Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Releasing my Film Online

"From the Heart of Asia"

I've decided to release a documentary I shot about Mongolia online. It's called "From the Heart of Asia" and this is only a small segment as an example. I did this years ago for a Japanese company and it was for an online web-documentary portal. The project took me over a year to shoot and required living and travel throughout Mongolia. One key concept and format is that I met various people along the way at which point I'd film. I would appear unannounced and interviewed locals to get their life perspectives and stories. The method was to ask 3 questions at a time and allow them to answer them all together in dialog. Usually 3 cameras were used to get all the vantage points. This created a more visceral result and gave the effect of being a ghost in the room and listening to someone narrate about their world. I also captured the events of the Nadaam National Games. It's an event that celebrates strength, harmony, and precision. (Wrestling, Overland Horse Racing, and Archery). This was my first film and a great learning experience. The basic framework and my narration was scripted but most of the film otherwise was not. Although looking at it now, I find it could at times be slow. It's never boring and the visual imagery is beautiful. Adding to it is an incredible soundtrack of traditional Mongolian folk music. Here's a segment posted as a test as to how the site handles video. Be patient, I'm still learning...

3 comments:

  1. Very, very cool! I'd love to see the whole thing. I think these days it's possible to get higher video quality, though (I'm presuming the original is a bit higher than what's posted here). If you want notes on that, ping me here or on facebook.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, Linh. Ian here, accidentally signing in as my wife again. D'oh! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, I host this animal rights/world conservation show and would like to widen the field to talk to you (via skype) for my show about your travels and what we can all learn from each other. check out www.wildtimeonline.blogspot.com. Rgds, Thomas

    ReplyDelete