I MADE IT!

So I have to say I am more than a little proud of myself after yesterday...I don't think things could have gone much smoother honestly. So I woke up at 4am to get myself all ready and collected to leave by 7am (I know I take forever to get ready). So Druid Hill Park was easy to get to but was packed due to the big marathon race they had there. Then it didn't help that once we got there we walked to the opposite side of the park and almost didn't make it to the spot on time, it was intense but we got there. The engagement was awesome and was really cool to capture video and photos from. After that I got back home and prepped for my 2pm gig which was all the way up at the studio I rent out in Forest Hill. The client got there on time and did her video all in one take which we ran through a few times to get different angles. It was cool for a promotional video and has a nice quirky feel to it which is what the client was after. Once I got back from that I wasn't feeling too hot and had quite the stomach ache for some reason and that persisted up until I left for the last gig which was at Pier Five. I have to say it was my toughest gig just because of the fact that I had stomach issues and my lack of sleep was catching up to me. However I pulled through and before I knew midnight had come and I was all done. I took over 500 photos last night which is about an average of 100 per hour and after reviewing a lot of them this morning I have to say the vast majority I like, unlike that last event I did, but I have improved dramatically since then.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, as the Orcs have black blood, it was only natural that the inside of their mouths should not be pink but black as well. To achieve this, the Orc actors had to swill a liquorice-based mouthwash prior to each of their scenes.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Preparing

So right now I am preparing for a triple booked day this coming Saturday. Starting at 8am until Midnight I will be working on different photo/video gigs. The most confusing seems to be the first one on Saturday at Druid Hill Park, maybe it is just because I haven't had a good chance to look over the directions but it seems like a big race is going on there or something, I don't know I am not familiar with the park so that doesn't help matters but we shall see. The next gig is around 2pm and is a promotional video spot for a self help company, it is contained to being only at the studio so it will not take too long. Finally, I have a christmas party I am doing photos for at 8pm for a car sales place to end the day. All three are totally confirmed which is a rarity and is really nice but the more I think about it the more the first gig scares me with the confusing nature of it.

Random Movie Fact: In the 1961 film West Side Story, the actors in the rival gangs were instructed to play pranks on each other off the set to keep tensions high.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Looking Forward

So since today is the last day of September I find myself looking forward to new gigs coming up over the next few months. The couple of video jobs I have on tap right now I am very excited to start. The first coming gig is a promotional video I will be doing for a local musician which is awesome for a few reasons. The first being that it is a promo video which I am familiar with how to do but have not done one yet, so great reel material. The second being the look this musician has is perfect vintage style which is exactly how the final video is gonna look which gives me a great bit of artistic range for the promo.

Another upcoming gig is a music video project I am doing in conjunction with a local studio which I have worked with before; [kp] mag. It is a free music video that we are doing for a local band which has a crazy unique sound. We are basically getting close to totally free artistic range on this video as well which is letting me really soar with ideas. It is a nice change of pace for me and will be the first time I really have control over content in the video.

Final gig on tap as of today is a wedding coming up in January which should prove to for a third time in this post be awesome. The wedding will be taking place at the church where Edgar Allen Poe is buried and the theme of the wedding is a masquerade ball. This content on video should look outstanding and be great for a wedding reel. It is not a paid gig but an excellent opportunity for experience filming a wedding. I am actually meeting with the couple today which is very exciting.

As you can see some cool stuff on tap, hopefully more still to come for TTP, but for now at least we will be able to let creativity take control which is what I am most excited for.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up, the budget for squibs alone was $70,000. On average, you can get 50 squibs for $1,000.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Big Stuff Coming

So today I had a pretty sweet business meeting/interview with an actor I used to work with on a couple of past projects, Nick H. He is a great guy and invited me to meet with some people at the company he works for called Neo Niche Strategies, they are a company which seems to just recently start investing in video production and Nick is sort of the head guy for everything. Well he invited me down as I said and I have been offered two gigs one a small photobooth gig at a county fair down in Virginia and the other is a lucrative gig as an editor which would involve a lot of travel. The second gig would take me away from Maryland for 5 weeks, with a week break in between, I am excited and hope it all works out because this gig would be huge for me! When I know more about it trust me I will be sure to update it here. Wish me luck!

Random Movie Fact: In the 2005 film Cinderella Man, the cinematographer invented a "tire-cam" which is a camera cushioned inside a tire and behind Plexiglas. This allowed the professional boxers to hit the tire to create realistic reactions from a first-person point-of-view.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

A lot on the Horizon

So as I look out today I see a lot places I can go for a long term freelance goal. Today I made a call to a company a friend of a friend said might be hiring, I called today and the owner is on vacation but tomorrow he is going to look at my email and set up a time to meet with me, hopefully this can work out. I have re negotiated things on two of my three upcoming music videos to get enough money to not lose money on everything, so essentially I am just breaking even which is still ok at this point. In addition I have this job editing which gets me a cool hundred per video I complete which is a nice thing to have as well. Also I am really trying to push the concert filming/music video production end of things here which I hope picks up soon. Finally, I got approached by a guy who does high end concert filming that I hope I can work with soon on some gigs as well.

There are also some other things that are just in talks right now so I don't want to give out too much before I know more. However I think things are moving along nicely and with the money I have gotten selling stuff plus my last two paychecks at my job I think I will be safe at least for a little bit. I just have to spend like no money for a while.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Preordered The Canon 5D Mark III

So last night I got home and made the leap to preorder the new Canon 5D Mark III. After seeing the test videos and pictures online I couldn't wait to get my hands on this awesome new camera. This will be the first camera I have ever had that is equipped with a full frame sensor meaning much better quality looking videos. In addition the fact that now you can film for 29 minutes is amazing, and makes it a much easier sell in the world of videography. It will not get me a job like last fall filming football games but it will be able to at least get me some small jobs here and there. However the main point of getting this camera is to improve the overall quality of my films which will look even better than they did using the Canon T3I (and this camera blew me away so imagine the 5D).

The internet is ablaze for this camera and I am too, I can't wait until the day it ships and I am able to film/photograph with it. I am so excited!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Loading Up On Work

Now that school has started and my schedule is completely set I am really trying to give myself a lot of work which is turning out to not be a hard thing at all. As of right now I am still applying finishing touched to Love is Undead; which has the music set, 95% of the audio is done, color correction is great, now all I need is the blood/bullet fx, some foley work, and end credits. Also I am getting a little push from my friend over at Mania Music Group to try and do his next music video before SXSW in March. This would normally be possible but the song in which he wants to do a video for is a bit tricky and I am trying to come up with a way to do it without it being cliche. Also still booking as always for Headshot packages so anyone out there looking please hit me up whenever either on here or by email at mind_confided@yahoo.com

In other news the music video for Hello by Kane Mayfield is dropping this Monday on either youtube or vimeo. I can't wait for everyone to see it and let me know what they think of it. It is my first video content dropping in a long long time.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess