Tag: video editor

Babylon Filming: Week 2

This isn’t really week two. It’s more of an update really. I had started filming my short film Babylon over the summer. Things were going well with it. Then I hit probably the biggest problem I could have. I ran out of time and my actors went back to college. Filming has been put on hold until we can resume it, whenever that may be. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily.

I can’t say that I’m mad or upset about it. Because of the break, I’ve had time to think about things regarding the film. There’s a couple changes I’d like to make to the film. Nothing drastic, and it won’t be a script change. Changes are more about how it’s filmed and how I direct the actors.

One of the best things to happen was this break. While my actors went back to school, I also went back to school. I’m currently taking a film directing class. The things I’m learning are so important. I would have directed this film incorrectly before. Now, I’m armed with knowledge and tricks to direct the film properly.

I’ve learned how to think about things I never thought of before. On top of that, I learned about how important it is to rehearse before you film. Rehearsals are such an important part of film making. I know there’s at least one scene in Babylon that we will have to rehearse over and over. If we mess it up while filming, there is no second chance. We have to get it right the first time.

I was also looking to get an actual video camera to use instead of my Nikon D3300 DSLR. I did get a new lens for it, but I think a video camera would be a much better option. I talked to one of my classmates and he recommended that I get the Blackmagic Pocket Camera. I was able to play around with one at the college a bit, and I think it would be a great addition to use in my video projects.

Even though I already filmed a few scenes for the film, I plan on re-shooting at least half of them with the Blackmagic Pocket Camera after I purchase it. I came up with an idea I want to test out. I’m not going to get into it in detail here because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Once the film is done, I’ll make a blog post about everything I did in the film and the cinematic choices I made.

I know I may not be the best filmmaker, or have a lot of experience, but I know I have great ideas. I want to tell stories. By doing this project, I’ll be telling one of many stories I have floating around in my head. But that’s not the topic of discussion here.

This extra break has truly been something good. I don’t have much free time as is, and being able to put a pause on Babylon has allowed me to focus on work and my film directing class. If I was also working on Babylon, I think I would of burned myself out a long time ago. And if that happened, I wouldn’t be excited about returning to work on it.

Babylon Filming: Week 1

The first week of filming for my short film called Babylon has come to a close. We got several scenes done and a few I might decide to re-shoot later. I want to see how everything else goes first. I just have a few thoughts and observations about it that I’d like to share.

This is essentially the first film I’m directing. I had directed a skit that can be seen at this link (What the F!@# Am I Doing?). It was a small comedy sketch I came up with. It’s about two minutes long. I highly recommend it. Side note: I will be referring to “What the F!@# Am I Doing?” as WTFAID. It’s faster than typing the whole title out.

With Babylon things are different. I filmed WTFAID in a couple of hours. It was simple and there wasn’t too many complicated shots. I remember coming up with a few variations of shots on the spot, but nothing too crazy. I also remember filming WTFAID in order…from the start of the script, to the end of the script.

Babylon we are filming out of order. We are filming it by location. So for any scene that takes place in say a park, we’ll film all the scenes at the park at once. This proves to be easy and complicated at the same time. It’s easy because we don’t have to worry about it after we finish. It’s complicated because some scenes might be at the start of the film while others are towards the end.

For continuity, we need to look somewhat similar. I’m not expecting exactly the same. This is an extremely low budget film, but I want it to be close. That also means some characters change appearance as time goes on and it’s hard showing that without a makeup department.

Realistically, these are all minor issues and I don’t think most people will have an issue with them especially when they realize it’s a low budget film. My goal is to put out the best film I can with the resources I have. I know that when all is said and done, I will be proud of the film and what we did with it.

Directing it has been an absolute joy. Seeing my vision come to life is something I never dreamed of. Directing is also something I can see myself doing in the future as a career. It’s challenging, but fun and rewarding at the same time.

So, what’s next after we finish Babylon and release it? Well…I have another short film in the works. I’ve started writing it and hopefully we can do that one as well. I’m excited for the things I have planned and I plan on posting updates here when I can so everyone can follow this journey with me. This applies to Babylon and any other future projects as well.

2020: The End and The Beginning

2020 was some kind of year. It had its ups and downs. It seemed like for every positive thing there were about 10 negative things. Not to mention that March to about August seemed to last about 20 years while August to December went by in the blink of an eye. But was 2020 all that bad? From my own personal experience, it really wasn’t. Sure some things got thrown off track because of Covid, but overall I did have a decent year.

My year started off amazing. I was in Colorado for our annual skiing trip. We went to Winter Park and spent a week skiing before returning home. It’s a trip I look forward to every year. Sadly we won’t be going this time around. Covid is to blame. But life will go on. We will return when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we will jusy have to go skiing closer to home.

April took a dive downward. I wound up with Covid with the rest of my family. We all recovered from it, but it was definitely an experience I won’t forget. It was not fun. For me, it lasted for about 10 days. While I was fine enough to go outside and walk around the house, I didn’t leave the property. I was not going to put others at risk and it was a long time after I had it that I decided it was safe for me to even go to the store again.

2020 has opened the door to many new friendships as well. I’ve met a lot of awesome people through Discord and Twitch and many of them live a world away. If it wasn’t for Covid, there’s a good chance I never would of met any of these people. I was only able to meet them because I was stuck at home for 2 months and spent a good chunk of my time online.

August brought another sad moment. I had plans to go to Sweden in August but we cancelled that trip because of Covid. It was going to be my first international trip. It was going to be such an awesome experience and I was so excited. But safety comes first. And while we didn’t go, we plan to make up for it with a trip to Germany in September of 2021.

As the year came to a close I couldn’t help but smile at all the things I was still able to accomplish even with the world in a state of uncertainty. I continued to take classes and I spent 2020 learning German. I’m not completely fluent in it but Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch.

2020 was also the year where I was able to bring myself out of the massive debt hole I was in. I’m not 100% debt free, but I’m in a much better spot than I was 12 months ago and that alone calls for celebration. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it but I did. And I’m so happy I did. It feels like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I can’t wait to start 2021 in a much better place financially.

Along with all the chaos I also wrote a new LEGO animated film as well as created a new comic series. I’ve spent a decent amount of time doing creative things like that as well as video editing. I needed to keep busy and I definitely did with those projects.

I’m excited for 2021. The world might not be back to normal, but there’s plenty of things I want to accomplish. I want to film the short film I wrote and my new LEGO animation. I want to read at least one book a month. I want to do more video editing. There’s plenty I can do this year. All I have to do it set my mind to it.

Being a Content Creator

Being a content creator isn’t as easy as it seems. It takes a lot of time and effort. I create several forms of content. All of which are different. And all of which take hours upon hours to complete.

I have recently created a schedule for myself in order to manage my time better. While it seemed like I would follow it, after the first week, I forgot about it and stopped. It wasn’t my intention. I’m just not accustomed to following a schedule like that.

So I think it’s time I went and revisited it. I put things in there like edit video, write these blog posts, work on my movie, read books, the list goes on. There’s plenty of times I have editing marked down and no video to edit. So while I do specify times, it isn’t always set in stone. That’s just how it is.

It always seems like there’s a lot I want to do and I never seem to have time to do it. Even after managing my time. This is mainly because I find ways to distract myself. For example, this post was supposed to be out last Sunday, November 1. It’s a week late.

When I started creating content, I never intended to make money off it. I just did it because I discovered a long time ago that I have a creative brain. I need to do things that allow me to be creative. So I learned how to edit video on my own. It was ok, but then I took an actual video editing class. After that, my video editing excelled. I had a better understanding of it and what to look for.

Since then, I’ve edited videos for a few Twitch streamers. I’m not a perfect editor, but I do take pride in my work. Besides that, there’s no such thing as a perfect video editor. There’s always a mistake somewhere.

Currently, most of the video I edit is my own. It’s either for my gaming channel on YouTube or one of my other two channels. The other two channels I use to post video edits as well as projects I wrote and/or produced. I do a lot of it for the experience. The gaming videos I try to get more experimental with. Try new things. Everything else, I just do whatever flows.

Aside from video editing I also write and draw comics. I’m not the best artist, but I do what I can. I make up for it in storytelling…or at least I try to. I am proud of my comics even though they aren’t finished yet. One of them I may never finish simply because there’s so much story left to tell.

My biggest creative project is the movie I’m writing. While I can’t go into detail, I can say that it is something that I am very happy with so far. I love the story and I love how it’s playing out. It’s always a good sign when the story writes itself and flows naturally.

Having a creative mind is both a curse and a blessing. It’s a blessing because I can write things that I can share with other people. I can tell endless stories. I can share how I feel. But most importantly for me, it gives me a chance to be me. It gives me a chance to be anyone I want. As someone that never finished college, that means a lot.

There’s so many things I want to do. So many people I want to be. There just isn’t enough time in the world for it all. But to be able to create worlds and characters that can live out these other lives makes me feel happy. For example, I know I’ll never be a lawyer, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write a story about one. And in doing so, I would get to feel what it’s like to be a lawyer for a brief moment in time.

Being a content creator is hard. It’s far from easy. But you get out of it what you put into it. And after I write a story, I always feel happy. I feel accomplished. And that’s one of the best feelings in the world.