Career Day at HTHNC is a day where every 9th grade student didn't have to be at school. Instead, we were out shadowing people that do the jobs we want to do. It gave everyone an insight to what jobs are really like, and if we would actually want to pursue them. I shadowed Nathan MIller, a videographer who owns his own business. When I was shadowing him, he was filming plays for the Escondido Center for the Arts. A typical work day for him is that it is always different. He films weddings, commercials, tv shows, flies drones, or films other events. It changes based on what he gets booked to do. He doesn’t have any work policies, but he can’t be late to events, or just not show up. Dress code changes based on what type of event he is doing, as well as technology use. He is always with his camera. Sometimes it’s on a tripod and he is monitoring the audio, or sometimes he is running around to get the shot.
My High Tech High classes are preparing me a job in this field because you need to know how to communicate with others, get your work done on time, and in future classes I will learn more about editing and directing. To be a filmmaker you don’t NEED any credentials, but going to film school definitely helps you make connections and have more people wanting to hire you. I did not really talk to my mentor about what classes he took in college, but he did tell me about a Palomar class he took. In the class, a team went to high school football games and filmed them. They then had to create a montage reel that week and submit it for it to be aired on tv. I learned a lot about how to get good audio, about codecs, as well as a lot about the editing program, Premier Pro. One of the coolest things I learned was how much codecs effect your video quality. Nathan used two cameras for his gig. The URSA mini, which is a high quality cinema camera, and a GoPro Hero 6, an action camera. He explained how the URSA shoots on a ProRes codec, where as a GoPro shoots on a H.624 codec. The ProRes is incredibly sharp and holds a lot of data about the video, whereas the GoPro's codes compresses all of that data. This means two major things, ProRes is a lot better of an image (especially when you crop in), but it also takes way more storage. I think that filming events as my own business owner would be something I would want to do to just dip my feet in the water and gain contacts, but definitely not something I would want to do long term. Long term, I would like to work on Hollywood movie and TV sets, and be part of a larger team where there is always something happening. Actors, cameras, lights, green screens, and have the final product air somewhere big. Some things I want to do next year for career day are to reach out to people who work on the larger sets, to see what that is like. I don’t think I would really change anything about this year besides the fact that it would have been cool if I shadowed him on a day where he was flying drones, and off-roading. Overall, career day was a fantastic experience for me to learn about the industry I want to work in. Q and A: 1: Q: How do you get people to book you? A: His website is the biggest way he draws in people. Having sample content for people to see helps as well. 2: Q: Would you ever want to be part of a big Hollywood movie shoot? A: Yes, he actually somehow ended up on a shoot for a Netflix show and enjoyed it. 3: Q: How do you decide what camera setup you need based on what you are shooting? A: Based on how much the client pays, he decides what camera to use. If they want high quality, he will use the URSA, or if they don’t he may just use a DSLR. 4: Q: How do you color grade your footage? A: He uses lumetri color, which is an effect in Premiere Pro, as well as lumetri scopes, a way to visualize the color and finetune the way the picture looks. 5: Q: What is the setup you are using today? A: He used the URSA mini with a 24-105 F4 L series lens. He had a shotgun mic plugged into one XLR port, and another XLR cable running to the sound booth above us for the really clear audio. He had headphones plugged into the camera to monitor the audio. The camera was on a fluid head tripod, and he also had a gopro fastened to the front leg of the tripod. |