Nick Westerlund - Behind the Scenes Filmmaking Tips and Tricks

M2 AND THE PEOPLE NEW MUSIC VIDEO "CRUSH"

PureMotionMedia@Gmail.com (Nicholas Westerlund) — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 20:00:03 GMT

Check out these photos from the HOT NEW music video called "CRUSH" I filmed with Director Steven Tyler and Producer Jodie Fleming for the band M2 and the People, Premiering in just a couple of days! Make sure you check them out and follow their page for the premiere at https://www.facebook.com/theofficialm2/?fref=ts Share this post with your friends and let the world see what the Sacramento film and music industry brings to the table!

GREEN SCREEN TUTORIAL

PureMotionMedia@Gmail.com (Nicholas Westerlund) — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 02:30:37 GMT

UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KEYING

The purpose of this tutorial is to give you a better understanding of the proper techniques to remove a green/blue screen from your shot for video production. I have received many questions on the subject matter and feel that this tutorial is the best way to explain how to do this properly. Above is a recent video I did for an amazing performing artist "A Guy Named Joe Leavy". Please feel free to check out at his music @ www.joeleavy.com

Here is a list of items you will need.
1) A green/blue screen or chroma key green or blue paint.
2) At least four lights with 5600k daylight bulbs.
3) Diffusers to help spread the light through your shot such as a semi-transparent thin white silk cloth.
4) A camera with lenses.
5) A tape measure.
7) Masking Tape
8) A lapel or shotgun mic and audio recorder.
9) Adobe Premiere CC

Hang your green screen using thumb tacks or a stand behind your subject. Make sure that you have adequate space in the room. Take two lights and position them at each side of the green screen. You do not want the lights to point directly onto the green screen because this will cause the lighting on your screen to be uneven. Use the Silk cloth to diffuse the light hitting the green screen by hanging it in front of the light. Warning do not let the material touch hot light bulbs this could cause a fire and never leave your lighting on unattended. Adjust the light until you have even light across the whole screen use your camera to reference your shot. Use the tape measure to measure 7 feet from the green screen, use masking tape to mark an X or use a chair as a marker. Position the other two lights on each side of your subject, again do not point the lights directly on your subject to avoid hard uneven lighting. Have your subject stand on their mark and adjust the lighting accordingly referencing your shot in your camera. Your camera's distance from your subject will vary greatly depending on the type of lens being used compose your shot accordingly. Depending on the situation lapel mics are a great way to get good audio for your production. Another option to record high-quality audio is to use a shotgun microphone. position your mic as closely to your subject as possible, just out of the frame of your camera and aimed at your subjects mouth. Now that you have the basic idea of your setup let's move on to post editing. Below is a diagram for reference.

(The above diagram is a good setup for a basic interview or product demonstration video.)

Above we have a shot of our subject and the shotgun microphone to the left. Look closely at the green screen in the background notice that the screen is evenly lit across the whole shot. This is extremely important to get a very nice clean key out of your background.

To start let's color correct and roughly grade our subject. This will keep the background from changing colors after we key it out which would cause our key to fail. A failed key will show little remnants of the screen in the shot. This can also happen if your screen is not evenly lit.

Next let mask out the microphone from our shot. First under the effects controls tab click the arrow on the opacity tab. In that tab you will see a pen tool, click on the pen tool and go to the video preview and Trace around your subject. Be careful to check throughout your footage and make sure that your subject does not move out of the mask. If your subject is moving out of the mask simply grab one of the nodes (NODES: The little dots that allow you to adjust the area that you have selected to be your mask.) and move the node until it is clear of your subject. At this point I would suggest adding your top and bottom crop bars if you are using them so that you are able to just your subject up or down as needed.

Go to your effects tab and type in Ultra key and drag the ultra key on to your video clips. Select the arrow on the UltraKey Tab under the effects controls and click on the dropper tool then click on the background of your video. You should see the green screen in your video disappear and a black background will remain. Use the various adjustments under the ultra key tab to fine-tune the edge of your subject so that no other green appears in the video.

Locate or create an image to use as your background place the background image underneath all of your video clips that have green screen thus making the subject appear as if they were in that location.

Select the motion tab and adjust your subject from right to left until they are placed where you want them.

That's it your ready for your dialogue audio and background music. Render the video in your preferred format and you're done here is a sample of the finished product.

QUALITY AUDIO IS KEY TO A GREAT PRODUCTION #2

PureMotionMedia@Gmail.com (Nicholas Westerlund) — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 07:33:36 GMT

It's not about the equipment its how you use it!

Nowadays with the advent of the internet it is easier than ever to get great music and sound effects for your film. Quality studio recorded audio makes up for 50% of your film. Poor audio or the wrong music can ruin even the best cinematography. Indie filmmakers now have websites that professional musicians, sound designers and composers upload their music to and sell a mechanical licence that allows you to use their music or sound effects in your film for a small fee. Now some of us are filming with little to no budget when that is the case collaborating with musicians from the local music scene is a great way to get content while also giving the musician another method of promoting their music. A lot of musicians can be found at colleges and local music events. Network as much as possible and build a catalog of reliable musicians that are interested in collaborating with you and don't burn bridges! Make sure credit is given where credit is due.

As for dialog there are a few great mic's for under $500 that produce great recordings and have been used by filmmakers for years such as the Rode NTG-2 for around $200 and the Audio-Technica AT875R for around $170 to name a few. Both mic's are great for the indie filmmaker. Paired up with the TASCAM DR-60DmkII for around $180 or the bigger TASCAM DR-680MKII for $600, your production will have theatrical quality at a minimal price. The most important thing is to know your equipment! Use your equipment as often as possible. Learn how to properly gain stage and handle files after recording. One great way for any indie boom operator/mixer to gain real experience with their equipment is to start building a sound effects library, study Foley and sound design. Not only will this help you understand how to use your equipment better, but you can also sell mechanical licenses for other filmmakers to use your sound effects as a way to generate income.

Ideally when you listen back to your recordings you should have as little noise floor as possible. You achieve this by properly gain staging your input levels, remember that the more you crank up the gain the more power you are pushing through the operational amplifiers and the more noise you will have. Other factors that will contribute to noise is bad cables, wind and tapping or rubbing on the boom pole. You can reduce wind noise by placing a dead cat (a furry cover) around the microphone to soften and deflect wind noise. Replace any bad cables and learn how to properly wrap the cables to keep them from breaking and shorting out the cable and finally practicing with your boom with headphones on will allow you to learn what movements cause noise so you may be aware of how to properly move when it really counts.

After all of your music, dialog and effects are mixed and you are ready to finalize your production, you will want to render your mix and send the audio for mastering to be done. This is what will give your audio that full bodied high impact sound that you get with big name films. It is important to get multiple sets of ears to listen to your audio on multiple sets of speakers or monitors. Remember everybody hears differently, what might sound good to you may sound terrible to somebody else. The key is to find an even balance between all of the above parameters as possible.

I hope this sheds a little bit of insight on the importance of using quality audio in you production. Keep in mind it never hurts to hire a professional that already has the equipment and experience for the job. But for those working on a tight budget follow the above advice and see how much better your audio sounds and adds to your finished production.

Good luck!

LIFE AS A FULL-TIME FILMMAKER #1

PureMotionMedia@Gmail.com (Nicholas Westerlund) — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 14:10:42 GMT

My journey to becoming a full-time Filmmaker

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add a blog to my site. I always wanted an easy way to share information with visitors and I’m super excited to start this journey. Keep coming back to my site and check for updates right here on the blog.

One of the most common questions I get is "how am I able to transition to working in film full time?" For each person the journey is different, some people are born into it meaning their parents work in the industry. Some go to film school learn the ropes and network in hopes to follow their dream and some start off doing volunteer work on any production they can get on just to gain the experience and network. all of these are great ways to get a start and all involve a great amount of work!

For me it was different. I started off in middle school in Reno, NV. My parents had a Sony camcorder you know the ones with the small cassette tape as the media. I would take that camera everywhere with me filming everything I could sports, live bands, music videos, pretty much anything. Then I would take the footage home and record it to a VHS tape. My method of editing was pressing record on the VCR and playing the footage from the camera as it was recording, then I would pause the VCR and fast forward to the next segment I wanted to have play in the video and hit record again on the VCR mending the two clips together on the VHS tape. I would spend hours and sometimes even days putting together one short video reusing the camcorder tapes to save money I was a nightmare of a process but I loved every minute!

During high school I was teaching drum lessons to make extra money. After I graduated I moved to Sacramento, CA. I started fresh building a new group of students and realized that there was I higher demand for drum lessons in the area than what I was able to cover due to the amount of time available in the week. So I decided to look into other methods of teaching. Thinking back to when I was in middle school and high school I thought about using video and the power of You Tube and Skype to teach more students. So I went out and purchased my first DSLR camera that shot video and some cheap $50 video editing software. The quality was okay and it did the job so I built a website called Pick-up-Sticks Drum Lessons and started editing lesson videos and embedded the videos I uploaded to You Tube on to my website. The site blew up! I was teaching kids all over the world how to play drums and charging a small monthly fee for access to the videos. I received many requests for better audio quality so I purchased professional audio recording equipment to increase the production value of the videos but the audio still was not quite where I wanted it to be. At that point I decided to go to college for Recording Engineering and Music Business. Shortly after I started my schooling I received the call of a lifetime during class I stepped out to take the call and that's when I heard the words "Hi, This is Jason O'Keef with Pearl Drums. We have seen your website and would like to discuss endorsement and sponsorship opportunities with you." What!!! I thought, this must be a joke. he offered for me to come to NAMM Show to discuss and sign my contract, it was a dream come true.

I networked like crazy during NAMM and shortly after was asked by a local band called Stillwood Sages to help provide camera support for a music video they were working on. That was the event that changed everything. At that point I attended and filmed everything I could from music events, corporate meetings, seminars, music videos, short films, promo videos anything I could get my hands on and get this...

I did it all for FREE! I worked for everyone I could for free for exactly one year to build my portfolio and my network and continued to work a part time job on the side along with my drum lessons.

2 months after the end of that year an injury stopped everything and I was no longer able to drum. I respectfully bowed out of my sponsorship with Pearl Drums and worked on healing. A few years later I began working for a company called GaugeMate handling their video production and marketing. I also progressed into the real estate market filming house walk through videos and Realtor interview videos as well. I continued to shoot music videos and short films. towards the end of the summer I was hit by a con-artist who wrote me a $5000 bad check for a job a wiped out all of my savings and incurred me huge fee's with my bank that took the rest of my money. It was a hard hit, I went back to working a regular job full time. I felt like everything I had worked for was for nothing. I almost quit film altogether!

I continued to search for film work but nothing was coming in for like 6 Months, that was when it happened. I finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. I began working with RVP full-time filming and editing Docu-Films. finally this huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was the producer on multiple projects throughout the year and continue to do contract work as needed to this day. I also began working with an amazing two time Grammy Award Winning Native Flutist Mary Youngblood all of the pieces were falling into place. Now I have upgraded all of my equipment, built a great portfolio and an amazing network of people. I gained vast knowledge and skills that have helped me to mold my productions to what they are today and I will be filming my first of many feature films this year. I had many hurdles I had to overcome on my journey to being a full-time filmmaker, many of which are not mentioned above. But as I close out this post I hope that you all take with you one thing. No matter what happens, no matter how hard it gets. Don't give up on you dreams!

Thanks for Reading.

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