Lessons

Lesson Info

Shooting Technique

this segment, we're going to focus on a crew because there's no way I could possibly produce the films that I do without a good group. The trouble with that is good. Crew is very hard to find. It's not easy to find people that are a reliable, be good shooters. See having artistic I and D reliable again because reliability, you know, tens 10 tends to always be the one thing that has kept me from finding good people in the past, finding people who are, You know, I can trust that I can send out to go to a Grimm's house in the morning, and I know they're gonna come back with what I need. I've gone to great lengths to train the crew that I work with and the crew that I worked with their friends, and they're not just worker co workers of mine or employees. There really are their family. We have such a we built this business together. We found I found both of them on Craigslist, believing which is which is unheard, and, um and and I and I used to put out feelers for, you know, camera people a...

nd the way I approach DSLR shooters was I didn't go after videographers. I went after photographers because I wanted to find food hot photographers who would be hungry to learn video, but who had that understanding of depth of field eso and all the inner workings of a DSLR. So I didn't wanna have to go train a videographer. Excuse me? Who is so used to working on automatic that teaching with the S Lars is completely gonna be holding learning curve. And what I found were a couple of people who had varying ranges of experience. But they turned out to be rock stars when it came to three growth and learning how to shoot and learning to really take the reins of creative shooting and help us to build the style of our films together. And we we've attended workshops together. We've learned together, and you have to invest that time into somebody to get them there were you want to go? I mean, Starbucks is a perfect example. Starbucks doesn't just hire employees and just and just train them, and that's it. Starbucks has like the I think it's like one the lowest, always turnarounds of all the so called fast foods, last chain businesses in the food service industry because they offer their part time employees full time benefits. I mean, that's incredible. They treat their employees right, And there's something to be said about that, actually, if we're going to go into just a dab of business psychology, if you don't mind, because I love that stuff. But what Rob is really talking about is when you're building your staff, um, we'll call them stuff for now, and you'll understand why in the second, when you're building your staff, you kind of have to choose how you want to build them and how you want that relationship to grow. Rob and I have built our staff, and we don't call them staffer employees. Or at least we do try not to use. The word doesn't fit way. Call them team members. And the way that we, um, you know, create a work environment. It's It's a social, you know, work environment. You know, we built it all on social norms, which just means the way you treat your friends and family, and you can build the team like that or you can build the team on what's called market norms, which is you get what you pay for. You know, we're coming in clock in 9 to 5, and we're going home. Not quite the same type of relationship. And we have just found, um that we have loved building our team on social norms, Onda having them, his friends and family, and it creates that kind of loyalty, creates people that you can count on and creates a work environment that you absolutely love. I mean, we love having everybody. Um, you know, when we work together and love shooting weddings together, it's it's a family environment, right? And there's and we've always made things incentive based. It's not just like Okay, well, you shoot for me and I'll take the footage and I'm gonna pay you. That's it. It's more like I'll tell you what we're at. The wedding is like the last two hours of the wedding. The first person to come back and show me an amazing placing. The cake down on the table in front of the guest shot gets an extra 25 bucks and the list scatter and come back a few minutes later like check it out you get and then somebody else come up. No, we're going now. They've got this, like, friendly, kind of like competition going. It's benefiting the business because they're doing something better for the film. But at the same time, they're challenging themselves to do a better job for my company, and it's not. It's not a tactic used to manipulate them. It's more like stimulating their creative mind because they want to do a good job and they want to go out there and be a better cinematographer with every job. And they have. They've really grown into themselves to the point where I'm learning from them a lot of times, you know. And now when we go to the events, there's this unspoken, I guess what's not really it's spoken. It's a camaraderie that when we walk into an event, it's like not to be cheesy, but it's almost like putting your hands. They're going Go Teoh Way may have done that before. I'm just before, but it's this this mentality, like we're gonna go in there, we're gonna kick some ass and we're gonna walk out of here with an awesome wedding, and they want that to happen because our shooters are editors. Also, I really believe it's I'm I'm very much a believer of you're not gonna be a really effective shooter until you edit and you're not gonna be ineffective editor until you've shot. So you really understand both sides of things. So we've definitely encourage them to be both shooters and editors, and that's really helped them to grow. But they know what they are supposed to do, and that's what we're going to get into. That's the crux of what we're really gonna talk about here. It's really important that when you're shopping around for your crew guys interview them and then make them show you how they work. Don't just bring him into an office and say, Well, I need a shooter for a job. Or don't just call him up after they responded your Craigslist ad and say OK, well, so rlc on Saturday at 9 a.m. And you know, okay, hope to see their I don't know how comfortable I feel with that. I want to bring them in, sit them down, show them some work. This is what I expect from you. Show them good grooms prepping, Be like I want you to get these kind of shots, take this video home and study it. I want you to mimic this work. Look at other cinematographers. I pull up the guys that I look up to. This is what we want to do, a study that work. And let's mimic that. If you can show me, you can mimic that and you have a full time job. And then on top about what we do is we create almost like third shooter positions where it's on the job interview is what it really is, and they come along on a wedding, not paid. It's it's really interview and part training because they're seeing how we work and learning how we work. They come along and we can see what they do. We can see how they interact with the clients with the people around us, with the people that we work with, and then see you know what kind of work they produce. And I find that so invaluable. I did the exact same thing when I'm looking for new second shooters because I can look all day at someone's website and see beautiful images. I don't know. Maybe that was like the easiest thing in the world. And I got gorgeous images. Or maybe it was a style shoot. And they have beautiful challenges. I want to see what they do. Want a job where I know exactly what happened on that job, you know? So it's it does take a lot of time. When it comes to crew, you do have to train them. And good. Good work is hard to find. A good crew is hard to find, so it does take time to do this. So land is a shop around and plan it out, You know? You need a second shooter. Don't wait till three months before the event to get one. We go first, like six. You know, start looking for one. Bring a few along on those on the job interviews and you'll find someone that you really love. Yeah, it's really not easy. I'm not going to say Well, just go on Craigslist and you'll find somebody. I mean, for every Craigslist ad I put up there saying, you know, looking for, um, to fill a shooter position. I don't just say I need a shooter for this date, Okay, cause I'm gonna get the phone book is gonna respond. I say I'm looking for to fill a shooter position within my company, and I'm going to get more serious applicants. These are people who are looking for full time work. They're looking for consistent work. They're not just looking to fill a day to make a quick 500 bucks on a weekend. They're serious about it. And when they come in for an interview, I can tell a lot. Just, you know, this is basic interview skills. They can tell a lot about the person by the way they dress, by the way they approached, You know, the subject, Matter of the way they show me their work. You know, the first thing I say in my ad is I don't want to see your work. Don't send me a resume. I don't want to see your work. Just respond to the ad and tell me why you think of you good shooter, you know, and they're responsible. Tell me a lot if they go. I think I'll be a good shooter because I've been doing this for 15 years and I am experience with video cameras not using you or better yet when they don't actually listen to your directions and they send you their work anyway, like, well, you're not very good listener right there. You just show me you're not paying attention, right? So, you know, I use all these different things Teoh to try to teach the narrow candidates down and bring them in and interview them because we are going to spend a ton of time on them Because, like we have here, you want to stick with the same crew as much as possible. So that investment that you're going to spend on them is going Teoh, stick with you for a while and it's not like, you know, we love all of our shooters to stay with us forever, but that's just not realistic. But for the most part, you want tohave a longevity with all the people that are working for you. And let me tell you something. If they feel like they're being treated well, if they're making decent money and they're learning in the process, they're going to stick around. My shooters will tell you the woman, the greatest asset that they've gotten from working for Rob Adam's films is not money It's the training that they've got, the education that they've earned by just working alongside of us in helping to build the business. I mean, it's the nature of this business. You're always training your competition. One day they're going to go off and start their own company, or they're going to go off and do their own thing or were, you know, shoot for somebody else. But I've cultivated them. I brought them up, and that better is the industry, and that makes me happy, too. But it's unrealistic to say, even though my crew now we know where to get three years strong, you know, eventually it's going to split off. So I'm always looking toward the future and trying to find new people to bring in. We let him come along, but that's a mention that they were thirds for me there fourths. Right now, I have three trained myself included, which actually brings us to the next point that someone, actually we address this and believe in segment one that to makes this type of cinema possible, but three ideal. So when you're looking for shooters, it's ideal. Rob always has his second main shooter and we're going to go exactly over. Like what? These units dio but a second shooter, an assistant that doubles as a shooter and an audio technician as well. So three makes it ideal. The fourth is that audio technician, and that's not always that's, you know, when it's in the, you know, when I can swing it. You know, ideally, I want to keep my profit margin high. I don't want to be spending so much money on crew that I'm not earning any money but our higher end jobs. So I feel like or if I feel like the day doesn't allow for me, time to set up the audio properly will bring an audio technician job. I always like to have it, but we can't do without it if we have to. Yeah, absolutely. You want to have a good assistant and invensys somebody to carry bags? You know how many young kids would love to make bucks for six hours of work, You know, or whatever. I mean, a college kid or something like that is not doing anything on a Friday night. Come on. No. Make 60 8100 bucks. Whatever it is, carry my bags. You know, the less I'm carrying bags and where I can focus on shooting the day. So little things like that, even just putting out fires, you know, like, for example, of crap I left my memory cards in the car. We've got 10 minutes before run down and get him to take that. I don't have to leave the room. That person can go do those little mundane tasks for a small investment. You know, it's definitely it's it's a beneficial thing toe have. So let's talk a little bit about We're gonna get into rolls a little bit. Yeah, let's talk about Rolls. Right Crew should definitely know their roles and roles should be defined and expectations set from the very beginning. Okay, my shooters all know the second we walk into a location, whether it's a bride's house, Grooms house ceremony, venue, cocktail hour photo session. They know each of them knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing at that moment in time. There's never any Okay, what do you do, boss? If they come over to me to say that I like back to work because they know exactly what they're supposed to do brides prep, for example? Let's see. Um, came over this we're doing creating a system and sticking to it. They're just general about the roles. Like you said, What? Things move fast paced. The last thing you're gonna have time to do instance. Sit there and, you know, delegate responsibilities to people that should all be done beforehand. You know, find what it is that you want each of your personnel to do and then stick to that so that everybody has a clear expectation. It's just like with your clients. You have to tell them you give them the expectations in the same way that you would give your staff. You know, the same expectations. Put it down on paper for them to get a list. You don't want to get a shot list. I always like always, always kind of like, weary of giving an artistic creative. Professionals give me these shots. You kind of limiting their creativity that point. But I will say, Look, I expect this. I expect you to do a sequence of this, a sequence of this, a sequence of this and sequence of this. We'll get into sequencing what that means, but Basically, I want to tell him what to focus on because I've interviewed the bribing room. I know their story. I'm going to share that with my second shooter. I'm gonna call him up a couple days before the wedding and say OK, this wedding on Saturday, the bribing room, Uh, you know, they got engaged in Nepal and she brought back some tribal burial mask and he's gonna wear whatever ever never happened. Bythe what? Whatever it is, like just whatever the thing that makes that story unique to that specific prep where I'm not gonna be there to direct your help, give direction, I want them to know what that is so they can go in there and they can think about it in advance to they're not learning the day of the wedding and then going Well, what could I do? They have had time to think about it. So my second shooter has time to think about what can I do with the guys? Oh, they're going to play golf. Oh, man, I would love to do a shot. Were like, get this real wide shot and they come walking through the frame and they can plan the sequence out in their head, and that only translates in the better video later on because they're gonna come back and go do Look what I did. That's the best. I love that news. When I hear my second come back, just like you got to see what I did or he just looked at me and goes, Dude, you're gonna love me ways, crap like that. I know. I've got something good, you know? So I mean, that's That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good team building stuff toe have you know to have happen. And it shows me that their enthusiastic about job right. So you want to make sure that you create those roles, stick to them and then during the day of you want to create some sort of communication. We talked about this a little bit, A little bit, one of the I don't know if you guys talked about this, it may not have heard about in the chat room. Someone was asking if you use walkie talkies Somebody, Yes, yes, the dues walkie talkies. And then also the hand motions. Like you were saying before, you know, when they're in the ceremony. You're not gonna be using walkie talkie half the time cause you're probably going to be a little bit obtrusive if you do that. You got the hands on the camera. Hands off the camera. You're gonna learn this tomorrow as you guys shooting along, you're going to see we're going to make. I want to make the people that are helping You shouldn't make you guys do, you know, really kind of like, focus on, you know that what you should be doing. What, you shouldn't be doing it in a certain time. But that's communication is more than just communicating. And most team members, it's about communicating with everybody involved in the wedding. If there's a wedding coordinator or a day of planner, we are constantly in communication with that person on. In fact, I almost annoyed them more than they annoy me. Where's I'm up there, butts. I want to know everything that's gonna happen. Oh, she's gonna walk down the aisle. Oh, great. You're gonna be starting on her left or a right foot. No, I just want to know I want to know everything I can so communicate not only of live with each other but make train them to communicate with everybody else. I've taught my second and third to basically she knows the second she gets into the church, she goes right to the right of the priest. That's her role. I'm going to show up on your right to the priest. I'm gonna find out all the information that I need to know, and then I'm gonna go find the groom and I'm gonna make him up, you know? And the engine she has, like, this list, this mental list of I have to do this, this, this, this and this. And she knows that by the time I go to her and say, I'm gonna go outside away for the bride to pull up She knows. But at that moment, she needs to be standing up in the front waiting for things that happen in case ceremony starts. Before we walked back in, we had it all. We've had all these different scenarios play out, and we've learned to adapt and create systems of fail Safe's. So we're never caught off guard. That's the key thing. Don't get caught off guard. If you have a good crew that knows where to be at the right time. You'll never get caught off guard unless you're not communicating. Communication is really really case. So we're really going to get into that right now about who goes where and does what. And this is what? Our studio audience. For those of you guys who don't know at home, our studio audience is going to be our shooters for tomorrow's mock wedding. It's going to be awesome. So they really need to pay attention today during this part because it really is a quiz tomorrow on a life way are gonna go over that. You guys are gonna concentrate on all three units there, three different units that we're going to talk about. So concentrate on just learning the roles of all of them. Bring your notes for tomorrow cause we will assign you to different units at different times. So that's that's what we're gonna talk about now. Unit one is the first, and that is bread spread. Right, So Unit one is basically me. Okay. When I show up to a job, I'm considering myself Unit one and I'm gonna do brides prep control. This is nice. Yeah. We're gonna switch spots. Okay, so rides prep. When I walk into brides prep, I have my list, the roles that I need to take care of. I know what I need to do. It's not just because I'm the boss and I'm the owner of the company. I get to do whatever I want. No, this is a team effort has to be a team effort, or it's not gonna work in the edit. All right, so I'm gonna go in there. I'm gonna do my sequences of the things that I want to shoot. I do not shoot the same way every time. I'm always challenging myself to think outside the box and do different things come up with different storylines in different sequences. OK, But I know, but that's what I have to do in order to get at least the essential shots that I need for the edit later on. During the first look, my role is the groom's initial reaction and then re enacting with Steadicam. Okay, so when we all explain how we do first looks tomorrow, but basically were shooting it really time with three cameras at first. Okay, so we're letting it unfold. We have three cameras strategically placed. We're gonna let her come up. We're gonna let him turn. They're going to see each other, or however it is, they lean out from the elevator or whatever it is. Whatever we're doing, we all keep the same role. I'll always be on the groom's reaction. So it's my job to come up with a creative shot for the groom's reaction. Okay? And then I have to communicate that to my team so they know where I'm gonna be. You know, we have this 1 80 system where we don't ever cross the 1 80 line, but we'll get into that tomorrow, all right? But then it's also my job that after the initial reaction of the first look, I'm gonna put the Steadicam on, take the bride back, and then do a re enactment of it, clearing everybody else out. Okay? And there's other things that go along with that and you'll see the how the other roles play into that. So during the ceremony processional. My job is to be on a Steadicam, getting creative angles during what everybody's walking down. That's my role. Unit one. Okay, Once they're up there, I go to the right side. That's my That's my role. Okay or, well, we usually start on the same side, depending on where the podium is for the readers. But that's the Catholic thing. But generally right side is always my side. And this is simple stuff, guys. But it's so important to know this. You not going okay? Ceremonies about. Start outside. You want to go on? I don't know if I go over there. Why did the 1 35 and I have a better angle from over that now it's already planned out on one of the right side. Give me this lens and just Teoh just kind of back up on the same thing where we're doing breads prep One of the things that Rob really likes to do, especially if we're kind of hunting for a little bit of a story, is we try Teoh do gifts bridegroom to the bride and groom, exchanging gifts. So what they'll do is, and I'm not sure whether you get the right side or you get the left side right. That would explain that, for example, basically the way it is like the a lot of times brighter will each open a card in their respective places, right? Well, I don't want the groom and the bride on one side of the screen looking the same direction. I want them on two different sides, so we're text messaging each other. Did you do the gift yet? Let me know when you do the gift and let me know what side the room was on. So when I get around to doing the gift on the side, I could put her on the other side. Do you realize the importance, like what I think of it, Cutting back and forth? You be looking your I will be only on one side of the screen and that we've or boring. It's visually boring to just be constantly on one side, cutting back and forth. If you're cutting back and forth and they're alternating either side, if you're having it's much more screen direction, that's a big part of filmmaking screen direction. We want to make sure that we're moving the I around in keeping things interesting. You know, it could be the same type of composition, but differing sides of the screen makes a big difference. So, yeah, that's something else we? We also in all Sometimes we haven't come and meet in the middle to exchange your gifts like they're getting ready in a hotel. We'll send the maid of honor in the best man to cross pads and exchange gifts and then bring them back to the respective people. We've got to coordinate that were, like on the phone. Okay, well, cure up in the elevator, and I'll get my guy ready of the hallway. I'm gonna do a series of wide shots, and when we come together, you just stay in the elevator because I don't want to see you, and I'll shoot from around the corner. And we both know we won't be in each other. Shots communicate. So, so important. All right. During the photo session after the ceremony, my job is to give beauty shots, and generally we haven't even dialled down to the point where OK, I will be the wide shot. And my second shooter, When he does beauty shots for the photo session, he'll have ah, long lens and he'll do close ups. We're getting that particular okay, you're gonna be the tight shot with wide shot. We're gonna work together in that way and this substance subsets of this also So like in between the end of the ceremony in the photo session, there is the bridegroom walk out of a church. Nobody cheers. We could have a sign sides and positions for that, too. Okay, so we all have roles and there's never a question to any time. Where you gonna pay? I know where they're gonna be. It might be a question of, like, what kind of space oriented. We have to kind of adjust our plan a little bit, but we have a base plan to start with, and that's important. My job during the reception intros and dances his beauty shots using Steadicam. That's my job. I'm on that during the toasts. I am always on the person. Giving the speech always does not change does not change. It's not that I need that degree of control, because I think that's most important. A lot of times the reactions are more important, but I'm gonna use people for their strengths. My third is very good at getting reactions. Very, very good getting reaction. So I will let them do that and you gotta play to each other's strengths and weaknesses as well. Party dancing. We're all shooting at the same time, but now it just comes down the lens choice. Well, what lens gonna be on? I'll do the tight. You do the medium into the wide. You stay on the band, I'll say on the guests. Communicate really important cake cutting again. Another role. I'm doing beauty shots and reactions. So not only am I getting, you know, the closest with hands cut the cake Close ups of the groom feeding the bride from this angle. I'm turning in getting reactions to That's my job, right? Let's just actually, if you want to go back, just leave that there for one second. Kind of all filled out. Yeah, we'll get there, cause I know maybe some people home might want to see that on the screen really quick so they can get a a shot of it real quick. Um, and then do we have any questions about unit one? Because it is a lot of stuff. You guys hear of any questions? Everyone's like frantically writing like I t o r two as we go along. Don't don't feel like pressure. I'm gonna I'm gonna be with you every step of the way to kind of just show you where positioning and excuse me and where camera blocking comes into place. So don't panic. It'll be fine. So, for example, unit to So that's my grooms prep guy. Okay, he he's gonna go to groups property. That is exactly what kind of sequences to look for. He always knows to take them by the light to get the groom ready and dressed. They're never gonna do it under yellow tungsten lighting. He knows if he walks in there and there's yellow lights on. But there's a big, beautiful window. He's asking the group a man. You mind if I turn these lights off, bringing by the window? Let's go over here and do this. He knows that I'm never sending somebody into a location. It doesn't have a handle things the way I want them to handle them. All right, Music's really loud. Hey, guys, my interview. If I turn the music down, I want to get some audio. Important stuff. Okay, His jobs, the side angle processional. So during the whenever he's walking down the aisle, he's got some sort of a side angle or some other kind of wide creative shot of the ceremony as that's happening and he goes to the left side for the Vows photo session. This person is doing sliders and close up, so he's probably got a slider rig, you know, he's probably got this. Maybe has a strap on it, and he's got his mono pod with the camera and he's just alternating. He's looking for beauty shots, looking at the light, and he's doing close ups with 1 35 or 85 that he's dropping down with another. Cameron, here with a 24 does a series of slides. So while remember what my role was during the photo session, Steady can. Right? So I'm doing Steadicam shots. He's doing these beautiful beauty shots close up and then he's doing some slides, right, So right there, we've got to cover. And how many shots? Pop quiz. How many shots that I say I'm looking for from the photo session? Five or six shots, man. It's all I need. Five or six gorgeous shots. That's all I need. So that's his job with the two of us working in tandem like that will not get out, We'll get it. We'll get it and we'll get it fast. And sometimes we leave the photo session early. See you later. We'll meet you over the hall. We know we've got what we need. Way. No, we have it. So his job is the reception, introductions and dances, reactions and wides. Okay, so he'll probably have either 50 or 85 on. He's kind of walking around getting like wide table shots of people just kind of reacting to what's happening. And he's getting cool shots of like, let's say so. I'm on the speaker, who is like, You know, I have this nice bus shot of the person giving the toast. He might see a shot through the centerpiece through this beautiful light of the speaker from really far away. He'll stay on that for 10 seconds, and I'll use that in the attic. All right, so he's always looking for that, and reactions rolls. These air just rolls gave give somebody direction, and they will give them a blueprint toe work from toasts. He's on reactions and wides okay, party dancing guests and bands that he knows that when everybody's dancing and partying part of his job is to go over to the band and get shots. The band, playing instruments and sing in a lot of times, will multi cam three cameras on the dance floor like we'll just let it. But the camera's role for like, five minutes, one of the ban one of the guests, one on reactions. And then you have all these cool sequences to come together in the edit and just real quick we do have. This is like, very list format right now, But if you're training a second to your problem, I can hand on this list show. Yeah, you're going to show them. And maybe at some point during the segment, we can pull up some video clips where we can show these parts. And yeah, I see what you know. Each role, how it works and how it all comes together. Sure talk about sequencing a little bit. That's really where this all comes into play. But real quick. I just I do want to outline this. You can kind of see the different roles that each each of the crew has. All right, So Unit three Unit three is my third shooter. This is usually um I don't see my weakest shooter because my third is not. She's amazing, but it Zamora of the support role. It's the assistant tends to be unit three. Yeah, well, yeah, that too, but it's more of the safe shop. Okay, The aisle at the ceremony. This is the main action during the dances and stuff like that. All right, I'm kind of using this person as a safe shot. So first look made action, All right. Rumors standing there. The bride's walking up behind. She's got that front shot. That's her main shop. It doesn't really change when he turns member. I've got the reaction and camera. Unit two has got something else going on. So we've got to cover from three different angles, and then we re enact it twice. Eso ceremony. She's got the main action from the isle in the front, people walking down the aisle pre focused on the ill people coming into the shot. Okay, reception rooms set up and face time. It's her job. She knows the second that meaning the second say, That's really confusing the moment, the time or the second. I have to go and shoot the photo session she knows her job to get to the hall, set up lights, get the room, you know, basically get our bags put away and the gear situated. And then she goes down to the cocktail hour and does face time. Face time is his shots of people smiling and laughing. Happy stuff. Generic footage that could be used in a lot of places. Ah, formally introduce you to face time tomorrow. All right, but reception room set up face time is her job. During the introductions and dances, she is the main medium shot. Okay, granted, it's not usually a shot. Let's say this. This camera unit here is her. It's usually not like this, dead on like where there's nothing happening in, you know, in between. We want to create foreground, so she'll go behind the crowd and shoot through the crowd or something, or show go behind one of the tables and shoot through the tables. It's risky because the risk people coming in front of you, but that's fine. She can always adapt and move if we have to, but it's really important that I don't want the shot to look dead on like a traditional wedding video. I wanted to look more like it's you're looking through the crowd, so she knows that. And she's gonna look for those shots when it comes time to do that. So insurers and dances toasts her cameras always on the bridegroom. Reactions always always, always, always, always, always that will never change. That will never change unless the groom gets up and speaks. He stands up from his chair and she's got to adjust. Now she's got all turn and whipped, and I'll get it until she's in position. And then I'll move and go off and do reactions. But we have. We have provisions in place for the to these sort of things that happen. Party dancing show do various shots of guests It's very simple. That's just a basic three camera. Get what you get, which you can when you can. And then during the cake cutting. She's the main action of the two of the riding in cutting cake eso these air simple defined roles, but it takes all the question out of the day of the wedding going all right, How are we going to shoot this now? It's already been determined. We know exactly how we're going to shoot it. If we need to make variations, we can do that. Do you have any questions, online or otherwise? Here's questions we absolutely do. And I just want to say to all you guys remember that with the course, you get all of these notes. So these guys have been writing these e e. I love it, Um, and we can maybe even get our producer to print these out for you guys tomorrow if that's helpful for these ones that have to do is give it shooting tomorrow. But again, everyone. You get those PdF along with the purchase, of course, but we do have some questions, and there were Siris of questions around actually hiring and paying your way. Take those because it's a lot of people are asking about this. That is a good good thing to talk about. It's gonna very for market tomorrow. Just sure they will preface it. It does very for market to market. I think it also varies with how much you're charging for a wedding, because if you're not charging enough for wedding, you can't have this ridiculously high cost of sales, you know, with just your labor. It's just not gonna work and you're not gonna make money. So there's a lot of varying things in there, plus the experience of the people that you're hiring as well as their roles. So the first unit obviously gets paid more than a second unit in the second more than third unit. There is a somewhat of a hierarchy, their normal. It also depends on the event. If there's Lett's address, specific questions well from me, how much do you pay your shooters and editors? Okay, let me just clarify, because they're from Jason Heinz in Sebastian, Florida. How much do you pay your second shooter and sound tech relative to the price of your packages? So how do you approach figuring out how much to pay people? That's a great way. That's a great way to do it. Generally speaking, wow, if I really had to think about how it breaks down that way, it's usually the second shooter. Fee will be roughly to maybe 15%. Okay, so I mean, on average, my second shooter gets paid anywhere between 812 $100 depending on the event, depending on how many hours depending on many days. How many days? I mean, it just all depends on the scenario, but that's a that is actually high. I right? Yeah, I bet you right now, people in the chat rooms are like, What can I work for you? Because that is very high on DWI. Do that because we want to create loyalty. We know, obviously, Planetary Ways, Airways. A great loyalty for sure. Um, but because we also think that his work is worth it. Um, and that does help, you know, keep keep your employees with you and not going off somewhere else after you fully trained them. And then they go somewhere. And I have asked him He's not employees. An independent contractor, right? But I have asked him, I don't mind if you shoot for other people. Just please don't shoot for those in my backyard. I don't care if you because he's secretaries for other companies around tri state area. That's fine. Just don't do it to the guy who's next door in my town, who I'm directly competing with. That's the only thing I ask, uh, otherwise, he has carte blanche to go shoot. But honestly, I keep him in so much business that it really isn't necessary. He's got his own thing going on, too, so that helps. So, second shooter, I would say an average if you're gonna look at like an industry average second shooter from video about six. About 5 to 6, I think would be a good average. And again, if you want to look at it mathematically and just getting a little bit to the business of your packages, your cost of sales. So how much you pay for, uh, Let's just do it pretty easily how much you pay for your hires, your your independent contractors, how much you pay your shooters and how much you pay your editors. If you, um, wanted to mathematically, you want that cost of sales to only be 1/3 preferably 1/4 of your entire package. So if you have a $3000 package, you only want to be spending $1000 or less on your cost of sales. So think of it that way when you're trying to figure it out and looking at your packages, how much you can afford. The other thing is, Rob last year said, I want an audio tech. So what did he dio? He figured out how much he could hire an audio tech for which how much you pay. It's like 200. The most I did pay him is 202 100 bucks a job, so just raised all the packages by $200 a job. So there's also that way of looking at it too, right? Yeah. Editors. That's a whole other thing, too. I mean, editors, good editors. They're hard to find. Hence they command more money. So we're paying our editors upwards of $2500 depending on you know, the length of the film and you know their experience and where they are in the hierarchy. So and there's, uh, and in your thirties and then my third shooter is eyes on an hourly basis that we do hourly because the third shooter doesn't have the pressure of creative shots. For the most part, they're mainly main action shooting and then and then acting as a grip the rest of the day. So where they are running a camera and it's important, what they're getting is important. It's not as important as the second who's going to the groom's prep. It has the burden of getting all these great sequences story the third ists pretty much there to be like, OK, put the camera here and manage, you know, And then if you need to adapt, adapt. But you know she's not making decisions. She's not going off in making her own decisions. It's always under my direction so that, you know, doesn't command as much money. And plus, she's not using her own equipment. My second is using some of his own equipment in there, too, and I compensate for that as well. Yeah, so with you're talking about is a day rate. And what if it's a five hour wedding as opposed to a 10 hour? It's a day rate day date rates a day rate, and I I don't shoot five Our winnings. We don't do anything less than 10 usually 10 to 12 general tenure, just depending, you know. But yeah, it's they read city rate. If I'm gonna if you're gonna block off a date for me, I'm gonna pay for the day. And then lastly, editors like Rob said anywhere to 1500 just depending on the length of the film, so they are paid according to the length of the film. And that is a little high again. There are it's incentive based exactly adopt their penalties for late work penalties for having to re do work. So I expect quality. I demand equality, and I give him a reasonable timeframe. Give him 10 to 15 days to produce one film. That's right. I mean, if they work eight hours a day, you know, 85 you know, you know, it's you can get it done. You just have to be diligent. But it keeps them keeps, um, motivated to do, you know, to get it done with that said, if they come to me and say, Hey, look, I'm taking me a little bit more time than I thought it would. I wanted to be extra good and is always they weren't calling out sick or they weren't like abusing the position or oh, you were in Atlantic City for two days last week. So now you want more time on your edit yet, like No, you know I'll be leaning in those respects, but I'm paying a lot of money. And so the expectation is high, it's important. I'm a firm believer that paying well really does produce results, and I want good results and I'm not afraid to pay for it. And one of the things that I think just the film industry has a minimum of our places helped source for for the dreaded at it. And so stay tuned on Day three for more help that there's a teaser. There's a really big I'm just itching to talk about it. I gave a hint. A little one. Yeah, I think it's pretty. The dreaded Ettus anyway. Any other questions is really so dreaded those at a dreaded OK, It takes it takes a certain fortitude. I mean, I can do it if I'm motivated to do it. If it's something I don't want it outsource. No. All right, this is a slight follow up. They'll Buchi is asking, How do you handle raises their obviously getting better one than when they started to keep them with you, but to keep you cost from skyrocketing? Yeah, I mean, I do implement their performance based raises if I feel like somebody's going above and beyond really doing a nice job for me and They're really working hard. Diligently. I recently hired an editor that gets the middle of last year. He's just been on fire, just turning out good at it's reasonable timeframe works. Bought off shows up early every day. I'm gonna I'm gonna reward that. Yeah, and I'll actually, you know, even this raises, I meanwhile, say Okay, well, now New season. Now you're getting paid this. You know, I'm making more money while he's making more money than helping her body. Just to note those those prices that he gave that we pay our employees. They've been level been with us for about three years, and it started. That's also with the exception of the one talking about now where he's moving up the scale quickly. Andi also ill throw if I'm if I If they show me an addict because we do screenings in the studio and it is done, everybody, we all turned. We all watch. Show us what? You got it off. No, it's pressure and I critique. I'm like marker marker. Marker has a lot to fix that Fix that. I'm not saying it, but I'm making markers on the timeline watching it, you know, that's like psychologically controlling manipulative. It's just more like, Okay, I'm making notes for later, darling. Critique you and I could tell you what it is, but I I'll just throwing incentive based bonuses once in a while. If somebody shows me something blows me away. When I'm writing out the check on myself, Throw. Make sure money do. That was amazing. Excellent job. Give you little bonus on that one. Kick it up a notch. That that was fantastic. Do it again next time. Incentives just rewarding. Nice. So you mentioned earlier that sometimes you are providing the equipment on DSO question. I think you mentioned that for some your team members and Ellen E. Brock is in Canada and says, If I apply, if I supply the equipment when I dio and I'm setting the working hours working with the same crew than those people become my staff with benefits, Were you saying that your crew are actual employees or independent contractors? The distance does it. Okay, that's that's actually really good to mention cause there's a fine line of what is defined this an independent contractor and what is defined as an employee. They don't know what you're talking about you Well know. I mentioned that our second gets paid a little bit more because he uses some his own equipment. That was, which is what I really believe in that wear and tear on equipment dessert I pay for travel to pay. If we have to travel, I'll pay them for travel. You know, it's only fair, you know, it's not costing me that much more to do that. No. Yeah, I definitely will. But independent contractors, by law, they have to be using their own equipment, and they have to be making their own hours. It's a It's a job based project that you're paying them for. So editors, you are paying them for that project of editing this film and the same thing with the shooter's. You're paying them to shoot this job. That's a freelance contract. They determine the hours. They know when they need to be there to get it done. But there is a lot of fine lines. I highly suggest talking to your accountant about that. The way that we've done that recently is we actually have to have our freelance contractors sign something that says, I'm a freelance contractor and not a salary employee. I determine what hours I work. I determined this. You know what? I get paid and they actually should be invoicing you as well. Sending invoices? Yep, from their company. Because they need to have some sort of company, just sole proprietor. Something that they're sending invoices from. So that is very, very tricky. And the government is cracking to have on stuff like that. So make sure that you talk to your accountant and they're doing that correctly. You can't set hours for them. You can't. You know, we have, like, our editors come in and they work during the day and we say, Okay, well, it's 10 to 6. But I don't want you my house after six. Earlier than 10 way. Make them sign contracts. It's a I so and so work on an independent contractor basis. I am not an employee of Rob Adam's films. I choose to work at this location using my equipment. That's the way it works, right? They bring their computers, they keep their own stuff there. It's their office. But there was letting music. They're by no means employees. Really Good question. Nothing to look at. Yeah, Hey, what suggestions do you have for second shooters looking to assist established photographer slash cinematographers? What are the best ways to approach busies and photographer? The best way to do that is to do that third shooting thing that I was telling you about how I interview my second shooter is for a job. So if you are a second shooter and you're trying to get more work as a second share, even if you're trying to learn from other photographers while you're working for them, just offer to shoot for them as 1/3 shooter for free, you know, I mean, we pay for education, my goodness, to be able to get education for free just by working a day is great. So I would suggest doing that and then without you, end up building a relationship with the photographer. If you work it out with a photographer that you get to use those images for your portfolio, that's great, even if it's just not necessarily a portfolio for them to get clients from, but for them to be able to show their work as a second shooter to other photographers to get more work that way, I think that's very reasonable. The main thing is, when I invite somebody to come along on a job with me to basically audition, show me what they could do. I sell, I tell him. Just here's where you can shoot this. This, this and this. Show me what you can do. A t end of the night. I'm gonna look at the footage. Next. They all look, the footage determine whether I want to invite them back if I feel like they have the potential that they need for me to train them up Because if I'm gonna make an investment in somebody, I want to see the potential I want. I want to go. Okay. Studying. This is good. You know, they have a good eye for composition. His exposures air relatively good. They need a little tweaking, but relatively good, you know, looking for the right things, anticipating the right movement and action. That's what I'm looking for. So I'm not just looking for somebody who shows up in dresses right and has the right gear. I'm looking for somebody that can walk into a situation to take command and go. You know what? The bride is going downstairs to sign the mirrors license I got. It goes downstairs and kills. It says I'm gonna shoot, You know, while I'm shooting something, he goes, and naturally go goes and goes and gets the angle that I was thinking. Why would be great to have a shot from up there? Oh, he's up there. That's possible. That's looking for that initiative. So the answer your question. If you are a second shooter and you're looking for work, suggest that to the photographers you're looking to work for. Because they may not have thought about the whole concept of 1/3 shooter before so suggested and see where that gets. Start with Craigslist film builder dot com Now is a new website out film crew builder dot com Eyes a new thing where you know it's for freelance professionals that are looking for work might be a good place to look as well I look, I look at photographers. I talked, but I meet a lot of photographers in our teaching ventures and, you know, if I hear if somebody who's really interested in there in my area, I'm like, man, come along, show me what you can do and I'll train you up, you know? So building your your stable of ah crew is important for the future and try to stick with the same people if you can. No, it's not always, You know, if you're doing it part time, it's really tough. What schedules and stuff. But that's where I would recommend you start. Definitely. All right, cool. We have about 15 minutes left. Okay. What do you want? Do you want this Because this is down in the recapitalised here. We talk about sequencing a little bit. If you want to, like five sequencing. Let's do that. So we this is a perfect lead into tomorrow, because as I'm teaching you guys roles for tomorrow and how we're going to decide, um, you know how we're gonna use you guys, its crew? Because you gotta remember footage that we're gonna acquire tomorrow's actually footage we're gonna edit on day three. So I want to know if Rob has to edit bad footage will be fine, you know, through each part of the day. And, you know, we're gonna want talking in the morning a little bit. I'm gonna show you a 20 minute film, and I want you to kind of notice the sequencing. How many of you know what I'm talking about? When I say sequencing, just give me Give me a rough hand raise, Okay? Sequencing is all about that. The basic definition of it is multiple angles of the same action. Creatively. Okay, to tell the story. And that's what I want to kind of pull a computer over. If I could show an example of that, that's not Can we pull the computer over, guys? Yes, there it is. All right. Give you a slide over. So, yeah, I wanted to I'm going to show you this kind of some silent stuff. Just I like to make people turn down the audio when they're watching, um, in the film because you really get a sense of the visual storytelling that's happening. If you can tell a story without audio, just doing it visually than what you're doing visually is correct. What you're doing there is right. So this is what I'm looking for. When I sequence something out, I'm thinking in 360 degrees. All right, so when I'm shooting something and I will demonstrate this tomorrow when we have like a bride getting makeup, don gifts being, you know, exchange and stuff like that. I'm not just gonna stand here. If the bride is getting ready, let's say in a chair and shooter from here for 10 minutes or, you know, stay here and just wait for a better shot away for a better shot. Way for better shot. I'm issue here. I'm gonna shoot here. Make up artist is there? I'm gonna shoot into her. I'm gonna look for something foreground Here. I'm gonna shoot down here. I'm gonna get the shoes. I'm gonna back way up across the room, shoot it over here really wide, and that's a sequence. I know I can cut those together and it's gonna tell a story, all right? It's the same action. Bride hasn't moved just getting her makeup done, But I'm showing it from all these different angles, and it's really dynamic for the eye. It's screen direction cause we're moving around and we're really kind of putting the viewer into the scene in 360 degrees. So I approach everything on the wedding day with that mentality. Everything in the ceremony is a little different cause we're shooting with multiple cameras, but it's still sequencing. We're still trying to get different angles of what that is, so that's really important when it comes Teoh shooting preps especially. So let me just And while he pulls up that you know, it was funny. Remember the first time that we saw a Rob saw a film, a cinema wedding film, and I remember him saying, Oh my gosh, they have to have, like, five cameras at the Bride's Prep to be getting yeah and then realized it looks like there's five cameras because there's a ton of different angles. But it's just one, and you're just getting 2345 2nd shots in a lot of the same thing, a lot of different different places. This is just raw footage that I slapped together. And for those of you in the studio, this is shot at 24 frames per second. But this TV is set for 60 I. So if it has that real motion, it's not because of my footage. Um, just so you can see here, Broad sitting down holds a chair in no audio, just visual here, and you'll notice he's go. It's not just like every sequencing shot is a wide shot or close up shot. He's going from close to medium toe wide to extreme wide to extreme close. It's a lot of differ varying angles. This is all wrong, but it's uncovered. Grated. This is just raw, just sort of right out of the camera to slapping shots together here to tell a story, All right, but you get the idea, these stories being told of what's happening on the day without getting into any audio or sound or music and my dad and we're just getting a sense of what's actually happening here. Sequencing on I'm always thinking. Look at the 360 degrees we went basically went around him in a circle as we shot that. Here we go. Make a perfect example. 360 degrees. Differing shots, steaming the dress. I forget what this is. All he pulls a computer out, right? So here, pewter he's gonna go over his vows like a commercial for Mac, you know, But this is what I'm looking for. This is sequencing, and everything that we shoot tomorrow will be based around this. So it's really important that we just keep shots like this in mind when we do things, especially a first. Look, let me show you a perfect example of a first look. I love this first look. It really tells a story, and this one will have some sound and you'll be able to see in this first look try to pick out which camera unit is doing. Which shot. Just look at it that way and trying to figure that out. Well, he shows us Dio there's gonna be sound on this one. Guys in the tech booth. Just so you know, here's an example of this is now what we did with this one is we ran through a once riel time, and then we re enacted it. Okay? This is part of a film that was pulled out. E promised us before me support your life's challenges. All right, So what? We have about nine or 10 shots in that whole sequence, but it told the story. And obviously the story is that she walked up behind him. He turned, he saw her. But was that really dramatic moment that pause where she walked up, They saw him in a cut to him. Saw her standing behind and there's that's cutback in the slow turn. Like that was all planned out. We knew exactly how we were going to do that as we shot it. So, like that, the planning, the role assignment there is very, very apparent and then being able to actually sequence it out in our minds first, visually brought that together. So we actually like if I'm gonna work with the bride is going over her vows, I'll actually walk into the space while she still downstairs or whatever. I'll go. OK, what are we gonna do? All right, well, I'm gonna have her walk in. She's gonna walk over here, she's gonna pull the chair, and she's going to sit down. Okay, Well, that's two shots. I'm going to a wide shot of her walking in the room, and I want to cut to a extreme close up of her pulling the chair out, and then a medium shot of her pulling, pushing the chariot. All right, so I'm thinking this out in advance before it actually happens, And that really helps to get things gets it gets my creative juices flowing, and then I can Then I can start thinking about the rest of it. Okay, well, now she's here. I'm not even thinking about audio yet. I'm just thinking about the shot placement. What am I gonna do with sequence? And then once I've got that planned out when we do the sequence that I'll make a read through it, Okay? Yeah. Am I being assertive? Am I being like, Am I asking the bride to do things? Yes, but this is what she sees in my work, and she wants it. It's not gonna happen. Naturally. You have never had a bride say, like, No, I want to do that are No, It's too much time. They love, They love it, They love it. And if they don't, I'll pick up on that during the consultation. I'll probably not do the job. They even hire me if they see that. And they don't want to do what? They won't hire me. So I know that my client type of client, it hires me, likes that sort of thing, and I'm gonna really play up to it. But I'm not afraid to ask the maid of honor and best man. Hey, guys, want to go do a little play acting for a few minutes and this kind of give me some story to use. That's guaranteed story for the film later on. I can cut that in. And when somebody else watches that aside from the writing room, how did that happen? Did you just do that? He was there to film it and she'll say, Now we did it. We set it up, But who cares? The film is beautiful like that, and there are, I mean, that, like something that elaborate, like a first look would never happen so naturally in front of cameras so perfectly in terms of like nice shots and everything. But there are moments when things do happen, you know, spontaneously, and we're actually just in the right place at the right time. Happens all the time. For the most part, where I will control just in sequencing like that is the first look and things in the bride's prep in the morning. Anything other than that, you're not really going to stop the ceremony or the reception Good? No, As you say, we can actually get to the recap, take questions because we have only a couple minutes left. If we want to go back to the keynote. Yeah, let's do that. What was at one point I just lost my killed it with the first looks. I always make sure the bride knows that we're going to I'm going to be setting it up. Okay, So if they book me and they're doing a first look, I tell him, guys, the only thing I'm gonna really ask from you the day of the wedding is just can't control the first look. They've already got a photographer. I will say I will check with your photographer to make sure it's OK. I will contact the photographer before the wedding and say, Hey, look, do you mind if I just kind of control this and nine times have tender, like do? That's fine. If I don't think about it, you're gonna set it up for me and I could shoot alongside of you. That's awesome. That's fine. So we'll definitely communicate and work together like that. We do work with some photographers and artists. Cooperative. That's what she's Yeah, we'll talk about that. But just to recap, you know what we talked about today? We talked a lot about managing client expectations, Defining your style in length, your brand teaching and educating your clients. Um, we talked about not chipping out on audio. We're gonna talk about equipment, so buy good stuff. Audio is super important. Bad audio will ruin the film. And then, well, we're talking about storytelling, and we define this a little bit. You know, videographer, as opposed to a cinematographer and cinematography cinematography being very story based, very story driven on. And that's the role that you guys, right? Exactly. And then the planning, identifying the story planning for it and that planning goes along with your whole crew, like we just talked about in the segment as well. So we have a lot that we covered today, knowing your rules, where we're talking about the crew as well. So it was jam packed today way even squeeze some more stuff in there that we saw that the chat rooms we're talking about, so we really got a lot covered today.