Finding your howl

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl

A group of wolves who had been held in captivity are finally released into the wild.  The wolves are happy to get out of there caged environment.  But they realize one thing.  They have forgotten how to Howl.  The wolves are living in fear because none of them can howl and claim dominance and become the leader.  Throughout the story one of the wolves meets different characters and is actually killed.  Then he wakes up and realizes it was a dream, and realizes he is howling and that he knew how to howl the whole time.  He then becomes leader of the pack and the wolves no longer live in fear.  Flaum was making the point that we have to pay a price, do things we are not comfortable with, and almost risk it all to find our voice.

A meaningful quote I know was told to me by a news cameraman I can across while on vacation.  He said when doing videos you need to “Imitate the Eye”.  By this he means you need to use the camera as if it were someone’s eye, show the things people would naturally want to look at.  Doing this makes your videos much better, because it is easier to watch, because it is imitating how you would naturally see the world.  This quote pertains mostly to doing news reports.  When you are getting footage on a news story, you need to be sure to shoot the things people would want to see.  For example, you wouldn’t sit on a shot of a gun before it fires, because your eye would be drawn to the gun as it is firing.  If someone is getting out of the car, don’t shoot the door before they get out, shoot it as they are getting out of the car.  People don’t naturally just stare at car doors waiting for someone to come out, you would be drawn to the action.  This can apply to all kinds of scenarios.  If you are filming a concert, you don’t focus the entire time on the singer, your eye is drawn to the drummer, the guitarists fingers strumming, maybe backup dancers, people dancing or cheering in a crowd.  That’s why you would show those kinds of shots when you are shooting it, because that is what people would naturally want to see.  If you use the “imitate the eye” technique, your videos should be more interesting and flow better.  A good example of imitating the eye are shows like Cops.  The cameraman is basically pointing the camera where he wants to look.  That is why it will show a man being arrested, and as that is happening, he might turn around to show a cop holding a dog back behind him.  Then he might turn back to show them putting the criminal in the cop car, then show two cops conversing at the same time.  This idea of “imitating the eye” has taught me better and more interesting ways of shooting video, and wanting to go into the news field, this technique can become very handy.