The DVD has been out for almost 3 years now, and now “Spinning Southward” is available to watch online thanks to Vimeo.com’s new streaming services.  You can rent it for $5.00 for 48 hours, and just as before a portion of the proceeds will go to the National Brain Tumor Society.

[title size=”2″]Excerpts from the film:[/title]

“Spinning Southward,” 16,000 miles by bike from Alaska to Argentina for the National Brain Tumor Society from melloajello on Vimeo.

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The camera that on the 2006 trip was a Panasonic PV-GS110, one of the smallest mini DV cameras at the time. It had 3 CCD image sensors, as opposed to one sensor which is what most small cameras had.  After seeing the webisodes, or Spinning Southward, many people have asked if I had a big pro camera, because the 3 sensors made the images looks so good.  This camera is great, and still works to this day, but the improvements and price drops that have come for this market are pretty  unbelievable.  This is apparent in the main video camera I use today, which is the Canon Vixia HF S10, kind of a modern day equivelant to the Panasonic PV GS110.

The first major evolution has been from mini DV (Digital Video) casette tapes to SD (Secure Digital) Cards.  For expedition documentaries this is a HUGE improvement. Now SD cards have been around since 1999, even the camera I brought on the trip had one that it saved low resolution pictures to.  But it also had a lot of moving parts to record to the tape, eject the tape, rewind the tape….basically anything you did with the camera needed a bunch of tiny little gears to do.  All those tiny little gears can, and will, eventually break.  With SD cards, there are no moving parts, they never need to be rewound, and you can pull them from the camera and pop them into the computer and start editing immediately (With tapes you have to capture each tape, which takes an hour or more before you can edit).  The tremendous time savings and reliability is especially important when you are on the road.

The second is the onset of the DSLR photo camera starting to record digital video in high definition.  In 2008, 2 years after I finished the year-long bike trip, the first DSLR cameras started recording high definition video.  This allowed film makers to have a very high quality image in a small and light package, with very few moving parts, and removable lenses to get some really beautiful shots – Like this film, shot completely with a DSLR.  This was the camera I dreamed of when I was on tour–and a bonus is these all record to SD cards.

The third improvement is…. basically these new HD cameras being tiny, cheap, and everywhere.  Two great examples are the new GoPro Cameras (which use SD cards as well), and any new smart phone on the market (which mainly use miniSD, unless its an iPhone).  The GoPro is a small, simple, and reliable.  People put these cameras through hell and they still come out shining with great video.  Now you probably don’t want to shoot an entire film on these with a fixed fisheye lens, but for action shots and as a back up they are great, and shoot in high definition.  Most phones these days shoot in high definition as well, adding yet another cheap, high quality backup option.

Any way you slice it, if you were to go out and shoot an expedition documentary today, the tools you have at your disposal are fantastic, far better than what I had in 2006 when I shot Spinning Southward.  Just remember, the tools don’t make the film, in the end its all about the story.

If you have any other questions please ask, I would love to hear other opinions on this.

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Now available for sale directly through MelloAjello.com.

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When I joined Spinning Southward and started the 10,000 mile ride south with my camera and laptop, I thought my problems would be finding clean water and fighting off banditos, not trying to figure out where to fix technology in Latin America.  Yet that was pretty much what characterized a major part of the trip for me.

This short film – “Los Technicos” – profiles the struggles as I rode through Latin America fixing my computer and camera equipment along the way.

The next post will be “Part 2,” and go into detail about all of the awesome new technology that has come out since, and how I would do it if I had to do it all over.

The post Expedition Documentary Technology, Then and Now – Part 1: “Spinning Southward Profiles – Los Tecnicos” appeared first on Mello Ajello Media.

The screening will begin 6:30 p.m., followed by a brief Q&A with yours truly. This is a great opportunity to see the film in a theater setting for free, so if you haven’t caught it yet go check it out.

You can see the calendar here (http://www.lafayettelib.org/pdf/2monthCalendar.pdf) and get more info about the library here (http://www.lafayettelib.org/). Hope to see you there.

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At the time, in 2005, I would say we were one of the most well documented.  We have so many wonderful photos from the trip, its hard to choose just a few, but here they are . . . My top 25 photos from Spinning Southward:

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With this new trailer I am pleased to continue the launch of the Spinning Southward Film DVD released over the summer. After nearly 6 years of editing, awareness events and preparation, the Spinning Southward adventure is available in feature length format on DVD at Amazon.  All net proceeds from each purchase go to The National Brain Tumor Society (www.braintumor.org). The trailer was also featured in the August National Brain Tumor Society newsletter:

Click here to purchase the Spinning Southward DVD on Amazon.com.

If you have seen the film and want to help spread the word, you can:

If you would like to track the documentary fundraiser or donate directly, go here –
http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/goto/spinningsouthwarddoc

Thanks everyone for the support!
-Nateon

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In honor of National Brain Tumor Awareness Month and National Bike to Work Month, I am pleased to announce the official launch of the Spinning Southward Film DVD. After nearly 6 years of editing, awareness events and preparation, the Spinning Southward adventure is available in feature length format on DVD at Amazon.  All net proceeds from  each purchase go to The National Brain Tumor Foundation (www.braintumor.org).

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Spinning Southward has been awarded the Silver Palm Award from the Mexico International Film Festival, and invited down to Rosarito, Mexico, to accept the award.

We are honored that they felt our film deserved such an award, especially coming from a country that we enjoyed so much, and gave so much to us on our trip.

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