THE DRIVE

So I enjoy a good challenge and every year I try to do at least one thing to prove it to myself that I CAN do it. What was it that I did? I decided to prove to myself that I could make music videos. Over the course of a month or two prior I had been teaching myself After Effects and Premiere. Now I did have prior experience editing but that was quite some time ago. This time it was different. It was on my own terms. What was the purpose? well a friend of mine usually competes in something called FFGT (Fuslie Fam's Got Talent)

A LITTLE BACKSTORY

For those who may not know I frequent a streaming platform known as twitch.tv I even started a very small podcast on there which I've set on the back burner for now. It's been about 3 years that I've been on the platform but only recently had I become more active. In the process I've met some amazing people from all walks of life and some not so amazing people. Either way it's been a positive experience and has helped me network and make new connections with people. Which brings me to the purpose of the music video. FFGT Every year one of the rather well known streamers Fuslie holds a small contest that is open to streamers and viewers alike. It's mainly to just showcase any kind of talent you may have and would like to share. In the process there are prizes in the form of PC peripherals like Hyper X products. It's all for fun and to bring people together to compete. The first time I was asked by Jassy (pictured in the videos below) The deadline was really short and After Effects at the time kept crashing on me (there was a lot of green screen keying that needed to be done). We still submitted - but I was severely disappointed and wish I could've fixed it up just before. Boiled down it was due to things out of my control at the time. So I promised myself this time would be different.

THE PROCESS

So in the process of getting asked by Jassy (pictured below) to do it again. I knew I needed to step up the game again. How did I do this? The one tool I never had when initially teaching myself photography. - Youtube. I did what I usually do when teaching myself something new. Started looking up various videos on

Budget music video tips and tricks
Aftereffects tricks Editing techniques
Workflow management (this one is really important)
using existing knowledge on photography / lighting I've done in the past

The way I like to work is by using whatever I have available to me. It took me years to realize you don't need to latest and greatest to make something look interesting. So I gathered a list in my head of things I could use (props / editing/ general ideas/ concepts) meanwhile Jassy would be gathering and working on the song she wanted to do. Then from there we'd plan the day to scout location, then shoot, since it was during Texas summer it as tricky and to top it off finding locations was probably the biggest challenge. So we had to schedule it around the evening and afternoon. It also had to be setup around her schedule as well as mine. After much debate and lack of options we decided let's make the best of it and shoot in locations that we know would work. The first place? Asking friends - AKA Be Resourceful.

LOCATION

It's never easy but at times I have reached out to my friends asking if I could use their place to shoot. I lucked out and he agreed. So we used one of their open rooms and shot it against that. The other location was actually a friends' car. Cause why not? resources were limited and it's a nice car plus he was out of town at the time so it wasn't bad.

LIGHTING

In terms of lighting yeah I could've used a studio strobe modeling light etc. but then I started thinking what's the one thing music videos have? Lights and color. -- especially the music video we were going to mimic a bit. So then I went in an unconventional route and used a single Hue outdoor light strip. Yup I said that right. Just a single hue outdoor light strip. I did have to setup and connect the hub to my friends wifi but otherwise it was a breeze. After that I used the HueDynamic app which is great for unlocking the full potential of the lightstrip.

Why did do that and not a studio strobe? I wanted the lighting to interact with the music in real time. Not in post production. So here we were in my friends open room single hue outdoor light strip and started shooting. Each location we filmed about 4-6 hours. I didn't have anyone else to help so here I was at each location setting up the light, the camera angles, and thinking ahead planning out how the hell I would fix it all up in post production.

EDITING music videos is pretty easy. Especially when you go with a cover / remix - It's all about syncing it up with the lyrics to the song and music. Watch enough music videos and how they cut to different scenes and you start to pick up the tricks of the trade. What's really enjoyable is there are few if any set rules on how to tackle it.

POST PRODUCTION

So from here it's a bit of back and forth between editing and post production in after effects. What I mean by that is I'd be editing and then have an idea for an effect I wanted to try and accomplish with it. Experimentation is key. GPU rendering is a godsend. As you can probably tell by now we didn't really storyboard too much. I've always been organic when it comes to planning stages because it allows my creativity to breathe. Not everyone will agree and that's okay there's always more than one way to skin a cat. This is where the youtube videos came in handy. It was partially uncharted territory and yet exciting.

Conclusion

So after that first week what did I learn? Quite a bit. It's like cramming for an exam and then you go back and you're the one grading it. But as the saying goes you are your own worst enemy. So how did I handle all the self critique. I went back and looked at where I could've improved it re-watched other videos and then planned for the next one. But I did feel accomplished.

All in all I spent about
9 hours shooting in a span of 2 days
roughly 72 hours editing/ post production
4 days time in total

All just to accomplish this one music video. In short we had made it to the 2nd round of FFGT and it continued from there.

In the meantime since this is the first I've posted a blog in a while what other kind of content would you like to see from me or rather hear about? Leave a comment below and let me know so I can improve in the future.

Part 2 (2nd music video breakdown soon)