it didn't work out.

OKAY NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE DESPAIR:

So, the filming of "360" went super well, and I thought it was gonna work out fine, and then I finally got it into Premiere and saw this:

This might not look like much if you've never edited video before, but that middle audio track is the one thing you never want to see if you've filmed a whole video and didn't have someone running the audio.

"360" is a video that required both Karen and I to be in the video simultaneously, which meant I set up the Zoom recorder and plugged in the lavs, and then let them run after I did some tests, which sounded totally fine!

And then about 3 minutes into the filming, Karen's lav started crackling. Constantly. Some parts sound good! The rest sounds like CRRRSHHHHRTHHHHHCCHCCHRR.

My lav sounds great! I think this was just an issue with the wire and the fact that it was extremely windy. This is the kind of risk you take if you don't have anyone listening to the audio constantly. Sometimes it works. In this case, it did not. This is why I like to film videos that are based on music, because I can be sure that the audio will be okay before I even start filming.

Anyway, it's possible I can salvage this if we do ADR for the entire thing, but this will require both Karen and I re-recording the entire thing so it sounds cohesive, and then adding in foley/background sound work. It means the whole thing will take way longer than expected. And as I'm editing the video, I really can't tell if that work will be worth it. I'll probably end up editing it and putting it up on Patreon in some format, even if it's just used as a learning experience, but it might never see the light of day.

Oh well! That happens sometimes. It means I'm about a month behind in my work schedule, since I was expecting this video to go up early June. Instead, I'll replace it with an easier to throw together vid! And I've got other fun ideas for a big weird video after that, but for now, I've gotta do something that's a bit faster.

tl;dr: "360" is tabled for the foreseeable future, and i'll do a different video for june

So that's the progress update for now! I've had a few months of smooth videos before a major snag like this, so I'm not too upset about it. I'll keep y'all in the loop as more stuff picks up in the next month or so!