My Passion Project - Halo First Person Shooter

So every so often I do what I call a "Passion Project". Basically it is exactly what it sounds like, me doing a project that I personally am super passionate/excited about, funding it myself because it's just something I really want to make!

Soooo,  with that being said..... What most people don't realize is everything I make off of making videos for youtube, television, etc, I invest right back into my youtube channel, with the hopes of making bigger and better projects long term, it's me trying to prove myself to the world I guess, with the hopes that the "big guys" will see what I can do, and then they in turn help me get to the next level :)

That's exactly what this Halo First Person shooter video was, I took all my savings of what I have made, and invested it right back into this project. In hopes that it could show people what I could do on a very large scale :)

I have been the biggest fan of Halo the game since it first came out on Xbox back in the day! And I wanted to recreate as close as possible the video game experience, but in real life! So I contacted my friend Tim Winn, who makes AMAZING costumes, and he got a group together from around the US to help with the project. I ended up flying in 8 people total (the guys you see in the costumes), to all be a part of the project. And they ALL made the costumes they wore themselves! They were all huge fans as well, I guess you have to be if your gonna spend hundreds of hours on spartan costumes ;)

Even the guns you see in the video were all hand made as well. They range from rocket launchers, flame throwers, to rifles. And they are all super detailed, as if they came straight out of the video game!

That's what I love about making these videos!!! I get to work with super passionate people that love what they do! Everyone you saw in the video volunteered there time, they even took off work to be apart of this all. Yes, I paid for there flights and hotel rooms, but they were willing to sacrifice there time for the cause, and because I didn't have enough to cover hiring them, ha.

For this video itself, because it was costing a lot to fly everyone in, I wanted to make sure we got as much out of it as possible. So we actually shot two videos, in two days, the first one was a first person shooter, and the second video was a music video done to the Halo theme song.

For the first person shooter, I was hugely inspired by youtube star Freddiew's first person shooter video he did on Call of Duty, which is his most watched video with almost 25 million views. I had noticed that no one had ever done anything with Halo, in real life, as far as first person shooters go (I'm guessing because getting all the costumes is a feat within itself is why it hadn't been done), so I wanted to do my own take on the series.


Since I started making youtube videos, it has swalled almost 100 percent of my time and energy.... Which means I have no time anymore to play video games, so right before the shoot I had to remind myself of all the scenerios, so I had to play Halo online to remind me, haha. But I wanted this video to feel as close to the video game as possible, but in real life, I wanted to use a lot of the same scenerios you see online, seen in this video, such as "bad internet connections, lagging, people camping", etc. I wanted to use as many scenerios as possible that would connect with the mass audience that played Halo.

Also, this video was all planned around the launch of Halo 4 that just recently came out. I new that would help push the video that much further. Originally the plan was to release the video right before the game came out (we shot it one week before it's release), however the visual effects, and everything else took MUCH longer then expected to get right, so I had to sadly push back the release date a month to make sure we got it right. I figured since I had put my whole heart into it already, it would be much better long term to release the best video possible then something half complete.

So yes, there you have it, the behind the scenes story on how these projects happened!

Here's the behind the scenes video I just released that will show you the entire process it took to make the video happen.



What has been awesome about this project for me, is when I have showed people the almost final version, many people thought it was footage from the actual game, when in reality it was all real life, haha. So a big part of this video in my opinion is making sure people know all the work that went into it to make that "look" achieved. So I'll be releasing a huge behind the scenes video late tonight going over the entire process from everyone's responsibity on the project. And then later this week I'll be releasing the video.

As far as the Halo music video goes, that will be coming out later in January. The edit is totally done, we now have to get started on the visual effects.  And by me, I mean jared Moench, my friend who did all the visual effects :)

Also, one other final note I will add... There has been a ton of Halo games released, Halo 1-4, and Halo Reach. Each of them have there own look, slight adjustments on guns, etc. My take on this project was to not focus on recreating one of the games, but to combine them all in a mix, to make it still stay true to the Halo universe.

Other then that, I hope you all dig the video when it's released, and if not, for a project like this, because I invested so much into it, I would rather not know about it ;)

And for those not familar with the Halo universe, go ahead and watch the trailer for the latest Halo game.

Zipline Catapult

So I've been trying to put out a video once a week... Which let me tell you... this has meant I don't sleep, and have been working around the clock 24/7. Not only am I creating the main video, but also the behind the scene videos, which is a full time job within itself... So yes, I don't sleep very often, haha.

Here's the latest video I shot a couple months back. In fact, I have shot 19 youtube videos within the last 3 months that I still have to release, I have a ton of content I shot during the warmer months, so I could release them each week, and be a head of schedule, but I often find that because I am a perfectionist, I don't have the videos done until the day I release them :)

These videos I did with my friends company at BlueHouse Ski Company! They provided the house boat, skis, food, and helped make it all happen! If you read the comments on a lot of the videos, everyone says that we must have rich parents, haha, when in reality, I'm able to pull off these videos because I get sponsors, and people that believe in what I'm doing, so they help pull resources together to make them happen, that's what happened with BlueHouse Skis. Here's the main video, and the behind the scene video below that.

Zipline Catapult


Behind The Scenes

Far Cry 3 in Real Life Youtube Video

I had an awesome opprotunity working with the videogame company Ubisoft working on a youtube video to help promote their game Far Cry 3! It was one of the best experiences I've had working with a brand, and I got a budget to film it in Hawaii, so I can't complain at all :) A lot of things didn't go as planned while filming, which ALWAYS happens anyways, so I go over the whole film making process in the behind the scenes video that I have included down below! Here's the main video, behind the scenes video, and a game trailer so you can see how it all came together :)

 Main Video


Behind The Scenes


Far Cry 3 Game Trailer

The power of Media

A couple weeks ago I released one of my latest youtube videos, "Parkour Meets Assassin's Creed in Real Life". It was able to hit 8 million hits in 2 weeks, making it my 2nd fastest growing youtube video, the first one being the human slingshot video.

Just last week though, my really good friend, who just happens to have my same name, Devin Dyer, he was driving down the road with his family when he saw two kids playing outside. One with a camera, and the other one was hanging off of a sign, haha.

Reminds me when I was that age, but to be honest, I think these guys are way ahead of me when I was that age!

He asked them what they were doing. And they responded that they were making an Assassin's Creed parkour video, haha, how cool is that? :) They had seen a video on youtube, and it had inspired them to pursue something positive :)

The reason I share this story, is because it's moments like this for me that make it all worth it. The endless nights of filming, editing, and traveling around the world. Just hearing how these kids were inspired reminded me the power that media has on the rest of the world, starting with this small community were these kids were making there own Assassin's Creed video. It's amazing to me how media has that power to change the world, for the better or worse.

And while were at it, here's the behind the scenes of our Assassin's Creed youtube video.

Shooting the Tube

Here's my latest video! Just released it a day ago, and it has over half a million hits!

Camera Warfare!

Here's many of several WWII Youtube videos I did with the cast and crew of the film Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed.

Camera Warfare


Behind The Scenes


Airborne Creed



Here's the full credits to Camera Warfare:

Directed by Devin Graham
WWII Historian / Coordinator/Armorer/Costume/Weapons: Ray Meldrum
Produced by: Jacob Schwarz, Katie Crapo, Ray Meldrum, Adam Abel, Ryan Little, Devin Graham
SFX: CHARLES JOHNSON
Visual effects and Color Correction: Jacob Schwarz
Makeup: Ben Brooksby
Music: Stephen Anderson
Cinematographers: Devin Graham, Ryan Little, Jace Leroy, Chris McClain, Jacob Schwarz
Edited and Sound Design: Devin Graham
Behind the Scenes Video: Jared & Amanda Cook
Randy Beard Cast/Jeeps/Tanks/Weapons/Costumes
Cast/Motorcycle and side car/ Jeep: Loic Anthion
Cast/Jeeps: Greg Brubaker
Behind the Scenes photographer: Scott Jarvie

For the rest of the cast and crew, check out my blog post below:
http://devingraham.blogspot.com/

Working with Brands as a Youtuber!

In the last year I've worked with an assortment of different companies, featuring them in my YouTube videos. Down below I will show the videos I did for those companies, and then right below that I will explain how that video alone affected their business. Keep in mind, all of these companies were start-ups without any reputation to build off to begin with. I will look into how different people were affected with four main points. My four points are...

1. Product Placement
2. Brand Exposure
3. Working with Musicians
4. Collaboration is the Key

 So let's get started!

1. PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Jet-Lev Water Jet Pack Company

One of the first "product placement" videos I did was with a company called Jet-Lev. They build water jet packs, and sell them for $100,000 US. Which, as I am sure you’re aware, is a very steep price for most people. When we approached them, they were very hesitant about doing a YouTube video on their product because they said YouTube’s audience is more of a younger generation, not parents who have money. However, what people often forget is this: since a younger generation does watch YouTube, that means they have parents, and in many cases, the child will pull their parent in to watch the video if they think it is cool, and through that, that leads to a potential $100,000 sale. So when we approached this water jetpack company we offered to make the video for them, for FREE, as long as they would let us make it the way we wanted. 



Shortly after we released the video, the CEO of Jet-Lev emailed me this response below on how their company was effected by it.

"Hi Devin,
I’d like to thank you again for your excellent work. A surprising finding was that comparing the responses from your YouTube video vs. those from the 4+ minutes FOX piece that ran on several FOX stations, your YouTube video generated much more serious responses. I think a big reason was the excellent quality of your video, but it also speaks volumes about the effectiveness of viral video to propagate among social networks vs. the quick one-time exposure in a news segment which is very quickly forgotten. I think the best combination is one or more high quality viral videos on YouTube with traffic driven by traditional media from digital news releases with video links. If one social network can generate over a million hits, I can imagine the effectiveness of several thousand social networks propagating the video at the same time. We learn something new every day."

-Ray

It's not just videos that I do featuring a product or an event have influence. Even if a product is seen in a video for a couple seconds, they are making sales as well. One of my most recent YouTube videos was an example of that. The video was showing off an event, but at the same time, I have very subtle product placement.

 In the video I got a couple shots where I attached a Contour camera to a stick that holds small cameras. That stick is seen in the video for just a couple seconds(you can see the stick in the video at 20-24 seconds into it). Then in the video description on YouTube I mention the company at the very bottom. Within a couple hours of that video being released the company who makes the sticks, Go-Scope, they sent me this email below.

"First off, THANK YOU! You have put GoScope on the map in so many ways. GoScope sales more than tripled today!" 
 
-Go Scope

One last example with product placement, let's look at my friends local clothing company based here in Utah, Vooray. We have done several youtube videos together, some of which you can see directly below.

I contacted them shortly after the last video we did, and asked how their clothing company had been affected as well. Here is what they had to say about the impact the three videos had on their clothing company.

"It has had an extremely positive impact on our business.  The exposure we have received from being featured in a couple of Devinsupertramp YouTube videos helped grow our domestic sales by over 100%, enter international markets (we have now sold to over 20 countries) and increase brand awareness over 300%.  We attribute a huge part of our success in the past year to his work and ability to make videos a viral phenom." 

-Todd Nyman (Vooray Owner)

2. BRAND EXPOSURE

After we saw the success of working with a Jetpack company, and several other start ups, I decided to pick brands to work with more regularly that I thought fit my audience. One of the next brands I worked with was a company that did a 5K Mud race. They call the race "The Dirty Dash". Here is the original video I made for them.



After I made that video, with help from several of my friends, I contacted the company 5 months later and asked how the video affected their race. Here is what they said.

"It's been a fantastic marketing tool for us.  Not only do we feature it on our website to convey that feel, but we use it at race expos, women's expos, in grassroots marketing--pretty much anywhere we can get people to watch it, we do it.  We feel like it is our absolute best way to sell people on the race.  We do what we can to get them to the website, and we feel like if they watch the video, they're sold.  Plus, we did a customer survey at the end of 2011 to try to understand what had the biggest influence on people's decision to run the race.  The #1 answer for over 20% of runners was: the race video."

-The Dirty Dash

Another example of exposure can be seen with what I have done to show off tourist locations /countries. A couple of my bigger ones I have done on destinations are down below.





After I made the Kauai video, which I funded myself, without contacting anyone.... After I released it on my youtube channel I started getting contacted by businesses all over the island of Kauai with them stating how it had affected the actual state itself. The Kauai local businesses said they had people stop by their restaurants saying they went on a trip to that island just because they had discovered it existed from my youtube videos.

Even when you read the comments on youtube on the videos above, you can see several people saying that they saved up there money just to visit that island, because they had seen the video on my channel! So once again, it was through youtube that it had exposed these places, not through advertising on TV, travel brochures, or any other form of traditional advertising.

3. Working with Musicians 

Now as far as all these companies being effected through YouTube/social media, the same thing happens to the music artist that I feature in my videos. A band I often work with is called "Can't Stop Won't Stop". Here's one of our more popular videos I have featured them in. This video alone has over 10 million views which also means their music has been heard that many times as well.

I asked Dave Peterson, the lead singer of the group to email me how his music has been effected because of these videos we have done together on youtube. His response:

"The return on our collaborations has been phenomenal with our music being featured in Devinsupertramp’s YouTube videos. It took Can't Stop Won't Stop from a fledgling hip hop side project in Utah, to a career opportunity that is viable enough to warrant my moving to California to pursue it. I make a legitimate living on iTunes, which is a privilege typically reserved for label-supported musicians, and most never actually get there. Additionally, I have brought on an enormous base of loyalists. Artists struggle to ever grow their Facebook pages up above 2k Likes. I am now at 35k, the page grows steadily every day, and undergoes massive surges every time a new CSWS track is placed in one of Devin's videos."

-Dave Peterson (Can't Stop Won't Stop)

It was also the same story for my friend Lindsey Stirling, who also just happens to be my girl friend now, haha. When I met her originally she hadn't really done much with YouTube. She was on iTunes, and had only sold a couple songs. Here is what she had to say in how our collaborations have launched her career. She has since then pursued YouTube full time because of what it has done for her as a musician. Also keep in mind that she is a violinist, which makes what has happened to her career that much more amazing. Down below is the first video we ever did together. Since then I have shot every video for her youtube channel.

In the last year, with videos featuring Lindsey on my channel and her's, she has gotten over 80 million views. I asked her how youtube has effected her as a musician, her is what she had to say in an email.

"I owe all my success as a musician to YouTube. In 2010, I had the "opportunity of a lifetime" to perform live on America's Got Talent. This was the summer's most popular show, and yet after my performance, my itunes account remained stagnant. Several months later Devin featured my music on his channel and my itunes sales immediately quadrupled. One YouTube video with Devin did more for me than the 11 million viewers that saw me on National TV.
Previous to my collaboration with Devin, I had been told by the music industry experts that my style of music was unmarketable; however, after a year of doing YouTube, I have had a song in the #1 slot on the itunes electronic charts, I have labels trying to sign me, and I travel all over the world performing and doing what I love."

-Lindsey Stirling

My final example is from another musician I often work with, Stephen Anderson. He does a great deal of composing for my videos that do not feature singing/lyrics. Stephen was actually the first musician I had worked with when I started making these YouTube videos.

The video below is the first project that Stephen and I did together.

Here is a note that Stephen sent me on how his career has been affected by the videos we have done together.

"Just about every director I've ever worked with, and continue to work with, found me through YouTube. They saw a video for which I composed the music, and clicked through to my website and contacted me. Now, having finished school just one year ago, I work at home full time writing music all day, every day, and it's absolutely awesome. I actually HAD to quit my other job as a composer's assistant to be able to keep up with all the work I've been getting. Though the nature of my music (almost all underscore) is such that I barely sell any mp3's at all, I make a respectable income just working for hire, and I get contacted by new directors literally every day, which I love. Without the publicity I've gotten through Devins channels, I would still be working my old day job making next to nothing."

-Stephen Anderson

4. Collaboration is the Key

So, this brings me to the whole point of writing this blog. One of the most common questions I get asked in regards to my YouTube channel is this: "How do you afford to film all the things you do, and travel to all the places you do?"

Answer: It all comes down to one thing. I work with brands and collaborate with people with similar interests. That allows it for other people to fund my ideas, that makes it possible with a zero dollar budget :) What most people don't know is that EVERY BRAND that I have worked for so far in my career, everyone that I mentioned above, as far as videos that appear on my YouTube channel go, I have done for FREE. Even the water jetpack video, the vooray clothing, the Dirty Dash video, or any other for that matter. EVERYONE of them I have done for FREE! 

And now you’re probably asking why I would do such a thing. For me, the way I saw it, was if I could get someone else to pay for the production of my videos, the quality would be much bigger than just me trying to do it on my own. With the water jetpack company, they covered airplane tickets and hotel for my friend and I in Miami. With the Vooray clothing company, with the human slingshot, they helped organize the event, and arranged the Slingshot.

WITHOUT these collaborations there is NO WAY I would have been able to get to where I am. It's the same story with my musicians as well, they let me use their music for free, but I make sure to make it clear that they were the ones that created the music. I benefit by having awesome music, and they benefit from the iTunes sales and the exposure.

I feel in order for YouTubers, musicians, brands, companies and creatives in general to get to the next level, they MUST work together in a collaboration. As each party helps each other, they both grow exponentially.

Now, for those that are thinking to themselves, "There is no way a brand or company would want to work with me." Just as a heads up, it was the same story for me when I started. I first had to build a reputation of my own, it didn't have to be huge, but enough to prove that I had a voice. I did this in a couple different ways. I first made the Huge Bike Jump video, which you can see in the link below.



It was technically a simple video that required no money, just my friends time and talent. The video got several million hits. I made a couple of these kind of videos on my own to build my own credibility, then that's when I approached companies that I thought fit the videos I was already making. We approached the water jet pack company, and the first thing we showed them was my Bike Jump video. It was through my past work on YouTube that they became convinced of working with me.

Now just as a disclaimer against everything I have said above. Yes, I have done all these videos for companies so far for free. But now that I have proven that I can sell brands, and that I have established that I can do it consistently, I am now finally in the position that I can charge companies/brands what I want for them to get featured in one of my videos. Yes, we are still collaborating, but also, now I can make a living off of it.

As I have been saying since the start, in order to get to this point I have worked non-stop for the last year and a half doing these videos for free, to show what I could really do.

Now that I have established a voice, I can now much easier make the videos I want, with the companies/people I want, to.

So yeah, that's my secret to how I am able to fund my youtube videos, I have other people fund them :) And you start small, with no name brands, and work your way up to bigger ones.

From here, I am having companies from all around the world that want to be featured in my youtube videos, and what that does for my youtube channel, is it increases my youtube budget so I can keep making bigger and better videos! The best is yet to come, that I can promise :)

My Girlfriend, The Rock Star!

So for those who don't know, my girlfriend is a rock star! Haha, I have known her for exactly a year now. Within that short time frame, she has become this huge international music sensation!!! And it's all been through using youtube as a way to express herself and her music. Just within the last 90 days she has been in the top 20 most subscribed to youtube channels in the WORLD! And that has been consistently happening each day! No big deal, right? Haha.

It's been awesome to see it all grow for her!! When Lindsey performed on National TV in front of millions, for Americas Got Talent, she got "rejected", they told her she would never be able to succeed as a solo violinist..... However I think she is doing just fine with that ;) There is nothing that makes me more happy then seeing someone take on the world when they are told they can't succeed at what they love to do!!! Lindsey is the perfect example of that!!! And it's been awesome this last year seeing all her dreams start to unfold! And it's all been on a zero dollar budget!

 Two days ago was living proof of that, Lindsey got asked to be the headliner for a show in NYC at The Studio at Webster Hall. It was a totally sold out show. The line just to get in wrapped around the building, and I think it's safe to say that Lindsey signed well over 200-300 autographs that night. Even before Lindsey got on stage her fans where yelling for her like crazy, as if it were a U2 concert!!! Some of the most loyal fans I have ever seen, perhaps I could even go so far to say even bigger then Justin Biebers fans :) Haha.

And just in case you haven't seen any of Lindsey's videos,  here's a couple to check out.
And I love the fact that Youtube gives anyone the chance to get seen by the rest of the world, it gives the underdogs a chance to compete with the big dogs!



We shot this video above two months ago and it has 15 million views already.



We shot this video one month ago and it has 5.5 million views!

United States Tourism Commercials

A month back Nickerson Research, Inc. contacted me about featuring some of my footage from my youtube videos on the official United State tourism commercial campaign that would be running this year! And guess what?? I said yes :) This ad agency who made the ads, they are the ones that did this commercial below for Chrysler that played during the most recent Super Bowl.



For the United State tourism commercials, they featured a bunch of my clips for the campaign. Here's a link to several of the videos. I think they featured around 6-7 clips total in the entire campaign, and they will be using shots from the video as well.

Land of Dreams Commercial

"Land of Dreams - Feel It" Commercial

"Land of Dreams" Full Length Video

The awesome thing about them contacting me was they told me that they had just discovered my youtube channel, and I just became there new best friend, and that they would be going to me as one of there go to guys. So it looks like down the road we will be working together a lot closer. It's been awesome seeing the doors youtube has opened for me, and for all my friends that have been involved.

Latest Exciting Updates!

I just spent the last two weeks in Africa filming a series of sweet new youtube videos that I will be releasing this April!! Stoked for you all to see them, here's a teaser from two of the shots I took!

Also, on another EXCITING side note, I will be speaking at VIDCON this summer, at the end of June!!! Which I'm super stoked on!!! :) VIDCON is the biggest youtube conference/gathering in the world, all the big youtubers will be there, and so will the biggest youtube fans. This is the third year they are doing it. I went the first year, and I remember thinking that the people up there speaking were so cool, and now I will be up there as one of them, haha, it's kinda intimidating, but I'm excited to be apart of it. I would have never imagined how this would all turn out.

Here's a link to the event if you want to come, which I think you all should, and make sure to buy tickets if your thinking about coming, because they will sell out!
Vidcon

Also on another really exciting note, my youtube channel has exploded in the last 30 days. In the last 30 days I've gotten over 100,000 subscribers, and just shy of 20 million views on my videos, here's the exact stats :)

So there you have it, the best is yet to come! :)

Trike Drifting

Here's a video we shot in New Zealand when I was down there on a business trip. It totally exploded to, in a good way :) It has gotten over 3.6 million hits in less then two weeks!



Also here's a behind the scenes video on the making of it!



Thanks again everyone for watching, sharing, and even putting up with my videos!! Because of your support I am able to pursue my dreams!

-Devin

Epic Rope Swing!!!

Here's the latest!!! One of the funnest film shoots we have done yet!! And I have a behind the scenes video on it as well!



Behind The Scenes

Behind the Scene Videos!!! Finally! :)

I'm going to start releasing new behind the scene videos every other week!! Sometimes they will even be weekly! :) Here is one I made last week, the next one will be coming out early next week! :)