Artful Camera | Analog And Digital Photography And Filmmaking

It seems like everyone today wants to be the next Casey Neistat. What makes his YouTube channel and videos so compelling? Neistat's YouTube channel currently has over 5 million subscribers, and has amassed over 1 billion views. He must be doing something right that draws such an insanely huge audience. A few months ago Casey Neistat released a video he called Casey Neistat’s Guide to Filmmaking. In this episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast, Chris Fenwick and I take an indepth look at Neistat's video. Chris casts his keen video editor eyes upon each scene in this video and talks about why Casey’s story telling works so well. We also talk about the new DJI Mavic Pro, and I try to goad Chris into making an epic experiential documentary of Route 66. Please support our show sponsors: VideoBlocks - an affordable, subscription-based stock media site that gives you unlimited access to premium stock footage. Get your yearly subscription today for only $99 here: http://videoblocks.com/digital CrumplePop's Better

This is the 200th episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast. My special guest for this episode is none other than Chris Fenwick. Chris has a long, storied history with this show so it's only fitting that he joins me in a fun conversation about the past, the present, and the future of being a digital media creative. This podcast began to be published in January 2010 at the beginning of the "convergence" revolution brought about accidentally by Canon with the epic Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. This show has tracked the progress of the technology of the tools used by digital media creatives for nearly six and a half years. Mentioned in the episode: CrumplePop's website: http://crumplepop.com CrumplePop AudioDenoise: http://www.crumplepop.com/fcpx-premiere-plugin-audio-denoise/ CrumplePop EchoRemover: http://www.crumplepop.com/fcpx-premiere-audio-plugin-echoremover/ Make a donation to support the Digital Convergence Podcast: http://creativemethod.tv/donate Send email or leave voice mail feedback: http://creativemethod.

My brother, Joseph Olson, talks about crushing it on YouTube. Originally trained as physicist, he now produces YouTube videos - by the thousands! His two YouTube channels - BrickTsar (all about Legos) and TrainTsarFun (all about toy trains) - have garnered over 50 million views and over 50,000 subscribers combined. So far he’s published almost 3,000 videos (and none of them with a Canon EOS 5D Whatever). In this episode, Joseph talks with me about his success on YouTube, his process for producing videos, and tips for optimizing YouTube videos. Many DCP listeners produce videos for clients and many of the guests on this show have shared tips about doing client work. So, it’s time to change things up a bit and talk expanding your revenue streams by creating your own content and monetizing it. Joseph's 3,000 videos belong only to him and no one else. He reaps the profit from owning his own content. Hopefully Joseph's success on YouTube will inspire you to create your own content and profit from it, without havin

On August 25th, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV - was officially announced amidst a cacophony of both praise and disappointment - depending on whether you are primarily a stills photographer or videographer. Ben Bruton-Cox of the Our Week In Video podcast helps me work through my own angst over Canon. Is the Mark IV right for me?   “Expectation postponed makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is a tree of life” –ancient proverb.   After 8 years of unrequited love and anticipation, Canon has slammed the door closed on the convergence market that they gave birth to. When the 5D Mark II was released, it had the most basic of video features. But, O!, it was the loveliest HD video ever seen (only 30fps in the beginning, moire, poor dynamic range, and rolling shutter notwithstanding) from a camera costing less than $3,500. With that camera, Canon accidentally created the “convergence” market, and with it, hope and expectation that  Canon would continually improve the video features of the EOS 5D line.   Sadly, I feel

In this episode I cover: 1) The return of Rocko's Modern Life and how I met the B-52's while working as a camera operator intern at a local Atlanta TV station. 2) Canon EOS 5D Mark IV rumors are heating up. I talk about the latest information from CanonRumors.com. It looks like the 5D Mark IV will support 4K video, but it does not come with a CFAST card slot. In a few days - perhaps as early as August 25, 2016 - we likely all will have the facts, but will it make a difference? 3) There's a free sound library available that may be of interest to digital media creatives. It's a royalty free library from Red Sky Lullaby. 4) If you are a Final Cut Pro X user, I tell you how you can win a free pass for the 2016 FCPX Creative Summit. And I also tell you about an awesome FCP X resource: fcp.co. 5) Kris Simmons - The Video Business Success Coach - returns to motivate you to put your biz into high gear. Ron Dawson of Radio Film School left us a voice mail with a great question about a topic we did not address in our s

This episode features: 1) Soundstripe co-founders Travis Terrell & Micah Sannon announce an exciting development in their music licensing service that’s going to make licensing songs even easier and more affordable. 2) ShareGrid co-founder and Creative Director Brent Barbano returns to the DCP to talk about recent developments and trends in the camera rental market. Brent announces that ShareGrid is opening up a new market in Atlanta. 3) Kris Simmons of 6 Strong Media returns with our 3rd and final installment in the series “Am I getting paid enough?” This popular topic has stimulated a good bit of discussion among DCP listeners. In this episode we hear again from Pat Miller - whose $800 video for a bicycle accessory company - started this whole conversation. We also hear from listeners - Patrick Healy, Matt Gray, and James Talkington - with their comments and questions. Soundstripe: http://soundstripe.com ShareGrid: http://www.sharegrid.com Make a donation to support the Digital Convergence Podcast: http

In the last episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast, Kris Simmons (of 6 Strong Media and KRE8 University) and I discussed a question submitted by listener Pat Miller. He gave us a link to a video he produced for a cycling component company he recently produced. After sharing how much time he had invested in the project, he asked us “Am I getting paid enough?” - without telling us how much he got paid to produce the video! In that episode Kris and I shared our thoughts of what the rate should be for a video like the one Pat produced. Our guess was in the thousands - $5,000 to $10,000. After episode 194 aired, Pat Miller emailed us with what he charged and provided additional production details. In this episode we share that with you. Wow! Just, Wow! Links from this episode: Pat Miller's video discussed by Kris Simmons and Carl Olson: https://youtu.be/UHexdNeMQSA The video that inspired Pat's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8YhrAAvh7w Pat Miller's website: http://patmillervideo.com Make a donation to

Digital Convergence Podcast listener Pat Miller emailed me some time back with the question “Am I Getting Paid Enough?” The question came with a twist - Pat didn’t tell us how much he charged his client for the video in question. I invited Kris Simmons to view Pat’s video before making a response. This episode is our response to Pat's cool question! What do you think? What would you have charged to do a video like the one Pat Miller did? Links from this episode: Show notes for DCP episode 194: http://creativemethod.tv/dcp194 Pat Miller's video discussed by Kris Simmons and Carl Olson: https://youtu.be/UHexdNeMQSA Pat Miller's website: http://patmillervideo.com Make a donation to support the Digital Convergence Podcast: http://creativemethod.tv/donate Send email or leave voice mail feedback: http://creativemethod.tv/contact/ Carl Olson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCarlOlson CreativeMethod.TV on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativemethod.tv/ CreativeMethod on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cr

To what lengths will you go as a photographer or filmmaker to do a job? Photographer and filmmaker Mathew Farrell has probably gone farther and higher than most of us will in a lifetime. Mat was hired to document a team of scientists doing valuable glaciology fieldwork in the Karakoram, Yukshin Gardan Sar, area in northern Pakistan. For the past several years, climate change has caused much human suffering and loss of life and property from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). GLOFs occur when lakes of water hidden within the ice walls of glaciers burst through those icy walls. The entire lake floods the inhabited areas below the glaciers. Hence the need for this survey. How did Mat get involved? About a year ago I received this email from him: "On a more exciting note, this winter (your summer) I’ve been invited to join a three month long science, community development and climbing expedition to Karakoram mountains in Pakistan. The expedition is called the Karakoram Anomaly Project (karakoram.co). In brief,

Jason Been, owner of Imagecraft Productions, has been working in television production for over 20 years and has an extensive knowledge of the production world. He began his career in the early 1990s as a freelance audio guy and then found his way behind a camera to work as a camera operator. His career then evolved into business ownership. After working for Imagecraft Productions for a few years, he purchased the company and transformed it from a simple owner/operator business into one of Los Angeles's leading boutique rental houses. Imagecraft has provided equipment and technical services to a number of popular shows including World Poker Tour, Pawn Stars, and many other shows. Jason's experience ranges from large scale live events to small single camera ENG shoots. In our conversation in this episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast, Jason talks about how he transitioned from being an employee of Imagecraft Productions to being the owner and operator of Imagecraft. He shares his thoughts on the future of

Musician and documentary film producer Jason Amm talks with me about the film Electronic Voyager that he and director & filmmaker Robert Fantinatto are currently working on. Electronic Voyager follows Michelle Moog-Koussa as she retraces the footsteps of her late father, iconic synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog. As you listen to this fascinating conversation with Jason Amm, you will note the sense of urgency in bringing this documentary to life. Many of the pioneers of electronic music makers who used Moog synthesizers have died. The recent, tragic passing of Bob Moog's close friend and important collaborator, Keith Emerson - perhaps the most iconic Moog keyboardist - was just another reminder of how important it is to document Bob Moog's crucial chapter in the history of electronic music, NOW. Jason and Robert are keen to capture the legacy of Bob Moog before it’s too late from those who knew and worked with him. Jason and Robert are imminently qualified to tell such an important story. They produced the crit

250 artists from 25 countries around the world come together to work on a moving CG animated film about a little girl caught in the horrors of world war II in the town of Trento, Italy. The film is called Mila. Mila is the story of a girl and two women during Trento’s bombing in 1943. Writer and Director Cinzia Angelini says: "I wanted to tell a war story not centered on armies, soldiers, generals, battle plans. I wanted to talk about civilians, and especially the children. The girl who inspired me to create this movie was a child during WWII. That girl is my mother." Cinzia Angelini has worked as an animator and story artist in feature productions for more than twenty years. Her resume includes work at Dreamworks, and later followed a path leading to collaborations with all of the major studios in Hollywood. Cinzia is now a story artist at Illumination Entertainment. Her work includes “Prince of Egypt”, “Eldorado”, “Spirit”, “Sinbad”, “Spider-man 2″, “Open Season”, “Meet the Robinsons” and “Bolt”, the “How t

Soundstripe provides unlimited top shelf video production music for just $10 per month. Co-founder Micah Sannon joins me in this episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast to talk about how Soundstripe provides affordable beautiful and inspiring music for video with an easy licensing scheme.

Miami-based Director and Cinematographer Rick Delgado talks about how his “Four Quadrants of Business” has allowed him to work on some of the most exciting commercial gigs - including several gigs for Victoria Secret - and work with some of the best people in business. Rick started shooting commercials on Canon DSLR’s but later sold all of his DSLR gear to switched over to RED. He talks about his reason for doing so. Rick Delgado has been a long time listener and supporter of the Digital Convergence Podcast and now it’s an honor to have him on the show. Mentioned In This Episode: Show notes for DCP 188 Rick Delgado's website Rick Delgado on Instagram (@RickDelgado) Cinematic Immunity Podcast DCP article featured on Story and Heart Join Academy of Storytellers Team of One Filmmaking Training Purchase The Video Business Success Coach - Season 1 (with 5 coaching call recordings, and Six Figure Videographer ebook) Join KRE8 University and turbo-boost your video business Make a donation to support the Digital Co

A DCP listener posed this scenario to Chris Fenwick and I just before we recorded episode 187 of the Digital Convergence Podcast: "I was in a production company last week and most people were under 30. All but one was under 40. What’s the key to longevity in the business?” It’s a great question. I’m not sure we directly answered the question in this episode, but we did have a lot to say about how our attitude makes a difference as we get older and help us "stay in the business." Prior to pressing the record button for this episode, I watched a poignant video that Chris just completed for a memorial service for a dear friend of his who had recently passed away. Chris explains how he put together a moving video tribute to a friend. Talk about embracing and learning something new… Chris talks about why he decided to get a new DJI Phantom 4. It also involved renting a ferris wheel in Kona, Hawaii. Naturally. Mentioned In This Episode: Show notes for DCP 187 Chris Fenwick's website Chris Fenwick on Twitte (@ChrisF

Aaron Ralph Thomas started off shooting wedding and commercial video. However, he needed a teleprompter for a job and he could not find an operator for it. Funny thing, though... a lot of other people had the same problem. So Aaron began offering teleprompter operators as one of his business offerings. His teleprompter operator service company now brings in over six-figures. In fact, he had so much business, he decided to apply the 80/20 rule. He dropped 80 percent of his customers to focus on the top 20 percent that bring in the most revenue.In episode 186 of the Digital Convergence Podcast, Your World Productions, Inc. founder and CEO, Aaron Ralph Thomas, talks about his amazing transformation from shooting video to providing teleprompter services for his clients. Mentioned In This Episode: Show notes for DCP186 Aaron Ralph Thomas' website Aaron on Twitter: @AaronRalphT Purchase The Video Business Success Coach - Season 1 (with 5 coaching call recordings, and Six Figure Videographer ebook) Join KRE8 Univers

Filmmakers Justin DeMers and Ray Tsang have a conversation with me about Team of One filmmaking. Many listeners of the Digital Convergence Podcast are solo-filmmakers or solo-creatives, but just because they run a creative business by themselves does not mean they have to do it alone. Justin and Ray are here to help solo-filmmakers thrive in their business. Ray is an Emmy-award winning Director of Photography with a background in finance. He shares his story of turning a hobby he loved into a thriving business as a filmmaker. Justin channeled his inner Alton Brown and hatched a demented Cutthroat Kitchen-ish plot to film and document Ray tackle a start-to-finish solo video project. The results: over 20 in-depth video lessons themed: Team of One Filmmaking Course (included in the Academy of Storytellers online learning resource for digital media creatives). Start watching Team of One Filmmaking Course today! Join here:http://www.teamofonefilmmaking.com/dcp/ Purchase The Video Business Success Coach - Season 1

This episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast is going to be a brief one. It's the result of listener feedback. Longtime DCP listener and supporter Swen Halverson sent me this message: "Recently while listening to one of the Video Business Success Coach segments I found myself wanting to listen to previous ones on a similar topic and thinking it would be too much trouble to find them because they're mixed in with the rest of the episode. Then I thought: I would pay $25-$80 for access to an organized list of all the business video success coach segments! I Know that would take some work so I wouldn't expect you to do it for just me but I do think you should ask your listeners if there are others who would do the same." Unfortunately, Swen was correct. It's really hard to find and locate a specific topic. The Video Business Success Coach segment is usually buried deep within each Digital Convergence Podcast episode. There's no timestamp to take you directly to the segment, nor is there a comprehensive, topica

Filmmaker Aviv Vana talks about the world’s largest online event for filmmakers - CineSummit. Over 60,000 will attend. For FREE. Yes, you heard that right: for FREE.Aviv tells us what to expect in this upcoming exciting two day educational event featuring Directors. My comments on the recently announced Canon EOS-1D X Mark II elicited some feedback - I’ll briefly share that with you. The Video Business Success Coach Kris Simmons answers a listener question who is contemplating making the transition to a freelancer. Mentioned In The Show:CineSummit 5 - Directors EditionFree registration for DCP Listeners:http://creativemethod.tv/cs5 Join KRE8 University and turbo-boost your video business. Make a donation to support the Digital Convergence Podcast:http://creativemethod.tv/donate Send email or leave voice mail feedback: http://creativemethod.tv/contact/  

The Canon EOS-1D X Mark II is the long awaited successor of the original 1D X released in 2011. After five long years and continuous technical advancements, does Canon deliver $6,000 value to digital media creatives with this new model? It features 4K, but at what cost? What video making essentials did Canon leave out of the Mark II? It's a real head-scratcher. Also in this episode, I talk about the newly announced Sony a6300 - an amazing compact, mirrorless camera that is priced at $1,000 and has many features missing on the $6,000 Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. Other topics covered: do you suffer from SaaS fatigue (Software as a Service)? I talk about how I periodically evaluate what I'm spending on SaaS and other services. Going into 2016 I saved a bundle on my SaaS bill. The Video Business Success Coach - Kris Simmons - whips us into shape so we can put our best foot forward when looking to work with another production company. Mentioned In The Show:Gizmodo's article: Canon 1D X Mark II: An Epic DSLR That Shoots