The FIRST Robotics competition is a unique event.  Founded 20 years ago by Dean Kamen and Dr. Woodie Flowers, it has the goal of making the process of learning Math and Science cool by creating yearly challenges centered around a competition schedule and a unique culture of personal development and character.  This last weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the FIRST Championships, and this marks my  9th year of traveling to some enormous dome somewhere and following thousands of kids around while I make a quick video project.  Last year we really raised the bar with our shooting style by bringing in DSLRs and having a variety of lenses and I wanted to embrace Shane Hurlbut’s perspective of finding new ways to use the camera, different rigging, etc.  Last year came out well and I was pretty pleased with it, its been received well by other clients and has gotten me work with some of my new biggest accounts to date.

Going into this year, we were headed to a new venue and I had several new things being thrown at myself and my other cameraperson.  First off, this project operates under an incredibly tight deadline, we have three days to shoot pretty much everything that moves, transcode it and edit it in such a way that we capture the attention of 28,000 high school students who have just finished three days of robotic competition, sleep deprivation, a concert, confetti canons and who knows what else in addition.  That may sound like a small task, but it isn’t.  Additionally, we had to shoot a Black Eyed Peas concert and provide video wallpaper to use at the event for both the concert and other programs.

If that isn’t enough to balance in, we’ve been working with White Dwarf Productions on promos for FIRST Robotics this year by providing terabytes of footage over the last three years to create some videos featuring Morgan Freeman in which the lion share of the footage comes from my footage of past events.  You see, the little wrap video we do each year, which nearly kills me, is almost secondary to providing footage for FIRST’s marketing efforts for the rest of the year.  This means we shoot differently, we shoot a lot more than we need too, and this adds more stress to the post-production timeline.

I got to get away this year and get across the river from the St. Louis Arch with my gear and a MicroDolly to shoot some opening and closing shots.  I really enjoyed doing this and I stayed longer than I wanted to, but I kept playing with the light as it changed and eventually had to get myself to stop. It was the only time during the event where I only had to think about the shot, the rest of the time I had to be aware of what competitions where happening where, where Will.I.Am was, when did Morgan Freeman get there, when did the lego competition end, how far along in my edit am I, how much more transcoding is left? It was pretty freeing to be alone on top of a 70 foot platform and just getting to play. Im pretty pleased with these shots, but they by no means do anything but bookend the piece.  No matter how good the shot is,or how much you like it, I only have three to four minutes to tell a story, which is not a lot of time.

I even had to destroy a hour’s worth of Black Eyed Peas footage, and there are some shots in there that we some of the best I’ve done from a documentary perspective. That was hard.

I could go on about the mixed lighting conditions, about using the dolly in the middle of the competition, about my own sleep deprivation, the bad coffee, the worse food – but in the end, I hope you see what I see every year – our future.  These students will be at the core of nearly every major innovation for decades, they are inspired and they will be employed doing something that they have a love for, which is something I am lucky enough to do as well.  

I get to go do something I love everyday, even when Im exhausted, and for that I am thankful.

Check it out if you have the time.