Boston DSLR Meetup Report
Last night was the latest Boston DSLR Meetup at E.P. Levine in Waltham. A capacity crowd turned up and filled the studio to hear Rich Harrington, a video editor, producer and co-author of multiple books, including From Still to Motion [Amazon $31.49].
I've seen Rich speak before, and he certainly believes in packing in the information. I suspect he drinks three or four cups of coffee before he begins, and once he starts, he doesn't stop - and only takes questions in 30 second breaks along the way.
He's a man of strong opinions too, quite happy to tell people when they are wrong. Noting the variety of people in the audience - from still photographers to videographers, producers and editors - and the need to cover many different topics, he suggested that if you found yourself bored during the talk, just wait two minutes.
There was a lot of equipment and theory covered, but I was intrigued with his focus on the importance of pre-production planning. He said that too often the focus is on the production phase, when in fact better pre-production planning will save time, money, and produce better shots. He recommends going out and shooting stills of locations, planning your lighting, and he even recommended some iPhone apps for working out where the sun will be when you shoot!
He also is a strong supporter of editing natively, and said that if you're not using either Media Composer 5, Premiere Pro 5, or Vegas Pro, then please leave your wallet on the table for him, as you clearly don't care about money...interestingly, he does still use Apple Color for final color correction.
The meeting concluded with some showings of movies made by attendees. Unfortunately, I had another appointment and couldn't stay for all of that.
Definitely a great meeting, and it will be interesting to see what's in store for the coming year!
Boston DSLR Meetup Group
I've seen Rich speak before, and he certainly believes in packing in the information. I suspect he drinks three or four cups of coffee before he begins, and once he starts, he doesn't stop - and only takes questions in 30 second breaks along the way.
Pizza and socializing before the meeting starts
He's a man of strong opinions too, quite happy to tell people when they are wrong. Noting the variety of people in the audience - from still photographers to videographers, producers and editors - and the need to cover many different topics, he suggested that if you found yourself bored during the talk, just wait two minutes.
Rich Harrington getting ready while Dan Bérubé stands in for the screen
There was a lot of equipment and theory covered, but I was intrigued with his focus on the importance of pre-production planning. He said that too often the focus is on the production phase, when in fact better pre-production planning will save time, money, and produce better shots. He recommends going out and shooting stills of locations, planning your lighting, and he even recommended some iPhone apps for working out where the sun will be when you shoot!
He also is a strong supporter of editing natively, and said that if you're not using either Media Composer 5, Premiere Pro 5, or Vegas Pro, then please leave your wallet on the table for him, as you clearly don't care about money...interestingly, he does still use Apple Color for final color correction.
The meeting concluded with some showings of movies made by attendees. Unfortunately, I had another appointment and couldn't stay for all of that.
Definitely a great meeting, and it will be interesting to see what's in store for the coming year!
Dan Bérubé getting the movies ready
Boston DSLR Meetup Group
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