My new project

I'm going to start to chase Chicago crime and film it for a show.

As I'm sure many of you know, Chicago has the greatest numbers of murders of any U.S. city. Between midnight and 5 a.m. yesterday, 11 people were shot.

I'm doing this show for two reasons, first, to draw attention to the problem. Second, because I don't trust the police to both know and tell us the full story about Chicago crime.

So far I have one videographer and one person that's going to go on-camera with me for this project. A fourth person, a video editor, will also be involved.

That field crew takes up four seats in the car, so we're limited by that right now. If things go well, I'll rent a minivan with six seats and add a cast member and videographer, or a videographer and a field producer (someone who asks questions to develop the story) or a videographer and a sound person.

The videographer will be shooting on a Sony FX3 with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens or a 24mm f1.4 lens. It took me a while to get the firmware updated on the FX3, so hopefully that will pay off.

The series will primarily be filmed at night.

I currently have two major decisions to make:

1. Do I carry a camera? Does my on-camera partner carry a camera?

2. Do I film on a prime lens or a zoom lens? (translated: do I prioritize my videographer's ability to zoom or do I prioritize image quality?)

This is the last you'll be hearing of me for a bit. The first shoot date is Memorial Day weekend, so you'll hear more from me around then.

Marcus