Len Johnson's blog

About Me

   Hi.  This is a chronicle of my adventures in completing my latest documentary, "U of A Against Polkey," and highlights of other news and experiences in the world of journalism and documentaries, along with life experiences that drove me to pursue this storytelling passion.  I am an award-winning television news reporter and anchor who is now a documentary filmmaker and first grade teacher.  I anchored, reported and did the weather in Chicago, Baltimore and Phoenix.  Before that, I was a newspaper reporter and editor.

 My last documentary, "Last of the Spanish Mustangs", won numerous awards and screened at over 30 film festivals in the U.S. and abroad.  Portions of this documentary appeared on ABC's "Nightline", and 1/2 hour versions aired on network affiliates in the U.S. and drew big ratings.

   To quote old Winston Churchill: Never, never, quit.  I live by this.  Keep trying.  No matter what happens, you're a success if you push through and persevere.

    

No makeup, quick lighting and good sound

   This little clip may not look like much, but it is liberating for me.  The light in my office is constantly dim and different when I close the window shades.  It is great for quick lighting practice. 

   Also, I'm finally convinced to get rid of makeup in my productions.  It's not real and the Canon 5d Mark II doesn't pick up shine off faces that other cameras do.

   And I'm liking the zoom h4n for audio. Here's the little clip.

 

   

Lessons in selling documentaries

   I wanted to share an experience I had with "Last of the Spanish Mustangs."  

   It did well on the festival circuit.  An agent by the name of Richard Propper out of Encino picked it up.  Seemed like a nice enough guy, maybe he is deep down, maybe not.

   Two years after the festival run, Propper told me there was a sale from RAI TV of Italy.  Huge outfit, the PBS of Italy with something like a 48 percent market share at the time.

   Twelve thousand dollars for six airings.  Wow.  Potential for more European distribution.  Double wow.

   Propper told me to get to work recutting the audio so RAI could use an Italian narration over my voice.

   If you've never pulled apart a one-hour documentary (cut down from the original 1:12 in the first place), I can tell with all my heart that it is a brutal and painstaking process.

   It took me a month.  I was working full time during the day and editing on final cut at night.  I literally had to recut the entire show.  

   When I finished, RAI said there were technical problems.  I rechecked the master.  Smooth.  I called the local Tucson production company that has a great reputation for detail.  No problems.

    I pressed Propper and RAI for more technical information.  I got long-winded speculation from Propper and two-sentence broken English from RAI through him.  They jotted down a couple time codes that I couldn't make sense of.

   The deal fell through.  I spent a thousand dollars in dubbing fees for a master.  Santa Monica Video, Propper's digi-beta house, went out of their way not to provide any information.

    I learned.  Get specifics in writing and at least some money up front before you spend a month working for someone on a spec buy.  Make sure your agent communicates that the deal is not final.  Make sure you have something in writing from the buyer, not just an agent's word.

   Propper sold RAI another show during that "market".  

   I'm not angry.  Just wiser. 

5d cinestyle zeiss lens

  Here's some landscape, face, real lowlight and bright daytime light shots with the zeiss lens and Canon 5d Mark II.  The zeiss is a 50 mm,  but has great depth of field, unlike the 50 mm Leica/hvx outfit I sold to get the 5d.  If you watch the video, I will tell you more.

 

  So I hope I told you more.  It is a nice lens, but again, I like having the 24-105 l series and even the ef, too, for certain situations.  The zeiss, overall, but...the ef 70-300 tight and still is nice!  The zeiss has the best quality blown up, but it's very close with the 5d and I'm not sure you could tell if you weren't really geeking out and looking for differences. And I read in filmmaker blogs that they use Canon l series lenses, even the 24-105 in some scenes, and do just great blown up on the big screen at Sundance, SXSW and the like.

   The bottom line though, with the 5d:  I shoot more.  I enjoy shooting more than ever!  Less bulk, more freedom, less inhibition.

 

Down and dirty motion graphics

   When I think back to all the work I would have had to do to create this basic Motion graphic 20 years ago, I go ahh.  I'm graphically illliterate and even I can produce something that begins to look decent in a short amount of time.  This is 15 minutes of tweaking a pre-built template in Motion, the Apple moving 3-d thing stuff application.

    

    All I did was take off layers, change a little color and, wa-la.  I didn't look up a tutorial and simply hit undo when I messed up. 

    The first graphic is the pre-built custom; the others are tweaked.  I have more with font colors that stand out, but hey, this is good, I feel.   My point is that you really can build neat stuff by just starting with the template layers and clicking around.

  

5d Mark II Cinestyle

   I like the look of the 5d Mark II Cinestyle setting.  I also like the Canon tech support who helped me download the setting into my camera.

      

           The slo-mo is not in camera, but rather final cut x.  Happy with all these options.  Lens is Canon L series 24-105 f 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

5d, final cut x color correction and ef lenses

    I like final Cut X because you can isolate parts of a picture to color correct.  You can use an eye dropper to choose a color or a shape tool to correct in squares or circles.

   There are a lot of good tutorials that I used on Youtube.  I also have discovered that the Canon ef zoom lenses are not to be trashed.  They don't produce great results wide open when the lens moves at all, but when they are on a tripod for a still cinema shot, zoomed in for massively shallow depth of field, they can look throw a really nice image.

   Here's a short sample of what I'm talking about:

 

 

Fast and furious, gun walking and Brian Terry

   I  don't live too far from where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot by someone from Mexico roaming around in the Atascosa Mountains after 11 at night.

   Agent Terry's a hero to me.  He and the Border Patrol protect my family every day. I just looked out my window and saw them tearing into the dark abyss that is the final 15 miles of southern Arizona before it hits Mexico. 

   Calm, serene and a bit scary at this time of night.  Breathtaking and inspiring any other time.  Gorgeous country.  Pines in one mountain range, desert cliffs on another.  Grasslands, mesas and mesquite.  Country to die for. 

   It's surfacing now that Agent Terry was killed by an AK-47 sent by the U.S. to Mexico.  His parents are suing the government for 25 million dollars.  The reason it was a U.S. government rifle that killed Terry, according to CBS news reports, is that the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco and Firearms was allowing Mexican arms dealers to buy "thousands" of guns to take to Mexico.  The U.S. government videotaped the weapons buyers here in Arizona and let them go back to Mexico with guns that reportedly--and the sources were vague--killed people in Mexico.   The hope was that the sale of the arms and subsequent trail to the arms buyers would lead the U.S. to the big guys running the drug cartels in Mexico. 

   As a journalist (newspaper reporter; television reporter in markets such as Chicago, Baltimore and Phoenix), I think it's a story that needs to be told.  We need to have a clue to as to what our government is up to when it involves weapons and foreign countries (Iran-Contra ring an old bell?).  

   However, as a first-grade teacher and parent who waves at young men heading in to do battle against these sickening drug runners and bandits, I applaud any effort to get to the nasty people behind it all.  After all, Mexico isn't going to do it.  How are we going to stop these guys if we don't try to find a way to get to them?  Got any better ideas?  

    You don't see an issue until you live it.  When you cover it as a reporter, you don't know it like a father and man who jogs in that country.   I've come to feel that a lack of personal "bias" is a good thing and a bad thing.  It can keep you neutral.  It can also distance you from the reality needed to tell a full story.  

   Nobody but a few hunters go into this incredibly beautiful area of the Coronado National Forest any more.  The drug runners own it.  How are we going to catch them?  Really?  Wait for them and shuttle them back to the border?  Arrest them and hope the next drug runner doesn't come?

   Okay.  Perhaps the gun walking to Mexico, called operation Fast and Furious, needed to stop.  The problem with the idea comes from allowing the guns to go back to Mexico.  We needed to bust the buyers, take their guns and make them talk.  We needed to...to... heck, I don't know what we need, and neither do reporters based out of New York.   

    But as a man who needs the protection that only the U.S. Border Patrol can provide, I hope another plan is thought up soon.  And I hope it's something that goes beyond asking the Mexican government to work with us. 

 

 

 

David Brinkley

   I did a lot of different things in television.  One of those things was hosting a talk and news show called "Houston This Morning."

   For the first two weeks, we had no teleprompter.  I interviewed guests, bantered with my perky co-host and did the weather without a script.  Tight budget.  I thought it was great. Freedom!

   We had some cool guests on that show.  Not the chefs.  Chefs are never fun.  They are the only people I know with uniformly larger egos than those of us who were hosting the program.  But my favorite of the program and of all time was David Brinkley.  He was a long-time network news anchor. 

   He stuck around after his interview until the show ended.  We found out each other fished, he having grown up in North Carolina and me in Montana.  We talked more.  We talked for nearly an hour.  He was interested in my life.  Of course, I was interested in his.

   What a nice man.  I've interviewed as many celebrities as the next bloke--don't get me started on Keanu Reeves.  Aargh.   Larry King?  Great guy! David Brinkley, though, gets my all-time humble guy who is a real person award.  I was truly saddened when he passed. 

Act of Valor reviews

    Well, I must respond to the critics of the film "Act of Valor".  I am a champion of the film, since it was mostly shot on the 5d Mark 2.  However, it's the drama and intense action that kept me involved while watching it. 

    I like the film for the very reasons that the critics didn't.  It used Navy Seals as main characters and lots of physical, realistic operations to drive the storyline.  Perhaps briefly explaining some of my background might help validate this view.

   I know critics.  I mean I really know them.  I spent over 20 years on the air in the television industry.  While I was working as a weekday reporter and fill-in anchor and weathercaster at the Fox station in Chicago, Richard Roeper was beginning his transition from newspaper to television.

   He was nervous. He was also very likable at that time.  

   I showed him how to put on makeup.  I told him I hated makeup, but that it was necessary, and while I was applying the base and powder on top and lighter powder on the nose and middle of the forehead, he asked if he was sweating and asked how much he should look at the camera.  He was humble and committed to being good at what he did.  He cared about each review.  He wanted to be unbiased.  You get to know a guy when you are putting makeup on his face.  I wonder if he remembers this now, 18 years later. 

   What I thought was great about Richard Roeper on the air at the time in our dark, bat cave-like Chicago studios, is that he had substance.  He was not a polished on-air personality. He spoke in fairly bland, stilted tones, but he was sincere and lived what he said.  He believed every word.

   As I read his and other critics' viewpoints that Act of Valor should have had a more complex script and put more seasoned actors in front of the camera, I can't help but think about what draws us all to a performance.  Is it from the heart? Do the people saying the words believe what they are saying?  In the case of Richard Roeper then and the Seals in Act of Valor now, I say yes.

  Critics don't realize how smooth and jaded they become behind their computers.  Some lose their sincerity.  The two Navy Seals I've been around don't talk like articulate actors.  They talk like the Seals in the movie and like Richard Roeper from the early 90s: A little monotone, not too polished, and direct. I happen to like that. 

   The large audience in the theater applauded at the end of Act of Valor.  They are the real critics.  And no, I am not a Rush Limbaugh right winger, although I do support our troops.  I hold no political bias here.  If you saw my documentary titled "Last of the Spanish Mustangs," you might label me as left.  If you heard me on pro life issues, you might label me right. I tend to vote the candidate and the issue, not the party line.

   I am also a champion of the film's director of photography, Shane Hurlbut.  Shane gives every independent producer with a tiny budget and 5D Mark 2 camera hope.  As I watch Shane being interviewed along with the film's producers, I notice Shane has the class and restraint of not swearing. 

  I didn't like that the film's producers swore freely in the interview I saw.  Big turn off.  Shane also comes with high praise from my wife's uncle, Kim Haun.  Kim is an LA-based freelance photographer who has worked on big projects and recalls Shane's dedication in his early days as a grip.  

  Humility and sincerity.  I like it in the film's dp, I liked it in a young critic, and I like it in the actors and script in Act of Valor.

 

 

 

 

Exercise is good

      There is a book I'm reading for my continuing education series called Brain Rules.  It's this year's featured read at the school where I teach first grade.  

      The entire first chapter talks about the overwhelmingly positive benefits of exercise.  It speaks a lot about Jack LaLanne, the man who invented exercise tv.  He is living proof of the power of exercise.  The author also cites exercise as reducing 12 kinds of cancer and cutting your chances of Alzheimer's by 60 percent.

      Woah. Stop on that last one.  60 percent.  That sticks in my mind as I jog the trail into the national forest behind my house or take my daughter to the high school track and watch her bail into the high jump mats with other kids.  ( I did both tonight...March in Arizona...gotta love it.)

      I feel better.  I do better.  I manage my emotions and feel as though tough things are going to get handled. 

      Viva la exercise!  I'm done typing and am going...right to bed.  I'll exercise in the morning.  So, I'd like to add, viva la exercise when the time is optimal but on a regular basis!