Original

Friday Night Improv

Every Friday, the basement of the University of Pittsburgh houses the Friday Night Improv Show. FNI is a live improvisational comedy show fueled by audience participants as actors. Audience sizes vary, but usually a fairly large crowd shows up. I have not been able to get inside the black box theater in order to shoot inside, or examine the space, though I will either set up a tripod or bring a some kind of steadycam to document the show. I will arrive very early to the show to shoot people first entering the Cathedral and descending the stairs to the theater. After I've gotten a few establishing shots of the cathedral, I will either sit with a tripod and film a stream of people entering the auditorium, or follow a small group freely. (Many of these shots will vary depending on the number of people that show up and the shots that will be available given the confined space). Once the show starts, I will do my best to capture the action taking place on the stage itself with several long shots that either track or follow freely.(I will also make sure to increase my ISO setting on the camera and white balance as best I can in the theater setting). I will take a few shots of the crowd as well, though I believe audio will work well here to establish the crowd presence. Depending on how the show ends and how everyone ends up leaving, I will document either from the stage people filing out of the auditorium or as before, follow a small group. As the show is fairly long, I will try and get one each of the sketches in their entirety and take crowd shots during in-between moments.

(Alternative) Veteran's Day Parade

I arrive as soon as possible following my classes to the end of the parade route (The Old State Office Building). I will set up a tripod, meter for daylight and set my exposure settings for the most detail possible. I will capture the parade from a static viewpoint so that I do not miss any particular groups marching past. I will use very slight zooms and pans in order to highlight specific people in the parade and show some of the scale and avoid a purely stationary vantage point. Storyboard

Revision

Occupy Pittsburgh

For weeks, protestors have been participating in the global "Occupy Wall Street" locally by occupying the Mellon Green downtown in a tent city. On November 11th, I would go downtown in the afternoon and simply document any of the happenings taking place at the encampment. I would talk to people (simply conversationally after getting permission to film from the individual) in a non-documentary, non-formal fashion. I would talk to them about how they think the protest is progressing, what life is like in the encampment, and things of that nature. Aside from just speaking to protestors, there is also a "Multi-working group meeting" taking place on the 11th that would be a specific event to capture.

Veteran's Day Parade

Following my class ending at 1PM, I will drive downtown to Commonwealth center and boulevard of the allies to capture the end of the Veteran's Day Parade. To accomplish this, I will set up quickly with a tripod in at a good vantage point to watch the passing parade. I will pan across groups of people and zoom in to capture detail, while making sure to keep all camera movements slow and steady. Once the parade is over, I will get off the tripod and shoot freehand of the crowd dispersing or oberserving the parade further.
Storyboard
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