In a “Video Portrait” I capture the essence of who someone is and set it to music that would be in that person’s life soundtrack.
In this case I have the lovely Laura: she’s a native Texan, loves records, country, growing things, and has a knack for nostalgia. This film tells the story of who she is. Enjoy.
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If you care about the geeky film stuff, keep reading.
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I wanted to make a short film that showcases not only my style of cinematography and editing, but also the equipment I use.
This was shot using a Canon HV40 with a Jag35Pro 35mm lens adaptor, and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.
I love shooting with a prime lens. There’s something to be said about composition and perspective when you don’t have the ability to zoom in and out on your subject.
This was a challenging project because I didn’t know what music I would use or how I would tell the story… no storyboards or scripting. I just shot it with the intent of building my story in the edit. It took me 2 days to find the right song and once I started the edit I knew I didn’t have enough footage, which meant revisiting the shoot. Fortunately I was working with one patient (and beautiful) woman.
The color balance between the two days of footage was completely different, but I was able to mostly correct that. I also added some overall grading, but not too heavily.
Overall I am very well pleased with how this turned out.
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Song: “Gypsy Rose” by Ben Kweller.
