Skype vs. United Airlines… In This Case Skype Wins. Directing Video From 6,000 Miles Away

OK…. before I even start let me say that what I’m about to write is cool and all.. but THIS tale of directing SURGERY via text messages is a billion times more important.

Anyway…

Last Saturday night here in Spain (SaturDAY in San Francisco) we were shooting a video for a customer. It was an interesting experiment in needing to COMMUNICATE subtle needs/desires over a somewhat challenged medium (Skype)  — and of using Skype as a remote camera monitor. It was this or flying back. To sum up the experiment:  if I had really NEEDED to direct in great detail (calling cuts, etc.) this would NOT have worked. But we knew going in that this level of detail was not going to be necessary. The tools worked well enough for me to be able to talk with the actor early on (after observing for a while) and set a certain tone … and the awesome crew (including a “director on the ground”) could take it from there. So… in this case Skype beat United Airlines. At some point I might write more seriously about this.. (and I’ll try to get Dylan and Ben to write about it from their perspectives in SF)… but for now here is a light-hearted reverse chronological look at the evening/day in the form of a screengrab of my posts on my Facebook wall.