How We Made This Segment

"Break-N-Beats" was originally conceived as a pre-production exercise for an upcoming AFI graduate thesis film, BUCKETS. As a team, we needed the hands-on experience of shooting a live street performance to generate development ideas for the script, and to get a sense for our future production needs. Showcasing the talent of these amazing street performers and presenting some history behind the art of bucket playing were the key ingredients.

We used three Panasonic cameras - two HVX200's and one DVX100 during two 90-minute shoots. On the first day we ran sound directly into the camera and captured the interview with a lavalier microphone. However, the sound quality was not optimal because we shot at a noisy intersection. To correct for this, on the second day we set overhead drum microphones on the buckets. Andrea did an excellent job of cutting the piece on an AVID using the six mini-dv tapes with separate non-synched audio tracks. Her final cut as a docu-style narrative was inspiring.

We are grateful for the support of SmogTV in helping us gain visibility for this project and our upcoming thesis film. SmogTV's mission of assisting emerging filmmakers to present their stories adds tremendous value to our community. We extend special thanks to Robert Kandle for his creative vision and community spirit in developing SmogTV.

If you would like more information about "Break-N-Beats," or our AFI thesis film, BUCKETS, email me at the address below. Please visit our website: www.bucketsthemovie.com.

Thank you for watching,

Todd Serlin (Producer)
bucketsmovie@aol.com