Calm after the storm
Every year at the end of January or beginning of February, Vietnam is in a chaotic flurry of buying, preparing and tidying up in anticipation of Tet. I hate this time of year and so do most other Expats as the traffic and general feeling of the city is all too stressful.
Yes more than normal.
What I do like is the calm and tranquility that replaces the chaos that was just one week before. This is the first morning of Tet. If you are ever lucky enough to experience it, it would be to experience Hanoi, Vietnam in its true Zen like or Valium induced state. The streets are empty except for the odd straggler here and there. You can hear birds clearly while walking down some of the larger streets in the city like Dai Co Viet. People are in a joyous and festive mood and will let you take photos of them with no problem (big deal for me as the ratio of asking is usually 1/3). All in all, it is really amazing and a joy to experience.
Since most photographers love to take photos or get assignments of the leading up of Tet, I thought why not show the actual first day of Tet and how calm it is and what remained after the chaos has subsided. So I set out at 6 AM and anyone I saw on the street I took a portrait of them. Got to say after 3 hours there were not so many portraits as it was really that quiet.
My first intention was to do this purely with images, but as my time on the street progressed I wanted to capture the sounds I experienced in the hope of helping place you, the audience, next to me in my morning journey. Sorry the sound is not better all I had was my iPhone, but I think it can still put you in the setting
I hope everyone has a great new year. May the year of the dragon bring you luck.
3 – 5 min max!!
Tube Mogul Research
These days I do my fair share of videography / multimedia / photo film or whatever you want to call it. Probably more than the average photographer and I love all the creative options it offers in being able to tell a story .
That being said, if you do start to get into this type of work you will probably run into lots more paperwork, budgets, scripts, 20 page proposals and complicated production schedules than your average photography job. Another thing I also find, is that most of my clients think they get more value for their money if they have a longer film. i.e. 10 min or 30 min.
The problem with that idea is that most of my clients don’t show their video in a movie theater or on TV, it is shown via the web with all the distractions of email, Twitter and Facebook to steal their audience away from their video. Clients love the web because it is an extremely cost effective way to publish their video to the public and it has added benefits that TV can never have like viral dissemination to help spread their message to more people than they could reach by themselves.
Most clients think that everyone will of course want to watch their video because they are amazing and if they don’t, it’s because you didn’t do a good job.
Well …… sort of.
Most of us that are hired for this type of work know how to make something that isn’t total crap, which is why they hired us to start. Where you failed in doing your job was not in the content that you created but that you didn’t convince the client to change the length of the video to something more watchable online. So as you can see this is pretty dam important. If you don’t convince your client to change their epic film ideas to something more realistic and effective they might think you did a crap job even though you didn’t.
So how do you convince your client to change their 15 min epic corporate video to a 3-5 min video?
- Ask them when they last watched a video in full online? What kind of video was it? How long was it? If it was a corporate film or NGO film that is more than 5 min put it on in the office and wait to see how long it takes for someone to start talking. Most of the time I find people start talking in 2-3 min. AMAZING!! You prove your point right there.
- Next show them some independent marketing research to back up your professional opinion. This helps out a lot with skeptical clients.
Ok the first part is easy and may be enough to convince your client, but sometimes …. I know wait for it…. Clients are difficult. Shocker I know!!!
So now armed with some independent marketing research on online video length you can change their mind and earn some professional respect to boot. But wait! Where is this marketing research your telling me about??? Well it is below so stay with me.
Back in old 2008 a great photography professor at the University of San Francisco, Ken Kobre, found some companies that published their research about the length of time people will watch online videos. Now you won’t find this awesome research on his new site but thank god he didn’t delete his old blog and you can still see his informative blog post here: http://kobrechannel.blogspot.com/2009/01/whats-perfect-online-video-length.html
Now I wouldn’t tell a client that “Ken Kobre says this and that,” even though he is my hero for publishing this great post. I would point them or give them a link to Tube Mogul. Tube Mogul is the company that did the research and they would be the authority http://www.tubemogul.com/research/report/18
I also like the other research that Kobre found from another source but strangely enough their website doesn’t work anymore.
Finally, I have found some other peoples thoughts about this topic that is more current than 2008. Here are the quotes:
Jeff Misenti – VP of Fox News Digital – “the drop-off (watching vid online) after 90 sec is pretty severe.”
Joel Schwartzberg, – A director at PBS digital – “[he] cites attention span of 3 minutes for video.”
Anyways, I hope this helps you out on your next web video project. If you have any comments, strategies or other research you use to convince your clients to change the length of their video, please share them below in the comments.
The Process: Setting Out
So from my previous blog post so keenly entitled “The Process” I went out do some more research around Hanoi on my idea as well as contacted some people who could help facilitate in my getting access to the topic I am working.
I went to the Red River to talk to some people there and ran into a really nice boat captain. Even though he didn’t really know where I could find stuff related to my topic he did his best in explaining some places he thought I might be interested in going.
I first came across him as he was sitting on his barge checking himself out in the mirror. I proceeded to go over to him and after a chat he allowed me to take his portrait. One of the great things working on a new project is all the people you meet on the way. Some good, some bad but the adventure and experiences in the process are one of the many gifts a new project brings.
The Process
I have an idea…. and that is it. So to start to understand how I am going to approach it I am beginning my process. Of course, like all creative people I want the result of my work to be great and to communicate my idea to other people. My process is to go out, experience, shoot, analyze, write down new ideas and approaches and then go out again and shoot. I will try to get access to places, meet new people and slowly let this idea mold itself into something more concrete.
I will be posting images here as I go through my exercises. For the mean time this will be filed under, “The Process”
Possessed by Gods – Work in Progress
Been busy busy busy working on a commercial for the last 2 months and it is finally finishing that up.
I had some time the other day to go do some research into a new project which right now i’m titling, “Possessed by Gods”. I still need to do some more research on other direction I want to take it, but here are some pics from yesterday. More updates soon.
3 hours of Hanoi’s 1000 Years
Thursday morning my wife Trang told me that the streets near our house and the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum would be closed for the practice of Sunday’s parade.
I thought it might be a good time to go out see what they are doing and take some snaps. I left my house at 3:00 and shot until 6:00, which was a great way to spend the afternoon.
Girls dressed up in Ao Dai, event workers shifting out propaganda posters and military personal dotted the area around the mausoleum. People visiting from the countryside came to see what their capital had prepared for them on Sunday’s anniversary. Vietnamese people are at heart very kind and easy going people. I really had a great time walking, talking to them, having my photo taken with them and of course taking snap here and there. The only thing that was a little bothersome was all the police being rude and forcing people from watching the preparation of the parade from the street.
To me it is sad, because most Vietnamese are proud of Hanoi and want to celebrate the 1000 year anniversary. Only authorities and VIPs were allowed to see the parade in person leaving the rest of the population to watch on government TV with advertising.
Besides all that, it was nice to meet friendly strangers who were more than willing to let me take some photos of them. I couldn’t ask for any more than that for a Thursday afternoon.
Backpackers & Yogurt
As of lately I have been feel that my photography work is not progressing as fast as i would like it to. I asked my agent/buddy Francois at Noi Pictures to get me some local editorial assignments which will force me to go out and shoot things i’m not used to shooting.
As most photographers know, local or regional magazines pay…. how do I say it in a nice way…. way way way below standard editorial day rates. This is why in the past I stayed away from them. Now though i am happy i changed my mind. They are fun assignments where i get to meet some interesting locals and shoot some stuff i normally wouldn’t get a chance to shoot.
All in all, it is good practice when i have free time and it’s fun to meet some different locals.
I had two stories this week. One on Kinh Do Cafe which makes all their own deserts and yogurt from scratch. The owner was a super nice old guy and the fresh yogurt with honey and fruit is amazing. I really enjoyed talking to him and taking his portrait, eating the free cake he made me eat (i didn’t want to be rude) and shooting the shit with Ian the writer.
The other story I was assigned was about backpacker fashion. I took some portraits of Tiffini, the owner of The Drift Backpackers Hostel who sells those crazy baggy backpacker pants in Hanoi. If they were gold they would totally be MC Hammer pants.
Since the the article was supposed to be about backpacker fashion I took to the streets and did some fun portraits of backpackers and their fashion. I had a really good time with this and half way though my portraits I decided to do 1-2 second shutter releases while having my subjects standing in the middle of the road. I got some pretty nice results out of it due to the traffic driving around the subjects, but it was difficult to keep the subjects still for 1-2sec.
Unfortunately, I can’t show them here right now since most of the photos were chosen by the editor and I only have a few out takes.
So with out further boring you with my writing here some out takes from those two assignments. Thanks for looking.
Painting with light
150 Layer Light Painting
For over a 2 years i have been lucky enough to befriend a really great guy and talented photographer, Boris Zuliani. He used to live on Truc Bach lake and we would have beers in the evening with other photo buddies talking about our love of photography and film (or until our wives or girlfriends called). Boris’s true love and art in photography is light painting. He uses it with great skill and passion in his personal work and for some commercial work.
When I first saw his work I thought it was just beautiful. I loved how soft the light was and at the same time giving the exposure a different kind of contrast then that of a normal photograph.
As Boris and I talked over beers I started to think about making a video of light painting. I didn’t want to make a “tutorial” video showing the process of light painting, but more about the feeling light painting gives to the subject and showing the gradual exposure of a photograph out of darkness.
Then some time later……. I met a randy young lady named Gillian. Boris had done a couple of light painting portraits of her and she said that the experience was so different from any other portraits she had posed for in the past. She explained it to me, but this was some time ago and my brain has been punished by Hanoi’s cheap beer so i don’t remember word for word. Though, I do remember her saying how much she enjoyed it and that the experience was something special.
Then some more time passed…….. Boris called me up and pushed me to make the video. Then Gillian called me up and pushed me to do it as well.
Time to put my thinking cap on. I had to figure out a way to show a light painting photo slowly exposed in video format using the extra variable of time. Hmmmm…. then i figured it out (oh that engineering degree served me well).
I would use a very slow shutter speed and do a kind of time-lapse while Boris did his painting. Then i would layer the photos to be gradually exposed over time and make all the layers add the new exposure to the old one (yeah i’m a nerd for this stuff).
So me and my gun-hoe /semi intoxicated team went out one night by West Lake (Ho Tay for the natives) and shot this video in 40 min.
Post production took an incredible 24 hours of rendering in CS5 Premier Pro with my i7 core iMac (thing was burnin’ up!!!). I guess that is what you get when you have 150 layers in a video editor.
No grading, special effects or effect editors (After Effects or Motion) were used to make this (except for my logo). The video and photos were shot on a 5D Mark II and the video was all shot hand held at 50mm.
Now making sure that the subject was fully exposed is tricky because when we did the light painting in this way you can’t see what you have exposed, which is why some of Gillian’s leg is not exposed. Also you have to remember that each exposure adds to the next exposure so i also had to be careful not to make my image too bright or too dark other wise the final image would be over or under exposed. I think the exposure was perfect for the layering, we just missed a part of the leg. I’m putting blame squarely on the intoxicated aspect of the project.
All and all, I am happy I was able to do this and thanks to my buddies for helping do so. It was something fun, different and somewhat challenging.
It could be interesting to make a clothing designer commercial like this. If your keen for that please drop me a line.
And now the final video. Thanks for watching.
Light Painter: Boris Zuliani
Model: Gillian Sturtevant
Photography & Video: Ehrin Macksey
Music: NiN
Tired and orange – Hanoi flower market during Tet
While this is my 4th Tet in Hanoi, I still enjoy going out to the night flower market just before the New Year. It is usually full of life and action, but this year it had a very different feeling. It was very dark and dirty and the flower sellers all looked very tired. Some of them said that it was a bad year to sell flowers as Hanoi had a hot flash for about 2 weeks before Tet which made most of the flowers bloom prematurely. For a flower seller in Hanoi, this is very bad as their Hanoian customers want their flowers to open up on the first day of Tet as it is considered an omen of good luck for the year. I feel bad for all the flower sellers, when their fight is strong they can haggle you to death, they just didn’t have that spirit in them this year. I missed it.
Keep your chin up all you flower sellers out there, next year will be here before you know it and with a little good luck the weather will be on your side.
Blue Dragon
About a month ago i met cool and friendly Ruth Mortimer who works for Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is an local Hanoi organization that gives underprivileged kids a better chance at life. Ruth asked me if i wouldn’t mind donating some time to the organization and make a short video for them. I was happy to help.
I had one day of filming as i am in the middle of another project. This made all the shooting very fast. Ruth did a great job helping me organize the kids and getting the interviews done quickly.
The video is a thank you video to World Vision for their generous support.
So here it is, hope you enjoy it.
Responsiblity and Guilt
What is a photographer’s responsibility to the subject after the photography has finished? This has been stewing in my mind for sometime. I’m quite lazy about writing in my blog but I hope that I can get some feed back from others about this. Here are my thoughts.
I have done only a handful of stories, in each story there is a bond of trust between me and the person I’m photographing. We see each other everyday. They let me into their lives to document and then to show to other people. That is a lot of trust to give to someone with a camera and you don’t know.
It must be difficult for the subjects of photo stories after the photographer has finished the work. I wonder if they feel used or if they feel they are not important to the photographer anymore?
I mean really think about it. You make a new friend who cares about you and is interested in your life. This friend, with a camera, comes with you everywhere. They ask questions about everything your doing and why. This must make the subject feel pretty special.
Then, BAM!!!, after 2 weeks, this person with a camera says goodbye and you see them if your lucky one time a year.
This must be difficult for the subject. I wonder how they justify the photographer leaving them in their mind?
I do try to go see the people that have allowed me into their lives. When I do, they always say I don’t visit enough. I usually smile guiltily and say that I have been busy working but I have not forgotten them.
I wonder what some of the big photographers like James Nachtwey or Stephanie Sinclair think of this? Do they feel the same or do they just keep on moving and don’t look back?
As my life as a documentary photographer continues there will be more stories with more people. Then, there will be more people to visit to make sure they know I think they are important and that I appreciate them letting me into their lives. At some point it will become impossible to visit everyone. I hope they will understand.
So, should I feel guilty or not if i can’t find time to go visit the subject of a past project?
I’m trying to rationalize it. No conclusions as of yet.
PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris Competition
I just got word today that I won some awards in this years PX3 competition.
I have to say that i’m really happy to get these and thank you to everyone who is supporting me and pushing me to do more and be better.
The Evolution Of Photography Is Here
I have been following the blog of Brent Foster for about a year now. He works similar to me, that being that he works in photography and film as well.
Lately, there has been a new breakthrough in DSLR technology. We can now do video with the same DSLR body and lenses we use for photography. For people like Brent and myself this is amazing!
Yesterday Canon announced that it will be updating it’s firmware for video on the 5D Mark II so that users can use manual control instead of the hindering automatic functions it now has. This new firmware will allow users to control the aperture, shutter speed and gain (ISO) and we hope that it offers 1080 24p as well.
This is a major breakthrough for people who are working in photography and film. I couldn’t be more excited to have these options available to me.
I have always been interested in multimedia photography ever since i was first introduced to in by my friend Justin in late 2006. I started reading blogs like Multimedia Shooter and studying classes from Mindy McAdams at the University of Florida.
For me, i think multimedia is not just the use of sound and photography. Sometimes i see people who add music to some images and they say they have made a multimedia.
I apologize to those people. I’m sure they worked very hard on what they did, but to me, it is not really giving justice to the tools available to them.
Multimedia is the use of photography, film and sound (interviews, ambient sound, music) so that they are all being harnessed to take advantage of the power each media form gives. This lets the viewer become closer to the story and understand more.
Photography Vs. Multimedia. One is not better than the other. They are just tools like in a construction workers tool belt. They each serves a different purpose.
We can now start see we have more demand from clients and newspapers to do video. There is new technology to do this from DSLR manufactures and we have this new way to present our stories and photography. So, my question to photographers is this:
Why are you waiting for?!
Other people are catching on and not just in the photojournalism area. You can see fashion photographers (Steven Klein, NYC & Esquire Magazine June Cover) starting to do both photography and film using The RED system and the 5D Mark II.
Almost every newspaper in America and Europe ask their photographers to do video as well as photography.
This is not a fad. This is the direction our industry is going. So come… on jump on…. it is only bumpy in the beginning.
Intel Chairman Of The Board
I had an assignment to go shoot Intel’s Chairman Of The Board, Craig Barrett, as he traveled around Hanoi.
Mr. Barrett really hates photographers which is what he told me in so many words. So it made the job interesting.
Kenzo Fashion Show
Here are some photos from a show i did a month ago. I really hate shooting fashion shows in Vietnam as the event organizers set up the lights like crazy people, well at least for photographers.
NPPA: Best in Photojournalism
I got an Honorable mention for my documentary video “Bop” at NPPA’s contest The Best Of Photojournalism 2009. The contest is designed by photojournalists for photojournalists.
Now in its eighth year, the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) is the world’s leading digital photojournalism contest. BOP is a project of the National Press Photographers Association.
Considering the list of other award winners, MediaStorm, MSNBC, Washington Post, The Las Vegas Sun and the Mercury News I feel very honored to be placed with them.
You can see the awards page here: http://bop.nppa.org/2009/web_sites/winners/index.php?cat=DOV&smc=INDE&place=HM1
Thank you to everyone who helped me make this film.
-Ehrin
Kelly Bui – Spring Collection
Here are some shots from a recent assignment for a Vietnam fashion designer Kelly Bui.
Tungsten Lights
I love going out at night in Vietnam. Especially in the evening to the parks. Everywhere you look is full of life. Teenage dancers practicing, the elderly drinking tea and playing chess, footballers showing off their skills, skateboarders gliding by and lovers holding each other. This scene was not as common as when i first came here. You of course would see many many people doing traditional things like drinking tea, exercising and playing chess, but skateboarders and dancers were not so common.
In a park, it seems like the glow of the tungsten lights lets people relax and enter into this sanctuary of freedom to do whatever they like. In Hanoi it is a special place.
Fashion – Vietnam
I went to a fashion show a couple of weeks back. I was asked by a friend of mine to go and shoot some of the clothes and models. After talking some more about fashion with some of the Vietnamese designers i was interested in their lives and work. I may pursue a story at later this year in order to shed some light on this thriving and competitive world where looks and attitudes rein supreme.
Vewd Documentary Magazine
My multimedia piece about leprosy villages in Vietnam and a story about one resident is published on the Vewd documentary photojournalism magazine.
Awards: 2008 Visual Culture Awards
Well i’m happy to say that i won some awards for my work. It is always nice to have acknowledgment like this from professionals this industry. 2008 Visual Culture Awards
Ehrin Macksey : Gold, Emotive Vision, Light, and Self Portrait ; Bronze, Photographic Story ; Gold, Multimedia ; Award of Excellence, International Documentary
pdfX12 | Documentary Photography Magazine
This is a great publication by the very talented Yumi Goto and not because they feature some of my work. Things are changing for documentary photographers and I’m always looking for new ways to show my work and expose people to the stories i have done.
You can sign up and download the publication here: pdfX12
My Neighborhood – The Lake
So a month ago I moved from my house to an apartment. The house was too big for me and the furniture and other things were breaking so I decided that it was time to move to a newer place.
I moved into this great new apartment (I will post photos later). The difference between this new neighborhood to my old neighborhood. More like how the majority of Vietnamese live in Hanoi. So I started to go out and document the area I lived in.
There is a park and a small lake near my house. It is polluted and not kept up with and kind of run down which to me gives it some character.
So here are some photos of that area. Later I will post some photos from the network of allies in which I wander through every day.
