News

Efficiency: Shooting Multiple Videos at Once - The Y

Efficiency: Shooting Multiple Videos at Once - The Y

EFFICIENCY

When working on a budget, you want to get the most bang for your buck. With video projects, one of the best ways to do this is to plan to shoot footage for multiple videos during one shoot. Quite a bit of work goes into prepping for a shoot, traveling to and from the location, and setting up and tearing down the gear. If you only have to pay the video production company to do that once for a set of videos instead of several different times, you can end up with more videos for less money.

THE YMCA OF GREENSBORO

Lauren Bowers, the marketing director for the YMCA of Greensboro, is taking full advantage of this strategy. Every month or so, we schedule a day for me to shoot 4-6 videos at one of the Y locations in the Greater Greensboro area. Most of the videos are a couple of minutes long or less and we are able to shoot everything we need for all of those videos in just a few hours…

GAC Enterprises, LLC

GAC Enterprises, LLC

SETTING UP THE PROJECT

Guillermo Amaya, President and CEO of GAC Enterprises, LLC, reached out to me several months ago about creating a promotional video that they could use at an upcoming work fair. He shared his thoughts on what he was wanting from the project and shared some inspiration with me. I made some suggestions and we decided to move forward with our plan.

SHOOTING

On two separate days, I went out to several construction sites in and around Greensboro and shot footage of the crews working. I used my cameras to get most of the footage, but for some of the shots, I sent up my DJI Air 2s drone. My favorite shot in the video is when I flew the drone very close to the cable lasher as it was pulled quickly along the cable. Because of the wide angle of the drone’s camera, I had to fly it much closer than it looks. It was a bit nerve-wracking in the bright sun, but the end result was absolutely worth it.

POST-PRODUCTION

The post-production process was fairly straightforward…

Pruitt Adoption Fundraiser

Pruitt Adoption Fundraiser

PRUITT VIDEO

We recently created a video for some friends of ours from King’s Cross Church in Greensboro. They are planning to adopt from Colombia and are trying to raise money to help make that possible. They are a wonderful family and we are so excited for them to add one more to it.

SHOOTING

I went over one afternoon to film everything for the video. They started with lunch. Most of the shots of the kids smiling and laughing came from some games they were playing at the table. They took turns thinking of an animal from the Greensboro Science Center while everyone else asked questions to figure out what it was.

After lunch, they played in their backyard, colored on their porch with chalk, and took a short stroll down the street.

During naptime, we shot Eric and Bre’s interview.

"Now That I've Seen" Music Videos

"Now That I've Seen" Music Videos

“HE WASHED ME / HE TOUCHED ME”

Jonathan Solomon is a worship leader (King’s Cross Church) and songwriter living in Greensboro, NC. He recently recorded an album called “Now That I’ve Seen” and has just released a single from that album entitled “He Washed Me / He Touched Me”, which you can watch below! We were able to shoot the entire album, so you can watch those videos once the rest of the album is released.

GEAR SETUP

Our setup for this shoot consisted of several lights and four cameras. I ran the main angle camera (5D Mark IV) on a shoulder rig, Nathan Funderburg captured close-ups with his 5D Mark IV on a monopod, Max Wilmot stayed with the drumset with his handheld Blackmagic camera (as well as getting a few shots from the back of the set), and a 1DX Mark II sat on a tripod fixed on Jonathan.

ASPECT RATIO

I ended up using a 2:1 aspect ratio, which I felt best fits this particular project. It gives a bit of a wide cinematic look without having to sacrifice too much vertical space. (Watch this if you are interested in aspect ratios.)…

Why Audio Matters in Our Wedding Videos / Drake Wedding

Why Audio Matters in Our Wedding Videos / Drake Wedding

WHAT IS SPOKEN

When shooting and editing wedding videos, countless decisions are made that affect how the story of the wedding day is told in the video. With each of our weddings, although we obviously focus on getting quality footage, we pay special attention to the audio we capture and use in the video. This is easy to overlook because we all want to see the bride’s dress, the groom’s smile, the beautiful venue, and the guests having a great time. But I would argue that what is spoken during the day (the vows, the officiant's words, the toasts, etc.) may actually be the most important thing to capture.

I spend a lot of time weaving the audio of the day throughout the video in a meaningful way. It would be much easier to use a song with lyrics and not think about the recorded audio, but we believe it makes for a much more impactful, memorable, and meaningful final product when the audio and video have been carefully weaved together.

Mountain Top Youth Camp

Mountain Top Youth Camp

MY HISTORY AT MTYC

I have spent at least one week of every summer of my life (except one) at Mountain Top Youth Camp. It’s a Christian camp on the mountain beside Pilot Mountain in Pinnacle, NC. I transitioned from camper to staffer in 2010. In 2016, I started creating recap videos of each camp week to show on the last day.

I have loved doing this the last several years, getting to know the campers and staff each week, figuring out how to weave together my footage of the different activities in an interesting way, experimenting with different ideas I wouldn’t be able to try in most projects, and starting to outline the videos more and more with highlights of the preached messages.

2021 CHANGES

With the addition of a beautiful little girl to our family, it became clear…