McCormick Shoot

Jenny:

We had a very busy day planned today! First stop was at the Old Gin and Mill, and Marion Parnell, who was a pleasure to meet, gave us a tour, showed us around, and gave us a very detailed history! She was one probably one of the sweetest people we've come across so far. She gave us recommendations to eat at Little Italy- a cute little restaurant in the heart of their downtown area. 


The next stop on the list was at Lake Thurmond, and this interview was definitely one of the easiest we've done so far. The man we interviewed, was more than accommodating and was able to answer questions before we even asked them. He was familiar with media and interviews, so his interview definitely makes the editing process run a lot smoother than some. 


I do have to stop and mention that both of these interviews were outside. Sure, a beautiful day is always great for an interview, I'm just happy I was behind the camera instead of in front of it. I was pouring sweat by the end of the second interview. That was another factor I hadn't thought of much in this field of work. I always assumed videos were made with ease, with the few minor technical difficulties, but weather is also a huge part of filming... which takes us to our next story.


Because our next shoot wasn't until 6, we waited around for a few hours in a wonderful, air conditioned setting- Subway (beats the heat). Well, just when we were heading to the shoot, thunder sounded, and lighting struck. Rain started coming down as we pulled up to our venue. So, needless to say, we had to raincheck the final shoot of the day and we're going to try and reschedule for when we do the Abbeville Shoot.


Even though the weather wasn't exactly ideal, it was still a great day. I love the days we go on shoots! 

Meagan:

Well helloooo small town Amurca’! Today our shoot was in McCormick, SC… the epitome of small town USA. Upon arriving in the quaint downtown area we veered off slightly to the site of our first shoot, the Dorn Gin & Mill. After 2 hours of cool air conditioning keeping us chill as cucumbers, it was time to embrace the sweltering heat. For the next hour or so we filmed the historic gin & mill… with no air conditioning… in over 100-degree heat. Now in no way am I complaining. Rather, I just want to mention this to anyone who thinks filming is just fun and games. Yes, filming is fun (that’s why we love our internship), but it also takes dedicated people to do weather extreme elements like this.

The interview for this story was rather tricky. For our 1-2 minute “Shorts”, concise interviews work best. When editing you have to re-listen to all of the interviews and decipher what sound bites to use. That’s why we were biting our fingernails at the thought of cutting the 20-minute interview we shot down to about a minute. Since I was running audio, I was trying to remember the time codes for usable sound bites. However, my planned failed after the numbers began to eventually jumble together. Looks like we are in for quite an editing challenge…

After wrapping up the interview, filming b-roll, and snapping pictures for the blog… it was time to “kill time” at lunch. We ate at a recommended hot spot, Little Italy, grabbed some ice cream at another local joint, and were soon on our way to the second shoot! Our second story was at Lake Thurmond. Fun fact right off the bat: Lake Thurmond is located in SC and in GA. Fun fact to add to that: the lake is called “Lake Thurmond” in SC and called “Clark Hill Lake” in GA.  … We interviewed a park ranger about all of the activities and amenities offered at the lake. Luckily our interview with him was spot on. He spoke in short, concise, and complete sentences (an editor’s dream!). Although he was a dream to work with, we had to make him a tad uncomfortable during the interview. We shot the interview outdoors under the bright blazing sun while he wore his park ranger hat. To prevent shading on his face, I was in charge of using the reflector to lighten his face up. So basically it was my job to blind him. But hey, to the eye of the viewer the shot will look so much better!!

Jenny and I shot the b-roll for this story. We used both lenses again to get a variety of shots as we “glistened” in the suffocating heat. We also implemented a few pointers Tabitha gave us from the previous shoots. Instead of only holding our shots for about 6 seconds, we now hold them for 10-12 seconds. The longer time length is much easier to edit with if you want to extend a shot in the package. We also learned the hard way not to speak while shooting b-roll. If you talk when you shoot b-roll, you lose crucial natural sound. I don’t even think we realized we were talking so much while filming until we started editing the material ourselves. (oopsie daisy) Now we try to keep mum and let nature do the talking. Speaking of nature, Mother Nature conflicted with our third shoot so we have to reschedule it.

Our third story was supposed to highlight eco-tourism in McCormick. Unfortunately a storm cell moved in right over the lake. Ironically enough the series of events we were going to film as b-roll were called “Thunder over Thurmond.” With a name like that, we were doomed from the start. We really want the “Short” to feature a picturesque summer day so we rescheduled both the interview and the b-roll for another time. … All was not lost though. On the way home we had a great conversation with Tabitha about filming extra projects on our own. Jenny and I are both intrigued and in love with photography and videography. We want to gain as much experience as possible. Creating independent projects are a great way to get ahead in the field. Tabitha gave us advice on how to start in freelancing and encouraged us to just get out and do it! So imma gunna take that advice and edumacate myself more in the field!