CONTINUE

I am excited to finally announce the official title of our adaptive sports video, "Continue". I'm also pleased to announce the official launch of the film's website: www.continuefilm.com

Once the film nears completion, additional content will be added to the website. Our goal is to eventually offer a free download of the film in various formats, including Hi-Definition.

Coming up with a title for our project was surprisingly difficult. Even more difficult than Jeff (my producer) and I could have imagined. When we first submitted the grant to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, we called our production "Take 2". Yeah... not the greatest title right?

For this project's title, we wanted something simple, subtle and thought provoking. After spending months and months of going through every conceivable title under the sun, we (Jeff and I) finally arrived at "Continue". I truly feel that this title encapsulates the point of our project, which is: life can go on. And furthermore, be an amazing experience. My mom also like it, so... there you go.

Both Jeff and I refused to go with the cliché titles like: "Overcoming Obstacles", "Inspirational Heroes" or "Ability Wow!" If you've ever spent time among the disabled community and/or read and seen any disabled related media, you'll know that these "gimp-obvious" titles saturate the market. They're used way too much and I understand why. For some reason, stories, websites and organizations have to have some type of disabled indicator in their title or else the public-at-large won't pick up on the disability angle. I think that we're now to the point, as filmmakers, broadcasters, journalists, and organizations, that we need to start treating disabled subject matter with the same style and integrity that we treat anything able-bodied. It's time to avoid using the classic fall back of inspirational lingo. The "gosh aren't they so heroic" treatment. What it does is tell people how to feel, and I think that's insulting to the public's intelligence and to the entire disabled community.

We want people to see what's out there and do in the style of any great sports documentary. If people feel inspired, great. If they don't, that's fine. But we absolutely don't want force inspiration or any other feeling onto our viewers. We still want the film to make an impact, but we want it to be genuine. We want people to look at the footage and go "Yeah, I haven't seen that before."

We believe this film will be groundbreaking. We hope you will to.

"Continue" is being made, first and foremost, for the individual who has just sustained a spinal cord injury. I know, from personal experience, what it's like to lay in the hospital bed and wonder: "What happens now? Clearly I'm alive, but what can I do with this new body?"

This film aims to present 28 activities that are available to individuals with spinal cord injuries or disease. It's a sampling of the most popular and available activities for people with varying levels of paralysis. Although the film won't cover each sport in great detail, it will (hopefully) show, using brief scenes, that life can continue. It will also give newly-injured individuals some visual examples of what's available, once they leave the hospital.

So why did we wait so long to unveil the project's title? Well, we had to get some graphics finished so that you, the audience, could see the title the way WE want you to see it. Also, New Mobility Magazine's latest issue features a story on Erik Kondo, on of our film's many talents. In the article, "Continue" is mentioned. Erik and his sparring partner Bob gave an amazing performance for our project and it's exciting to see them featured, with a photo from our production, in this national Spinal
cord Injury (SCI) publication. If you get a chance, find a copy and read the article. It's great stuff.



So there it is. "Continue". I'm excited because I no longer have to refer to our project as "Adaptive Sports Video".

Up next: Waterskiing with Bill Bowness!

Swimming: Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, choo!

Finally! After two failed attempts at shooting the swimming sequence, we finally made it to the pool. This particular shoot had been a long time in the making. To begin, it was extremely difficult finding talent that was interested in being our swimmer. Our production manager finally tracked down Dave Tims, a para who has competed in several veterans games. Yes, that's right... he is a veteran. Why is that important? Well, we desperately wanted to find paralyzed vets for our video since the production is being funded by the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Easier said than done. I'm not sure why the search was so difficult. Needless to say, we approached every hospital and program and followed up on every lead we could.



Once Dave was on board, we had to find an outdoor pool that looked good. Hmmm. An attractive pool you say? There are several in the valley, but the only one that would work with our production was Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. And as far as attractive swimming locations are concerned, theirs is the Heidi Klum of lap pools. Or Brad Pitt if you're, you know, into guys.

Our first attempt at shooting came on August 17th. We arrived at 6:30 AM, unloaded the gear, met Dave and his training buddy and waited for our lifeguard to arrive. He did. One hour late. By then we'd lost too much time and had to call off the shoot. Dave wasn't thrilled and either was the crew.

Our second attempt came last Sunday. I should note that Sunday mornings were the best time to shoot because of the privacy. The pool didn't open to the public until noon. So we had 7 to Noon to get everything shot. On this day, however, there were severe thunderstorms and light rain in the morning. Once again, Dave and the crew arrived. The crew consisting of Jeff and I. Lyse, the aquatics manager, met us and personally opened the pool. She's been great to work with. Unfortunately, we had to call off the shoot due to crap weather. Strike two!


Third times the charm! Perfect weather, 181.1-degree water, and absolutely no public to deal with. Andrew was our lifeguard and he helped us prepare by taking down the car dealership flags. We just didn't need them messing up our shots.






Shortly after 10 AM, we started shooting. Morning lighting is always ideal and baby... we had it! Dave swam back and forth several times and we captured the action from several different angles. I don't think Dave was thrilled with the fact that we were making him swim over and over and over again. But he gave it his all and that's all we could ask for.



Jeff and I shot all of our locked down (tripod) shots first. Then we put the camera in the underwater housing and shot handheld. Jeff swam with Dave to get some nice tracking shots from the water.


Jeff also set up a tripod and placed the lens just barely below the surface of the water. This created an interesting effect: Dave's body is visible both above and below the water.




Next, we loaded up the scuba gear and sank to the bottom of the pool for some underwater shots. I tried filming the sequence but my mask broke, so I turned the reigns over to Jeff. Dave swam back and forth above the camera and we got some great shots.


Our last shots were overhead shots. Dave was exhausted by the time we assembled the jib rig. After a couple of passes we wrapped the shoot.


Overall it was a fairly smooth production. Jeff and I were both glad to get the thing in the can. Especially after two previous attempts. Dave was very patient today. Most of the talent we've worked with have been incredibly giving of their personal time.

We now have nine productions left to shoot: waterskiing, jet skiing, rock climbing, fishing (take two), kayaking (take two), archery, gaming, mountain chair, and sailing. While that may seem like a lot, in reality it's --- yeah it's a lot. But I think we can get it done. We have to get it done in the next month and a half. Meanwhile, I'm still editing and working with two very talented post-production individuals: Zach (graphics) and Steve (sound).

More updates are on their way. And I promise to reveal the name of our project very soon.

Disappearing Act

Ladies and gentlemen. What you are about to read will both alarm, astound and confound! In a matter of minutes, your humble narrator will perform the most daring act of vanishing ever seen by human eyes. But fear not, as this act will only be temporary and your narrator will return. Completely unharmed and ready for the next big show.

I say this jokingly, but the truth of the matter is this: I'm now dedicating all of my free time to post-production (editing, sound coordination, color correction, music acquisition) as well as the remaining shoots. By doing this, I realize I'm taking on the risk of alienating friends and family. That certainly is not my intention. I love all y'all. I just have to focus and complete this seven year journey. This will require all of my free hours and 15-year-old-Chinese-Gymnast-like dedication.

Yes, I'm sure I'll get the classic response: "Clawson, you 'ol so and so, you have to MAKE time for yourself!" Well, maybe that's true. But I also have to MAKE time to get this project finished AND turned in to the Paralyzed Veterans of America by November 30th. That's now a mere 96 days from today. Add to that the fact that I'm still working full time at Instructional Media Services, AND teaching a video production course to boot.

So, the purpose of this blog entry is not to be a jerk. But if I end up coming across as a Jerk, I hope you will see that this video IS my "Special Purpose**". No, but seriously...the point of this blog is to give my friends and family a heads up. I'm going to be dropping off the face of this big blue ball for the next three months.

Am I thrilled about doing this? I wouldn't say that "thrilled" is the right word. I certainly wish I could have more time to play. But I am excited about this project and its potential to inform people. And I want to do everything I can to make it worth watching.

That said, please understand that I mean no harm when I say "no" to invites. I promise I will make it up to everyone after November 30th. I'm thinking of holding a giant "Love-in". Complete with scented candles, satin sheets and Isaac Hayes music.

And now... time to edit.


** This is a reference from "The Jerk", a fantastic motion picture comedy starring Steve Martin.

First Cut: 109 Days Left!

Greetings everyone. Here is the first official video blog entry. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I've enjoyed making it. It doesn't say much, but it's message is crystal clear: editing has officially begun.

Up Next: The website, the title and filming... lots and lots of filming.

Break's over, back to work!

I've just returned from picking up an external hard drive containing over 400GB of Hi-Def raw footage. Over the next few days, I'll be transferring the footage to my desktop computer and organizing the files in preparation for editing. Organization will consist of separating each file by sport and making shot notes so that I can find each shot quickly.

The biggest mistake most editors make is that they don't organize their files first. They're too eager to start assembling the footage and figure the shots will be easy to find. What inevitably ends up happening is that critical footage gets misplaced, causing the editor to take on the role of investigator. This wastes time and money and (in some cases) can potentially affect the quality of a potentially great project.

Okay, so that's where we're at. Once the footage is organized, Jeff (Producer/DP) and I are going to sit down, revisit the footage and make final some final notes pertaining to each sports sequence. This will help us stay on the same page so that editing can proceed smoothly.

It's a little intimidating. So much footage and only 113 days left until our deadline. And that doesn't include the nine sports we still have to film.

Today we shot fishing at Silver Lake. We shot early so that we could capture the early morning light. Around 10:45, the skies began to look a little foreboding. We'd finished shooting all establishing and rear angle shots when the good light began to disappear. Jeff and I finally decided that we'd have to reschedule the fishing shoot. We would also have to reschedule our kayaking shoot, which we had also planned on shooting today.

Both Levi and Kelly (our talent) were very cool about the cancellation. Unfortunately, since weather is unpredictable, cancellations are a very real possibility with any of our outdoor shoots. It's sucks, but I'd rather cancel and resume filming when the weather is perfect. Why spend all the time and effort just to settle?

It's a damn good thing we canceled, because at 12:20, it began to rain and hail. Like REO Speedwagon, we rode the storm out, then packed up and headed down the canyon. The footage we got was great, it's just too bad that we weren't able to finish. It's also good because I think we have a better kayaking shoot in store. We're going to shoot amidst the fall colors. This time, however, we're going to put two quads on the kayak: Levi and a C5. We still want Levi for kayaking and I hope he'll do it, considering we've now canceled his shoot twice.

So, what's next? Swimming on August 17th, Sailing on August 28th and the fishing re-shoot sometime in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I'll be slipping into my "Howard Hughes" mode. There's a lot to do in a very little time. So, to all my friends and family, please forgive me if my availability decreases.

Up next: Editing, Title and Website.

Missing Photos and Updates!

I met with my producer/DP on Friday and he's going to be delivering the raw footage the week of August 4th. This pushes post-production back a couple of weeks, but that shouldn't create too many problems. I'll still have about four months to get this thing assembled.

I'm also working on a "coming soon" website for the production. There's a few minor things to work out before the site goes live. But when it does, I think it will look really good. Simple...but good. I hope that happens by next Friday, but that might be wishful thinking. If it doesn't go live on Friday, it will have to wait until the first of August.

Okay, that's the update for now. Until the next update, here are some of the missing photos from our Southern Utah shoot.

Here's the U-HAUL rig we used to capture the close-up handcycling shots.

Chris Waddell using the One-Off. The setup took forever, but the shots paid off.

Stan reviewing shots with Abby Hoffman

Jeff is measuring the distance between the lens and the wheelchair racer, for a technical shot.

Here's the group photo from our last Southern Utah shoot. That's Stan's mom (a.k.a. production driver) on the far right.

One last update: T9-10 Productions now has a logo. Check out these bad boys:

RAIDing the Tower

If your a hard-core computer geek, this blog entry will be better than internet porn. And a welcome respite from my usual production dribbling. If you aren't a geek, then please bear with me. This won't take long.

Non Linear Editing (NLE) requires a great deal of preparation. Especially when deadlines and keeping track of copious amounts of footage are of vital importance. I think back to my first time editing on a computer. It was a college project called "A Matter of Life and Death". Yeah, heavy stuff...but not really. So, a few days before the 3-minute assignment was due, I lost everything. Poof...gone. I hadn't saved properly and had to go back and start all over. Luckily I managed to finish the project and restore balance to the universe.

For this project, there was no way I was going to go through that mess again. I needed a data storage setup that would do two things: One, backup all project files and raw footage. An exact copy of all files is insurance policy of sorts. Two, increase the efficiency of reading and writing data. I need the machine to save and grab files quickly.

Sure, having enough hard drive space is important. Especially when there's a lot of footage. But I also need to have something in place that will prevent the loss of important files. At no point, during the editing process, can I lose anything. RAID acts like a safety net. So what is RAID?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and it's basically a system for replicating and dividing data across hard drives. Most computers have one hard drive, which is ample in most instances. For this project, I have four internal hard drives and two external hard drives for backup.

Now, I didn't know that much about RAID before I embarked on this journey. Hell, I still don't know a lot about RAID. So please take what I say with a grain of salt. After doing some research, I discovered that there isn't a consensus among filmmakers as to which RAID configuration (or level) works best for editing video or film. So what level was I going to go with? Well, RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5 are the most popular. If you'd like more info. on what each one does, feel free to Google RAID.

Now, RAID isn't an easy thing. It requires a RAID card for the computer and multiple hard drives. Originally I had planned on going with RAID 5, then I decided on RAID 10. Jeff and I chatted and he thought I should go with a RAID 0 setup across three internal, identical hard drives. The advantage to this setup is the amount of storage capacity that I gain: Almost 3 TB (Tera bytes). RAID 0 also stripes across the three drives, making the machine work much more efficiently. The disadvantage to RAID 0 is that there's no backup or mirroring of drives. Jeff and I decided to back all program files and raw footage onto an external hard drive. That way, if anything goes down, I can always re-import footage or grab the latest version of an edit. For extra safety, we are also considering backing up to a second external hard drive, which we can store off site. Overkill? Perhaps. But it's better to be safe than sorry. Especially with a November 30th deadline looming on the horizon.

So there you have it. I've RAID-ed the computer tower and for all intents and purposes am ready to start importing footage. Hopefully that will happen next week.

Oh, one more thing: I've been working behind-the-scenes with Zach Gildersleeve, a talented graphics designer. He's putting together the "Coming Soon" website for this project, which should be up and running within the next week and a half. We will launch the website and finally release the name of our project, both on the same day. Zach's work is amazing and I think his visuals will be a tremendous addition to the project. I'll update everyone on the website prior to it's launch. I'm also going to provide weekly updates on the project starting Mid-August.

Murderball, etc.

For those of you who are just beginning to read this blog, or for those of you who have passionately read every letter and word and still have no idea what's going on, I thought I would take a moment and give a brief synopsis of what this project is all about. For those of you who would rather I skip the overview and just get to the meat of this post, be patient. I'll get there and the wait will be well worth it. I promise.


About seven years ago, Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth and I met and discussed the idea of putting together a short video for newly-injured patients with SCI (Spinal Cord Injury). We'd never seen a comprehensive video depicting all of the sports and recreational activities available to individuals with paralysis. We certainly hadn't seen anything that was high quality.


So we decided, then and there, to make the film ourselves.


Fast forward to 2004. Jeff and I enlisted the services of two videographers, Tyler Smith and Jason Ball, to shoot some preliminary test footage.



We shot canoeing, handcycling and swimming. And although we were happy with most of the footage, we felt that the project required something more. Something that said: "Damn, this thing looks amazing!"


That's when we decided to go High Def. The SD (Standard Definition) footage was scrapped, which killed us because so many people had donated their time and efforts. The footage became an experiment. A way for us to test the waters and see if we could really do this thing. Once we made the decision to go HD, the next step involved getting funding.

It took two attempts at applying for the PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) grant, before funding was finally granted. Special thanks goes out to Jenn Piatt and Melissa Zahl for helping get the grant. The PVA stipulated that our project had to be completed within two years time. So, we immediately set to work purchasing equipment and coming up with a production schedule.

So, there you have it. I left a few things out, but you get the general idear. We're more than halfway through the project, with a November 1st deadline quickly approaching. So far, everything has gone extremely well and both Jeff and I are confident that our original idea will finally see the light of day. See, that wasn't so bad. And now... Murderball.


We'd originally wanted to shoot the Utah Scorpions, and even thrown around the idea of filming at the JCC. But some scheduling issues and team conflicts made us seek other teams to film. Denver came up and we were planning to fly out, but the practice facility wasn't conducive to shooting quality video. So we tried to figure out another alternative. All along, we had wanted to shoot an actual tournament. We felt that it would add a spectator component to the production. That's when we discovered that both Utah and Denver would be playing in a local competition. "Jinkies Scoobie!" That was perfect. So, after corresponding with the team, we marked the date on our calendars and set to work on pre-production.




The tournament ran the weekend of May 16 - 18. We chose to shoot on Friday and arrived early in the morning to set up equipment and scout the gymnasium. Utah was the first team on deck, so we shot them immediately. Jeff switched between shoulder mount and locked-down shots. Anytime you film a live event, there's no room for error and no anticipating where the ball will be at any given time. Luckily we had some practice with improvisational, guerilla filmmaking, thanks to the Wheelin' Jazz shoot.



The team was great to work with and allowed us to shoot from every angle on the court. We weren't able to actually get on the court, obviously, but I think we managed to get some great footage from the sidelines.



If you've never seen Quad Rugby in action, it's pretty baddass. Very rough and always entertaining.




For game two, we broke out the jib arm and set up camp near one of the goals. We had to swing the arm into the court, which was difficult because we didn't want to interfere with the game or its players. We certainly didn't want to smack anyone with the jib.


The tournament was held at Park City High School, which was perfect because the students were able to break away from class and catch a glimpse of something that they'll always remember. Any time young people can see disability in a positive light, it's a great thing.

After shooting some crowd shots, we moved up to the weight room/overlook to shoot some high angle footage.




After the second game, we decided that we had all of the footage that we needed. Both Jeff and I were very content with shoot. The team and high school personnel were very easy to work which made our jobs much easier. I was also very happy that we'd finished shooting the last of the team sports. Individual sports and activities are much easier to film than team sports because you have more control over the production. With team sports, there are so many factors at work: the location of teammates, ball placement, matching action from shot to shot. It's tricky. Improvisation takes a front seat. Everything is left to chance. Which means, the videographer has to nail their shots. And Jeff did just that. A perfectly captured pass here...a great jib shot of a scored goal there. Jeff caught moments of magic and Jenny (our sound girl) got some great audio. It was a lot of fun shooting and watching the teams go at it.

Okay, that's it for this entry. I promise to post the next update before 2011.

Up next: Time to Cut This Mutha!