My First Music Video

September 10, 2009 In Things we've done

When I was considering purchasing my 5D camera and how expensive it was, I told myself that the cost would be worth it if I could figure out a way to make some extra cash with it as an extension of my graphic design work. One of the main things about it that fascinated me was it’s ability to film through the high quality lenses that I was hoping to purchase. I considered all the opportunities this camera and subsequent equipment could bring to me. Not only to produce and create photographs that I literally dreamed about all night long, but also high quality videos and the hint of a possibility to even go so far as making music videos and film shorts!

Since then a whole new world of creativity in the realm of visuals has opened up for me. I haven’t looked back since the day I shakily held out my credit card, sweating profusely and feeling like I was about to faint, and said “go ahead and charge it”. That was back in April. Only 5 months later and I have managed to land a job filming and directing a “no budget” music video for Katie Todd.

I had been a fan of her music for over a year and knew some of her songs well, but didn’t know her name. When I realized that I was going to make a video for a musician that I was already a fan of, I felt extra juiced to make something worthy.

“There were many times that Petra would come home to see me disheveled and lost in despair as the days and hours passed by with frustrating results.”

This music video is the culmination of countless hours and money spent on learning, purchasing, and practicing all of the many things that need to be in place in order to pull off a legitimate film/video. Like all learning processes this was not without it’s trials and fall backs. There were many times that Petra would come home to see me disheveled and lost in despair as the days and hours passed by with frustrating results. The process of using all the software to color treat and convert footage was mindbogglingly complicated and long.

All along the way, I learned how to get certain looks for things, how to shoot, what lenses to use, what lights to use, where to place them. In less than a year, I’ve gone from knowing barely anything about cameras in general to getting a general understanding of the complex world of cinematography.

Of course I have only scratched the surface of what I don’t know and the world of digital media is a constantly changing one where everyday brings more problems and solutions, but at the very least I can say that I set out to do something a year ago with the plan to purchase this camera hoping it would take me into yet another undiscovered corner of the creative world and I succeeded.

A very special thank you to Roger Jansen of KMA Management who gave me the opportunity to do this (as well as providing the incredible assortment of stage lights that I couldn’t have acquired without him), Katie Todd who never shot down a single idea I had and pretty much let me dress her up in whatever I felt like, and lastly my wife Petra who never stops supporting me and encouraging me that I can do ANYTHING.

I’m hoping this is the first of many videos I’ll be producing for local artists that couldn’t otherwise afford a huge hollywood music video costing millions of dollars and maybe someday, I’ll actually start to make some money at it.

Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy it.

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