Inauguration version 2.0

So I went to inauguration with 1.8 million of my closest friends. The idea was to do a documentary, blog about it, and do streaming video via ustream.tv. I built the site and added a channel on ustream, and found this great site where you can stream from your phone! www.qik.com which would have been perfect... if I had a Blackberry Curve and didn't have a Palm Centro. Oh well. It was still an amazing experience, technical difficulties aside. Really, what I should have done in retrospect was the day after the election, reserved a room in downtown DC walking distance to the Capitol.

There were a good 40-50 other 1-3 person documentary teams floating around as well, many doing interviews with folks in different languages. For as large of a crowd and how crazy packed it was, everyone was really nice and polite (except the hotel we got last minute, but that's another debacle...), which was awesome and I didn't worry about my equipment then getting stolen. Damaged, yes, but not ripped off. My equipment: Panasonic HVX200, shooting in HD 720 24pn. I rented additional equipment from the Camera Dept here in Cincinnati including 2 16gb p2 cards and a wide angle lens adapter. I forgot my lens cap, but no damage was done to it. Had plenty of batteries, but navigating the crowd was a pain. I wish I would have caught up with my friend/colleague Stephanie who was in from NYC to help me shoot it.

Dumping the footage, I didn't get as good of stuff as I was hoping. I didn't have time in between shots to white balance, and it shows. I was hoping to have a full feature, but at this point, I am thinking I will have to go back and get pickup shots and change the theme of it to get any kind of usable content.

But it was history. We met some awesome people and had amazing conversations with complete strangers. It was like a big family reunion because everyone was so friendly and kind (well when they weren't rushing around) but even then folks would stop you if you dropped something and hand it to you. There will never be another event like it. And I was grateful to be there to see it.