The most important strategy for archiving one’s own work is to have a system. This is fairly easy to do and implement. The most important feature of this system that I’m about to explain is taken from diverse sources. The book called Getting things done by David Allen should be on your reading list. This book is too good to pass. It will help your productivity exponentially if you implement part of what the book suggests.
Getting Things Done, commonly abbreviated as GTD, is a time management method or in other words a commitment management method. GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of their mind and get them recorded somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate fully on actually performing those tasks.
I strongly recommend using a real folder per project approach if you can. I like to use a Staples Poly String Envelopes with a top opening. This way, everytime there is some sort of meeting, new contact sheet, or a fourth draft of paperwork, there is now a common place to put it all. So let’s say you are going to a production meeting and you are, as usual, rushed. You don’t have to think twice about grabbing different documents for this particular production meeting, only one. It is very important to create a reliable GTD system. The base of a good archiving system starts with achieving a good management method while working. If you can’t stay on top of all the paperwork while working, you might not be able to produce a good documentation of your own work. So, now that we have the paperwork properly archived, let’s go to the next level.
If you feel comfortable with a digital camera like the Canon Rebel XT or the Nikon D100 and don’t have one, you should invest in a pro-sumer camera. If you don’t understand the meaning of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Exposure you should grab a book on photography. A good starting point to look for cameras is on this web site called dpreview.com. It includes an in depth review of different brands and models of digital cameras. I bought my camera because of the review and also because of the excessive amount of reviews from the community in the forum section. I strongly recommend going through all of those before purchasing any camera. The reason why I like to have my own camera is fairly simple. You aren’t relying on anyone else but yourself. If you have the money and also the time to hire a photographer then that would be a different story. Even then, some hired professional photographers are used to portraits not theatre shots. It takes awhile before getting accustomed to the conditions of the stage. If you are new, another piece of good advice would be to practice on shows that you aren’t working on. Ask the production manager if you can take shots for free so that you can practice and in return, they might end up with great shots of their performance. I did this a couple of times to get used to my camera.
Now that we have our cameras in hand, I recommend taking shots while working if you are a lighting designer. I usually am working from the tech table in the center of the house. I put a tripod on the table next to me and take shots here and there. I also like to get up and move around to take different views which is sometimes possible while waiting for the sound designer to re-cue something or if there is a technical glitch. So now that we have shots of the show, what next?
I use flickr.com to archive my photos and I also archive them on my external hard-drive. The point is, there is a multitude of online photo service these days. There is flickr.com, photobucket.com, smugmug.com, snapfish.com and the list goes on. You can find many more with just the term “photo” and “sharing” on google.
I enjoy using flickr because of the integration into my desktop album manager (which is iPhoto.app from Apple) and also because of the tags it lets me add to the individual photos. I can tag different photos under a project title with different views, shots, or people. I can then search through all of them fairly quickly and get to the photo I want in seconds.
The way I archive my work online is, like I said, with tags under a project name. For example, I’m working on a show called Macbeth. The show title is my project name which have pictures taken from me, the publicity photographer, and from friends. They are all tagged with slight variations of the subject, which for this production, was fairly simple because it was a one man show. They are then tagged with viewing angles or what is viewable in the picture. An example tag might be: Stephen Dillane, long shadow, white walls. So, let’s say it’s 20 years from now and I don’t remember where I put that picture. I can just put in two or three of these terms and it will probably show up in the top 5.
To migrate the photo to the web, I use a plugin called FlickrExport which exports my photo after I have retouched them, if needs be, with iPhoto. It’s always a good idea to have a couple of the best shots in hand if you need to show someone, in person, your work for an interview or just to wow them. I usually carry 5-10 shots of different shows in a folder that I can bring if needed. I don’t put the photos in their proper project folder because I simply don’t want to spread them out. I only have hardcopies of my work archived, mostly to wow people. The documenting is online where it’s somewhat safer from natural events and also on my external hard drive.
In a next post, I’ll talk about video documentation, which is a subject that is a bit more touchy because of strong legal debate due to unions. There is a need for a discussion about video recording for archive-able purposes versus selling and it’s relation to the stage.