Episode 13: DIY Recording Studio

Nick upgrades his camera gear, and Griffin compares his home office recording studio. Plus your questions about shot stabilization, how to read video scopes, and why we don’t use Adobe Premiere.

Gear setup for this recording:
Cameras: Panasonic GH3 / Panasonic GH5
Lenses: Panasonic Summilux 15mm f/1.7 / Panasonic Summilux 12mm f/1.4
Audio Recorders: Zoom H4n / Zoom H5
Lighting: Westcott Flex Bi-Color LEDs

Video: Griffin on the B&H livestream about the GH5

Photos of me in a tuxedo, plus high school photos, because Nick asked:

This is what I look like in a tuxedo. With a small camera, I'm allowed to walk onto the red carpet at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

In high school, Nick and I were "techies," the stage crew for theater productions.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by The Commodore Story, a full-length documentary by WavemStudios, currently on Kickstarter.

Episode 12: How much do film festivals cost?

Griffin shares his film festival experiences with Nick—from submission costs, attending, and winning awards. Plus your questions about how many hours it takes to edit a video, whether to use a wireless lavalier mic, and if it makes sense to make cold calls to drum up freelance video business.

Link
Griffin’s film festival spreadsheet from 2013–2014

Upcoming Film Festival
“Hand-cut”—Griffin’s short documentary—is an official selection of the 2017 Sacramento Food Film Festival! Playing on the final evening, an event called “Bourbon & Bites” on April 8. Tickets here.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by The Commodore Story, a full-length documentary by WavemStudios, currently on Kickstarter.

Interview
Listen to Aaron Mull’s interview with Griffin Hammond on Aaron’s podcast Something From Nothing.

Today’s Events

• Wednesday, March 29, Griffin will participate in a 1pm livestream about the GH5 from the B&H superstore in NYC.
• This evening (5:30pm), Sriracha screens at Stony Brook University in Long Island.

Episode 11: Editing in Final Cut Pro X

Griffin and Nick compare their different editing workflows—getting from start to finish in a project using Final Cut Pro X. Plus your questions about lens hoods vs. matte boxes, whether to use auto white balance, and winning video contests.

How Nick backs up footage:
Synology NAS (network-attached storage), plus two cloud backup services—Crash Plan and Amazon Drive.

Favorite FCPX plug-ins:
Griffin—Alex4D Smooth Move, Alex4D Mask+, TKY Camera Shake, ReelSmart Motion Blur Pro
Nick—Plural Eyes, ProIntro: Wedding by Pixel Film Studios

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by The Commodore Story, a full-length documentary by WavemStudios, currently on Kickstarter.

Video contest:
Adobe’s ”Make the Cut” You edit an Imagine Dragons music video, and Adobe awards $25,000, plus several $1,000 prizes and Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. The footage includes 167 HD video files (2.3 GB—8mbps H.264)

Interview:
Listen to editing tutorial master Larry Jordan interview Griffin about self-distribution on his podcast Digital Production BuZZ.

Upcoming Events:

• Next Wednesday, March 29, Griffin will participate in a 1pm livestream about the GH5 from the B&H superstore in NYC.
• That evening (5:30pm), Sriracha screens at Stony Brook University in Long Island.
• “Hand-cut”—Griffin’s short documentary—is an official selection of the 2017 Sacramento Food Film Festival! Playing on the final evening, an event called “Bourbon & Bites” on April 8. Tickets here.

Episode 10: Teaching Film in Israel

Griffin returns from teaching filmmaking workshops in Israel, and shares some of the adventure with Nick. Plus your questions about flickering lights, whether our videos make any money, and how to overcome your fear to produce a passion project.

Time lapse: Tel Aviv sunset
Time lapse: Western Wall in Jerusalem
Also, I used the Pedco Ultra Clamp as a bottle opener!

Sunset in Jaffa Port. The first clip is simply sped up video-notice no motion blur on the waves. The second clip is time lapse photography-1-second exposures create that smooth wave blur.

133 Likes, 1 Comments - Griffin Hammond (@griffinhammond) on Instagram: "Sunset in Jaffa Port. The first clip is simply sped up video-notice no motion blur on the waves...."

Jerusalem

135 Likes, 14 Comments - Griffin Hammond (@griffinhammond) on Instagram: "Jerusalem"

Turns out the amazing Pedco Ultra Clamp also opens bottles! #imstillnotsponsoredbypedco

164 Likes, 8 Comments - Griffin Hammond (@griffinhammond) on Instagram: "Turns out the amazing Pedco Ultra Clamp also opens bottles! #imstillnotsponsoredbypedco"

360-degree photo of the Western Wall, shot on the Ricoh Theta S.

Griffin’s documentary Hand-cut was lit with a Westcott Ice Light.
View the complete list of Griffin’s film equipment.

Episode 9: Film Diplomacy in the Middle East

Nick learns why Griffin’s in the Kingdom of Bahrain, teaching filmmaking workshops for the U.S. Embassy in Manama. Plus your questions about traveling with gear, shutter speeds, finding and pricing corporate work, and Youtube vs. Vimeo.

Watch Griffin’s adventure in Bahrain

Gear mentioned in this episode:
Nick’s vocab word—“Rectilinear lens”
Griffin shot most of the Bahrain video on the Panasonic GH5 and 7–14mm lens
Nick packs a Timbuk2 messenger bag and a Peak Design backpack
Griffin packs a ThinkTank Perception Pro and Lowepro Photo Hatchback 16L, and recently added these to his international travel arsenal: Westcott Flex Light & MeFoto Carbon Fiber tripod
For more gear,

Listen to Griffin talk filmmaking philosophy on Remy’s podcast, Fearlessly Create.

View fullsize

Griffin's podcast setup in his Tel Aviv hotel

Episode 8: Selling My Indie Film

Three years after its premiere, Griffin’s documentary Sriracha is still making money. Nick helps dissect the actual revenue numbers and lessons learned. Plus your questions about shooting big commercials, avoiding background noise and green spill during green screen shoots.

See the revenue numbers here—5 Lessons Learned From My Profitable Indie Documentary (2017 Update)

Gear mentioned in the episode
This week’s episode was recorded at the YouTube Space NY, using two Sennheiser MD 421 II Studio Mics (not Audio Technica, as Griffin mistakenly said). Usually our episodes are recorded with Blue Baby Bottle studio mics or Griffin’s best shotgun mic—the Rode NTG-3.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Help us make a better podcast by taking the quick Hey Indie Filmmakers audience survey.

Episode 7: How to Produce Wedding Films

Happy Valentine’s Day! Nick and Griffin share their wedding film production techniques—from dealing with low light in dark receptions to copyrighted music. Plus your questions about DSLR recording limits, asking good interview questions, and what format to shoot commercials in.

Watch Griffin & Amy’s 5-minute wedding video, edited from only one good camera angle after Griffin screwed up Nick’s great close-up angle.

A sampling of wedding films produced by Nick Bodmer
A sampling of wedding films produced by Griffin Hammond

Nick mentioned finding collaborators on the /r/videography subreddit and /r/weddingvideography
Nick uses this “Precomposed Zip Kit” After Effects template for DVD menus.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Vote for Griffin/Bloomberg Politics in the Shorty Awards!

Next Wednesday, we’re updating this blog post: 5 Lessons Learned from my Profitable Indie Documentary

Episode 6: Frugal Filmmaking Purchases under $20

Starting with their 2010 gear list, Griffin and Nick share their cheapest filmmaking purchases—many under $20. From great value to total crap. Plus, your questions about audio drift, neutral density filters, and which camera features actually matter.

The original budgeting spreadsheet that Nick and Griffin used to purchase their first high-definition video equipment in March 2010.

My current gear list is at http://griffinhammond.com/gear

Our most frugal purchases:

• $20 Kopul XLR to ⅛” adapter—good for using my battery-powered shotgun mic directly into the camera

• $19 Auray pop filter—the filter is fine, but the arm and clamp “are just garbage.”

• $17 Pedco Ultra Clamp—by far my favorite camera accessory. I have three, and even made a whole video about it.

• $30 Giottos M621 quick release—I bought a bunch of these to standardize camera mounts across my gear.

• $27 Cowboy Studio shoulder mount—”total garbage,” according to Nick, but can you find a cheaper shoulder rig?

• $129 Manfrotto leveling column—NOT FRUGAL, but wow has it saved me hours of leveling my camera! Worth it.

• (found on eBay for $160) Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 lens—Lenses hold onto value well, so consider buying used, and selling later. You may get all your money back!

• $400 education discount on Final Cut Pro X—students/teachers/staff (with school e-mail address) get FCPX, Compressor, Motion and Logic Pro for only $199. I paid $299 for FCPX in 2011—with all the free revision upgrades, it’s only cost me $4.50/month.

• $149 Azden wireless lav mics—Even expensive wireless mics can run into interference issues, but I wouldn’t recommend wireless mics this cheap.

• $6 Sensei step-up rings—Instead of buying neutral density filters for every lens size I own, I have several step-up ring adapters to use one ND filter across multiple lenses.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Special thank you to Sam for sending me his Azden shock mount! Check out his YouTube channel, Sun Pixel Video, where he shares filmmaking techniques he’s learned.

Follow Hey Indie Filmmakers on Twitter—@heyfilmpodcast

Episode 5: Ten Worst Video Mistakes I’ve Made

From breaking gear to offending William Shatner, Griffin shares 10 of his dumbest video mistakes with Nick—and how he recovered. Plus, your questions about about microphones, technical tips for documentary filmmaking, and if children need release forms to be on camera.

Today’s episode was inspired by Gretchen Rubin and her podcast Happier.

The videos that contained egregious errors:

• William Shatner’s turkey fryer saga

• Failing to record at the Vimeo HQ

• Sriracha, where I didn’t ask a crucial follow-up question

• DIY Studio effect with Mandy Moore

Gear mentioned:

• Zoom H4n and Zoom H5 audio recorders

• Shotgun microphones: Rode VideoMic Go, Rode NTG-2 and NTG-3

• Today we’re recording with these mics: Blue Baby Bottle and Rode NTG-3, but I also like the Behringer B-2 Pro, which I used on Sriracha.

Gear I lost at Trump’s victory party on election night:

• Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic

• The shock mount from the Azden SGM-1X microphone

• Tokina 11–16mm lens

• Metabones Speed Booster

Hey Indie Filmmakers is sponsored by Tongal
Tongal is awarding $500 to six idea creators! All you have to do it write a 250-character concept for a 60-second “Big Game” commercial, by February 13. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Check out the Resident Tourist podcast, hosted by my friend Emily and my wife Amy—about two Midwestern women conquering New York City.

Episode 4: I lost my job!

Nick helps Griffin figure out his next career move, plus your questions about SD cards, shallow depth of field, and ethical boundaries between art and truth in documentary filmmaking.

Griffin— When I interviewed at Bloomberg Television in 2014, I shared three videos to give them a sense of my ability:

• The trailer for Sriracha

• A summary of my career, as presented at the Atlanta Film Festival

• A video of my friends at a concert, shot entirely on a GoPro.

But it turned out my future boss Mark Halperin was impressed by a video I would’ve been too embarrassed to share: me rapping as Mitt Romney, just before the 2012 election.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is sponsored by Tongal.
Tongal is awarding $500 to six idea creators! All you have to do it write a 250-character concept for a 60-second “Big Game” commercial, by February 13. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

If you speak Farsi, you may be interested in Saman Shariati, and educational site Lenzak Photography.

Just before we recorded last week’s podcast, Max Yuryev interviewed Griffin about how he got started on YouTube.

Episode 3: Video Editing Tricks

Griffin and Nick share their video editing secrets, like luma keyer and warp stabilizer, and answer your questions on 24fps judder, why 60p looks bad, and low light lenses for those on a tight budget.

Watch Griffin’s 5-minute documentary Hand-cut (2017), and his 33-minute documentary Sriracha (2013).

Griffin mentioned Andy’s Elastic Aspect, an editing plug-in for stretching 4x3 video to widescreen.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Nick mentioned this f/0.7 lens NASA developed, which Stanley Kubrick used.

Episode 2: Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nick and Griffin get nerdy about camera stuff, learn about I-frames, and answer your questions about jump cuts, compositing, and if your computer can handle 4K editing.

Thank you to Sean Robinson and Matt Frazer from Panasonic, Steadicam Volt representative Katie, and Diane Carroll-Yacoby from Kodak Motion Picture Film.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Watch Dave Knop’s great video, “You Won’t Learn This in FIlm School.”

Listen to Griffin talk self-distribution of Sriracha on the podcast "Making Movies is Hard!!!"

Special thank you to Saman Shariati, who posted the first iTunes review of our podcast! 

Episode 1: I shot a film on the new Panasonic GH5

Griffin and Nick have the just-launched Panasonic GH5 camera, answer your filmmaking questions about microphones and freelance work, and hear valuable podcasting advice for their inaugural episode.

Watch Griffin’s short documentary Hand-cut, shot on the Panasonic GH5 here.

Filmmaking gear mentioned in this week's episode:
New—Panasonic Lumix GH5 camera
Favorite documentary lens: Panasonic 12–35mm f/2.8
Shotgun mics: Azden SGM-1X or Rode NTG-2
Studio mics used: Blue Baby Bottle with Auray pop filter
Lillian Yang mentioned the iRig Mic Studio.
All of Griffin's filmmaking gear listed here.

Hey Indie Filmmakers is brought to you by Tongal—a creative network connecting filmmakers with brands. The current project we mentioned: Five pitches will each win $1,000 AND a production budget to develop their series. Pitches due January 12th. Visit Tongal.com/Projects

Thank you to all of these podcasters who shared their advice with us!

• Lillian Yang, Food Non-Fiction

• Bob Crawford, Road to Now

• Chi-Linh Dinh, Loa

• Ben Bruton Cox, Our Week in Video

• Michael Stein, Fragdenstein.de

• Alrik Bursell & Timothy Plain, Making Movies is Hard!—listen to Griffin on their next episode, Monday, Jan. 9!

Episode 0: Do I need a Metabones Speedbooster?

Before the Jan 4, 2017 podcast premiere of “Hey Indie Filmmakers,” Griffin Hammond & Nick Bodmer answer a question about the Metabones Speedbooster, and tease Griffin’s forthcoming short documentary.