Madonna University Broadcast and Cinema Arts 30 Second Spot

This is a commercial spot that I did for my Broadcast and Cinema Arts program at Madonna University. The commercial appeared during local telecasts of the Plymouth Whalers games.

I shot a lot of the footage in the studio of the students at work. I had them operating a camera and stage managing. With editing, it made it appear that they were working on the TV show that is displayed with the video. The TV show is Celebrate Michigan, which airs at 6:30 AM on local channel 20 in Metro Detroit.

I used footage taken during the Capstone Film Class production of "Clayman".

WATCH "MADONNA UNIVERSITY BROADCAST AND CINEMA ARTS 30 SECONDS SPOT" ON YOUTUBE

The main thing that I wanted to accomplish with this video was speed. I wanted to see the video naturally flow from one clip to another, almost like it's one big puzzle of connected pieces.

I have a minor cameo in the video around the 13 second mark as the student with the RED One camera.

The Grosse Ile Light

A documentary that I always wanted to do was to film a lighthouse. Just something about them screams "film me". So, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do a historical video for my Field Production and Editing class. Knowing that I wanted to shoot a lighthouse, I Googled the nearby lighthouses where I lived. I found the closet one, so I e-mailed them and mentioned that I was a student and wanted to do a video about their lighthouse. Luckily, they replied back quickly and said yes!

I drove about 45 minutes East to the island of Grosse Ile. I met up with a couple people from the historical society who let me onto the lighthouse property and into it as well. It unfortunately rained when I was there, so I did my best to film with what I could. After I was done shooting the lighthouse, I drove around the island to shoot b-roll that I wanted to use as the introduction in the video to the city.

WATCH "THE GROSSE ILE LIGHT" ON YOUTUBE

The older gentleman in my video, William, had a lot of old photographs that he let me film, as he told the stories behind the photographs. The historical society also had their own photographs, which I also shot. I strived to do keyframing with each photograph to have that "moving image", which kept the pacing in the video.

Fun fact - the narrator in the video is me. I used Soundtrack Pro and my Lifechat headset to record my voiceover. I was surprised how well, to me at least, how my voice sounds in the video and how it just naturally fit.

The Boy Who Was Too Old To Go Trick or Treating

This is a dramatic video that I did for my Field Production and Editing class. I did a Christmas themed video before, and I wanted to do another holiday video - and Halloween was around the corner so it was a perfect fit. The idea behind the video was about a boy who wanted to go trick or treating, but he was just too old. I recruited my 13 year old brother to play the role, and he did a good job! My Dad also has a cameo as the masked parent in the last scene.

I shot the majority of the video on Halloween. I followed my brother and his friends around, and pulled my brother or his friends aside whenever I could to shoot scenes for the video. I hadn't gone trick or treating in years, so it was fun to be in the neighborhood when the kids were out.

WATCH "THE BOY WHO WAS TOO OLD TO GO TRICK OR TREATING" ON YOUTUBE

But, being that my brother was 13, he didn't like me tagging along the entire time so I went out alone and shot b-roll that I would use as cutaways and transitions in the video. I went up to some of the houses and  politely asked if I could shoot on the front lawn, and all of them were more than happy to allow me to.

I had no lighting in the video, so I had to use a flashlight in the last scene to give some light on my brother. But, I wanted to keep with the dark tones since it was Halloween.

Clayman Casting

Another video that I did for my Capstone Film Class at Madonna University. I filmed our casting directors and talked to them about the casting procedure involved with our film. I went with my reoccurring theme of 8-Bit with the music and graphics.

I used b-roll footage from prior in the day when we had actors visit and read for parts. I also had the casting directors "act" during the b-roll to give me the dramatic elements I wanted.

WATCH "CLAYMAN CASTING" ON YOUTUBE

If I could redo this video, I would remove the repeated uses of "uhs" from the interview. I worked on it when I was editing the piece, but I just couldn't take out the words without hurting the pacing of the speech. I used with what I learned from this video, and applied to a future video (The Positive Train) when I went between two cameras to make the speech flow better.

Clayman Storyboards

This is a video that I did for my Capstone Film Class at Madonna University. It is about the storyboard sessions between the director of our student film and our storyboard artist, as well as our production designer. All the students featured in the video were from the Capstone Film Class.

WATCH "CLAYMAN STORYBOARDS" ON YOUTUBE

Trying to make a storyboard video interesting, I strived for creative shots, such as the pencil sharper shot. Unlike my "What does Clayman mean to us?" video, I went for more of a news piece and went for what the Sony AX-2000 camera does best - news pieces.

What Does Clayman Mean to Us?

This is a video that I did for my Capstone Film Class at Madonna University. We started a funding campaign on IndieGoGo, and this was the introduction video to the team from the class.

I wanted to do a theme of "8-bit", so I did a combination of funky camera angles and music to introduce each person of the team.

WATCH "WHAT DOES CLAYMAN MEAN TO US?" ON YOUTUBE

I filmed this video with a Sony AX-2000, and I did extreme closeups during the interviews to get a shallow depth of field with the camera. I love the camera, but a drawback is the camera is primarily for news, and it's hard to achieve a shallow depth of field with the given sensor in the camera.

A Timely Meeting

This was a film that I need for the PAHFest Motown 2011 competition. The purpose of the contest was to create a film that embraced local culture and educated people. My partner, Caitlin, and I decided to make a short film that told the story of a boy who was moving from the historical town of Northville, and couldn't wait to get out. We researched our idea quite heavily, meeting with local historians to gather as much information that we could about Northville. After we got our research, we collaborated on an idea that encompassed education plus a supernatural-like theme to it. Our idea was the boy got visited by another boy who was passing through, and the visiting boy told of the places in Northville and its history - history that would be fun to hear about. The film ended with the reveal that the visiting boy was the grandfather, helping his grandson appreciate where he came from.

We shot and edited the film over the course of five days. We location scouted before, so we knew what areas we wanted to shoot in. For example, the day we were at the Northville Downs racetrack, we asked for permission to shoot there, and the owner was more than willing to allow us on the track.

WATCH "A TIMELY MEETING" ON YOUTUBE

The most creative shot we had in the video was that of the camera following the ball as it rolled down the street. We used gaffer's tape and taped the camera to a scooter and pushed the scooter along the ball, trying our best to keep the ball in frame. After a number of takes, we got a few that worked pretty well.

The major drawback during the week was the equipment given to us. We shot "A Timely Meeting" on a Canon T3i DSLR, and it's a great camera for taking video, but not the best for recording audio. Caitlin and I worked tirelessly in Soundtrack Pro to make the audio sound the best with what was given to us.

Caitlin and I won Most Artistic Achievement Award for this film at the closing ceremonies of PAHFest Motown 2011.