After years of being pushed out I have returned

For years I thought I would never be able to return to this site. I had given up hope and moved on...
UNTIL TONIGHT

wow, time flies, three years, just wow.
I have learned so much in the last three years, I have made some short films, music videos, commercials, taught film classes and even joined studios. I am now in the process to making my own feature film. I have work on films and even been a DP and a director in short films. But nothing quite this big. Since I'm starting new this site will be my journal of how things are going with the film. SO give me a few weeks and I will write in here again once I get the 3rd draft of the script.
Peace

Hello all

Welcome to my Lair

It's not quite the moment to jump back into blogging. Lots to do but I wanted to say 

Guess who's back 

Back again

Guess who's back

Tell a friend

Enjoy the picture of the day: 

More pictures, videos, and tutorials to come enjoy and as always party on

"To change the world you must first share your story."

composition video: The nose room

Welcome to my Lair

The nose

As everyone is aware we all have a nose. Some big, some small, yet we all have a nose.

When shooting a conversation you always want your subject to have nose room. What I mean by this is that you need to give your subject enough room to create the illusion that the person is talking to someone just off screen. When we give our full attention to someone we don't look at other things or people, we look directly at them, open up our ears and listen to what they have to say. Its the same way in film. You shoot whoever is talking because at that moment they are the peak of our interest.

What is the ideal nose room

The rule I always go by when shooting is the rule of thirds. The first thing I will do see which way this person is looking. For example lets just say I am getting a close up of my subject. If he or she is looking stage left then I will position that person the left side of my viewfinder. Their nose would be in the center of the screen.  If it was a medium or long shot I would still use the rule of thirds to set up the shot.

When to break the rules

My professor told me in class "don't break the rules unless you are intentionally doing it." I use to think "oh I can just break the rules when I want and create my shot the way I want to."  As I got a little older and wiser, I started to realize that when you break the rules you must imply a reason for it. You don't want to break the rules just because you like the shot. So I warn you, please make sure that if you do break the rules to make sure you, 1. shoot a safe shot and 2. leave all doubt at the door. So my advice is to only break the rules if you truly understand what your shot is portraying.

Picture of the day
I leave you with a rule of thirds photos today. Are they my best no, but they do give you an idea of what I am talking about. I will see you on the flip side, later

"To change the world you must first share your story."

Video composition

Welcome to my Lair

Part 1 video composition

Rule of thirds- while everyone know this rule by heart, it's always good to go back and revisit this one rule every once in a while. This rule basically ask to visualize a grid in your viewfinder and shoot subjects on the lines of the grid. This rule helps create a composition that is attractive the the eye. And this rule of thirds also helps shoots where you are shooting a conversation. 

I know tonight's blog is short and simple though I am still doing some research for what I really want to talk about. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have all my research ready and have some interesting things to talk about. Later 

To change the world you must first share your story

time to get back to work

Welcome to my Lair

Getting back to work

This week I am going back to the basics. I am going to study Motion and trying to work on some composition.

Composition

So what is composition? Wikipedia defines it as "the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work." 
This is a very important part of creativity in videography. Composition, if done correctly, will take your video from looking average to awesome. The average human attention span is only about three seconds. After that your mind sends off an alarm telling you that you need to move. This is a big reason why movies these days are somewhat ADHD. Composition plays a big role in keeping your mind trick into thinking that something is going on the whole entire time.

This week
I will try to post something once a night about something that deals with composition.

Picture of the day
Since my theme is composition the picture of the day comes from a project back in April. During parts of my video I would show pictures of the teacher, students and the school. While these pictures where showing I put a moving background. This composition helps keep the illusion of movement. Also just to note, green and white are the school colors. This isn't the best picture but it does give you an example of what I have been posting about. Maybe if I get more time I will create a small clip so you could get the full feel of what I am talking about.

"To change the world you must first share your story."

Giving credit where credit is due

Welcome to my Lair

Is this the return?

I have to admit I have been gone for a while. Really hard times has fallen on this writer and I admit went into a deep, deep, depression. I have to be honest I went into a "off" mode. I just didn't care what happen in the world and if I crawled into a hole and vanished, I would have been fine. About a week ago I came back to my senses and restarted my thinking process. I guess you can call it a reboot. I learned some hard lessons in the past two months. But thankfully the story I give you tonight was one I learned a very long time ago.

Giving Credit where Credit is due

I am very judgmental when it comes to my work. I always want it to be the best. So when I show my work to someone I take pride, even if it was bad, in my work. Because of this I also give credit where it is due. No need to steal anyone else's thunder. Because its all the much better when you finally achieved your goal.
When I came to my father about making a steadicam I showed him a video. This video shows a simple and easy way to make a steadicam. Now I could have made it myself but getting together with him just made it special. After the video my dad was real excited and said he was going to build it. And within 24 hours it was built. He then went out and sprayed painted it and gave it to me. As long as I have had that steadicam I always gave my father the credit.
Tonight I went to his house and at dinner he mention about reading my blogs. In a serious tone he called me out about me taking credit for building the steadicam. He explained that in one of my blogs I had taken credit for building the it. I was in shock and hurt, not because I was accused but that he thought I would take claim in building it. So I went back to the very article he was talking about and read the whole thing. I came to find out that my father had read the article in a hurry and just assumed that I wrote that. I have never seen my father so happy to be wrong. So dad, not only did you make the steadicam, you made a son proud to use it. And I can't wait until we make the next one, that one will be even better.

Photo of the day
Wow I didn't think I was going to write tonight but I found a picture I wanted to share
This photo comes from the mrs. So enjoy and I will catch you later.

"To change the world you must first share your story."

not being scared of the flash

Welcome to my Lair

Lots of pictures being taken.

I have been slowly making my movement from the video world to the photography world. There have been many challenges and many failures. I am glad for my failures because I have learned so much these past few weeks. Tonight I want to share with you one of my failures, the flash

The flash
Most people fail to use it correctly. Most amateurs create hot spots in their pictures. Others like me, will try not to use it. You see in the video world. The light has to be evenly distributed around the whole picture. Failure to do so will ruin the shoot. While we are filming we don't worry about adjusting the amount of light hitting the camera until we stop recording. But in pictures one is constantly worrying about the light. And even though one angel of the room is well lit the other side might need some extra lighting. I did my first photography project and I must say it was a rough one. The first time around I never used my flash, at all. I was relying on the aperture and the ISO. The problem I created was a lot of noise in the picture. I created so much noise that it was really hard to fix my photos in post. Matter of fact I had to go back to one location and reshot a living room. Talk about embarrassing. But enough talk about the problems lets focus on the solutions.

The first thing when using your flash is to frame objects farther away from your lens. You see if you are too close to your subject, your subject will tend to soak up all the light. Now don't get me wrong if this is what you are trying to do then please by all means go for it. But if you trying to distribute the light evenly then back up a few steps, zoom in, and take the picture.

Second don't be scared to use the flash

In video unless we are on set or have a light mounted on the camera, we have to figure out ways to get the proper picture. We have to worry only for a few minutes and once we have solved that problem we instantly forget about it. There are bigger problems that must be addressed. With a camera its different, the camera already has a flash built into it.  And you need it more often than you think. I am having to retrain my mind into knowing that I need that flash. You may be asking, "shouldn't he already know how important light is?" See, normal for me is to adjust shutter speed and f-stops. I rarely used a light on a videocamera and when I did, the light always stayed on. But with a camera I have to imagine what the picture will look like before I take the picture. I have to adjust my settings to the flash not just to the amount of light in the room. I still am wrapping my head around this. Rereading this sounds like I am looney but think about it. Have you ever taken a picture with the flash off and then took another with the flash on? One does not need a degree to see the difference. Even amateurs know when a room is too dark. He or she just doesn't understand that in their minds they have already imagine what the picture should look like and that the picture will need more light. So they turn on the flash and presto, problem solved.

Picture of the day
This picture comes from my 4 year old son. I am not sure if he understood what he was taking but the composition was perfect. Anyway enjoy the picture and I will see you next time.

"To change the world you must first share your story."