Hi Steemers! I just directed my first music video, filmed in New Zealand
Hey Steemers! My name is Noel. I live in the Pacific Northwest, I'm co-founder of a design/development agency called HappyChap, and I also co-founded and currently manage a cannabis industry media outlet called Ganjapreneur.
I have to admit, I've been on Steemit for a few months now and had a bad case of writer's block when it came to composing my first post. Now that I finally finished a project I've been working on for most of this year, I'm excited to share it!
Here is the music video:
The Backstory:
In January, my brother and I visited our dad in New Zealand (on the South island) where he is working on a work visa. He planned a road trip to show us a lot of the sights during our two-week stay, and along the way I recorded a bunch of short video clips of the various places that we visited, focusing on wind, water, and plant life.
Part-way through our trip I had the idea to use the footage I was gathering for a music video. A good friend of mine from high school had recently put together an album of songs he wrote and recorded with several other musicians under the band name Mountain Song, and it seemed to me like a perfect fit for the epic nature scenery I was surrounded by. The band categorizes itself as "fireplace cathedral music" and hails from Denton, Texas, a small city with a thriving music scene.
When I got back, I sent my friend a sample of the footage I had recorded, and he immediately had a song in mind: "All My Days." As I began editing my footage and sending him samples, we decided it would be good to intermix some footage of the band performing with the nature footage, and he enlisted Denton photo+video specialist Wesley Kirk to record a live performance.
Wes sent me his footage, and from then on it was a LOT of time with my nose in the monitor. I used Premiere Pro for editing, and played with a lot of different blend modes to merge the footage of the band with the footage from New Zealand.
While it was a long and tedious process to edit this much footage together, I am very happy with how it turned out and I hope you enjoyed it! I'm excited to make my first Steemit post as well, and hope it is well-received :)
The camera I used for the video and nature photos above was my Samsung Galaxy 6 smartphone: I did a lot of post-production for color correction.
The photo of me was taken by my dad.
The band photos were not taken by me: photographer is unkown but I will update when I hear back from my friend!
Welcome Noel !
Thanks!
Hello, Noel,
Welcome to Steemit, and thanks for the interesting post. Don't worry about the delay in starting to post. It took me over a month to get started (I was moving internationally at the time), but once I got started, I had all sorts of ideas and inspirations re what to post on Steemit. And the ideas keep coming.
With your interests and experience, you most likely have plenty to bring to this platform. And from your intro, it seems like you have a good idea of how to present and format your material, so you're probably ready to jump into the Steemit stream.
In fact, many bloggers essentially "transplant" the content of their blogs to this platform, soon after joining Steemit. You might be able to do the same with "Ganjapreneur."
I have an interesting note re new gangapreneurial ventures. In my home near Toronto, Canada, one of the most thriving businesses over the past few years is marijuana cultivation. In fact, my bro-in-law (a former florist) is currently a salesman of greenhouse-automation systems.
For most of the past 12 years or so, his clients were growers of flowers and vegetables and so on. Over the past 2 years, however, his client base has suddenly shifted, such that now he sells primarily to ganja growers. His business is booming, and it will probably grow even larger. And more potent. :-)
Good luck on Steemit, and Full Steem Ahead.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment :) Yes, apart from people directly growing/selling the plant, all of the ancillary services and products related to cultivation have seen a big boom since legalization took effect. Even bigger growth is in the future, with California gearing up to launch an adult-use market in just over a month. Exciting times!
Wlcome to steemit! Great video, and shot with samsung instead of a proper camera? Wow! We try to do the same thing with our travel videos by using Iphone. Indeed careful color correction is a must if you shoot with a phone. Will be curious to see what you post next! :)
Thanks! Yeah, I was really surprised at how well the footage turned out. I believe the footage of the band was shot on a RED at 4K, so I was surprised that the Samsung footage looked OK mixed in with it. I did a LOT of color adjusting to get it looking how it looks, though.
Hello!
Hi there!
welcome to steemit. I hope you will enjoy your account and keep posting your original content and the nice photos :)
Thanks! That's the plan, lots more to post :)
Hi Noel. Nice video you made there!!!
I lived in NZ (in the south) long time ago. It's been on my list of places that I must take my family to, but why is it so far from everything?! Loved the scenery. I hope I get there sometimes soon!!!
Thanks! Yes it's definitely beautiful, and a very long trip pretty much wherever you're coming from :)
Hi Noel... Nice to meet you... Welcome to Steemit..🌹.. This is a nice and awesome intro post... I hope you will do great over here as a steemian..😊.. Follow Me @onority
It will be great if you visit and read my blog and upvote them..!!!!!
Thanks :)
It’s my pleasure… 😊
Welcome onboard, Noel. Better late than never, atleast you finally posted your introduction post and here it is. Beautiful video and nice song too. Loved the pictures of the trip as well of the band. Keep sharing more such post. Cheers!
Thanks! Excited to be here, and I'm already scheming to get my photographer & creative-writing friends to set up Steemit profiles.
You are most welcome. Keep it up, bring on more of your friend's let's make Steemit bigger. :)
Cool video. Well done :)
Thank you!
Welcome to steemit. @thelastnoel
following you now :D
Thank you :)