And here we are. Through weeks of work and struggles I have completed the documentary which I have entitled “Kioa”. As I look over the end result, I am less than satisfied with the work, but I also recognize where I was challenged and my own faults as a videographer. However, I can say that the finished product has given me renewed confidence as well in my own filming skills as I was rusty going into this project and found myself getting back into the swing near the end.

If I could do this project all over again I know exactly what I would be doing different, how I would change my preparations, and when I would film everything in their needed order. However, that being said, what this has done for me in instilled a desire to continue and find a new project to dive into, knowing now that I can accomplish some impressive feats.

The documentary itself does need some additional tweaks to it and polishing which I wish to perform before posting it on the likes of social media for others to see–as I can fix many things that came about as a result of a rushed export. That is something I wish to accomplish in the coming weeks.

Below is a screenshot from one of the scenes.

 

Things are finally somewhat coming together. I was able to schedule about 3 or so more days of filming with Kioa and the results weren’t too bad. I again was faced with additional challenges regarding equipment availability, and thus being forced to use things I’m not used to (or haven’t) worked with before, but these challenges were able to be overcome.

I re-shot the interview with Kioa and was able to get more of the camera setup that I wanted. The results were 100 times better than my previous attempt. I am a lot more pleased with this outcome, yet it is still far from perfect. Kioa has been very willing to help out where ever I need and I have been fortunate enough to have a subject with a somewhat free schedule this month. A rough cut of the documentary is in the works and it is quickly shaping into a final cut faster than I expected, which is always great news.

That’s the choreography for some sick dance moves. It’s also the choreography for the current progress of this documentary.

These past 2 weeks I’ve done a lot but in the end it feels like I haven’t gotten a lot done. Kioa has met with me on numerous occasions and we have done some filming, including an interview.

That interview quickly turned into a nightmare when I last minute some of my equipment I had rented was being used by another party. Some of my replacement equipment I got were things I hadn’t used in years and to compound the problem, I didn’t realize things were missing from my inventory until after I arrived on location. After wasting over an hour trying to find work-arounds, we had about 15 minutes left to do an interview.

However, the audio for that interview didn’t turn out very clean because of some reverb that existed. That was not easy to detect when I was originally scouting the location because loud speakers were blasting music, making acoustics seem all but a continuous blare. I was able to salvage the audio however by using some Audition techniques to help cancel out some of the reverb and all and all I think I will be able to use some of it. Either way, I must schedule another interview–somewhere with acceptable acoustics–so I can get more material.

The drama continued last Saturday when I had a shoot/interview with Kioa (despite his busy schedule) lined up in a studio, all scheduled and ready to go. However, the night before I got a call saying the studio was actually going to be used for something else so I had to improvise last minute, which was hard since I only rented equipment expecting more to be present within the studio.

I tried again to shoot some more B-roll with the Ronin, but because I was manning everything alone and had my hands full, I couldn’t make adjustments on the camera as I went. The footage ended up being blown out and out of focus in some areas. I ditched the Ronin and did some handheld shots so I could actually fiddle with the lens and exposure settings. That was near the end so I didn’t get much out of the entire venture, but at least I got something usable out of it. The screenshot below is a frame from those final moments.

My next move is to really nail down some more solid times with Kioa in a controlled environment to get what I really need. I am nervous for the outcome of this project but I still have hope.

This past week was spent getting logistics together with Kioa and his crew of dancers.

There seems to be a lot left to do with time quickly going by. My goals of this week was to ensure I could get a proper schedule worked out with Kioa about when we could do his interview filming as well as film B-roll with him dancing. He has a lot going on in preparation for a dance event coming up with him and his crew, but I would like to use that to my advantage to film him while he practices, I think it would make for some great coverage. In the meantime, I did attend one of his rehearsals with his crew, and was able to get all of them to sign talent release forms. I also gave Kioa a schedule of my availability and asked him to see where he can have free time for me to film what is needed. Below is a link to a reference video I took during their rehearsal.

#3

The other day I had the opportunity to sit down with Kioa and have a non-formal interview with him. I went over to his house and met with him face to face for the first time since I pitched this idea to him. Prior to this experience I had only been around Kioa twice in my life and that was 2 years ago. Outside of a dancer and business owner I really didn’t know anything about him, but I knew that was enough to have potential for a documentary story.

My goal with this visit was to get a feel for who he is and his story so I could get an idea of what type of questions to ask during the formal filmed interview. He told me about himself, who he is, what he does, and bit about his backstory. I purposefully held back from asking “deep impact” questions that I knew would elicit a large story or provoking thoughts. I want to capture those moments on camera when they are genuine. This instead has allowed me to come back to base and formulate my questions.

Now that I have come this far I suppose I have realized for the first time that was has made this experience unique compared to other interviews I have shot  or rather probably other documentaries is I really had no idea who my subject was or what he was about, making this first meeting almost mandatory. Generally people who reach out to others for a filmed interview have a good knowledge of who this person is and what they do, otherwise they wouldn’t reach out in the first place! Instead, I had to rely on my own subject to give me the sitrep. A very unique situation indeed.

Below are the notes I took during our meeting.

I have made the decision to do my documentary on Kioa Reyes. Kioa is the CEO of Native, a local clothing line in Rexburg. Moreover, Kioa is a skilled an accomplished dancer. I had previously met Kioa over 2 years ago in passing when I was asked to help out with a project that he was apart of. That project never materialized into anything resulting in me never seeing him again but I got his contact info out of it. When thinking about who/what I could do a documentary on he popped into my mind and I reached out to him. He has agreed to allow me to do a documentary on him and his life as a dancer. He has a story about himself that I am eager to hear more about and share relating to how he quickly when from not knowing anything about dancing to being an instructor of a team and performing across the country.