Puppy Christmas

Here's my latest video! I released it 5 days ago, and in that time it has gotten 1.5 million views, and it's been on what seems like every national television network, including CNN, NBC, and ABC! :) Here it is!



As far as the making of this video goes....

I really wanted to make a Christmas video for my youtube channel, and I was having a hard time coming up with an idea. While I jumped onto facebook, one of my friends, Xan, had posted pictures of her 4 little puppies she was trying to sell... Then I started thinking about how it seemed like a perfect fit for Christmas.

With my youtube videos, I generally try, not always, but generally try to come up with ideas that the majority of people will share, which makes them "go viral", and with puppies/animals, they are always something that people share.

So I jumped onto youtube and googled "puppies", and every video that came up had several million hits, so after I did my research/homework on the youtube puppy market, it seemed like if I threw in Christmas, it would help that much more.

As I was trying to think of how I could have them a part of Christmas, the whole idea of the story came in, with them in a Christmas present. Right after that I contacted my friend Xan, who said she would love to help me with letting me borrow her puppies.

I then would need a house that I could film in, that would feel like Christmas, so I posted on facebook that I needed a certain kind of house (I posted examples of other houses). Several people volunteered their house. I checked out several of them, but the one that fit perfect was donated by the Dyer family.

So I went to their house to scout it out that very day. I had only met the Dyer family briefly at a restaurant one day, so just by hardly knowing them, they were super helpful and willing to help in any way they could.

That night I went to Walmart and spent 75 dollars on Christmas things, like wrapping paper, stockings, and ornaments. The great thing about the house we were using though, is it was already decorated perfectly.

The next evening I got a couple of my friends to come help with the shoot. We wrapped up a bunch of fake presents, and Xan came with her puppies. We then filmed for a couple hours, and called it good. The puppies ran out of energy in the first 45 minutes, so then we had to improvise a little after that to help them have energy. They say that the 2 hardest things to work with, with movies is children and animals, and yes, that was definitely the case.

I then spent a couple days editing the puppy video. I then sent it to one of my composers, Elton Luz. He then had two days to compose the music. I gave him full creative freedom with the music, so he came up with his own original Christmas song.

We then released it the following day, and that's the story of how the "Puppy Christmas" youtube video came out :)

Massive Toilet Papering Prank

Here's our latest youtube video, with a couple statistics on it :)

We used 504 rolls of toilet paper!
It took 1 hour to make the mess.
8 hours to clean up the mess :( That's with 5 of us total.
We had two cop cars come and try and stop us, one while filming, and the other while we were trying to clean up (They thought we were tp'ing the house in broad daylight... yeah....

Youtube Partner Epidemic

I'm not gonna lie, I'm really worried about the new youtube design/layout. In fact, perhaps a little terrified :( I really do believe it has the potential to wipe out several youtube partners who have made youtube there career, perhaps including mine.

Now my life isn't based on youtube at all, well... I kinda take that back a little, haha, but the truth of the matter is, just recently I decided to focus full time on youtube.... However, this may soon change..... (Dramatic music kicks in)....

Yesterday afternoon, Youtube released their new layout, which in turn, has begun the beginning of perhaps the youtuber partners death (for some, and the rise for others).

Instead of me tell you how it has effected people who have made youtuber there careers, let me show you. All the graphs I have, I got this morning off of vidstatsx.com which is a way to follow any youtube channel, hour by hour to see how fast they are rising, or in this case..... following....

Let's take a look at one of the biggest youtubers, MysteryGuitarMan. He on average gets 1,100 people subscribing to his youtube channel a day, that's an average of the last 30 days. However, as of yesterday, here is what happened at 4pm when youtube changed the way youtube runs.

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 1,100
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): -722

Never in this youtubers career has he gone in the negative, not only is he in the negatives.... but a pretty substantial drop.

Here's a graph to show what happened!

Let's take a look at another huge youtuber, ShayCarl, here is his stats!

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 1000
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): -1,357

RhettandLink who are also another huge youtuber, it once again is the same story :(

Now, I really believe Youtube wouldn't make these changes to kill all of there youtube partners, in fact, I would say it would be quite the opposite. Youtube is awesome with helping there content creators grow.. Show lets look at how some youtubers who have been effected positively.

Machinima, who is the number 3 most subscribed to youtube channel, having almost 3.8 million subscribers, here is what happened to them when youtube made the change.

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 5,500
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): 24,069

As we can see with this youtube partner, there stats are off the hook!

As I have looked into why this is, when most other youtubers are on the worst decline of all time, I have come up with this....

The new youtube layout, it acts a lot like facebook, as far as news feeds go, so people who put out a lot of content, show up a ton in peoples news feeds, and people who put out vids once a week, don't have a great chance of showing up at all.

People like Machinima, who put out 5-10 videos a day sometimes, (its all video gameplay content), push out of the news feed all the other youtubers.

This is what I have gathers just from my own observation, I don't know if it's the only reason but I really do believe it is a huge part of it.

Which is sad, for youtubers that we looked at earlier, because the content is very time intensive to make, it makes it impossible to put out videos on a super regular basis. So it almost takes away all chance of them being seen.

In my own personal case as well, it's the same story. I put several weeks into my films for youtube, several days shooting, working with music composers, editing, sound design, and everything else that goes into it. It now takes away any chance of me being able to compete with any company/top dogs that have a huge crew/team.

Here is what has happened to my youtube channel within the last 24 hours.

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 352
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): -72

And it's not just the people the subscribers that are changing, even how many hits the videos are getting.

Within the last two months, every video that I have released, because of the 130,000 subscribers that I have, I would always get at least 50,000 hits on the first day, even if the video didn't do amazing overall, I was always guaranteed 50,000 hits on the video on the first day.

The youtube video I released two days ago, it got only 10,000 hits in the first 24 hours. Youtube had already started re-ramping it's system, so it already had a huge effect on my video.

Once again though, several youtubers have been effected greatly by the changes, here's a look at a couple others.

RayWilliamJohnson, who is the most subscribed to channel on youtube, here is his stats!

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 5,998
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): 18,526

Once again notice that with every change that happens for these youtubers, regardless if they rise or fall, it all happens right around 4pm when youtube started using the "New Youtube".

And lets take a look at another huge youtuber, EpicMealTime.

Before Youtube layout (average subscribers a day): 4,608
After Youtube layout (last 24 hours): 17,373

Here's another graph looking at there subscriber growth within the last two weeks.

I also have compiled down below a list of the top youtubers, and how they have been effected. I'm still trying to figure out why some youtubers skyrocket off the hook, while others totally drop.

Negatively Effected:
MysteryGuitarMan
ShayCarl
RhettandLink
iJustine
daneboe
WinterSpringPro
charlestrippy
devinsupertramp

Positively Effected:
EpicMealTime
RayWilliamJohnson
Machinima
freddiew
collegehumor
realannoyingorange
CorridorDigital

I'm having a super hard time drawing parallels with why some of these youtubers channels are going off like crazy, while the others are totally falling apart, I would love to hear any of your thoughts on why this is, so I can change what I'm doing wrong, so I can get back in the game, otherwise I really don't think I'll be able to keep up with the whole youtube thing :(

But, one last final statement. I know youtube has been constantly trying to better everything, for everyone. And change is always hard regardless, and I really do believe google/youtube will figure things out with this, even if it does take time, I just hope that it is something that can happen sooner then later :)

As far as this "New Youtub" goes, it's just a matter of figuring out the new system, and for those that figure out how to run the new system first, they are the ones that will prosper, grow the fastest, I just have to figure that out :)

-Devin

My youtube friend "Kalebnation" just informed me that the reason why those youtubers above are getting the boost, is because they are apearing on one of the main pages, because they are being promoted, otherwise they would be on a downfall as well :(

Here's the link to that, and a screenshot of that page.

http://www.youtube.com/channels?feature=foot

Zelda Medley

Here is our latest youtube video! It's for all the Nintendo fan boys/fan girls out there!! :)



First off, I'm a HUGE Nintendo/Zelda fan! :) Second off, with the youtube videos that I do, as often as I can, I try and pick "hot topics", and make videos on them, just so I can get the most exposure as possible :). In this case, the Nintendo video game Zelda: “Skyward Sword” is coming out this week, so it seemed like a perfect fit to make a video just to build off the hype that the game would already be getting. This was all considered months in advance.

So I got my violin friend Lindsey Stirling involved from the beginning. She had never actually played a Zelda video game before, but she did a ton of research on the game itself, and the music, and then she arranged her own composition based off of the Zelda world.

We did this whole process several months in advance before we were going to release the video. We then contacted my friend Dan who owns a recording studio here in Provo Utah, and he recorded the music for us. From there, we then went to my friend Stephen Anderson, who composed the backtrack that plays in the background.

I then contacted my friend Ben who I went to film school with. Ben is an awesome makeup designer, and he made the elf ears for Lindsey that appeared in the video.

If you love the music, you can download the song off of iTunes in the link below.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/zelda-medley-single/id481386691

My friend Melia Harris custom made the whole costume just for the video. In the video game itself, Link (the character who the game is based off of, not Zelda), wears a green costume. In the video Lindsey wears the same costume, but it's blue. The reason behind this, was I didn't want her to be compared to Link. I wanted people to know right away that she was a part of that same world, and in the video game Link does wear a blue outfit for a section of it, so we tried to put the best of both worlds in there, that was the logic for that.

As far as filming locations go, we shot this all in Utah, in a couple different locations. The first location, the Dungeon Castle, we filmed here in Provo Utah, where I am now living. All the mountain scenes were filmed on the Alpine Loop, when all the leaves were changing colors. The green forest was near the same location. For the snow scenes, we filmed those by Brighton Ski Resort. We filmed this video over a course of a month, just to make sure we could hit every "climate".

For the horse scenes, our friend Emily hooked us up with her friends horse, which we filmed those scenes in Spanish Fork Canyon.

As far as the technical side of the video, we shot this on our company's Red Epic camera, which shoots at 5K resolution. Sadly though, youtube has a hard time with all that information, so when we uploaded even in a low resolution version, youtube encoding made it significantly not as clear as it was shot :( But you work with what you got. But what I learned is that youtube can handle Canon footage significantly better than the Red Epic camera footage.

The reason the camera looks like it is floating, is because I do most of my filming with a Glidecam. I usually just use a small glidecam, a glidecam 2000 HD to be specific. But because this camera is significantly heavier, we just recently purchased a full glidecam with a vest, and an arm.

A couple other key players that helped make this happen was my friend Jacob Schwarz, he spent the first day of filming with me, just to make sure we didn't have any surprises with shooting with our Red Epic camera.

You can also check out our company's website in the link below. We started our production company together once we finished film school.

Mysterybox

All in all, most of the youtube videos I do, consist of just me, and usually the person being filmed. In this case though, it would not have happened without a full team behind me/side by side with me. Without the costume designer, makeup artist, sound recorder, helpers, background music, Lindsey, color correctors, and my other friends that helped with all the torces we had to make, this wouldn't have happened! So yes, make sure to check out Lindsey's youtube channel if you haven't already!!

Lindsey's Youtube Channel.
A couple other key players that helped make this happen was my friend Jacob Schwarz, he spent the first day of filming with me, just to make sure we didn't have any surprises with shooting with our Red Epic camera.

You can also check out our company's website in the link below. We started our production company together once we finished film school.

Mysterybox


Also, in regards to this video, and several other videos I have done lately. A decent amount of people have complained that they just want to see videos like the human slingshot video... My response to that is... Yes, those videos always do the best on my youtube channel, however it is almost impossible to come up with new videos like that each week. They always take several weeks of preparation, a ton of people, and a lot of other logistics. Also, my being a film maker, I don't want to be branded as just the guy that does "fun" things. I want to show that I can take on everything from fast and adventurous, to slow and thought provoking.

So for those who have asked, I want my youtube channel to show what I can do in every area, so I don't get branded as a one trick pony, so yeah, there you have it, feel free to complain about it if ya want, haha :) And your feedback is always helpful, but I do have to stay true to trying new things, and pushing myself in other directions just so I can move forward, and progress as a film maker.



-Devin

Halloween Youtube Video!

I released this youtube video 3 days before Halloween, and it's gotten 260,000 hits in those couple days leading up to the Holiday :) It got featured on CBSnews.com, cnn, the huffingtonpost, devour.com, and it even got featured on red.com's official blog :) When videos are released, there's a lot of factors that go into the success of them, and timing is a huge part of it! Here is the video without any further ado, simple, but with a Halloween theme.



And my friend Stephen Andersen wrote the sweet music for this one, he had 24 hours to write it. And the creepy voice you hear in it, that's acutually not a childs voice, it's his, haha, he super manipulated it though to give it the creepy feel.

We also used our companies Red Epic camera to shoot this video, in 300 frames per second. Most of my youtube videos I shoot on my Canon 5D Mark II, but this content seemed to fit the epic camera just perfect.

Check out our company website here.

mysterybox.us

Also a super shout out to my friends who helped film/make this possible. Jacob Schwarz, Katie Crapo, and Lindsey Stirling. They helped on every aspect of this as well, including cleanup, ha.

No brakes, down hill, 55 mph!

Here's our latest YouTube video! I'll be doing a blog post about it in the next of couple days, but until then, enjoy the new video. If you read the description, I go over a lot of the making of the video there so you can get you’re fill from there for now. Hope you enjoy! :)

My Tripod - Film Equipment

I'm going to keep this blog post pretty simple. Here are the exact tripod "sticks" and head that I use for filming my videos and even for still photographs. Whenever you buy a professional tripod, you should always purchase the sticks and head separately (this is why they are not together). The tripod itself is a little heavy; fortunately, the pro to this is that it isn't shaky when taking night pictures at long exposures and it doesn't move when you’re filming. The other great pro about both of these items is that they are probably the most inexpensive tripod and head you will find for the awesome quality that they are. So, below I have provided links to the same place I bought them. :) Also, just as a heads up, I am never paid for any recommendation I will ever make on my blog; these are all things that I use and have chosen after hours, if not days, of research. I hope you can benefit from the fruits of my labor!

Here's the tripod "sticks" that I use.

Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod Legs (Black)


And the tripod "head" that I use.

Manfrotto 501HDV Video Head


So there you have it, these are what I would suggest you buy if you’re shooting/filming with a DSLR camera.

Human Slingshot Slip and Slide - Vooray

Our latest YouTube video involves a human sling shot. Now I know you’re interested :)


Honestly, this was one of the most fun YouTube videos we have made thus far! I worked together with the awesome clothing company "Vooray" to make it possible. We had talked about working together for the longest time, with the problem being that I was based in Hawaii and they were based in Utah...however, last month I moved to Utah so it finally became a reality. 



We filmed this video on Saturday, August 27th and after some marathon editing, I released it 3 days later on Monday, August 30th! I was just really stoked to get it out to you guys, haha!



My friend Jace LeRoy was a huge part of the filming of this video. He and I both ran cameras; I ran my Canon 5D Mark II and he ran his Canon T2i.



For the actual slip and slide, the 8 foot tall jump itself was built by Vooray. They originally used a regular bungie to sling people out, but a week before we filmed it snapped during testing. It ended up whiplashing a couple people, so for safety’s sake, they bought a 250 dollar bungie online to make sure no one got hurt when we filmed.



The pond itself was on private property in Paradise, Utah. From the jump to the opposite end, the water was 150 feet long. Several people were launched 120 feet from the jump...not to bad, right? :) In fact, the first person that flew the 120 feet actually got knocked out once he hit the water! Fortunately, everyone ran in to help him right away. This actually happened to 3 people...but even then it still didn't stop them!

Everyone wore helmets and life jackets, trying to make sure we were as safe as possible. Just for the record though, I didn't do it; I'm not that brave (or stupid), depending on how you look at it. :)



Last October, we filmed a similar video to this, but it was about a bike jump into a lake. You can check that video out below.



Once again, this Slingshot Slip and Slide video would have never happened had it not been for Vooray putting it on! So make sure to check out their website and if you use the following promo code, it will give you 15 percent off.

Promo Code: devinsuperslide


Vooray.com

The Haka

Just as a heads up, I took down this video right after I released it to make a couple of changes to it; it will be released in a once I’m satisfied with its quality. Sorry for the delay.



Until then, here’s all the info that went into the making of it.



As far as the individuals in the video, half of them were Maori people (New Zealand natives) and the other half were Hawaiians. The performers are part of a team that competes in Haka competitions; their team name is ‘Te Kohao!’.

My Hawaiian mom, Nikki Mozo, hooked me up with team ‘Te Kohao!’; the members that appear in the video are:
Mauri Ora, Shannon, Tama, Alex, Ricky, Moko, Tema, Ahe, James, and Hailama.

Additionally, I had a lot of help from my friends to film this video:
Melinda Kendall, James Choi, Jase LeRoy, Aaron Nelsen, Kuuleipualani Akina, and me :)

In the video, the Haka was performed. According to Wikipedia, Haka is “…a traditional dance form of the South Pacific islander mostly known from the Māori of New Zealand through their rugby team display. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.” For more info on the Haka, feel free to check Wikipedia!

As far as the location of this video, we filmed it at Kualoa, which is also one of my favorite places in Hawaii. Here is a link to their website.
http://www.kualoa.com/

The Haka performers also perform at the Polynesian Cultural Center which is the number one tourist attraction in Hawaii. It's like Disneyland, but Hawaii style, where guests learn and experience the full Polynesian culture. If you want more info on this place where you can see the Haka performed live, check out the link below (p.s. no one is paying me to say these things, I just think they’re awesome). :)
http://www.polynesia.com/


The Haka that was performed in this video is called "Te Oranga o te Matauranga". The words were written by the other male leader of the group, Iraia Bailey. He now lives in Hong Kong with his family doing fireknife for Disney's Lion King show. The actions and rhythm of the Haka were choreographed by Tama who was the man leading the chant.


As far as the English translation of the chant, here it is:

The call is sent out to all the land
What is happening to the miro (education) that the birds of Tāne (children) are starving for? That will provide sustenance in this world.
And where are the strong branches (teachers) that provide support for my nest
Please extend your help for you are the safe haven (for our children)
However the great Totara (Government) stands bare for Tāwhirimātea has stripped all her leaves (funding) and carried them beyond the horizon and there is no more protection for our children there is no miro (education) for them to feed.
The branches are weak and flimsy there is no hope at this moment for the body is putrid (referring to the furlough Fridays and options taken to save money)
Soon you will see. Soon you will hear
Of the weakness of the Tōtara (the government)
By what means shall miro (Education) be obtained to fill the belly of our malnourished children
What paths will our youth take to fill the void of education?
They will turn to other pathways. They will seek other food
Food that will destroy the spirit because of the frail and feeble actions of our government.
Give us the power. Give us the strength
So our minds will be invigorated. So our bodies will be strong. So our hearts may be uplifted
Why? So that we can think of what is best for our children who are getting beaten by the lack of an education, lack of miro, alas the hopeless educational system of Hawaii.
Let us provide support for our teachers and help teach our children for that is where we will find our solution.

As far as the making of this video, it was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, two Canon 7D's, and two Canon T3i's. We used a Canon 16-35mm F/2.8 L series lens for all the wide angle shots and a Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 L series lens for all of the tight shots; additional lenses were used for accompanying shots.

As far as making the camera look like it was "flying", I used a Glidecam 2000 HD for all those shots. You can check out the exact model on their official website below. Once again, I don't get paid to suggest any equipment, I just try and let you know what works well for me! :)



http://www.glidecam.com/

Filming for Nike :)

After the company Nike saw my youtube video on my youtube channel, that I made with a bunch of my friends, "The Dirty Dash", they contacted me to shoot a similar style of video for them.



They were doing a promotional video with one of there Nike athletes who was gonna compete in the event. So Nike flew me down from Hawaii to Billings Montana to shoot the video for them. The video I shot for them is right below. Just as a reminder, I only shot the video, I had nothing to do with the editing, music, or anything else, so here it is :) Here it is.

Filming in Iceland!

I had an opportunity of a life time all last week filming a cell phone commercial in Iceland! Once again, this opportunity came about ONLY because of my youtube channel. My Youtube channel has really opened up SO many doors for me, it has made me go from a local filmmaker, to an international film maker, in the 9 months that I have been pursuing youtube, it has given me the awesome opportunity to travel all around the world to shoot for other companies, of all kinds of projects from Jetpacks in Miami, to dogsledding at the top of glaciers in Iceland. I have loved every minute of this, and there is nothing better being able to travel the world to awesome locations at other peoples expense, and to get paid for it as well :)

Jumping back to the Iceland commercial, and how it all came about…. One of the biggest production companies in Israel called Ronit Mulla Production ran across my Youtube channel, and they loved my Glidecam shots that I often do in most of my videos.. that is when they contacted me by email saying they would love to work with me. They gave me a call, and they asked if I really got those shots without any other device, but myself, they asked if I could get the same shots in any kind of difficult terrain. Gil, the guy that called me, told me then that they were doing a television commercial for a cell phone company in Israel and that they would love to have me involved. They would be shooting it in Iceland for a week. I accepted… and that's kinda how it all went down.

The great thing about the whole experience is I was able to bid it out and get what I wanted, travel to a part of the world I would have never gotten to see, and I got the opportunity to work with some other amazing filmmakers from around the world. The film crew was around 25 total, consisting of crew members from Israel, Iceland, England, and me being the only one from the US. It was my first time working with people from a completely different culture as well, and that learning experience on its own was worth it.

The commercial itself was being shot on 35mm film, which the main DP shot on, and then I was shooting.covering all the Glidecam shots with my Canon 5D Mark II.

We had three solid days of shooting in Iceland, where we started filming on there black sandy beaches, and then on the 3rd day we ended up filming on one of there biggest glaciers.

As far as my initial impression of Iceland….. It is unlike anything I could have ever dreamed about, There is only 300,000 people on the island… and with an island as big as it is, that is hardly anyone. The whole place almost looked desolate, and the whole island looked like something from "Lord of the Rings". Everyone there speaks Icelandic, however most people also can speak English if you start speaking it to them. They are also super friendly people. And the country itself is probably the cleanest I have ever seen. They burn no oil in the country for energy, unlike anywhere else in the world. They have found away, since the island is built on a volcano essentially, to use that energy and convert it into electricity.

Also, Iceland itself has no enemies with any country, and because of that it is super safe where it seems like they don't have to take any safety precautions, unlike the US. For example, one of the days we were there, we had to film at the opposite side of the island, so we had to jump on an airplane to fly to the other side, since it was gonna be a 6 hour drive. When we flew on that airplane, we paid for the ticket.. just like you would pay for a bus ticket, and then we just jumped on the airplane with our luggage… this without ANY kind of screening of us or the bags, they didn't even need to see our I.D. We just jumped on like it was a bus, walking up to it without any security whatsoever.

Also, my stereotype of Iceland was that it was going to be totally freezing…. not the case, yes, it was cold, but not to bad… When the Vikings originally discovered Iceland, they also discovered Greenland as well… but they loved Iceland, and didn't want it to become populated… so they gave Iceland it's name to turn people off from it to make them think it was cold, when in reality it is Greenland that is the freezing island. There's your fun fact for the day :)

So my final conclusion is this… I LOVED Iceland, I would love to go back there and film some youtube videos one of these days :) And I would love to film a feature film there as well :) The area is totally diverse, and the whole time it felt like something from Lord of the Rings, all the way to the little villages, to the houses built into the grass as they were in Lord of the Rings with the hobbits homes.

Also, they flew me First class to Iceland, both ways, which was the first time I have ever been treated like a celebrity :)

I'll be posting the final commercial here once it goes up online :)

-Devin

Here's a music video I just ran across that was entirely shot in Iceland, I think it gives an awesome perspective of what Iceland looks like for those who have never been. Many of the locations used in the video were the same ones we used as well.

Modern Warfare - Epic Tower Jump

Here's the latest youtube video :) I'm starting to explore different generes of videos on my youtube channel, it first started with the special effects with the firework video, and now this one, which is caterored more to the "video game" audience. So we will see how it does, but I would love to do a lot more videos like this.

I did break a lot of my rules though, as far as generally when I film I try and keep the camera as smooth as possible, that was the opposite of this video though, the whole purpose to make the audience feel like they were a part of it, that we were "breaking and entering" with the person in the video... It gave it a more"documentary style", so it was shot all handheld until we get to the tower. So without any further ado, here it is.



Also, for those who have asked, I bought the ghillie suit off of amazon, here is a link to the exact model I bought.

Epic Violin Girl - Lindsey Stirling

The ideas for my youtube videos always come from the strangest of places, and in this videos case, it actually came straight from the source, YouTube :)

I saw Lindsey Stirling originally a year or so ago when my friend was showing me cool youtube videos. The video was on a hip hop violinist who was a finalist on America's Got Talent. I had never seen anything like this girl, she was amazing :) I have the original video that I saw Lindsey on right below.



I had never seen anything like Lindsey's talent, so I tried to contact her shortly after that video to see if we could make a youtube video together. The funny thing about it all, is Lindsey also just so happened to be going to the exact same college that I was attending, BYU Utah. I was in the film program, and she was studying Therapeutic Recreation.

I contacted Lindsey on facebook, and told her I would love to do a video with her... At that time though, it was right after her success with Americas Got Talent, so she was getting offers all around the world for other projects, so she was actually to busy for me at that time :) And she hadn't written any music of her own yet either which was a setback as well.

Four or five months after that, Lindsey contacted me back via facebook and told me she had put together some original songs. The only problem though was I was now living in Hawaii (Oahu), and she was in Utah... However, I had just gotten hired to film another video for another company that exact same time in Utah,... so when I flew to Utah we made the video happen together. We had crazy schedules that whole shoot as well. My main priority was the other video which I was getting paid for, so we made Lindsey's video on the side. The first time we filmed together was early sunset, and I had been filming all night and day prioir to that on the other video.. with no sleep... So yeah, I was kinda out of it, ha. The outcome of that video can be found here though.



From working with Lindsey on that project, we ended up keeping in touch super well, and we have become best of friends... and that's all because of youtube! Actually the best deal out of the whole project is that Lindsey and I are now dating, haha, and just for the record that was never the intention of making a video with Lindsey, but I'm TOTALLY glad it worked out :) It's kinda like a Hollywood story, right? :)

My initial impressions of working with Lindsey, on a professional level are these.. Lindsey is honestly one of the hardest workers that I have ever met, super fun, kind, and also with that one of the most talented people I have ever worked with as well. I had an awesome experience with her, and are goals and passions are very similar, so I think that was one of the many reasons why we clicked so well.

With my background as a "youtuber"Lindsey also got her big start from youtube as well a couple years back when one of her youtube videos went "viral". I will post that video right below. It was through that video, and several others on her youtube channel that America's Got Talent contacted her, because of her success online.



Lindsey just released an awesome new music video for one of her songs as well right below, so make sure to check that out, and her rocking youtube channel :)



So what's the moral of this story/blogpost? Perhaps it's the idea that Youtube isn't just for putting out videos, perhaps it's much deeper then that... That youtube is the new online dating website ;)

Also make sure to check out Lindsey's Facebook fan page in this link below.
Lindsey's Facebook Fan Page

And here is here awesome original music on iTunes :)
Lindsey Stirling's iTunes music

p.s. If you couldn't tell, I really like this girl, and I think she has an amazing future ahead of her with her career! You heard it from me first :)

Getting dirty :)

Here's our latest youtube video :) We actually filmed it a couple months back, didn't release it right away cause I've been swamped, but here it is finally :)

Kualoa Adventure!

I'll be doing a proper blog post on the making of this video soon, in the meantime, here is my latest youtube video. Pulled an all nighter to make sure it got done ;) I made it on one of my favorite places in the world, Kualoa Oahu.

Homemade FIreworks! SOUND DESGIN!

Here's our latest youtube video :) It's my first time using visual effects in one actually :) Thanks to my friend Aaron Sorensen who was the one who added them/made it happen.



The point of this blog entry is to go over SOUND DESGIN!

Out of all the youtube videos that I have done this far in my "youtube career", this one has been the most intensive when it comes to sound design. I had to recreate every single sound that is heard in the video. There were NO SOUNDS used from in camera. A lot of times in the video I used sounds that you would think normally wouldn't work, such as a horse trotting, etc. Just to give you an idea of how complicated the sound design was on this video, here is a screen grab from my timeline of the firework video, the focus is on the sound effects that were all added.

There was actually 24 layers of sound effects just in one video clip alone. I had to recreate "pops, snaps, and explosions" throughout the video, and then also recreate sound effects of balls being hit from golf balls, soccer balls, and frisbee throws. Some of these sounds I took out of a sound library, and others I had to recreate on my own.

As far as when I do my own sound effects, to record them I use a Zoom H4N sound recorder, and a Sennheiser MKH-416 shot gun mic. Both of which you can find on B@H website. The setup works great, and they actually use the same mic I use on a lot of independent films as well.

It took me a huge amount of time to decide on buying this mic/sound set up, but after a month of research I found it to be the best for the money. So I would highly recommend it :)

While I am doing the sound design on a video like this, I have already emailed it to my friend Stephen Anderson who composes most of my youtube videos. He is at the same time writing the score for it. Usually when I send these videos off, he only has a day to a week to pull off the music, in this videos case, he had only one day, ha, which I'm always amazed at what he pulls off in such a short time.

He then sends me the track, and then I do the final tweaks to the sound effects based on what he gave me, because all the sounds have already been added, it's mostly just a matter of tweaking levels a little bit.

But as far as hours go into the sound design on a video like this... I would say easily 12-15 hours were spent on recreating the sound effects and tweaking them. Which it's always sad to think so much time went into that for the fact that no one ever knows how much time really goes into it... however if the sounds were not there, people would then notice... so it actually is the biggest payoff when people don't notice the sound design, because then that means it blended in just fine to the movie, and added to it, rather then take away :)

So, there you have it, my two cents on sound design, and why it' important to take the time to get it right, or at least try to get it right :)

I also just discovered a really in depth video on sound design that just came out recently, it was all in regards to the film Transformers 3, and there sound design... which if you haven't seen/heard the movie yet, the sound design is amazing, check out the video right below.

Underdog Stories

I LOVE underdog stories!! And I just came across this one!! Totally worth watching all the way through! Makes you love people who pursue there dreams despite all opposition!! Make sure to watch it all the way through, I promise it's worth it!

From Tahiti with Love

As I start writing this blog, I feel completely inadequate to even begin to convey/share what this trip meant to me... With that in mind, here is an attempt at it.

To start off this entry, here is the video I made on the experience, hopefully it will help paint a better picture of the experience, even though I really don't believe it still does the people of Tahiti justice.



In just the two weeks I was in Tahiti, my entire perception of people changed. COMPLETELY! I will always look at those two weeks as a very strong turning point in my life/career when "the bigger picture" came much more into play.

I think generally when people think of Tahiti, or any island for that matter, they assume that it is just a vacation on the beach... HOWEVER, if this is what you go there for, you have completely missed something SO MUCH STRONGER of an experience, and that is the people!

The people of Tahiti, I will forever love. They have left a permanent imprint on my heart, and knowing what I know now about the love they had towards me... my life will never be the same. And of coarse, for the better!

As we were leaving Tahiti, one of the people I was with, Nikki Mozo, we were talking about the whole experience, and she said something to me that I had never had someone put into words. And as simple as it sounds... It is 100 percent TRUE!!!

As we were talking about what made the people of Tahiti different then anyone else we had met, it kept on coming up about how genuine these people were. Nikki shared the idea that the only true way that someone shows love is when they do things out of complete inconvenience, and with no motivation but to help the person in which they drop everything for. It doesn't sound very profound the way I wrote it, but the way Nikki worded it, it was for sure one of the most profound things I've ever heard :)

For me this summed up completely the love I had personally felt by the people in Tahiti.

For example, when we were leaving at the airport, the family we had stayed with the first week, the Tautu family.. they lived on the complete opposite side of the island... And not only did they not have a car, but they didn't have access to borrow a car to wave us goodbye. So what they did was use the little money that they did have, and get a rental car. They did all of this just to wave goodbye to us at the airport, and hug us goodbye.

PLEASE keep in mind that neither of us spoke a common language, we spoke English and they spoke French and Tahitian. So everything we did was based off of body language.

At the end of every day staying with the Tautu family, the father would come sit next to me as I uploaded all my photos/videos to my laptop. He would just sit there with the biggest smile on his face, and observe me. Even though we didn't speak once again a universal language, by his body language alone I could sense something much great. A sincere love, a love that I really have never felt by just meeting someone for a couple days.

I'll never forget the gentle smile of the father, of there family, whenever I saw them.

I think we as humans generally want to be loved, and with the people of Tahiti, that is something I felt by everyone I came in contact with... Out of all the places in the world I have been, I HAVE NEVER FELT/SENSED that sincere love before. Almost to the point that it even brings you to tears.

There is much more I can say about my experience in Tahiti... I could actually go on and on... but for now, I just wanted to do a blog on the people of Tahiti, and the love I felt from them! They will forever be in my heart! And they will always be considered my Utuafare (family).

The Dirty Dash! Muddiest youtube vid yet!

Here's our latest youtube video I shot with my friends last week.



For the filming of this, I actually had 12 other friends/camera people help film with there DSLR/GoPro HD cameras.

We shot this all with Canon DSLR cameras, using Canon 5D Mark II's, Canon 7D's, Canon T2i's, and a couple GoPro HD cameras.

We filmed the video June 4th, and we then released it June 8th. I wanted to release the video ASAP because the race itself was fresh on everyones mind, and by doing that, it makes the video itself get much more exposure. So that was the thought process with the quick turn around. Generally speaking, a video like this takes about a month of editing.

So right after we were done filming, I had my computer process the video footage all day, changing it to a format that we could edit it in, and then we spent the next three days editing non stop.

And when I say "non stop", I mean waking up at 7am every morning, and stopping at 3am, only to do it again the next day. Where I was editing the video as well, made sure there were no distractions, so I could pump through the video edit.

Another one of my friends, Jordan, helped a great deal as well, going through a bunch of the footage, to make sure we could reach our deadline.

With 12 cameras, we had a ton of footage to search through, in very little time.

If you want to find out more info on the race itself that the video features, check the link right below.

http://www.thedirtydash.com/