Digital Video - October 2007 - (Page 41)

Opposite: Trekking across the Entabeni Game Reserve in South Africa with the Sony HDR-HC3—one of five cameras in Stroud’s kit. Stroud has endured frigid location work for numerous Survivorman episodes, including stints in the Canadian Rockies and the Arctic. a lot of medium shots. “But I started to challenge myself by using three cameras,” he says, “making one medium, one wide-angle and one for extreme close-ups.” The term “challenge” is anything but hyperbolic here, as he shuffles hats between filmmaker, narrative host and “guy just trying to survive.” Fiddling with camera equipment all day often results in poorly built shelters—”It’s often the reason I’m up at 3 a.m. shivering,” he says. Conversely, the primary task of survival impairs the production process. “After a while, I become too tired to add another camera angle. And my objectivity as a filmmaker goes out the window,” he admits. Ultimately, Stroud seems to be balancing his aesthetic with a kind of “Les is more” approach to documentary filmmaking. With tapes costing him “10 bucks a shot,” Stroud has no problem with letting multiple cameras roll and forgetting about them for a while. “Most documentaries operate on a ratio of about 20:1,” he explains. “But I tend to shoot 35-40 hours of rate footage for one hour of Survivorman.” Upon returning to civilization in Ontario, Stroud hunkers down with his production partner, Dave Brady of Cream Productions, and begins the arduous task of editing down 45 digital tapes’ worth of content into an hour-long episode. Catching anywhere from two to four hours of sleep each night on location, the solitary nature of Stroud’s work doesn’t do. The colors are so vivid and beautiful.” Also thrown into the Pelican is a smaller Sony DCR-HC96, the profile and infrared capabilities of which make it easy to “prop up and do time lapses,” Stroud explains. A waterproof lipstick cam, the $300 Viosport Adventure Cam H20, always ends up getting plenty of work, too. Stroud’s apparent allegiance to Sony is more a matter of necessary uniformity than anything else. “On one of the shows I did, I had a JVC, a Panasonic and a Sony. When we got into the editing suite, it was an absolute nightmare, because all the white balancing was all different,” he explains. Regardless of the brand, Stroud’s equipment always takes a beating in the field—in fact, given the exceptionally Spartan nature of the production, replacing cameras might be one of the show’s few notable expenses. “Cameras have almost become disposable to me,” he says, noting that his recent Amazon excursion was so rugged and wet, he ended production with only one Sony still working. With each episode, Stroud says his camerawork gets a little more refined. In the beginning, he explains, he would routinely just set up one camera at a time and end up with “I’M SUPPOSED TO BE OUT THERE SURVIVING, BUT 60 PERCENT OF MY TIME IS SPENT CHANGING BATTERIES, CLEANING LENSES AND SETTING UP CAMERA ANGLES.” allow him to catch up on his winks when an episode moves on to the editing bay. “I definitely supervise the whole editing process,” he notes. “I have to—I’m the only one who knows the story.” DV Daniel Frankel is a writer on the film, television and home entertainment industries. Based in Los Angeles, he’s the associate features editor for Daily Variety. www.dv.com dv october 2007 41 http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - October 2007

Cover Contents Letters DV Update R&D Fest Circuit Light Brigade Follow Focus Shootout Image Conscious Instant Expert Close-Ups Eastern Europe Exploit Call of the Wild Four Principles of Storage Storage Media Production Diary

Digital Video - October 2007

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