Inspiration is for amateurs. Keep creating.

After years of dreaming about it, I finally had the opportunity to go to Japan last May. 

I had quite the struggle deciding if I should bring a bunch of gear and make an awesome travel video or just keep it simple and just take photos with my phone so I can actually enjoy the trip.

After weighting out the options I decided to purchase a small "point-and-shoot" camera with all manual settings and not stress about carrying gear and changing lenses.

On my way to the airport I decided to start shooting little snippets of my trip and as my plane took off and the seatbelt signal turned off, I wiped out my laptop and started editing what I had just shot.

I finished the video the first night in Japan, called it "Japan 1", uploaded it and realized what I had just gotten myself into. I said to myself "Japan 1 on the first day? that means there has to be a Japan 2 on the second day!"

I thought this would be a daunting task. Shoot every day, edit every night for 2 weeks!

At the same time I thought "If I don't do this, all the footage I shoot will end up in a hard drive unedited for a long time"

I decided to go for it and make a daily video no matter what.

 

I decided to keep creating.

 

 

My two constraints for this video were:

  • It has to be 15 seconds long, so it can be uploaded to Instagram
  • I can't  spend more than 2 hours editing, sound designing, colour correcting and exporting.

 

Long story short, I spent most of my nights in Japan editing while everyone else in the room was sleeping. 

I managed to upload 11 videos while I was in Japan, because some days I simply couldn't get a video finished on time.

I still have a lot of footage and am currently editing more of these 15 second videos.

For all you gear heads, this is what I used to make the videos:

Camera: Panasonic LX100, shot at 1080p 60fps

Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015

Sound: A lot of the sound came from freesound.org (Make sure to donate so they can stay alive!)

 

That's it folks, here's the videos, hope you like them.

 


Taking matters to new heights - How I got into flying UAVs | Drones

About a year ago I purchased a DIY quadcopter kit thinking that I would have the time and the patience to build, program, test, program, test again and finally fly my own quadcopter.

I was very wrong. I didn't have the time or patience. 

 

I realized that sometimes it's best to leave some things to the pros and spend a little bit more cash for a "turn-key" solution. I'm sure a lot of people have the opposite opinion and will say that it's good to know the ins and outs of your flying machine, and I agree with that too. But that's not my cup o' tea.

I sold my DIY quadcopter and forgot about the whole flying thing for a while.

I found a tiny drone called the Cheerson CX-10 and I bought it. In my opinion, this is the best way to start flying. It's not easy to fly and that's why it's the best way to learn. Full manual controls will make you crash, laugh and get the hang of it.

 

So after flying the CX-10 nano drone for about 3 weeks I decided to go ahead and get a used Phantom Vision 2+ off craigslist. Best decision I've ever made.

 

Flying the Phantom 2 Vision+ is so much easier than flying the nano drone, but I am happy I learned the hard way first.


The camera on the Phantom 2 Vision+ is not the best, but it manages to capture decent images and video in FullHD at up to 30fps and up to 60fps in 720p.


I decided to take my maiden flight in beautiful White Rock, B.C.

I know, flying over the water might not be the smartest idea for a first flight, but I went for it anyway. 


 

I used a couple tricks to make the video look better, such as Optics compensation (remove fisheye) in After Effects, and the Colorista plug in for colour correction.

I was very happy with my first flight, and needless to say, I was hooked. 

After a long researching session, I decided to order a few accessories to have a better kit, such as a 3rd battery, a special backpack and a set of stickers that help me decode all the coloured light sequences the phantom uses to communicate with you.

While I waited for all my accessories to arrive from China, I decided to go for a second flight in Burnaby, B.C.

 

 

Again, flying near water is not the best thing to do when you're just getting started, but..... what can I say, I like water.

 

I've only done 2 flights so far and I love it. I'll keep practising and learning until I feel confident enough to get a larger bird with a better camera.

 

So to anyone who wants to get started with this hobby, I would recommend to get one of those Cheerson CX-10 and practise until you feel confident enough. Then get a larger quadcopter, and if you're like me who doesn't have time or patience to build it yourself, just go and get a ready-to-fly machine.

 

Two Thousand 15



2015_birdo

2014 was somewhat of a slow year for me in terms personal projects. I remember I made a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish in 2014, however, it was a very ambitious list with too many goals that made it unrealistic.

I believe this overwhelmed me and when I realized I wasn't going to be able to achieve all of my goals, I became discouraged.

So for this year, I have decided to make a more realistic set of goals that might look a bit minimalistic, but it will help me stay focused and will allow me to achieve more quality on my work.

If I achieve my goals before the end of the year, I will add new goals to my list and keep pushing my limits.

Here's my official list of projects I want to do this year.

  • 2 Music Videos
  • 2 Short Films
  • 1 Short Documentary
  • Pre-produce 1 Feature film

And here's a list of the skills I want to learn or improve this year:

  • Master DaVinci Resolve
  • Learn basic Music Production
  • Learn basic Japanese

I believe it's very important to have goals and a plan of attack, otherwise, you may end up realizing it's August and you haven't done anything.

 

Let's do this!

Happy New Year!!!

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New website!

I am so happy to start December with a new website.

I've had a crappy Tumblr website for a few years now and I felt like it's time for an upgrade.

After looking for website building services, I decided that Squarespace was the way to go, super easy to use and to customize.

Peep the site and if you have any comments or suggestions let me know in the contact section.

Here's 10% off in case you wanna make your website using Squarespace:

GIMME10

 

newwebsite

Guerrilla filmmaking + NOT losING yo shit when the worst happens

A little over a month ago I heard about a contest from Sony to win the awesome FS-7 camera. I got super excited and decided to make a short documentary and enter it to the contest.

I spent 4 weeks thinking about what I wanted to do. I would get very excited about an idea and a couple days later I would scrap it.

1 week before the deadline I was very frustrated and I decided to make a short documentary about not being able to make a short documentary.

Watch it here son! (or daughter!):

 

So like I said before, I found out what I wanted to do 1 week before the deadline, and needless to say, it was very little time to get organized, shoot and edit.

The deadline was Sunday at midnight and I started shooting on Tuesday night.

Long story short, I began editing on Saturday and decided to do the final touches on Sunday.

I took my time on Sunday to start editing, and at 1pm, I tried to open my Premiere project… I said “I tried” because I completely failed.

I thought I had safely backed up my project on a separate hard drive, but I failed to double check before deleting duplicates. So 1pm, no edit and a bunch of footage sitting on my hard drive.

I almost quit this project. 

If it weren’t for my girlfriend Tania, I probably wouldn’t have decided to keep on going. 

So I had 11 hours before the deadline, midnight, right?

Then I thought…midnight? but midnight where? 

I checked the rules for the contest and realized it was midnight in the U.K.! Which was 4pm Vancouver.

3 hours to make an edit, after effects shots, colour grading, exporting and uploading.

I put on my headphones and made my computer fans spin like there was no tomorrow. Somehow I finished just in time to upload. 

I submitted my entry with 10 minutes to spare.


Unfortunately I didn’t have time to polish it but people seem to like it. If I have some time, I’ll go back and make it the best it can be.


Lessons learned:

  • Double check that your files are backed-up. After you do that, check again. Once you’re done checking, check one last time. Now you can reward yourself with a beer.
  • Always leave some extra time to spare in case something goes wrong.


I had a lot of fun working on this quick and short project, I hope you guys enjoy it.

BTW, it was so much fun shooting with the DJI Ronin! (I might need a shoulder, elbow, arm and back replacement soon though.)