A Multimedia Piece On LA; Its People, Its Places
Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is a burger restaurant where every Friday night, classic car enthusiasts gather to show off their classic restored cars and hotrods. Los Angeles, California, USA. January 17, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
On a recent trip to Hollywood to attend the Taste Awards ceremony at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard as a finalist for my film on the Electric Coffee Company, I decided to shoot a project on Los Angeles.
My initial thought was to shoot a photo series of daily life, a photo series on TV Host Andrea Feczko and separately, a video interview with the legendary AP photographer, Nick Ut. As my time in LA continued, I shot a wider set of imagery and short video interview with LA street artist Plastic Jesus.
(L-R) AP photographer Nick Ut, author of the Pulitzer Award winning “Napalm Girl” photograph (shown) from the Vietnam War and Edmond Terakopian. Image shows some of Nick Ut’s cameras used during the Vietnam War and more modern cameras; on the right is Edmond Terakopian’s Olympus OM-D E-M1. Thompson Beverly Hills, LA, California, USA. January 18, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (self timer image)
For the project, I took an Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Olympus M.Zuiko lenses; the 12-40mm f2.8PRO, 25mm f1.8 (see my review of this superb lens) and 45mm f1.8. I also took along a Roland R26 audio recorder and the Rode Lavalier and VideoMic Pro microphones. Lastly, possibly the most used accessory, a Lastolite reflector which didn’t stop getting used for the beach and pool shots with Andrea. I don’t think in my lifetime I’ve used a reflector as much as I did over those two days!
When looking at the material as a whole, it became apparent that it all would make an immersive multimedia piece, mixing photography (and time lapse photography) with video, some audio and the right music. After I’d done my photo editing and processing in Aperture, I fired up FCP X and started to look at the material as one unified project. 64 hours of editing later, I had my “LA Diary”.
The Olympus OM-D E-M1, Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 PRO lens and Rode VideoMic Pro on a Manfrotto tripod. On the left is a Roland R26 audio recorder. January 18, 2014. Photo: ©Edmond Terakopian
The interviews with Nick Ut and Plastic Jesus are short tasters as I will be editing more in-depth versions of these in due course. For the LA Diary, it worked better to have shorter, sharper video segments to fit in with the flow of the entire piece. The flow was helped along tremendously wight he correct music and I spent a while listening to various pieces. I’ve mixed, edited and cut quite a few of the tracks, bringing in audio on it’s own or with video and getting the delicate balance just right was tremendously helped along by using the astonishing Event Opal audio monitors.
During the project I had a lot of help from various people, so a huge thanks goes out to: Nick Ut, Associated Press, Andrea Feczko, Rachel Rudwall, Plastic Jesus, Armen Khanlian, Yvette K. Mankerian, Nick Stern, Joseph Hovanessian, Thompson Beverly Hills hotel, Kellee Griffith, Michelle Nouraei, Roxana Alas, Rachel Rudwall and Mark Thackara. The project could not have been done without your help; you have my thanks :-)
