Even though you can find most of these videos on my portfolio page as well as in the latest blog entry, I wanted to go ahead and list them here for the sake of continuity.
This Is PopX
PopX is a blend of Pop-Art and Expressionism and was created by Baron Batch. In the past couple of years, Baron has produced over 200 pieces of world-class art and he's nowhere close to slowing down. Back in April, 2014 Baron came to the Lubbock Arts Festival to show off his work and connect with fans. Rather than just sitting around doing nothing, Baron decided to get to work doing what he does best. He didn't even have to stop for the interview.
I always enjoy it when Baron comes into town because we do so much more than just sit around doing nothing. We get to work planning out and making things that are awesome. Whether he's walking through a grocery store to film a commercial or live-painting art at an expo just so he can give it away, Baron is always doing something interesting that's worth filming.
I hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as I enjoyed shooting and producing it. To see more of baron's work, check out http://www.pop-x.com.
Create - Lubbock Arts Festival Commercial
Here's a fun ad I made featuring my good friend Baron Batch for the Lubbock Arts Festival. Baron was the festival's featured artist in 2013 and has continued to be a supporter and somewhat of a spokesperson for the festival so it was great to be able to get him involved in the commercial.
One of my favorite aspects of this video was the timeframe. Due to some minor issues with another production company here in town, this opportunity was presented to Baron and I 24 hours prior to Baron getting into town to film. We had one day to come up with an idea to film and execute. We shot the entire video at Market Street supermarket late at night after most shoppers had cleared out. Fortunately, the store is open 24/7 so we pretty much had access to the entire place for as long as we needed it. If you follow any of my other work, you'll know that I don't usually shoot 30 second spots, but I usually produce pieces that are 3-7 minutes in length. Although I needed a small fraction of the footage that I would usually shoot, Baron and I agreed that more footage is better so we shot for 4 or 5 hours until we felt that we had the footage we needed.
All of the motion shots were filmed using a "steadicam" sled built by my brother in law, Chris Hudgins, with a little bit of help from me. The entire thing was made from plywood, skateboard wheels, and some PVC pipe. Chris and I only used it for one of his music videos a couple of years ago, and I honestly forgot about it until this project. My cousin Caleb was gracious enough to spend the evening with us to help operate the sled and set up some of the nicest shots in the commercial.
The music was created by my little brother Connor and I think it fit perfectly with the mood of the spot. Baron and I had originally discussed using something with strings, but I think this worked much better.
Although the reduced run-time for a spot like this might make it seem easier to edit and produce, it actually proved to be much more of a challenge having to leave out so many great shots that we were able to get. That said, I'm proud to say that 48 hours after being presented with the job, I had a final product for approval. Not to brag or anything, but you can't find a 48 hour turnaround for something like this anywhere in Lubbock.
I've produced quite a few pieces for a number of different projects, but this was my first for broadcast television. If you or anyone you know is looking to create a commercial that can stand above the shoddy, cheap feel of most local commercials while still driving the point home, head over to http://www.ryangvoight.com and let me know.
A Conversation With AD
A couple of months ago, I went to New York to shoot photos and footage of a faith-based basketball camp being held in Long Island. Although I love New York and was excited about going back, I was a little worried about this particular trip seeing as how I know almost nothing about basketball. In addition to my lack on knowledge about the game, I wasn't sure that I would be able to come up with anything unique since there's only so much footage and so many photos you can get of kids playing basketball.
Fortunately, I was wrong. During the first day of the basketball camp, there was one coach who really stuck out. While all of the coaches were working hard trying to help these kids develop their basketball skills, there was one guy who had the amazing ability to perfectly merge lessons about faith and living the life that God intended with basketball. His name is AD and I was so happy to sit down with him and talk.
iPhone 5S Slow-Mo Drumming Test
Here's a quick test I did using the Slow-Mo feature on the iPhone 5S. I recorded the audio at 60BPM, then recorded the same beat at 240BPM with the iPhone Slow-Mo setting(120FPS). I loaded the original audio video files into Premiere Pro and slowed the video down to 30FPS. The result is pretty Interesting. I know the lighting stinks and the compression definitely caused some artifacts, but the whole point of this was proof of concept, and I'm pretty happy with it. So there you go.
Art Is Liberty
In mid April, 2013, I had the honor of shooting some footage and an interview of my good friend Baron Batch at the Lubbock Arts Festival. Baron was the featured artist for the event and he spent the weekend sharing his art with thousands from the Lubbock area.
Although many know Baron as running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he also possesses a plethora of skills including photography, bowling, and as you will see in this video - painting. Many of the items featured at the event were created especially for the Lubbock Arts Festival and were available for purchase only at the event.
I'm honored to be able to share this short view into Baron's process and inspiration and I hope you will take the time to head over to baronbatch.com to see more of Baron's work.
Life Church Christmas Videos
Here are two goofy Christmas videos that I shot for my church Life Church recently. These were some of the more entertaining videos to shoot because aside from Peyton reading the verse, everything else was pretty much improv. I'm already looking forward to next Christmas when we can make another goofy holiday video or two.
Give Thanks
This Thanksgiving, I decided to shoot a short video series for my church, Life Church about being Thankful. The videos themselves are fairly simple, but the point isn't to show off some kind of fancy production quality, it's to show the thankful hearts of different people in different places in life. This video features 4 short films with 5 different members from Life Church talking about the things that God has done in their lives.
Of course, I would be remise if I didn't point out the fact that my beautiful and amazing wife did such an incredible job sharing just a tiny bit of our story in the last clip of the video. She is truly my hero and I am so proud of her for sharing.
I edited all of the videos into one long one for the sake of saving space, but if you would like to watch or download the videos individually, you can head over to Life Church's Vimeo page.
Zac Wilkerson - Four-Lane Highway
In the second installment of this six-video series, Zac walks us through the challenges as well as the enormous rewards of pursuing a music career with a wife and kids at home. As difficult as it is being on the road knowing that you have a family at home who loves and misses you, waiting for your return, that very thought is the thing that will often times keep you going. As passionate as Zac is about his music, it doesn't even come close to the passion he has for his wife and kids.
"This four-lane highway's a double edged blade" because the same road that takes you away from the ones you love the most is the same road that will bring you home.
Zac is a fantastic songwriter and if you want to hear more of his music, check up on tour dates, and learn more about him, head on over to zacwilkersonmusic.com.
Zac Wilkerson - Wayfaring Stranger
This is the first in a series of videos about Zac Wilkerson and the music he lives and breathes. I've partnered with my good friend, Baron Batch to help get Zac's music out there to new listeners across the country. Zac has been one of my closest friends for 8 years now and it's always an honor to get to work together whether it's playing music or shooting videos like this. In this video, Zac walks us through his thoughts on songwriting and what it means to have a real passion for music. The Song Wayfaring Stranger is a perfect example of timeless songwriting - written in the early 19th century, the song has literally outlived the identity of the person who wrote it.
To learn more about Zac and to hear more of his music, head over to zacwilkersonmusic.com.
Promo Material Samples
I've posted a few videos in the past showing some of the announcement videos I've made for my church Life Church. Well here are a few more examples of advertising/promo design work I've done both for my church and the nonprofit organization that I work for called Operation HOPE. I really love doing this kind of work and it's always fun to share it with other people.
If you or a church/business/organization you are connected with is looking for some help with this sort of motion graphic work, please contact me and let me know. I would love to help you create a beautiful way to showcase your visual brand.
Life Church Announcement
Lately I've been getting alot more into motion graphics so I decided to try my hand at creating some cool little "announcement videos" for my church, Life Church here in Lubbock. It's crazy because I feel like I'm actually starting to get to the point where I can visualize something that I want to make and then a few hours later actually be able to watch it on the screen. I made these 5 short videos over the course of a couple of weeks, and to be honest, I'll probably end up changing them a million times throughout their lifetime. Nonetheless, alot of work went into these and I'm pretty proud of them. So, here they are. Oh, and by the way, I also designed the logo - which I'm also pretty proud of. If you're looking for someone to do any film or motion graphic work, please don't hesitate to click on contact up above and we'll make it happen.
To learn even more about Life Church, check out www.lifechurchlubbock.com
Barista Throwdown Competition #2
The Barista Throwdown League is a monthly barista competition started by Patrick Burns of Palace Coffee Co in Canyon, TX that gives baristas from local coffee shops around the area a chance to show off their latte art skills and win prizes and the respect of their peers in the process. More than just a competition, it's an awesome community and a chance for baristas and coffee enthusiasts (such as myself) from around the area to get together and enjoy something they all love. It was a blast getting to be a part of such a fun event and I'm thrilled that Patrick has put so much work into making it happen.
The competition was held at GoodBrews Coffee & Tea in Lubbock, TX.
For more information about the BTL, head over to baristathrowdown.com
Ryder
Ok, so the first video is only 4 seconds long, there's no audio, and it's essentially just a photograph, but I wanted to include it because I worked pretty hard on learning how to do it and any video with my little boy Ryder is going to be a good one. Basically, I've been learning alot of fun video effects and whatnot on videocopilot.net and this tutorial was alot of fun for me. I've also learned how to do a few other fancy tricks, but they weren't as good as this one. Enjoy!
The second video below is just a video of him saying his ABC's. There's not a whole lot of artistry in this one, but it's a video of my son and I think it's cute. So there you go.
All These Things That I've Done
Click here to listen to and download Chris' music on iTunes.
Operation HOPE Videos
Below are 5 videos that I've made for Operation HOPE, the organization that I currently work for. For the sake of space, I won't go into too much detail about these videos, but you can click on the Vimeo tag of each one to view the original video and read the details. These videos were shot over 5 trips to Haiti as well as a couple of trips to New York.
Missing You
Missing You was a video that I shot for Chris, but I let him do all of the editing. I had originally planned on doing the production and editing work, but things were pretty crazy with some of my other endeavors so Chris was more than happy to help me out and get it done. I really enjoyed filming this and, if I'm honest, couldn't get the song out of my head for weeks. I suggest that you take that as fair warning because you definitely will want to listen to this song again and it definitely will get stuck in your head.
Click here to listen to and download Chris' music on iTunes.
Somewhere Only We Know
Click here to listen to and download Chris' music on iTunes.
Dear Generation
This video is the first one I ever shot using the Canon 5D mkii. I hadn't planned on using the camera much for video, but I decided I would give it a try since I was already shooting senior photos for my little brother Connor. Connor is an excellent singer and songwriter and he did a great job for this video. Since it was one take and we had a few issues with wind noises, I debated whether or not I even wanted to put it online, but its such an awesome song and Connor did such a great job that I just couldn't resist.
