Stop Waiting for the Perfect Moment: Solo Filmmaking

[@forewarnedfilm]

In many ways, I think this personal work IS the heart of the channel - not the gear reviews (though I love those too, as someone suffering from GAS big time!). Finding that balance between setting a high bar quality-wise, and getting the project done is something I still continue to wrestle with - knowing when you’ve got what you need, or got enough - then moving on. It’s definitely a skill to hone. Thank you for sharing this.

[@EdProsser]

Yes, as much as I love testing new gear I definitely prefer using it to make actual work. Personal projects are difficult, they are hell - because you only have yourself to motivate and push things forward. It partly why I started this KZbin channel to give myself a space to create my own little projects and to some extent to help me stay accountable and deliver things, rather than just letting it sit on a hard drive. Finishing a project and moving on is definitely not easy! But sometimes it's just a late night of editing away from happening!

[@melanienolley]

This is quite good. Thank you!

[@justicejdevon]

Thanks for this, Ed! As someone trying to move from a small creative agency into freelance filmmaking, it sometimes feels isolating because I don't have a big network or great industry connections. Especially when I see the quality of spec work / personal projects so many of my peers are putting out. This was a really important reminder to not let those become excuses that keep me from doing the work. I love that you referred to working on personal projects as nourishment for the soul. It's so encouraging to know I'm not alone in feeling that. Love what you're doing on this channel, brother -keep up the great work.

[@EdProsser]

Fear of failure or not being good enough is the one thing that has always held me back. I almost didn't start this KZbin experiment because of it. We're all on our own journey, we all come from somewhere different, start at diff times, have diff experience, but you have to take that first step and then keep on going at your own pace.

[@emmanuelOfilms]

This was inspiring to watch thanks for sharing this and also an editing breakdown will be appropriated 🫶🏼 I just love how you edit this short doc story ❤

[@paulmac3531]

Thanks so much for doing this. Loved it and learned a lot. Keep up the amazing work!

[@EdProsser]

I'm glad! More to come in the future

[@JasonMorrisphotocinema]

The first lines are gold 🎉

[@EdProsser]

Took many years to learn this, but you just gotta push past the fear and noise and make stuff!

[@IanSnape]

Great little film, great insight and great to see you doing what you love ❤️

[@EdProsser]

Thanks man

[@OscarCloud]

Thanks Ed- really needed this one

[@EdProsser]

No problem, hope all is going well at your end, seeing some awesome work popping up from you on IG.

[@bruceebe]

Thanks for all your great content Ed.

[@EdProsser]

🫡 no problem!

[@stefaniagenisio]

Really interesting to learn about your creative process.

[@EdProsser]

🫡

[@alzibaba]

Great advice Ed, thank you!

[@EdProsser]

Hope it helps!

[@RAWANDUNCUT.]

The great way to hype to shoot

[@OBP_]

AMAZING VIDEO!

[@EdProsser]

Thanks man!

[@feedbackmediagmbh634]

Very Inspiring - thx!

[@kyelight]

Great breakdown, definitely helpful. I'd be keen to hear more detailed info about this (or other) projects - often the detailed decisions are the most interesting bits and people don't talk about them as much.

[@EdProsser]

When you say detailed decisions, can you let me know a bit more about what you'd want? and I can factor that into future vids! The original recording for this was like 35 mins long so I definitely cut a lot of detail out to keep it watchable.

[@kyelight]

@@EdProsser really it's anything that you think might be worth talking about, but I'd be interested in things like what interview questions you asked and then how the answers informed what ended up in a final edit, or the thinking process behind how you decided to structure the edit, or how you did the sound design etc, and talking about all these elements within the context of the overall target tone / mood / aesthetic of the finished piece.

[@EdProsser]

@@kyelight thanks, really useful! These were the questions I wrote down on my notes app before the interview: Tell me a bit about who you are and what you do? How'd you get into that? Do you enjoy it? Would you say you have a style? How do you approach image making - what is your eye looking for when it's behind the camera? What influences your work? How do you think you've grown as an artist over the years? How do your life experiences feed into your work? What stories are you interested in telling? What do you think an artists role is? Positivity in a negative world? Do you see all the diff art forms as separate or do they all play into each other - what do they teach you? London - what's it like to live here? How does it help your work? How do the seasons influence your work? -- We had a whole section on London and living / working here which I didn't include in the end, just to keep the edit more focused. In the end I wanted the edit to feel like a vignette / portrait that encapsulates who João is and how he approaches his work.

[@EdProsser]

I should add these were just prompts to keep me on track, I asked lots of follow up questions to expand on interesting responses etc.

[@vilagivideos3020]

Thank you.

[@EdProsser]

You're welcome!

[@BrendonKPadjasek]

Loved the doc and seeing this bts. I'm also planning to add some personal documentary projects to my life and definitely relate to them never happening haha. Life always gets in the way. Random question: I find now that I'm shooting a lot on my Blazar Remus lenses, having the black bars on the top and bottom sometimes makes me select my black levels differently so they're not drastically lighter than the black bars (i often prefer my black levels to be brighter than absolute black). Did you find yourself with any reservations like that, and if so, how did you go about making your choice?

[@EdProsser]

No not really, I cut the project in a native anamorphic resolution so there weren't any black bars on the project while I was editing or grading - only when I dropped the footage into this video and my lens review video.

[@BrendonKPadjasek]

@@EdProsser I guess I mean when you watch it in full screen say in resolve or something

[@fearward3]

hey Ed - thanks for another great video as always. Question please: When shooting slo-mo 'b-roll' do you decide in the moment which shots you do in high frame rates, or would you blanket shoot the b-roll in a project like this at 50fps and decide in post which ones to bring back to 25-30fps (or even stretch further to a higher frames rate with the use of Optical flow)? Thanks!

[@EdProsser]

I would decide at point of shooting - I would rarely blanket shoot everything in 40 / 50fps. Generally anything shot in slow motion - stays in slow motion in post, so I usually like to have a mix of stuff. So I'll shoot mostly in 25fps and then generally choose a few sequences and moments to capture in higher frame rates. It depends on project though - sometimes there might be more emphasis on slow motion - sometimes I might want to have more real time stuff. I haven't really experimented much with stretching footage out beyond its recording frame rate to make it slower... but I can see a use case if you needed to squeeze a bit more out. I guess if you're really short on time and need to capture B-roll, shooting in slow motion can help you get more footage in a shorter time period!

[@raujota]

awesome video!

[@EdProsser]

🫡

[@WEDraskaz]

Om NAMASTE precious 🕉️🙏 It was helpful. Thank you 🕉️🙏