What I learned from filming my first 3-minute documentary short at a Python conference

Linda Peng
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

Last weekend, I went to PyBay, a conference for Python developers.

Feeling artistic, I’d brought my GoPro (and a new gimbal stabilizer I was excited to test out, because shaky footage is terrible to work with), and I thought it would be fun to put together some clips of folks saying “Hi from PyBay” and talking about how they use Python.

This was my first time filming human subjects on camera. I originally wasn’t sure how much time I’d have to put together a video, but looking back at the footage and seeing everyone’s smiling faces was so much fun. A couple of nights of editing later, here is the 3-minute result:

I’ve been making videos for several years now, first using Windows Movie Maker before graduating to Adobe Premiere Elements and then Final Cut Pro (my new love). But most of those videos have been single-shot violin covers, with me occasionally slipping in a few shots of landscape scenery I’d filmed to match the recording, like in my two-violin arrangement of Hallelujah:

Filming people was… freeing. Normally, I’m trying my hardest not to get people into my shot — and as a result, I would never have a clear protagonist in my scope. But last weekend, I was approaching people with a camera, and self-consciously asking them for permission to record.

At first, I was pretty bad at pitching why I was walking around with a camera:

Me: “What’s this camera on a stick, you ask? Well, I am testing out this new stabilizer I got, which I’m really excited about because shaky footage is awful, but I was also thinking it would be fun to make a little collage of people saying ‘Hi from PyBay’ to turn into a video that may or may not be finished like all my side projects depending on how much time I have…”

Later, I got better at it:

Me: “Hi! Would you be interested in saying ‘Hi from PyBay’ on camera, and could I ask you about how you use Python? You can say no!”

Here’s what I learned:

On people

  • People love gadgets, and the battery-powered gimbal I was testing out was a great conversation starter, even amongst folks who declined to be recorded. (My favorite feature: a “selfie mode” button that rotated the camera 180 degrees.)
  • The introduction is so important. “Would you be interested in…?” instead of a rambling sentence.
  • I’ve interviewed folks about code and their journeys in tech before, but this was the first time I’ve filmed people talking about technology. I was pretty exhausted the second day so didn’t get a chance to talk to as many people about how they used Python as I would’ve liked to, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and wish I’d had the time and alertness level to ask deeper questions. Alas, this was not that type of documentary.

On filming and directing

  • People notice you behind the camera, and their reactions on video can be contingent on what you say, and how comfortable they are with you.
  • Giving direction is important. I don’t think I would’ve gotten so many smiles and waves if I hadn’t been explicitly asking for it and smiling and waving too, causing some reciprocation.
  • The candid moments before people prepare to speak are my favorite moments.
  • In a way, filming reminds me of taking photos, which I enjoy doing when I’m hanging out with friends. Capturing those candid, unscripted moments of friends laughing mid-chatter are my favorite part of photography. The wonderful thing about film, of course, is that a person brightens in film; I’m capturing a complete emotion, not just a snapshot of an emotion, and I feel like I’m capturing more of their person as they gesture and move while they talk, or as their face brightens into a smile.
  • Asking for a second “Hi from PyBay!” take can sometimes result in a worse take; I had to remind myself that I was working with naturally enthusiastic people, not actors. :P
  • In the future, I should write down people’s email addresses so I can follow up with folks better if I do end up completing a creative project.

I’ve been thinking about film lately too, after having enjoyed Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009) about the poet John Keats, and reading interviews featuring actors on their craft. The number of ways a good actor can say their lines — and the amount of emotional nuance a good actor can convey in a single moment — is remarkable. From my understanding, it’s up to the director to draw all of that out via multiple takes, and to publish the best take in the final product. What a wonderful process! It’s clearly very similar to music recording.

On video editing

  • Video editing reminds me a lot of what it felt like to write an academic paper: a vomit of raw notes, and then endless cutting into shape. I started out with three hours of raw footage, then skimmed through the clips and cut out the parts I liked best. Then I chose an uplifting royalty-free music soundtrack I liked, which became the theme that I edited around. I dragged the best clips into the timeline, then did a lot MORE editing and cutting of the best parts, and eventually figured out an outline for the beginning (“Hi from PyBay!” cameos), middle (“How do you use Python?” answers), and end (motivational speech from Anna Ravenscroft).
  • I love Final Cut Pro. Love it. There was a bit of a learning curve when I first started using it — almost a year ago — but I’ve since gotten used to the bazillion shortcut commands and know enough to edit videos on a 1TB external hard drive (film takes up a LOT of space!) and the difference between a project and an event, which was terribly confusing when I first started.
  • I was worried about the recording quality of the audio, but the audio from a GoPro HERO Silver 4 is actually not too bad.
  • Like everything in life, video editing tends takes longer than you expect… especially if you need subtitles, which are a pain to put in. I couldn’t quickly figure out if there was an easier, automated process for writing in subtitles in Final Cut Pro, so I ended up manually typing in the subtitles for each important audio clip. Incidentally, I sampled the yellow color in the subtitles from a screenshot I found from a subtitled Simpson episode. :)
  • I expect that within a few months, or maybe a year from now, I’ll look back on the video and notice mistakes: a clip cuts away too quickly in the beginning, or I see some too-slow cinematic pacing. I hope that happens; how else will I grow?

)

Written by

Developer, formerly @actionkit and @moveon. Creator of codebuddies.org, youtube.com/lpnotes, and wannabe composer. Always learning.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade