Jeffrey Buras

The Happy Poet finished principal photography on Monday.  The wrap party is tomorrow!

I’ve finally created another installment of my video blog.  This one has footage that spans August, September, and October.  I haven’t been able to keep up with the project since I broke my little Nikon point-and-shoot camera in late March.  I haven’t had a suitable replacement.  Of course I have other video cameras, but they are not small enough to carry around in your pocket at all times.  People also get really intimidated by a video camera, but they are less self-conscious when you pull out a small digital still camera.

Most of the footage comes from Austin, some of it in Louisiana and Washington DC.  I actually gathered most of the Austin shots for stock footage that I never really used.  There seems to be a disproportionate amount of shots that contain a body of water, and quite a few skies at sunset.  This video also has shots with a much longer focal length than usual, because the zoom on these cameras actually works.  Consequently, some of the shots are pretty shaky since I didn’t use a tripod.

This video was actually the most difficult to edit because the footage comes from three different cameras in three different formats.  My workflow for previous videos started off with a rough cut in iMovie, then finishing in Final Cut.  iMovie was designed for this kind of quick collage editing.   Because of the mixed formats, getting things to work later in Final Cut was quite a pain.

I’m looking forward to continuing with this project if I have enough time and remember to carry a video camera with me.

As usual, The Austin Filmmakers have been meeting every week.  At our last meeting we watched a rough cut of Mr. One-Note, which looks very nice.  I plan to do the color correction once it’s edited.  We need to shoot a few more pick-up shots, but nothing difficult.

We’ve been experimenting new places and times to meet.  We’ve been looking for a location in north Austin to counterbalance the Summermoon Coffee House that’s more in the south.  We tried meeting at the 34th Street Cafe, which is a very nice resaurant, but not a good place to hold a meeting.  Last night we tried Sherlocks Pub, which worked out nicely.  We’ve also been alternating meeting Mondays and Tuesdays to accomdate those who have commitments on either of those days.  The next meetup is on Monday at 6pm at the south location, Summermoon Coffee House.

A week ago I attended the Network Austin Mixer, which was a great place to meet people who are working in Austin.  I called one of the core members before, and have been playing phone tag ever since.  Ray Rosales and my friends from Humblebee joined me at the mixer.  While I was there, Brandy from Set It Off! told me I should attend the next networking event for Reel Women on Monday at Opal Divine’s, which was also a blast.

I’ve signed up for many online services that connect employers and job-seekers, but there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep track of them all.  The latest one I registered for is Nextcat, which I signed up offering DP, grip, electrical, and PA skills.  The problem with these services is that they will become outdated quickly, and I will probably forget to update or delete all of them.  It’s pretty scary knowing all that my personal information is all over the place.  It’s a consequence of the digital age, I guess.