A few months back I started working with United Way of North Idaho in crafting a promotional film, similar to the one I had completed for United Way of Spokane a year prior (links to both below). It was an excellent opportunity to improve upon the last one and put into practice the new skills I had learned since.
After a few weeks of going back and forth we settled on filming late April/early May. The hardest part of this for me was finding talent. I'm not exactly a socialite, or someone who finds asking people I don't know for help easy. Lucky, film-&-animation master Keith Lango knew some organizations that could help. For this, I went through MaM. What's great about MaM is their flexibility. I gave them a price bracket and they gave me choices. Since this piece was a donated, I had a pretty slim personal budget to pull from.
Once the talent was locked down, the next task was squaring away a shotlist and look. Keith was the largest contributor of help here - from supplying gear, to DPing the staged sequences, to giving helpful tips and pointers throughout the shoot. A well seasoned film-maker and animator, he has a plethora of experience to draw from. This project would not be what it is without his input and help. Biggest thing for me was his advice for working with actors. Even though the staged sequences are a small percentage of the final piece, it was my first time working with people I didn't know in the least - he helped me to frame what I was looking for and explain it to them. By explaining what a character is feeling, the actor is then able to use their skill of interpretation to bring it to life. That tip was invaluable.
For gear I mainly used my Canon C100mkii, though Keith was (yet again) kind enough to bring in his (much larger) toys - the Alexa EV Classic - boy was that awesome! Growing up, Alexa has always been considered the "Rolls Royce" of cameras with RED being the more-common-yet-still-expensive porsche. This is a camera you think about more in a theoretical-"that'd be fun, wouldn't" sense. To actually get to use one though...
I think the two cameras cut together pretty darn nice. The Canon shot in 1080p 8-bit 4:2:2 color while the Alexa was 2k 4:4:4:4. You can tell which is which if you're paying attention (it's an Alexa...so yeah), but they align well on the whole.
The original Spokane County United Way film is below.