• This site is dedicated to my career in movie production.

  • Sunday, June 30, 2013

    editing and picture of the day

    Welcome to my Lair

    editing woes

    I have been editing this wedding on Final cut pro X. It has been somewhat of a difficult task. I have been trying to use the multi camera feature but for some odd reason it is not wanting to correctly line up the shots. So I am going back and eyeballing the shots. While this is somewhat working, i have ran into another problem. I am running out of room on my computer. I have all my shots I need on the computer but I don't have enough space to use the multi camera feature. So it is starting to look as though I will have to edit the old fashion way. It sucks but I know it can be done.

    Picture of the day

    this picture comes from a simple point and shot camera. I normally take out the t4i and expierment but I am trying to show my son how to use a camera. He doesn't seem to enjoy it as much as painting and thats fine. Anyway enjoy the picture


    I don't understand why it is on its side but then again I like it. Another picture will come your way tomorrow.

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

    Wednesday, June 26, 2013

    More waiting and studying

    Welcome to my Lair

    Editing continues on, just not the way you think

    If one look at my track, they would notice not much has changed since yesterday. While I have not got much editing done, I am getting things in order. Normally when I start editing the first thing I do is give as my scenes a home. For example this wedding has a hundred and fifty nine different scenes. And they are all number 3294562895239865. Now I don't want to guess every time where my scene is so I give all my scenes names. Once I am done I start categorizing the scenes together. There is no reason why scene 1 is with scene 100. So once this is done I can find the exact scene I am looking for.

    Just to give a heads up I will be showing pictures of the wedding for the next week or so. Trying to find time to take pictures and load is somewhat a hassle at the moment.

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

    Tuesday, June 25, 2013

    Rendering is such a bother

    Welcome to my Lair

    Waiting on rendering

    Tonights editing has been somewhat of a hit and miss. I have been hoping I could of used the multi edit tool to cut down the time of editing my wedding but I have learn that it is not working correctly. Plus when using the multi camera edit, the stabilization tool seems to disappear. Why? I don't know. Since this is a very large clip I decided to blog while I wait for this to render properly.
    One day I will get a fast computer but for now this will do. Tonight I have been just reading up on some techniques and experimenting to see if I can make this a faster experience. Looks like its going to be a slow process. 

    If you have already notice there is only one thing on my timeline right now. Do not be fooled, when I am done with this, the timeline will look like something from a horror movie. So think of this as baking a cake, I have only begun on the bottom layer.

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

    Monday, June 24, 2013

    Finally a thousands views!!!!!

    Welcome to my Lair

    1000 views

    Well it took me forever to get this far, but I finally made A thousands views. What has made this somewhat possible is the summer photo challenge I have been doing this summer. Sadly I have not been able to post everyday but I notice that when I do post pictures and clips of things I have shot, people tend to come to my site more. So lets continue with my next picture shall we.

    Books, Why Books?

    I was having a conversation about solving problems when editing, and received a surprise reaction when I told them I read books to solve problems. Why was this person so surprise, I don't know, but I do know that the internet is not the only source to find information. If you want to capture a feeling or imitate a certain artist, you need to be able to go back to the original source. To understand where that artist is coming from, one must understand their history. But wait aren't I just saying the same sentence twice but in different ways? No, because the original source is hard back books. The books are the Arthurs true voice, no one can manipulate, add or subtract it like the internet can. And there is nothing like opening a 1000 page book and hunting your way to the answer. So don't be scared open those books and witness something incredible.

    This week.

    I have some wedding pictures to show off and lots of editing to talk about.

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

    Wednesday, June 19, 2013

    Ah tweaking pictures and more

    Welcome to my Lair

    The fun of tweaking pictures

    Remember how last time I was trying to perfect this art my friend achieved. Well this is my second try at it.

    What I wanted to do is catch a moment that only you are seeing. Too many times we see something, take a picture, and look at the picture and say " thats not what I was seeing." or "Not what I was trying to capture."  I had to learn that, one, the lens and your eyeball are in two different places and two, your lens is not your eyeball. You might think is common sense but it isn't. Oh how many times I have look at something, put a lens to it, and notice the slight difference the image is. And then because the image is different its off and I lose the exact feeling I was looking for.

    Special thanks tonight

    The person who wrote about flaming underwear nice

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

    Monday, June 17, 2013

    challenge

    Welcome to my lair

    challenge

    A good friend of mine could take a picture with an object in the way and make it look good. I have never truly been able to master this art but I wanted to give it a try tonight. This is what I took.
    This is a raw photo and I am still trying to decide how to create the illusion I am looking for. So you might see this picture again though edited to my liking. tomorrow I will talk about the wedding and make some more announcements. Later

    "You can only change the world after you first share your story."

    Sunday, June 16, 2013

    Why would you pick me

    Welcome to my Lair

    Why would you pick me

    While at my other job someone ask, "Why makes you different from anyone else, why would I choose you over any other videographer?" My first answer, well lets just say was not impressive enough. Frustrated with this I went home and really started thinking about this question. I look back at other jobs and what drove me to create who I am. I am always driven by two goals, to be the best, and to prove the world wrong.

    To be the Best

    Lets clear this phrase up a bit. I am not striving to be this guy who wins awards and receives fame. Now winning awards and becoming famous would be awesome but if that is what drives me, I would have dropped out of this race a long time ago. To be the best, in my eyes, is to push your thought process to almost insanity. To stare into a screen for hours making sure the color is just right. To go back and forth on one second of audio to make sure it matches exactly with the video. To set up a shot for two hours just to take a 10 second clip. If there is a problem I get on the phone, the internet, or open a book to find the solution. When I am finish with a project, I am always going to make sure I did everything right. And I am very open to any critiques the customer has, because at the end of the day I want the customer to get what he or she ask for. So I put forth my best effort to create what is desired.

    To prove the world wrong.

    When I was young I told my mom I wanted to run track. (Now before I go any further I will say my mom is awesome so please no judging.) I was always laid back and took my time, No one ever knew how fast I was because I did not run. So when she told me I was not fast enough to run track, I was somewhat crushed. But deep down inside I knew I could compete on a state level. And I did, made it to state twice in hurdles.
    Like the situation with track, I believe I can go far with my talents. And from time to time I do get the occasional "You can't do that". And yes it can hurt but it doesn't stop me from trying. The world does not know of me yet because I have not achieved my goal.

    This is what makes me different from any other videographer.

    When I get my webpage up I will use this in there. I might change it up a little, make it look pretty, or talk about perfecting my craft.

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

    Wednesday, June 12, 2013

    part 2 of the summer picture

    Sorry just couldn't stop editing this picture but I think I have the best one yet.

    Its not as dark as the second one and feels in some of the dead space. Anyway enjoy

    Finally touching up some pictures

    Welcome to my Lair

    Summer picture project continues.

    I saw something today, a web, and decided to take a picture of it. the problem I came across was that my 50 mm lens was not the best choice for the shot. So instead of breaking out the bad boy I decided to take many pictures and try my hand in correcting them. I found the picture I like the most and started playing with the colors. So this is what I came up with today.


    I don't know how to feel about this, but when I kept playing with the picture I got this
    I will let you decide which one is better.

    Ladies and Gents have a good night and I will keep everyone posted on any 48 news we get.


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

    Monday, June 10, 2013

    Needing to find a different route

    Welcome to my Lair

    Find new tricks to old habits

    This putting a photo up a day is really hard. I am not one to complian but taking quailty pictures day in a day out is rough. I think starting this weekend I will just take a few hours out of my morning and shoot enough pictures to last me for the week. Today's picture is something I took a few months back. (Yep I didnt get a chance to touch the camera today, very very sad.)

    Tomorrow

    I will do another picture and write out some goals I have for the summer.Later

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

    Sunday, June 09, 2013

    Start of a new week

    Welcome to my Lair

    Day 7

    Well as hard as it is, I am trying to keep at my word and post a picture everyday this summer.
    Today I finally got both C-Stands built and we put a black screen to test them out. This is the picture

    I know its not green in the back ground but I may just try my luck in changing the background and just see what I can come up with. So don't be too surprise if we see this picture again soon.

    New ideas

    I am going to start a show soon. Think I will maybe try a six week gig. What will it be about? No clue but I need to start somewhere right. I will throw ideas around later.

    next week

    I will continue my quest in Motion and try to make this software start talking. Also I will be getting plans together for the 48 and hopefully have some meetings soon so I can get the ball rolling.

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

    Saturday, June 08, 2013

    Summer photo challenge day 5

    Welcome to my Lair

    Day 5 

    Well if you are really paying attention it is Actually day 6. I am going out this evening to take some photos so I will try and post day 6 tonight before I go to bed.

    Seeing another angle of the table

    This picture is actually a view of a philosophy that was once shared with me. I was told once to "Always look at the table at a different angle."  The quote is spot on when I took this picture.


    I will admit the idea is easy but to make this work, I needed to think of another way to do this. I did not want to take a shot and turn it upside down. Rather I got a chair and turn the camera upside down. I put the camera on autofocus since I was really trying to not fall.  Plus, I am only trying to get familiar with this camera. I have not even begun editing and color correcting photos because I understand the rule that counts the most. "When you take a photo you can only manipulate 5 % of the photo." Anything after 5% and you lose the quality of the picture. I want to make sure I am able to get the best picture possible so when I do start editing my photos I will only make them look better, not worse.

    Announcement

    Ladies and Gentlemen, if you do not already know, I will be entering the 48 hour film project this year. This is a competition that is held around the world. My team will only have 48 hours to write, shot, and edit a short film together. I did it last year and it was a lot of fun. This year though I am in it to make a name for not only myself but for my company. And yes Announcement is spelled correctly this time. :)

    I got a lot to learn if I want to become the best

    "You can only change the world once you have shared your story."


    Thursday, June 06, 2013

    Summer photo challenge day 4

    Welcome to my lair

    Ok thats it I need photoshop

    Have you ever tried to stitch a photo together and not have the proper tools to do it. Its like taking gum and putting it over a oil leak. It is just not going to work. But after some hair pulling and making software do stuff its not suppose to do I finally got it to work.

    How I stitch this photo together.


    I used final cut pro to do this. (note to all, unless its HD video the feather tool will not work) I first put the pictures into the timeline on top of each other. Then just used a crop to cut out just part of the picture. Then I exported a single frame a onto my desktop into a jpeg format. Next I had to download the picture into iPhoto. Once I did this I used the retouch tool to take away any unwanted lines in the picture. I really don't recommend this as a professional but if you are in a jam and don't have photoshop, then do this. But as for this cat, I am buying photoshop the first chance I get.

    "You can only change the world after you first share your story."

    Wednesday, June 05, 2013

    Summer challenge day 3

    Welcome to my lair

    Day 3

    I decided to go from my phone today and pick a picture that was fun for me to take. This beauty came to me while driving into the sunset one night. I kept taking pictures of this until the sun had completely set. The lesson for today is to always have a camera on you. For you never know when the shot will present itself. 

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



    Tuesday, June 04, 2013

    The fast picture day 2

    Welcome to my lair

    Summer photo challenge day 2

    Sadly I only get to take pictures for 5 minutes today. I was really pressed for time and my son really wanted my attention. This is the picture I took for today.

    The enjoyment of taking pictures sometimes, you get to capture a moment in life that will be remembered.  Other than that I have no new news today but I do have a special announment. If I had time today to spill the beans I would but this can wait till tomorrow. Till then

    "You can only change the world after you have first shared you story."




    Monday, June 03, 2013

    Summer photo challenge

    Welcome to my Lair

    Summer photo challenge

    This summer I am making going to attempt something that will improve camera skills. I will post a picture everyday for the summer. Now you might be thinking, anyone can do that and in fact your right, but I am going to go out of my way and make each picture worth looking at. And share what I learn through this experience.

    Day 1: Shallow depth of field


    This was a tricky picture to take. I have never tried this before so I had to take this many times. I Started off using a 18-55 mm lens with an f-stop of 5.6 and notice that I was getting a small depth of field but it was not small enough. After some research I found that I needed a bigger lens. So I took out my 75-300 mm lens and moved my camera back. Once I had my camera in position where I wanted it, I took the picture and notice another problem. All my pictures where coming back blurry. Come to find out that when I press the button down to take the picture I was slightly moving the camera. What I did to correct this was to set the camera on a 2 second timer. This way I could let go of the camera completely (yes it was on a tripod) to eliminate any shake with the camera.

    This week:

    Each day I will post a new picture and will begin to once again go through Motion. I know that if I really want to make my business shine I need to learn this program so I can give my customers anything they want. And I will have the green screen up this weekend too so I can start experimenting with that. It feels good being back.

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

    P.S. If there is an art or stlye you want me to try leave a comment and I will attempt it.