You know that rough law of life that “if something can go wrong it will at the worst possible time and in the biggest possible way?”

So much of this can be avoided, especially in the video and photo making world where unlike any other, we get one shot at getting it right. Except perhaps for a parachutist.

The secret I believe is the good old list. Before you start task, make a list of what you need to do and then for each task, make a list off what you need to have in terms of resources for that task. If you want to be super-efficient, you might want to add a time factor here per task as well.

Now as each task is completed, mark it off as complete and move on to the next; ideally schedule tasks in such a way that a finished task never has to be returned to and has some sort of connection with the next eg: you cannot edit footage unless you have shot it, but you CAN create DVD labels without having footage. To the smarties, this is called setting precedents and dependents.

Finally, when everything is complete, have a check list to tick off ensuring that all tasks have been completed. And double check it and don’t skip anything down to the nth degree.

(If you want an example of attention to details, I once saw a large satellite disc unpacked from a shipping crate and everything was in that crate to complete the job, right down to a small stapler with three staples in it to clip the paperwork together!)

These lists can then be used as templates for future tasks. Microsoft OneNote is an ideal application for this with its sections/tabs/pages metaphor and allowing virtually everything involved in a task to be stored from scribbled notes to video, audio, documents, web clippings and more.

And if you have a Windows based phone, you can carry it with you.

And that ladies and gentlemen is the shortest lesson in Project Management you will ever get. The next step is simply adding costing to tasks and resources.

If anything goes to show that a magazine technical review or even a friend’s recommendation is potentially not enough when buying a camcorder (or camera for that matter), then last weekend was proof enough for me.

For a few weeks now I have been playing with the latest Sony – a HCR-NX30P – and I like it a lot. But over the weekend an emergency call from Channel 9 / WIN necessitated in me filling in for my mate Ben (Biggles) (who is a rather good shooter and photographer just quietly)and his missus Jen as they were otherwise engaged filming a local “Idol” singing competition.

I was given the task of shooting the local footy (AFL) at Toolleen, 80Kms away, and backing up with getting a 15 minute grab of the A Grade Netball.

I have shot sport most of my life, mainly motor sport I admit, and know what the basics are and what a Director of Sport at a TV station wants. I also knew the camera, perhaps not as well as my Canon HV30, but well enough to shoot this sort of job.

Where it fell short of ideal, was, as always, in the simplest of areas. In this case the zoom level of the Sony.

Simply for AFL, the 10x was not long enough. This is NOT a fault of the camera I hasten to add, but a choice of the wrong tool for the job i.e. MY fault. In spades.

My Canon, setup for motor sport, also has 10x, but I have a 2x converter bandaged to the front which makes all the difference.

Easy as that. The Sony was akin to using a pair of scissors to cut a lawn or a screwdriver to strip down a V8 engine. It was never going to work.

In field testing, I have had the Sony at a deb ball, to shoot a TV news clip of a road accident and to capture footage of a Parrot Drone and it has been superb in every area within that scope. But for AFL, it is just not the right beast.

Lesson learnt. Check FULLY the potential usage of a camcorder before shelling out the hard earned.

One thing I have learned over the last few weeks it is that planning is paramount. I have often reminded myself that you cannot get to where you are going if you don’t know how to get there. And this applies to something as large building up a business and setting its goals or planning a shoot for a single scene in a home movie.

There are a number of tools available to assist in this area and I have spent quite some time in looking around to see what things can help me.

Personally, firstly my best friend is a whiteboard. There are many applications on a computer that mimic the physical whiteboard, but I still prefer the feel of a whiteboard and pen in my hand that I can then step back from and mull over the stuff I just wrote/drew.

Next I use Brain7 which allows me to brain storm and mind map subjects that are linked, with a back end database that has the ability to store subject matter inside it such as associated documents, audio and video files, internet links and lots, lots more.

Microsoft Project is my Project Management of choice; it does need some understanding of the discipline (which thankfully I was given many years ago) and this allows me to make sure resources and assets don’t clash and are used to maximum usage.

I have become a great fan of TV’s ‘Dragon’s Den’ and Lord Alan Sugar’s ‘The Apprentice’ as the business advice imparted on these shows is invaluable. So good in fact I have bought all the associated books for my Kindle and absorbed as much as I can.

The two things that are pushed on these shows is to understand your costs and to put your products in front of people that can buy. As such, Excel is invaluable and I keep track of every single receipt for ANYTHING to work out my costs on an ongoing basis.

But the really important thing I find, is the end game. Just WHAT am I trying to achieve. Unless I know and understand this to the nth degree, the rest is for nought. It is not enough to say “lots of money”, or “get published” or “make a movie”. These vague goals have to be broken into component parts to make sure they are a finite thing. So “lots of money” might be $1 million or $100,000, getting published could be writing a horror novel of 200 pages and seeing it on the shelf in a bookshop, or in the Kindle bookstore and “make a movie” could be a serious entry in Tropfest. Then and only then can you plan to reach the physical goal when the actual definition is nailed down.

Think of it like this. You might have as a goal “I want to travel”. An admirable pursuit. But to where, and when and for how long and to do what and how? Without those more finite decisions to work toward and plan for, they are simply dreams and not goals.

Footnote: Thanks very much for the monstrous personal feedback from last week’s Hydrapinion. If it helped just one person, I feel justified in my somewhat pontification. But I make no apology as this is a very serious subject, very close to my heart, and I welcome any correspondence or discussion on it 24/7 via phone or email. My details are freely available at www.auscamonline.com

I am going to digress away from the norm in today’s Hydrapinion to touch on a subject that is rather close to my heart. I hope you dear reader, are not too disappointed and will bear with me.

The business of film-making and its component tasks can at times be a little lonely. Writers hide themselves away awaiting the inspirational spark, editors tuck themselves into their dimly lit editing suites and beaver away for untold hours cutting and dicing, special effects bods play around with After Effects and other compositing products and 3D artists push and pull polygons.

You might sneak out once in a while to top up the coffee mug or brew another pot of tea, all too often we ingest Red Bull-like drinks in far too much quantity and more often than not, we work until all hours of the night on these labours of love.

So while we have people around us, as we live in this fantasy like world of film creation, we are very much alone in many cases, with our ideas, thoughts, and problems.

Some time ago, there was a campaign put in place by Beyond Blue suggesting that once in a while, we check our mates and ask the question “Are you OK?” I absolutely endorse this. I recall a few years ago on previously broaching this subject having a faint acquaintance contacting me via email and thanking me as they had seriously been considering taking their own life. They had gone past the point of coping and apparently I had jolted them to seek professional help. I understand they are now well on the way to recovery. (I know “they” is not grammatically correct here BTW. I am using it to hide the gender to stop any speculation of “who”).

But I’d like to flip the question a bit; instead of asking “Are you OK”, why not once in a while ask “Am I OK?” And be brutally honest. Evaluate your life, what you are doing, ascertain whether some things have got out of hand or even out of control and do a mental check list.

There is a technique called mind mapping that can assist here.

It may just stop you going down a road inadvertently that can be a little hard to reverse out of without some serious guidance.

And that can happen to all of us.

There is an old adage that when you get a disability such as deafness or blindness that other senses improve to compensate. I have had reason to test that of late and it’s true!

You see I have somehow managed to mangle a radial nerve in my left hand (so I am told) and cannot at the moment type with it. As a writer that is a tad limiting as you can imagine. A bit like a drummer in a rock band breaking an ankle or a basketballist an arm.

So what is a man to do? In effect I get paid by the number of words I type, and the pay rates in this biz are bad enough as it is.

The solution was to break out the Plantronic headset that has been packed since moving here and fire up Dragon Dictate.
I have used DD many times in the past, and even go back to a “you-speak-it-types” package put out by Creative back in the early 90s. They have all worked more or less, and although I have tried to go the whole hog with them, at some point I break the habit – either due to the profile crashing (and I can’t be bothered building a new one) or the environment has not been conducive to voice dictation (people around etc).

This time though it has been forced on me and it still works. Sure I am not yet using it to full capacity and doing the full Picard, but it’s a start and at least is getting me out of the barbed wire canoe in the cess pit.

Oh and the compensating sense? Budweiser the dog’s bodily functions smell worse!