Producing video is a completely different ball game to stills, but a challenge I love! This is an event held in the Barossa Valley here in South Australia that I so enjoy capturing. It was a beautiful day with beautiful people. Enjoy
Peace, Denis
An Amazing Story
2 years ago I met Sam Collins. Sam came up to me at a Ball of Light exhibition I was having and told me he was a documentary film maker and was keen to make a short piece about my light painting. When we got talking Sam realised there was a bigger story to my work than just light painting.
In what seemed like an incredibly short period of time Sam came back to me with an outline of how the doco would look. Kyrie (my wife) and I couldn’t believe what we were looking at. This guy had created on paper something that just resonated with us so strongly.
In a flash we were doing an interview. I was talking about things that were so incredibly difficult for me. Drinking issues, depression, anger problems and a mountain of other really personal things. Yet Sam made me feel so relaxed. It was amazing. We shot some footage around the traps and then Sam weaved his magic and produced the Ball of Light Documentary.
What happened then was, and remains today, incredible. It simply went nuts. We were receiving emails and messages on a daily basis from people all over the world who had watched the doco and felt some connection to my story. We were hearing stories of others making similar choices to better their lives and those of the ones they loved. The pace of that contact has slowed somewhat, but still I receive multiple messages every week.
It blows my mind that 200,000 people have watched this short piece of video. I feel incredibly proud to have been part of its creation, and I feel humbled that the changes I have made (and continue to make) have inspired others to make change themselves, or gave them the strength to simply ask for help.
Depression, alcohol abuse, anger problems and financial stresses are killers. If you are in the place I was in 4 years ago there is a path out. It is a long and hard road, but if you ask for help you will find it.
I was lucky to have my incredible wife Kyrie, and Daughter Brittany along with Kyries stunning family here in Australia to be my rocks. Without them I would be dead today, I am so sure of that.
Sam and I are now very close friends and work together creating video magic. I realise now why he was able to tell my story so well, because he is a freakin genius. He is a one man production machine and I feel humbled to be at his side. Sam, your creation changed my life mate, and the lives of may others all over the planet. I am so grateful for that. From my heart.
Photography saved my life!
Peace, Denis
One of the most exciting things about setting up for a video job is the shaping of light and sound, but this takes preparation.
When creating video there are so many intricacies that require attention that I wouldn’t normally have to worry about with stills. When I am working on a job with Sam (www.samcollinsmedia.com) we spend a lot of time on pre-production getting sound and light just right. When Sam invites me to be part of one of his projects I just know we will be well prepared. We work really well as a team to cover off all of the important things pre-shoot.
This setup here (I am in place as we set up sound) was for a simple tutorial video for a breathing exercise. A super simple product that we wanted to make engaging and crisp. We went with a white background to give real separation of the talent from the background. This look also made real engagement with the gentleman delivering the training easy for the viewer.
We used a 3 light setup of LED panels. A shotgun mic tethered to a Zoom H4. The floor was freshly painted white so we had a drop sheet on it during setup which was moved when the client arrived. We had 3 cameras set up for variety.
Challenges.
Noise. There was a road next to the studio that occasionally caused some rumbling. But the shotgun took care of this pretty well picking his voice out of the sky well.
Heat. It was incredibly hot here in Adelaide this day. We couldnt have the air conditioning running during the shoot so had to manage this during takes ensuring at all times that the client was comfortable and hydrated at all times. We took a break for lunch and got out of the studio. This was really important.
Nerves. The client was little nervous when he arrived. We spent plenty of time sitting on a couch in the studio with him talking about the shoot and generally relaxing until he was ready. We also had all of the lights off when he arrived so that it wasn’t too “in your face”. I think this helped.
I have no doubt that the end result will be amazing. Sam is editing this so we know it will look great.
We were really well prepared for this shoot, so the end result will reflect that.
Peace, Denis
I am shooting more and more video now. One of the most effective techniques in creating a pleasing shot is pulling focus. After many hours of focusing manually and judging the start and finish point of the pull by eye I made the decision to move to a more accurate solution.
Getting those in and out points accurate serves several purposes. Firstly it looks professional. Going just over or under the correct focus point, especially if we are using a shallow depth of field, can be super unattractive. But, for me, even more frustrating is trying to get it right several times to ensure one of the attempts is right. This means shit loads of data and trawling through shots in post to get the most pleasing one.
I spent some time looking at expensive follow focus rigs. But these were (quite incredibly) expensive and were usually attached to larger set ups. I will no doubt eventually end up with some hulking shoulder mounted rig set up, but the $1,000 + price tag could be spent much more wisely right now.
Enter the Focus Maker. This little gem was $90, weighs absolutely nothing and takes up very little space in my bag. It is super fast to set up and hits the spot every time. Now I only tale away 1 or maybe 2 huge video file instead of the 3 or 4 before. Much less post, much cleaner sharper shots.
I Like it!
