First Pass Edit: MR248 - Forging a Bottle Opener

YouTube Link: youtu.be/HH2SEEN-Pqk

This FPE has a runtime of 2:18:41, only 23.0% of our footage was used in the episode.

• Edited Episode: youtu.be/OXRMF_vTQW0
• FPE Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp0X6DVFEcil7oLxZ67SsMp5rGkGb8fn

This seems like one of those FPEs that really enrich the episode. Even though the episode gets across all of the important bits, I think there's some real value to seeing the whole process in its entirety.

We feared this one was going to take an eternity, there was a possibility of stretching the shoot across 2 days, which was a daunting prospect. Early call time, long drive, and ultimately once the forge was fired up and cameras prepped -- it ended up only taking some 2-3 hours. Of course, that doesn't mean we didn't have our fair share of production issues though.

At least one of our mic packs has been on the fritz lately, causing tons of audio static cutting through the recording. You might remember me lamenting this in the post for the ringen FPE, and it's a similar situation here. I've tried to drop all of the static hits by 10dB so that you aren't assaulted by the sound, but in the interest of reflecting an accurate depiction, I didn't remove them entirely.

We also left behind a few of our largest memory cards, which had me on edge when I was expecting something like a 6+ hour shoot spilling over into a second day. This is part of the reason we went with only 2 cameras, I was trying to conserve data storage -- but we were also down a camera operator, as John was out of town and had a delayed flight. I might have still only kept 2 cameras even if everything was running smoothly though, because like our previous bladesmithing experience, I find that the additional mobility that comes with only 2 cameras on shoulder mounts gives you a lot more opportunity to get varied shots and allows you to more easily adapt to how quickly the scenes change at any given moment.

Bryce and I had to operator our cameras through not the clearest of goggles, which while it's certainly better than losing an eye, that might explain a few out of focus moments. Oh, also Anthony was there! He just kind of helped out in the background of things, but it's always fun to have friends of the show drop by.

Anyway, lot of little bits here that didn't make it into the episode!

Brandt H. -- editor, camera operator