Happy New Year!

Today we reflected on how far we have come from that evening we watched the life-changing Dr. Pepper commercial to yesterday when we released our best short to date, Zipped. 

We have taken countless tutorials, spent hundreds of hours locked in our edit room and have gotten recognition by not just our own families this year. We are truly so happy with our accomplishments in 2013 and we cannot wait to show you what we have in store for 2014. As a sneak peak, here are Cinetic Studios' New Year's resolutions:

• Create, produce and finish more videos
• Write more "day-to-day" blog articles so our followers can know the ins and outs Behind The Motion
• Start writing film reviews for our blog
• Improve at overcoming and excelling in inevitable production disaster(s)
• Continue to learn and practice post production skills
• Learn how to write a short

-Posted by Jessica

Planning

In my opinion one of the most important stages of any project is the planning phase. Getting a solid concrete understanding of the any job allows everyone in a team to execute in a more cohesive and efficient way.

Even though we at Cinetic Studios know this to be true, we are also culprits in failing to plan. Sometimes we get caught up in trying to "get the shot" or "quickly get this done". The time it takes us to get the quick shot more than likely takes longer when we do not think it through beforehand.

In the last video we shot for the BC Horror Challenge, we developed a story, Jason wrote a script, we talked through shots with our cast and we got our crew excited about the end video. As a result of our careful planning we got tighter, cleaner and better content out of our 6 hour shoot. Instead of "getting that shot" we got multiple awesome shots to choose from.

"Getting the shot" is extremely important and sometimes there may not be time to plan; however, if we can plan, we definitely will from now on.

-Posted by Jessica

Taking On Only What We Can Chew

Here at Cinetic Studios we are guilty of trying to fill our plates with more food than we can eat. Now, the smart thing to do is to serve ourselves one serving at a time.

We are definitely always coming up with new video ideas, but we are also coming up with other "stuff". We have all been victims of coming up with an idea like starting a Vlog channel, writing more blog posts, making tutorials, doing "test" videos and various other elaborate ideas. The great part of this is we are constantly thinking and working to make Cinetic Studios better. The bad part is that at the end of the day we sometimes feel disappointed in our lack of execution.

It is extremely important for us at Cinetic Studios to be realistic with our time and what ideas simply need to be "shelved" indefinitely so we can awesomely execute the ones we need to work on. So yes, we want to pile on the good stuff, but small portions are the way to go.

-Posted by Jessica

Artist v. Art Gallery

Making YouTube videos is definitely an art. Those who make art are artists. I have to say that working with Jason definitely feels like I am the art gallery and he is the artist.

At the beginning of Cinetic Studios our goal was to produce content, a lot of content. We even went so far to say that we wanted to upload a video every two weeks. Well, that obviously was unrealistic because we do this on our free time and apparently we have a lot of responsibilities.

About a month into watching Jason edit Finger Guns I realized that deadlines were an unrealistic concept this early in the game. We did not have the skillset to be able to produce consistently and at the level we wanted to. Instead, we needed to consider adding more time to our budget to compensate for our lack of skill.

Adding more time turned into letting Jason be the artist he is and watching him fix and fix and fix things that I thought were already great to begin with. We started the artist meets art gallery dynamic. I would ask for the finished product and he would delay based on something he was not done working on: sound, tightening the edit, color, etc.

Weeks went by because the art gallery did not give the artist a clear drop dead due date. Without the deadline our artist would not give up the product and our viewers could not experience the art we created.

We have learned that our artist needs drop dead due dates that even the art gallery cannot extend. Recently we started to make videos for video contests because it allows Jason to be accountable for being late or failing to make the application deadline. Finally, the art gallery has a way to tame the artist and our viewers get to watch our art.

-Posted by Jessica

Released The Remote

We released our second short, The Remote, this week. This video played on the same storyline as Finger Guns with a little bit of a twist. The video portrays two friends fighting over a TV remote which results in a long drawn out Nerf gun battle.

Before the video was ever shot, Jason decided that he wanted to use wires for in camera effects. Needless to say there was a "wire" effect that allowed him to "slide" on the floor to avoid being hit by the very threatening Nerf gun. In a way the video was developed around an effect Jason wanted to try.

One of the biggest challenges we had was managing our time while filming the short. We started shooting the video in the afternoon hoping it would only take a couple of hours; instead those couple of hours turned into several hours and we ending up wrapping close to midnight.

Our lack of time management would have been minor if we shot everything with the same lighting; of course we did not. The opening shots took place during daylight and by the time we could move on, it was dark outside. If we left the original story line the same, our viewers would definitely be a little skeptical of the continuity of the video. To fix this we added the classic "a few hours later" to one of the shots to indicate we had definitely intended this to happen.

While we could have left the inconsistency in our lighting stop us in finishing the project, we saw it as an amateur filmmaking challenge we needed to overcome. Another video, another badge of accomplishment.

In case you have not seen the video:

And if you would like to watch our Behind the Motion:

-Posted by Jessica 

The Silent Partners of Cinetic Studios

Being independent filmmakers at Cinetic Studios means we don't have the big blockbuster budget to spend on anything our creative hearts desire.  Instead, we are using the resources we have available.

Each of us have different passions in addition to Cinetic Studios that contributes to our projects.  Whether it is knowing how to hack gadgets and gizmos, being a beer and wine specialist or crunching numbers, we all have an extra something.  Well, that was easy.  The three of us already know what we can do.   But what makes a great production company is knowing how to use the strengths of the people that help us.

Each of our friends and family members have skills.  We have parents who are great at providing encouragement, even when they may not understand what exactly we are doing.  We have brothers who will engineer 3D-printed Go Pro mounts and perform stunts in our shorts.  We have sisters who will help provide additional behind the scenes footage and get their friends to watch our videos. We have friends that will drop their Friday plans to be actors for a night.  And we have the support of our fans, to keep doing what we're doing.

The point is we use any contribution, idea or volunteer to get our projects to the next level and fake our blockbuster budget.  Without our friends and families, we'd just be some kids running around with a camera.

-Posted by Jessica

The Newsroom Voice

While editing and rewatching our first Behind the Motion for Finger Guns we noticed that both Jason and Jacob have what we call "the newsroom voice".

We shot the first Behind the Motion with limited expectations. We made a script and they both read lines from one our TVs in the office. What we didn't expect was "the newsroom voice" that just happened.

Our Behind the Motions are intended to be like a conversation with our viewers, and instead Jason and Jacob read lines like they were on channel 7. It's a big joke now actually.

A couple of days ago we filmed a BTM for "Screaming Artist". Before we started I reminded them that they need to be less newsroom and more talking to me. Instead of having them read lines, we filmed without a script and let the camera roll. I asked them "Jeopardy-style" questions and they had to answer them by first restating the question. When the two of them were answering my questions the answers came out more naturally and they did not feel like they were on the spot, in front of a camera.

We are learning with every video, even in our BTMs. We are even developing new content to flex those interview muscles and get us in top shape for our upcoming videos.

From channel 7, this is Cinetic Studios over and out.

-Posted by Jessica

Released Finger Guns

Success! We released our first video and BTM this week.  It was very exciting because the three of us were all together when we finished up the annotations and marked the videos as "public" for the first time.  We posted the links on our Facebook and Twitter and in that moment we shared our dream with the world.

The three of us have explained what Cinetic Studios is to our friends and families, but it really clicked when we were finally able to say, go to our website and watch the video.  It is amazing what sixty seconds of video can do to explain what we are up to these days.

In case you haven't seen our first short, Finger Guns, please check it out.

And if you want to see some raw footage, please check out our Behind the Motion for Finger Guns.

-Posted by Jessica

Technical Breakdown: Post Production on Finger Guns

Not sure about you guys, but I personally love "Making Of" featurettes and Behind the Scenes videos. In fact, it's usually the first (and sometimes only thing) I watch on a BluRay or DVD. Besides taking you behind the camera to discover the how that production was created from script to screen, it can also take you deep into the minds of the creators, hinting at creative decisions you'd never hear about otherwise. My curiosity isn't limited to feature films and TV, as I equally love BTS content for YouTube and short films. My interest is to such an extreme, even I cannot deny it has delayed the launch of our channel as I found myself drawn into the vortex that are VFX \ Color Grading breakdowns, tutorials, and demo reels available on YouTube and Vimeo.

Between shooting our first short and it's delayed release, I had the unique opportunity to attend local professional groups such as LACPUG and DMALA, allowing me to meet and learn from geniuses such as After Effects Guru Andrew Kramer and Colorist Alexis Van Hurkman. If there are similar groups in your area, I highly encourage you to attend, ask questions, and bask in the knowledge being offered to you. While you can learn tons by reading and watching tutorials, learning from the experts is akin to watching a magic show from behind the stage, seeing behind the curtain.

While we will always have a BTS featurette for all of our shorts, we try to keep things fast paced and watchable to a general audience. That being said, some of the topics I find most interesting (and sometimes the most time consuming aspects of production) are the highly technical and often overlooked aspect of post production: color correction, color grading, visual effects, and the importance of maintaining an ideal workflow starting in pre-production. Each of these can be expanded on in future articles, so please do let us know what topics you'd like to hear more about.

As the editor, vfx artist and colorist for Cinetic Studio projects, there were certain challenges I faced even before I made the first cut on "Finger Guns". As we shot on a Canon DSLR camera, I jumped on the popular Cinestyle picture profile without doing any camera tests of my own. This decision proved to be a HUGE mistake, as I never discovered the quirks and intricacies of the technology, which included the minor fact that the image seen on the camera LCD during shooting dramatically differed from the image recorded to the SD card. The final result was footage that was 2.5 stops underexposed, extremely dark and excessively noisy. Being recorded in the fragile H.264 video codec in a 8-bit color space (as is a limitation with all Canon DSLR footage) didn't leave a lot of latitude for correction either.

The "Fix it in Post" workflow developed to "rescue" the footage came from weeks of our own testing and  tweaking, and  advice such as Vashi Nedomansky , the color scientists over at VisionColor, and numerous experts at LACPUG & DMALA. Huge thanks to those guys!

The h.264 raw footage from the camera was transcoded to Cineform 4:2:2 files to lighten the final render time. The project was edited in Adobe Premiere CS6 with basic compositing and VFX done in After Effects CS6. All footage was heavily denoised, basic color correction done with native filters in Premiere, and final grading done with FilmConvert. While the final render time ended up being quite heavy (15 hrs with CS6, 8 hrs with CC), it allowed us to get the best possible quality out of our poorly shot footage. Filmconvert really shined above all other solutions, as it allowed me to emulate a specific Kodak film stock (as if I shot it on film exact 5207 Vision 3) and apply a slight overlay of 16mm film grain to give it some texture that was lost in the denoising process. It's certainly not the best looking short even after everything I've done to it, but it was a massive learning experience that taught me tips and techniques that I'll be using on every future project.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure into the mad scientist lab here at Cinetic Studios. Till next time.......

-Posted by Jason

YouTube Experiment

Recently I introduced my grandmother to the world of YouTube because she was curious of what could be taking up all of our time.  More importantly, I showed her the side of high production YouTube shorts.

Going into it I had already planned a little experiment.  My hypothesis was that the videos with no dialogue and simple concepts were the videos she would be able to relate to the most.  After showing her multiple videos from several of the most popular channels, I found that my hypothesis was true.

The niche videos involving video games and the like were too complicated for her to relate to.  Instead, she preferred videos with pretty colors, "nice" music and simple concepts.

So what does this tell us at Cinetic Studios?

The majority of the YouTube audience is male, 13-17 years old.  So, you would think that we would want to cater to that market.  Yes, we do.  However, even if we cater to the 13-17 year old guy, we still need to keep it simple so we do not limit our audience.

-Posted by Jessica

Yellow Production Sign

Cinetic Studios does arts & crafts!

If you ever drive around in Los Angeles you might see those yellow signs on freeway exits or street corners with word(s) and an arrow. The yellow signs typically have a "code word" for a production.  For example, the "code word" for Pixar's movie, Up, was Balloons. The "code words" are used so that it is harder for people to find and crash hot film sets.

Ok, so we don't have the budget that these film productions have to order these fantastic signs or the following to require a "code word" (yet).  But we do have skills from elementary school to make our own cheap and practical sign.

While the sign may not have been a total necessary thing to spend our time or money on, it makes us happy. Sometimes you need to take a moment and do something that has some instant satisfaction to keep you going during those long hours. Let me tell you, every time I look at our rinky dinky sign, it gives me a little inspiration to keep on going.

How I Made It: I found a yellow plastic sign/board in Home Depot ($4) and printed out all of the characters. Carefully, I cut out all of the letters and then used rubber cement ($3) to put it all together. Ta da! Our own yellow production sign.

-Posted by Jessica

Managing Our Capital Investment

Recently I have found myself going back to the lessons I learned from John Greathouse's class.  His reading assignments have seemed to creep up on me when I need to make a decision or discuss business concepts with the guys.  John Greathouse also has a great blog, InfoChachkie, about start-up advice that I recommend to any current or future entrepreneur.

One of the topics that is extremely relevant to any venture is the idea of capital.  Some start-ups choose to fundraise at the very beginning and borrow money from family or friends.  Others may be able to get a successful kickstarter going or find some angel investors.

For our little venture we have decided to fund with our earnings.  Since we don't have revenue (yet), our personal income and savings will suffice for the moment.

Using our own money also means we likely pay a lot more attention to the things we spend money on.  We constantly discuss new gadgets and gizmos we want to get.  I am sure between the three of us we could go out and buy $10,000+ worth of stuff in an hour that we think would help us.  The key is that we are not going out and splurging.

We have chosen to make a list of the items we think are relevant and will help us in way X, Y, or Z.  We are adding, deleting and changing the list based on new information and our team meetings.  Yes, the three of us all had a moment when we just wanted to buy, buy, buy; but we knew that if we spent X dollars on something really cool and shiny, those dollars would be gone for something that we might actually need in the near future.

So yes, capital is extremely important; however, it is also extremely important to manage those dollars wisely.

-Posted by Jessica

The Cinetic Studios Office

Cinetic Studios is progressing from a cool idea to something more.

The three of us have come to a realization that we needed a space more suitable to work in.  While the living room is a great place to hang out, "research" and brainstorm, we also want a space to be able to sit down and work.

The stereotypical thing for us to do would be to set-up shop in our garage.  Unfortunately, we do not have a garage available.  We do have a "catch-all" bedroom that was just waiting to be used to its full potential.

With a little "summer cleaning" and some donations to The American Cancer Society Discovery Shops, we have cleared out the space for three workstations.

I guess if we had the funds we could have found a fancy office to rent or something, but we don't.  Instead we are using our $0-budget mentality and trying to use the resources we already have available.

One day we hope to have a real office, but for now, our office location works for us.  After all, it has great bathrooms, a full-functioning kitchen, conference room and nap suites.  Really, how could we beat that.

-Posted by Jessica

The Shift+Delete Series

Along with our narrative videos we will be releasing Behind the Motion in video format.  Our first video is finally ready to be released, but we needed to finish up our Behind the Motion before all of you wonderful people can check it out.

Last night Jason, Jacob and I got together to film it.  We got our lighting, set and narrative ready to go and shot for about an hour.  After we were done, Jason wanted to immediately get the footage off of the SD card and on to the edit machine.  Jacob and I sat back and relaxed waiting for Jason to finish before we could start the next task.

While Jacob and I were casually talking, Jason made an OMG face.  I looked at him and knew something really bad just happened.  Jason accidently pressed shift+delete (permanent deletion of files) on all of the footage we just finished shooting.  There were no words to explain how the three of us felt.

Thanks to Jason's computer knowledge he was able to recover some of the footage, but not all of it.  The three of us jokingly agreed there should be a Behind the Motion of our Behind the Motion.

Lesson learned: Do NOT press shift+delete.

-Posted by Jessica

"Welcome" Video

We have been participating in the YouTube Creators Academy. One of the lessons taught us all about the importance of the "Welcome" video.  The three of us agreed we would try and actually develop, shoot and upload the video within the week.  (A challenge we have said a couple of times and have yet to execute...)

On Sunday Jason and I thought of a way we could make a video with of our voices played to kinetic Cinetic typography.  Instead of developing the Cinetic typography ourselves we actually purchased a template to try and make the turnaround time a lot less.

Jacob came over tonight, and after discussing the original idea, we realized that producing that video would take longer than we wanted.  To get a video up on our page ASAP we thought on the fly and said, "How can we shoot this in fifteen seconds and be done?".  Because of the time constraint we agreed to go for the run-and-gun video and quickly started writing a script, setting up the lights, balancing the steadicam and changing into non-branded shirts.

Thirty minutes after shooting started we got a one-cut shot that was good and we could totally upload.  We watched the good take and said, "Let's just do one more since we already got it."  Fifteen minutes later we reviewed another take and realized it was 55 seconds long.

Jacob asked Jason, "How long is this supposed to be?" According to Jason it is supposed to be 30 seconds or less.  They both looked at each other and boom a spark just lit a fire under them; Jason and Jacob sped up their lines to cut the video time in half.

An hour of shooting later, we got our 30 second, one-cut shot.  Boom!

-Posted by Jessica

Third Short: Reviewing Our Footage

One of the steps in our workflow is going through the footage of our videos, "the dailies".  Jason, Jacob and I went through the dailies on Sunday, but Jason is now developing another step in our workflow to eliminate the footage that should be buried alive.

Last night Jason went through the footage and assembled "the selects".  Jason is using a technique and template provided by the well-know editor, Vashi Nedomansky.  By assembling "the selects" we will eliminate the mass chaos from our first video where we could not organize the hours worth of footage we shot for a 60 second short.  Finding the right shot was like finding a frame in the middle of a full length, motion picture.

Some of the shots in our third video were also shot in slow motion.  In some of these clips Jason made obnoxious face movements to exaggerate the effect on film.  It was so funny watching him "perform" it live and after see the raw footage, I think the 60p slow motion sequence is gonna be pretty funny too.

-Posted by Jessica

Boy Toys

Between Jason, Jacob and I, we seem to be doing "adequate" YouTube "research".  The three of us decided that we wanted our next video to be simple, nostalgic, and with a twist.  After having an idea pitch hang out session, we decided we would be shooting the following week.

Jason and I had to do some research and development and found ourselves at Toys 'R Us.  After going through the "Boy Toys" aisles, we settled on some Nerf guns.  I would have rather stayed in the "Girl Toys" aisles, but I guess I was out-voted.

We went over to Jacob's place, Nerf guns in hand.  Jacob and Jason really needed to get the fun out of their system and had to have some play time before shooting.  The guys unwrapped the guns and I got to witness mature men flashback to 2001.  After half an hour we were ready to shoot.

Unfortunately everything ran late, shooting took longer than expected, and we ended up shooting half in daylight and half at night; unintentionally, of course.  We have since managed a way to figure out how to make it work, but it was definitely a serious continuity error.

We also had some fun with stunts.  I filmed while Jason was pulled by an extension cord, tied to his belt, on the floor, by Jacob.  I guess you will have to see how it turns out.  From my view, it was something for the memory books.

-Posted by Jessica

Kudos, Joe Penna

We have found another channel that we really like - MysteryGuitarMan. I guess you could say that his channel and his whole brand is one we really look up to.  I think he has made a huge impact in new media, and that's something that has gotten us to where we are today.  Kudos Joe Penna, kudos.

If we can acquire 1/10th the talent some of our mentors have, we might be able to actually have a thriving audience one day.

-Posted by Jessica

The Second Video

Jason, Jacob and I are all a little over watching the first video cut, and re-cut and decided it was time to shoot our second short.

When I came home from work on Sunday, I started walking to the front door when I saw this huge green sheet on the floor.  I remember Jason telling me about his cheep green screen that was sitting in our living room, ready to be used and abused.  When he was shooting his Star Wars videos about ten years ago he found the "perfect green" sheets at Ross.  Apparently they were defective, but they were just perfect for him.

That "perfect green" sheet was sprawled out in the middle of the courtyard and I could see the guys on our third floor with the camera shooting right at it.  I walked right into our second short.

Turns out Jacob convinced Jason that since he had got to be in the first video, it was Jason's turn.  It also meant Jacob was in front of the camera.

After shooting for a couple of hours we wrapped.  Jason looked at the footage and we learned something really important that day.

Lesson Learned: Set up the green screen before the sun is at the right angle.  By the time the guys set up the green screen, there were too many shadows and the shot was ruined.

-Posted by Jessica

The Never Ending First Video

So over the past couple of weeks Jason has been editing the first short.  He's been saying, "This is the last time I am going to render it out." And then wait - he renders it out again.

Lesson learned: There's no such thing as "the final cut".  The only final version will be when it is actually uploaded to YouTube and there's "No Take Backs".

Once we got the video to a certain point, Jason uploaded it to YouTube for Jacob and I to watch.  We both screened it, gave him feedback and then some more renderings happened.

Now, our video was ready for our harshest, meanest, critics- our friends.  Jason, Jacob and I all showed the video our specially selected crowd and we seemed to get positive feedback.  Most of the feedback ended with conversations ofhow it all started and then of course some YouTube binging.

The video is not finished yet, and probably won't be for a while.  We are definitely learning and it seems that every day we are that much more ahead than the last.  Who knows where we'll be next week.  One thing is for certain, this is going to be one very educational ride.

-Posted by Jessica

Our First Video Shoot

This past weekend Jason and Jacob shot our first video.  Jason had been going through the first idea for the video all week and when I came home from work on Saturday, he told me it was happening that night.

I was just getting over a cold and was exhausted after my long day at work.  As the supportive team mate, I went through the motions and blocked out the video with him in our garage that night.  Half an hour later we had the whole video mapped out, we were ready, we just needed our talent.

Jacob got hustled into volunteered to be one of the actors and Jason's friend, John, came over to play the second.

The only problem was - my exhausting work day and cold made me pass out even before our fabulous actors came over.

After a long and uninterrupted sleep, I woke up and Jason told me everything went great.  We ran through the "dailies" and at that point I realized Jason might actually be able to do the whole shooting a video thing...

-Posted by Jessica

What's In Our Name

Jason, Jacob and I were thinking about possible names.  I knew I did not want something too difficult, with case variation or anything too out of the ordinary.  We wanted a name with meaning and pizzaz that defined us.

After a certain point we knew we wanted something with motion.  We started thinking of variations of physics words that describe motion- energy, kinetic, velocity... But then once we started thinking of names, we realized they were too long, and just didn't have that "Apple" factor.

We wanted a name that could stick and was short.  The new Apple, Microsoft or McDonalds.  We realized we needed one single word that said anything and everything about us.  I guess we then decided we had to frankenstein a bunch of different things to get the effect that we wanted.

Even in the beginning days we were editing, editing our name.

One day it just clicked - Cinetic. It was a combination between CINEma and kinETIC.  Motion within film.  Perfect! We had our one word.  The only thing left was deciding what the stereotypical studio ending word would be.  You know, like studio, production, house, entertainment, films, etc. The debate was on.

After tossing around all of the stereotypical words we settled on studio. But then Jason and I went back and forth between making the word plural or singular.

Finally it was settled - Cinetic Studios.

-Posted by Jessica

How It All Started

Jason and I were watching tv one night and started skipping through the commercials.  As we were skipping over we heard two seconds of this beat that sounded interesting.  Instead of passing through the commercial, we stopped and watched.  Then, we watched it again. And again. And again.

I cannot tell you what we were watching at the time but I remember the Dr. Pepper commercial.  It was a collage of different YouTube videos linked together by a catchy beat.

After watching it several times we started researching various clips and watched other videos in the channels we liked.  Our tv show was put on hold and all of a sudden we found ourselves hours into a YouTube binging spree.  We found the professional end of YouTube and realized there is a whole different side of the internet.

That night Jason and I watched videos of DevinSuperTramp.  Later that week, Jason and I found RocketJump Studios and Corridor Digital.  We totally binged through VGHS in two days and realized this was something we wanted to be a part of.

Jacob came over during the week and Jason filled him in too.  And then our journey began.  We binged YouTube even more, Jason started watching tutorials and all our hangouts were based on what we had learned since the last meet-up.  And then, Cinetic Studios was formed.

-Posted by Jessica