Daniel Smalla, an employee of Mountain Town Fitness in Mt. Pleasant, is also a competitive bodybuilder in his spare time. Before, after and sometimes during his shift at the gym, one can see him busting out extra sets or practicing his poses for competition. Here is a glimpse into his passion.

---

While lifting, I happened across Dan in the stretching room (as it’s affectionately referred to) as he was flexing into the mirror. Knowing that there are many bodybuilders at Mountain Town, I asked if he was indeed also one. So after a few hours of simply talking to him (in person and via text), I decided that a video would be feasible. That was really all the research required, as I’m very into fitness and kinesiology so my research was really done beforehand.

The journalistic value of the story is really inherent in the subjective predisposition towards fitness of the viewer – I think it could be an interesting feature story (if I had more time to flesh it out), yet at the same time I believe it serves its purpose as a human interest.

So why I chose Dan I believe was already mostly answered but I can elaborate: he’s a genuinely nice person. Approaching an absolutely shredded man flexing into a mirror might be a little intimidating for most, but for whatever reason Dan is just very personable. The location, however, was obvious.

I shot everything Monday, Mar. 29.

To shoot the interview, I set my Canon 5D mk. IV on a tripod with my phone as external mic on the desk just off camera to pick up better audio (as I don’t have a mic myself). Mostly I used a 70-200mm lens for shooting, but a couple shots I substituted a 50mm prime. To edit, I struggled my way through the overly user-friendly iMovie.

The editing is honestly really boring, I just got all my shots together and decided on the order (just like a photo story), and took the audio from there that would tie in to the vibes of the video. I occasionally cut to Nat audio of the gym and him lifting to really get a feel for the space.

Challenges were many – I really prefer photo as truly I see the world (or what it could be) in stills. I won’t get into what I could’ve done with this project from a photo perspective, but again my challenges are video in general. Without using a tripod for everything and fumbling with manual focus, being very un-adaptable to the unfolding situation, the video then becomes shaky, choppy, or just plain boring. Instead of where photography is the art of subtraction – creatively concluding and deducing the nonessential parts (or essentially left-out parts) of a still, video is the art of inclusion – where it’s necessary to include every detail possible to give viewers a sense of being.

I wish I would’ve had more time to follow up with him and perhaps do a shoot at home, or perhaps of his crazy diet, or even something that isn’t so linear. But for a 2 minute video, I believe this works.

Effort-wise, I’d say I tried really hard to make it’s as artistic and high-quality as I could. I really wanted this to turn out great, and I honestly don’t think it’s too far off. Sure, I see a couple things I’d have done differently in hindsight, but I spent a whole workday with this man sacrificing my pay for his story and this class. I’m not too familiar with video production, but I don’t think that’s too bad. All-in-all, I think I did a bang-up job.