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