Everything About Video Production Through One Afternoon in Nature
Leaves are moving in the breeze in a way so specific that you don’t know if it’s fast, or soft, if it’s hushful, or all the space is filled with it. You don’t know because the days when moving leaves felt close to you and had a whisper in which your head dreamt the most – are long gone. Now the feeling is “kind of” pleasant, also distant, leaves don’t have the power to overwhelm the noise that lives “inside” anymore. Through the leaves you see the sky with the color so complex that you’re not sure if it is at all that same thing that we, in order to simplify and tame perception, call color. You’re not sure because for the last couple of years, your brain has looked at sky-blue color more than the sky itself. You think how you don’t have the time to describe the leaves, you don’t have the time for reading descriptions of leaves; if you had the time, you’d read more books, you’d write some poetry here and there, you would definitely stop in the street when you see how a plastic bag, wrapped around a tree branch, is being filled with the wind in the rhythm of construction work site nearby… You think how you went too far. Cut.
You realize that what you see feels good, or that it should feel good, at least. In the name of that, and in the name of remembering your childhood, when you were an observer as much as you were a part of everything you observed, you think of how everything used to look and sound before your life got out of control, before your job, problems and habits took all the moments of true ease and happiness away from you. You remember how you used to lay under a pear tree, or under an oak tree, for hours; how you used to watch an ant carry its “prey”, three times bigger than itself, and you did that with so much understanding and attention, with so much tenderness and alienation at the same time (the way only nature does), that you can easily say how you and that ant were a part of one ideal moment, of one masterly orchestrated scene. Karate classes, hide and seek, dancing nights, you remember all of it, just because you were there. You’re glad that you thought of it, that you called for that specific feeling, but thoughts are already unsatisfied, they’re making another cut, not letting you hear and see what is now and what is here.
You decide to record this wonderful site, to make a video recording and share your experience with friends on all social networks! You’re turning on your 16-megapixel phone camera and start recording leaves in the breeze, just leaves in the breeze, nothing else. You make sure you’re putting the nicest parts of the sky and the leaves in your composition, and you start noticing even more sounds that penetrate your shot as you record. In a second, your standards rise, and you don’t want to stop recording until you hear a bigger, brighter bird song, thinking how that would definitely give the scene a more intense purpose. The leaves, the sky, the hum, oh how beautiful it all is; but it is only: leaves, sky and hum!
While repeating these words in your head, your mind makes a cut onto the following fear – nobody, absolutely not one of your friends will want to watch these boring leaves. Maybe they’ll want to see you relaxing with a beer in hand at the end of the clip; or a predator bird attacking a sparrow among the tree branches; or a forest yeti jumping from tree to tree yelling “Hooray!”, but this… They will play this video and get disappointed. As a train made of above mentioned thoughts rushes through your head, your shot suddenly loses its shine; you can’t hear the sounds entering it anymore, and everything you planted in your epic image now just seems utterly boring. Faded. Already done and seen. Oh, what an unsuccessful attempt to share an impression. To share an impression? You think how the last thought seems very familiar, overused even. You feel like a thief, realizing that the words are actually part of a slogan of a well known corporation. But, are you in fact the thief, if the company already took these words, conquered and tamed them, stole them from the description of your very impression? Again, your brain went further than you planned. Again a cut has to be made in the editing process.
You decide to stop recording and to never share the video on social networks. Maybe you’ll erase it right away because you know you won’t have the time to watch it again. This video actually doesn’t mean anything to you anymore, and that feels very strange, since just until a moment ago you thought it was the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in years! The famous saying instantly flashes in your mind: the beauty is in the eye of the beholder! You feel angry at yourself for thinking of that one. Well, you go back to watching your leaves, and your very sky. If you really and deeply look at it, maybe one day you’ll be able to shoot a video based on what you saw today! Maybe you’ll come to this spot and record these very leaves (because the wind hum in birch leaves is not the same as the hum in linden branches – not at all!). For the authentic awakening of your memory you would need leaves exactly like these and the identical part of the year, or otherwise, what’s the point? Just like Soviet filmmakers once did, for days you would make your crew wait for the right intensity of the wind; producers would bite their nails, but you wouldn’t care, waiting patiently for the nature and a breath of familiar long lost feeling.
Even then it wouldn’t be the same – your thoughts dissolve onto the the philosophy teacher and his drawn out words: ”You can’t enter the same river twice. In the flow of time, a lost chance is lost forever.” You remember how you used to love philosophy…
Your gaze wanders. But your brain demands a change. It’s not used to long shots. You check Facebook, Gmail, trying to find a place in your thoughts where you’d rather be. In the end, you say to yourself – there will be other chances, other moments, many of them in fact; this is not the only site worth describing! That’s right. From now on you will record everything your heart desires! You will not give up. A good video does not depend on good technique as much as the right moment! Moment of light, truth and enlightenment! And of course – moment of completely being in that moment. If you still happen to give up, it is good to know: you can always count on those who will, with great faith, awaken your dreams and long lost sensations.
With faith in great moments,
Your Creative Video Production
