De-militarizing the process of film making
This Summer after arriving jet-lagged to Amsterdam for the International AIDS Conference, many friends/colleagues at the sex worker pre-conference were perturbed about the size of my new backpack which cradled a Panasonic AG-UX series video camera, batteries, handheld recorders, tripods, and microphones. "My co-producer wants me to professionalize," I explained to mollify their concern, "and this is the only way I can... move about filming during the conference with this new equipment." My mouth refused to let me say the accepted term that evokes the macho image of a camera man dominating technology on the go. "Do you mean to be able to 'run and gun'?" said, somewhat ironically, an attendee with experience in documentary film. A brainstorm ensued at the lunch table as to what we might use instead, suggestions that are now sadly lost to me in the march of time. Then it came to me. I don't want to "run and gun." I want to "stroll and roll." Keep that footage smooth, the heart steady, and (let me rub this in a bit more) birth the footage that will grow into the film.
Join me. Get rid of “run and gun” in cinematography. I propose #strollandroll
