Michael Gough's
Hawaiian Production Diary

INTRODUCTION

In the summer of 2000 my wife Linda and I went on holiday to Hawaii. IAC's webmaster suggested * that I keep a diary of how I go about making a holiday / travelogue video of that beautiful part of the world. These notes are very much "instant diary" thoughts. They may not flow. Tenses may change from one sentence to the next. They are a mixture of thinking to myself and occasionally remembering that there might be another reader. The final video may be rubbish!

This claims to be nothing more than an individual's progress towards a finished movie.

The material was shot with a SONY PC-5 mini DV camcorder. This is a beautiful little machine, easy to carry and capable of producing excellent results. It was edited on a computer using the Adobe Premiere 5.1 program. I really enjoy the freedom that this form of non-linear editing gives. However if you are still working at a simpler level, even if only tidying your pictures directly from camera to video-recorder I hope you will find something in these notes that are appropriate to your creations.

* Begged might be a better term!  Travelogues are the most popular type of amateur movie. Knowing that Michael makes superb ones I could not miss the chance to pick his brains.  The resulting diary pages are even better than I hoped.  They are packed with ideas, practical no-nonsense tips ... and the care of an artist.

I have been privileged to see one of the first release copies of the finished work, A Breath of Life, and can assure you that it is well up to Michael's own high standards - which makes it head-and-shoulders above most other holiday movies.  Look out for the video in competitions this year.  For now enjoy discovering how he made it.

Read, learn and enjoy - Dave Watterson

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