Great to hear that the interaction with the Iranian people was so positive. Nice to know the news is not all bad.

Good luck on getting a deal together and out to where lots of people can see it.

For those of you who are interested; the basic message of the story is that all the people we met in Iran (and we met 1000's) were not just friendly/hospitable towards us but they are positively pro-American. I had many personal one-on-one interactions with people all around the country to back this up. This is in stark contrast to what <just about> everyone believes would be the case. I attribute this to a combination of how the national media represents Iran, what our own government would have us believe, and just what our own silly fears/misconceptions lead us to believe.

Actually its quite well known by those who care, that Iran is full of pro americans, especially within the university crowds there in Iran. There are many progressive students and professors who are constantly being held down by the government which is religious and conservative to say the least.

It really depends on who you spoke too i beleive. Generally the youth and college crowd in Iran are Pro Americans, thanks to Iranian media broadcast out of America that they watch, their professors etc... There is a huge movement there. Its the older crowd, the extremely religious sections that are the "old" iran. This is why Most here in America feel they can win over Iran through appealing to their youth who are very pro democracy and civil rights.

Anyways.. Have Fun editing it! I bet there is tons of footage. Will you be translating and subtitling it? Where will this final peice air?

Actually its quite well known by those who care.

I certainly don't doubt this is known by those who know it. I am now one of those people (and I also cared before... but I just never found myself in a situation to directly question my understanding). I also totally agree with everything else you say.

But.. there is a vast majority (according to my own non-scientific survey) that do not know this.. and I am sure they are also people who care... they just need to be presented with the question/issue. My "survey" includes people from all walks of life/education in both the USA and UK.

Anyhow... didn't want this to start into an OT post.... ... maybe I should go over to the new "forum" to continue this line of the discussion if need be.

As for where it will air and such questions. That IS the big question that I have not begun to answer yet. Ideas are appreciated however!

Thanks

-Liam

here is a vast majority (according to my own non-scientific survey) that do not know this..

Yeah most people wouldnt be aware of it, however it has been reported on cnn on many occasions, even given indepth reports (not just those 3 minute "news stories") I'm sure most folks dont realize that iran has a very progressive youth movement, nor do they know about the out of country broadcasted stations that iranians watch which contain free thought and new ideas. But hey thats your job now! :)

Any good stories on problems you had to over come. Weather, power, permissions etc.

Glad you made it back with a lot of footage. Did you review your days shots to keep track of what you had to compare to some master shot list. I know even if I don't know what the end product will be, as I work on something I start building a shot list - which gets added to as I shoot based upon what happens in the real world. Stories change from beginning to end in an unknown setting and so I change the shot list as I go, but I do like to double check my "master list".

Did you run into any people who did not want to be filmed. Do you run into groups all trying to get on camera?

If you could have brought one thing that you didn't have with you, what would it be?

How would you approach this project differently today based upon what you know now?

Tell us what you took with you.

As for the trepidation, last summer I went with a youth choir of about 30 kids (14-18 years of age) to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. There was a LOT of anguish on the part of parents about letting their child go on the tour, given the apparent European hostilty towards the war and America on the TV.

By contrast, we had a great time; people were genuinely happy to hear the kids perform, and in one small village in Austria they gave a 5-minute standing ovation that led to an encore. I did not sense any contrived enthusiasm on anyone's part. I brought back about 30 hours of video and produced a 2-disk DVD set (some clips are on the Chienworks site).

I guess it helped that the kids were pretty good singers. Incidentally, I am leaving in one week on a nearly identical tour, this time with a 40-member choir of kids aged 10-14. I'm bringing my "surround-sound" rig with me, and hope I remember to turn on the Minidisc recorder (for the rear 2 channels) every time I shoot.

As the poster said, power in Iran is held by the Mulllahs and their extremely violent hordes of fanatics. I feel bad for the people who are hoping for a more progressive country.

Weather, Power:
No problems with either. Weather was just fine (warm and no rain). I had all the right gear to keep my stuff charged.

Permissions:
This is an odd one. If you are going to Iran to perform "journalistic activities" you are supposed to get a visa specifically for this. But... in doing so it may have complicated my visa application (which I applied for just 3-weeks before the trip began). As I am an "unknown" as far as journalism and documentary film-making I decided to takje a chance. My equipment did not look out of place as I was with scientists and astronomers who had a lot of equipment to cover the venus transit. I never encountered any problem related to this... but I suspect that was a bit of luck. I was going to rely upon my wits to talk my way out of anything... just a risk I was willing to take.

Keeping track of things:
I did not go through all the shots I did as I went along. I was effectively tagging along on an arranged tour and we mostly had 18 hour days of things to do. I kept a journal of everything we did...so I had an idea of what was going on. My story was focused mostly around the interactions between this group and the locals..so I was basically just a fly-on-the-wall for most of the time. I also engineered a few situations by myself. For example: after I had been there a few weeks and felt safe/comfortable with the local people I went out on my own one night and followed my instincts at what followed from that (I met a young Iranian guy who invited me to go along with him to a special music recital). There was only one point (and I feel stupid about it now) that I felt I may have been "kidnapped". It is a long story... but suffice it to say the situation ended up very positively with one of the most rewarding parts of the story. In other words... the risk paid of for the documentary.

People who did not want to be filmed:
Yes... I have captured audio from several situations where I had people tell me it was dangerous (for them) to be filmed.

People all trying to get on camera:
Not really or at least not more than what I had expected. There were the usual groups of young boys who were all trying to play up in front of the camera but I did not find a situation where people would want to spend hours in front of the camera. I do have numerous video of some people who spoke reasonable english stating their point that Americans should not feel afraid of travelling to Iran... which is partly what I was looking for.

If I could have brought one thing with me:
Number one: An assistant (or 2nd videographer). The assitant would have helped out enourmously. Mostly as sometimes I was the catalyst for certain interactions and it is very difficult to be both the person interacting and also the videographer.

Number 2 would have been a real good steadicam. Although having a steadicam would have made me look even more of a professional and that would have got in the way of what I was trying to achieve.

different approach:
I went into this at the last minute (as I found out about the tour just about 1 month prior to the start). In an ideal world I would have had much more time to prepare. The assistant thing is just about the most important part. I would have found time to do more "locked-down" shots. As it was I was busy following people around it became just about impossible to bring along my tripod to all the places we went. I did have a very good shoulder mount that I found very useful.. but still not the same.

I also would have probably have tried to engineer more of my own interactions that I managed to this time around. Maybe it is just that I came out of it without getting "found out" by the Iranian "Mullahs"/police. In any case, knowing what I now know I may have risked a little more and at least tried to get in front of some of the more millitant parts of the community. In particular while we were there the British embassy had rioting/deonstrations outside. If I had been able to get down and see (possibly film) some of this.. that would have been great.

Thanks for the questions.

Stuff I took with me:

Cameras:
PD170 (my best camera)
TRV900 (my third best camera).

I left my other VX200 at home... as I wanted to have the flexibility of a slightly smaller camera in order to be more "invisibile" if I needed to. In fact my TRV900 was not quite invisible enough.

Batteries:
Just two 8 hour batteries. Usual charger. Usual power converter.

Audio:
I had two wireless mics with me. I got to use them quite a bit.

Lighting:
My on camera light (from NRG) with various filters (including a daylight filter). I used this a bit but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I just could not easily lug the gear around with me wherever I went... and it made me look too professional. If I had an assistant I would have used it more.

Support: I had a shoulder support that I purchased from Varizoom. This was very useful and worked out very nicely. When I used it around other professional videographers (the tour was featured on a national Iranian TV program) I had lots of interest in this gadget!

Tape: I brought along 30 Sony DVCAM 40 minute tapes. I had lots of trouble with these tapes. My camera kept reporting humidity problems (some oddball error code and you have to eject the tape). Initially I thought I really had humidity issues as there were times I was moving from air-conditioned coach to the hot dry air. However I found out later this had nothing to do with it. The tapes that I used still come up with the error even now... and I just have to quickly fast-forward the tapes past a few seconds of taope at the begiining. In discussions with others since the trip... the suggestions is that the tapes needed to be re-tensioned (by fast-forwarding and rewinding each one before use).

Tripod: I brought along a small bogen tripod / 501 head with a remote handle. Again... didn't use this as much as I had intended. If I had it to do again and had more time to spend at the locations and and assistant I would have used it more.

Case: I had a great carry-case for the cameras and lots of the gear that doubled as a backpack and converted to a wheely carry-on case.

70% of the population are under 30. I hope that statistic means that eventually things are changed for the better without a "big" revolution needing to ocurr.