This is my first individual project. I decided to take a video production class during my penultimate term of college, as I had great interest in producing videos but no understanding of how to do it. The assignment: make a music video. Seems easy enough, however I knew almost nothing about operating a camera prior to this class, so this proved to be quite the challenge. In the beginning, my technical abilities were sub-par at best. I made errors while focusing, and terms like f-stop and shutter speed were essentially meaningless to me.

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But I kept working at it, and soon after I discovered how to create what I was imagining.  Then I focused on developing my story. I knew about a data visualization room which has 24 synchronized screens on one wall, and I wanted to develop a narrative which incorporated it. I decided to use the screens for a color changing effect, so I marked beats in the song and filled the gaps with colorful computer backgrounds. That was the foundation of the story and I developed it from there. For weeks I constructed optical illusions, expanded the narrative, and tested camera techniques. I really didn't know what I was doing, but I had a strong belief I could make my idea a reality.

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I convinced my friend to rent out a 5d III which I couldn't access until an hour before shooting in the data visualization room. This was the first time I used a DSLR for video, and it was slightly overwhelming. Until then, I had limited experience with DSLRs; limited to very automated photography. We had been taught the basics on Panasonic HMC-40 broadcast cameras, a significantly different piece of equipment. I took the skills I learned on that camera and attempted to transfer those basic techniques to the DSLR.