Videos
After doing a million and one on-camera interviews with mixed results and watching my colleagues be poorly represented in video pieces in mainstream online and broadcast media, I decided that it was high time I learn how to shoot and edit video. Video is an important tool in contemporary media, and with the ever-growing obsession with YouTube and other user-generated video sites, web video will only take a firmer hold on the way people experience the media.
I shoot with a hi definition video camera, the Canon HV20, which is small and unassuming but produces clear and professional HD images. I use professional sound recording equipment as well - shaky images are sometimes forgivable, but videos are unwatchable if the sound is bad! I edit video using Final Cut Pro, a professional video editing software product that runs on Macs.
I am interested in making video for the web that captures my subjects’ character and empowers them to speak for themselves and relate their world view in a way that makes them proud. Having been through the ringer of mainstream media appearances, including an interview on CNN Headline News during the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal in March 2008 (click link to view clip), I understand how challenging it can be to speak on camera and get your message across. If you are looking for someone to shoot a promotional video of you, help to create a media reel, or do video coverage of an event you are a part of, drop me an email at dacia[at]wakingvixen.com and let me know what you’re looking for.
Currently I produce two video podcast shows, both of which are available for free on iTunes. Live Girl Review, which covers sex media and culture features me as the host; Naked City TV is produced for the Village Voice blog Naked City and focuses on interesting people in the world of sexuality.
In addition to the podcasts, I frequently use video to cover events. The following is a video I shot at the first fundraising event for non-profit public education project Sex Work Awareness in March 2008. The video, which includes speeches by three of the organizations founding members as well as two elected officials, has been successfully used as a fundraising tool for SWA.
Below is an example of an episode of Naked City TV:
At the Culture Project in SoHo in mid-April, Heather Woodbury’s “The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World” ran for one night only as part of the Women Center Stage 2008 festival.
Woodbury, who is an 2007 OBIE Recipient for Ensemble Performance and a 2006 inaugural Spalding Gray Award, has crafted a one-woman performance that confronts high and low culture attitudes about sexuality and the sex industry. In this episode of Naked City TV, Woodbury talks a bit about her inspiration for the piece and it’s characters, and we get a few glances at some pieces of the play.