Believe it or not b-roll can make or break a video! In this podcast, you'll hear from our good friend Nick Wells about the history of b-roll, how it's used, and why it's paramount in telling a story via video.
Links:
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/making-the-most-of-your-b-roll-video-footage/
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/lauren-cumbie
Learn more about Dogwood at DogwoodMediaSolutions.com. At our site, you can learn more about our staff, and the services we offer. Don't forget to check out our blog full of information while you are there. You'll also find links where you can follow us on social media and become an insider to really see what it's like at Dogwood.
Believe it or not b-roll can make or break a video! In this podcast, you'll hear from our good friend Nick Wells about the history of b-roll, how it's used, and why it's paramount in telling a story via video.
Links:
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/making-the-most-of-your-b-roll-video-footage/
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/lauren-cumbie
Learn more about Dogwood at DogwoodMediaSolutions.com. At our site, you can learn more about our staff, and the services we offer. Don't forget to check out our blog full of information while you are there. You'll also find links where you can follow us on social media and become an insider to really see what it's like at Dogwood.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Cuby, and today we'll be talking to our videographer friend Nick Wells, about B-roll and the important role it plays in your video projects. Hey, and welcome to Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Cuby, and today we are talking to our good friend Nick Wells. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you. Thanks for having me here. We're
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Super excited to have you here. So Nick and I have a lot of different connections. Mm-hmm. Um, we originally met through our spouses mm-hmm. <affirmative> because they were working together and then we adopted y'all's foster dog. Yep. Which was a fun thing. We love Caspian.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh, we love him too. Of
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Course. And then Nick started working at Dogwood. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don't remember exactly the order of those things, but
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I think Cas, I think Casper Caspian came after I started working at Dogwood. Okay. Yeah. And then I actually think we, I think we started working together before Chase started working, um, with Ashton.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
He worked, they worked together at Taylor Crossing before you and I started working together. Is that right? Yeah. Cuz that's how I knew to mention you to Brian.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, I gotcha. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The timeline, you know,
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I know. Oh, that was like 3, 2, 3 years ago. Something like that.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah. Yeah. It's been a while now. Um, but, so as I said, Nick worked with us for a little while and I guess two years.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Two
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Years. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, something like that. And was our videographer on staff. So we thought it'd be fun to bring him back and get his thoughts on B roll and why it's important for your videography. So tell us a little bit about how you got into videography and what you're doing now.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, my background is in audio. Um, like, uh, long background. I've been doing audio for over 23 years. Um, started out in Live Sound, uh, moved to kind of studio recording. Uh, went to school, got a degree in, uh, audio production and I did a lot more, um, uh, post-production work, short film type stuff. Uh, and we didn't really have game audio sound or anything, but after working in some studios, actually made a shift into game audio sound design, and then working as a sound designer, um, uh, on a, on video games. I, um, just started shooting video, um, for just local people. Cause I mean, audio and video just go together naturally. And so, um, I've always had interested in cinematography and studying film and that sort of stuff. Uh, but I just started shooting with my phone cuz it could shoot 4K at 60 fps.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And so I was like, my phone can do this, let me just try to shoot. And so I started shooting videos on my phone, uh, moved up, got a, a little handheld gimbal for my phone to stabilize. And then, uh, got a drone after that to, um, impress the clients with those shots. And that worked cuz it got me a little bit more work, but I was still working as a sound designer. Um, and then when we moved to Alabama, people really don't care to hire, just primarily sound people. Uh, and so I, um, went full in, um, uh, to, uh, videography and started doing work, uh, started my own LLC and all that and, and just went full into videography, um, lighting everything. And, um, you know, had experience with it before but didn't really dive in as deep as I did. And so, uh, really started investing in video gear and equipment and just shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, just getting the experience and just shooting a lot. Uh, and then Dogwood came calling after they saw one of my videos. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
<affirmative>. Yeah. So a lot of your video stuff is like self-taught, right?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, all of it is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn't, I don't have any formal training in, in video stuff. Um, but that's the thing about, um, kind of the arts, um, kind of anything to do with video, audio. Um, I mean, most art you don't necessarily need to be taught in a formal way. You can kind of learn stuff on your own. And the biggest way that you get better is just doing it. You shoot, you analyze, you critique yourself, and then you make changes and you keep shooting and you just repeat that cycle over and over and over again. Of course that's true for anything. Um, but with some, something like videography, you, you have to understand what you're doing, understand what you're trying to go for, and then be able to critique and analyze and change and try different things because that, the thing about videography is like, um, it's, it's subjective.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
There are rules, but most of the things about videography are guidelines. So like, if you can kind of understand what the rules quote unquote are, um, you can understand how to break them and how to come up with something that looks good. And, um, you know, if you can just understand that you can just continue to grow and improve and grow and improve on your own, you don't need, you don't need a school to teach you. And of course that helps cuz it's more perspective, um, on, on what you're doing, but it's not necessarily necessary. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So yeah. How are you getting to use all those different skills now in your new place that you're working?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Oh gosh. Um, so I use a lot more of my audio background. Um, I'm here, which I'm
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Sure it's exciting,
Speaker 2 (05:25):
<laugh>. It is, uh, it gets frustrating cuz like, um, audio is a very abstract thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I can't show you what audio is doing. Like video. I can show you a video and I can point to something and tell you what's going on, on screen. But with, with audio, it's, it's very different. It's, it's abstract. You have to kind of visualize how sound is moving in the room, what effects sound. Um, and it's hard to explain to people what is actually happening with audio mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that's where it gets kind of frustrating because you can justify a video thing and I can ea more easily justify the purchase of video equipment than I could audio equipment mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, um, so that's where the frustration, uh, comes in with audio. Um, but I mean, audio is something I could do in my sleep.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's, it's, it's like breathing to me. I, I can understand and, and do anything to do with audio, um, pretty much in every aspect. Um, but with my, with my job, um, at the church, uh, yeah, I do a lot more audio stuff, live, sound, audio, um, but, uh, we do a lot of video stuff, interview stuff. We do a lot of promo videos, um, kind of a smaller version of what I was doing here mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like where here, sometimes it's selling a product or selling a service, but there it's more about telling about a thing, telling a story, um, uh, to understand what a ministry is doing or something like that. So, uh, they start, there's pretty much starting from scratch as far as their video production stuff. And so I've come in and, and I'm trying to build that up now. Uh, we're about to start doing some, some podcasts.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So I'm, I'm, um, I'm kind of, uh, doing my research and making my spreadsheets like I normally do before I purchase anything and, and, uh, trying to figure out what's priority, what's not. Um, but we, we talked and, uh, did kind of a pre pre pre-production meeting and we have like, probably five podcasts, um, that we're looking at. Not, we're not gonna start with that many, but we're, right now we have five that we're gonna be shooting for and probably more. And so it's potential, we're gonna build, build the video production side of things, um, because the church is, is really, really big mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they do a ton of stuff. And, um, you know, all these things are just ways of communicating what we're doing and increasing your reach. So, um, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah. That's really cool. Um, so today our main topic of, of conversation is going to be B-roll. Yeah. So first of all, for those who might not know, what is B-roll?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay. So B-roll comes from the idea of a B camera. So, um, just kind of taking a, uh, an interview set up, you have an A camera, which is your primary camera, and then you have a, um, a b camera and sometimes a C camera that is taking a different shot. Sometimes it's a closer shot. Um, sometimes it's a wider shot, uh, but it's just a little shot that you can cut to, um, to help break up and give a little bit more visual interest. Uh, B roll is when you're getting, you're, you're capturing video that supports what is being talked about, um, by your subject. And so, B-roll, B camera, uh, same idea. And, um, your B-roll should always support what is being said. Um, and so yeah. That's what B-roll is.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah. So why, why is B-roll important? I think we've all kind of seen, uh, things that don't have B-roll and are very, you know, one, one view. Yeah. Um, and we know the difference between that mm-hmm. <affirmative> without really thinking through it, but tell us kind of why that's so important.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
So B-roll is, it serves a, a couple of different, uh, functions. Um, the primary one should always be that it supports the story, the narrative was being told. Um, that whole adage of, uh, the picture is worth a thousand words mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, is very, very, very true. And, um, I mean, before I didn't really put much thought into it, but when, when I started shooting video, it's, and, and photography, it, it's, it's absolutely true. You can tell a whole story with just an image and, um, if someone is telling you about something, um, the people who are watching, they have to kind of imagine. And the understanding might not be as high as if you were to just show them a picture mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So if you're doing a video about an orphanage and the people are talking about, you know, how difficult it is sometimes to, to support the children at the orphanage, um, it's much, much more, um, easy to communicate that idea. If you show a picture of the orphanage, the show children, the beds, maybe the state of, of the building and the, the difficulties that come with dealing with, uh, maybe, uh, the adoption system, things like that, if you can cut to B-roll, that shows that it's much, much more impactful in communicating that idea.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, for sure. There was a video that, um, I think, I think it was Alabama Baptist Children's Home mm-hmm. <affirmative> that they showed at the state convention this past year. And it was that kind of, I mean, it was a, a more of a narrative. It wasn't like interview style, um, but it did have a lot of those different cuts to mm-hmm. <affirmative> to different stories. Um, and it was so impactful. Like all, all these folks were, I mean, there was probably not a dry eye in the whole room because Yeah. You know, that's such a big story that we hear about all the time, but seeing it is different than, than just hearing about it.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah. Well, I mean, you can, a lot of times people choose to do VOS and they'll, you know, have a vo running when a bunch of B roll um, is showing. But I mean, for some, let's just say something like that, like a, like an orphanage, you're trying to gain support for an orphanage. I don't know why I jumped on an orphanage thing, <laugh>, uh, I don't shoot a video for an orphanage or anything like that. But, um, let's say you're trying to tell a story about how an orphanage needs support. Um, you can start off just by fading in and showing like, um, the children, like the state that they have to, um, to live in the, where they play, things like that. And you just go through the B-roll and at the end of the video, um, you can just have someone that says, um, you know, support, uh, the orphanage, um, or, you know, of course more, um, eloquently written mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but those images can show you exactly like what the issue is and then what needs to happen. And then you just end with a quick call action mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you already have your message out there. You don't need to write a huge script about it. Um, you're showing, uh, what's needed. So I mean, that's the power of, of just having good well shot B roll and having it edited together properly. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So that's basically what those, um, in the arms of an angel like
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Dog Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah. Commercials are like, there's not a whole lot of conversation happening. It's just sad puppy dogs that
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Need it. Yeah. And it's effective because you understand what the message is. Yeah. Uh, and so, um, but yeah, I mean that's kind of the primary, um, it should be the primary, uh, purpose of B-roll, but you also have, um, it helps to, to cover up edit points if you need mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So maybe if if someone that was speaking on camera, uh, was having trouble, um, trouble reciting what they wanted to say, or they were struggling a little bit, uh, and you needed to cut some, some takes together, uh, you can use B-roll to help cover that up. Um, there's, there's a few purposes to B-roll, but it should always be that it is helping to communicate the message of the video
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Um, are there different types of B-roll? I know kind of when we talk about B-roll, where usually with our clients we're thinking about, you know, I think about like the Catholic video that mm-hmm. <affirmative> that you did where you went to the school mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, you know, got videos of the kids, got videos of sports. Yeah. In the classroom. Outside of the classroom, are there like different types of B-roll that people kind of use?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Uh, not that I know of. I don't think there are really terms for different types of B rolls. Uh, I mean, I could be be very wrong, of course, I didn't go to school for it, so <laugh>, uh, but like, that was, that was an interesting, um, situation. And then that was probably one of my favorite shoots. Um, but because it, we were shooting video to literally go on a website mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it would literally have no audio to it. And it was just the bureau mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so I had to have an idea of what was supposed to be communicated. That was one of my biggest things. Whenever I talked to a client, first thing I asked is like, what's the purpose of this? Of what's the purpose of what I'm shooting? Because, um, if, if I don't have an idea of what the purpose is and I'm just shooting blind mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
<affirmative>, I don't have a goal in mind and I could, I'm gonna be missing the target most of the time, probably. But that we knew exactly what it was, they wanted to show the activities that the school, um, offered and they wanted it to be very much focused around the students. And so, um, in all of that, I, there's barely any stuff that isn't dealing with students mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and, uh, for the most part, I'm not shooting super wide shots because you don't get a personal feel there. I'm shooting a lot of shots of students interacting with other students or teachers mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, in the environment, but they're also doing activities. Um, and, but they wanted to get a feel of, of what it's like to be a student there. And so a lot of my shots were kind of medium to close shots in the classroom from their perspective.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Um, and that was another thing I learned. Uh, kids are, kids are small. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, all the desks are small, <laugh>, the chairs are small, so lots of squatting happen happening, do a lot of squatting and kneeling, shooting that footage. But, um, it's some of my favorite footage because like, it was really a, uh, it was really a show how important video is and how great of a medium to communication it can be, because it communicates all of that just with that B-roll footage. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, no audio, no video, whatever. You can go to the website and you can just see the video playing. And, um, the biggest compliment that I got from some of those, cuz I got to talk to a few of the teachers, actually some of the parents too. Um, and they, um, they talked about how, um, the, um, they would go to the website and they would just stop and watch the, the little banner, banner video playing mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and they thought it was just so cool. So, I mean, that's a huge compliment, uh, to me because it, it accomplished the exact purpose that I needed it to.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So, yeah. You mentioned, um, that when you're getting started with the project mm-hmm. <affirmative> meeting with the client and finding out exactly what it is that they're wanting mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, how, how do you go about kind of figuring out what, for lack of a better term, like types of shots you're trying to get mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, whether it's, um, drone footage of like over a campus mm-hmm. <affirmative>, or if you're wanting that more up close and personal, like from their view kind of shot or what, whatever it is, how do you kind of help them think through that process?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Well, I always kind of boil it down. So I'm not, they don't work in what I work, they're not gonna understand camera settings. Right. They're not gonna under understand exposure. They're not gonna understand any of that. All they're gonna want is what their goal is and then what the final product is. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so you always have to start with what's the purpose because they're coming to you or you know, the videographer as the expert in, it's, it's essentially we're a translator. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, they have something they want to communicate, but they don't, they don't necessarily have the means to communicate that to who needs to see it. And so the videographer works as like a translator. I need to understand what they want first. So I always start with what's the purpose of this video? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what's the purpose of these shots?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Um, and then I go to, okay, well what are we shooting? What's the location like? Um, and then once I kind of get an idea, um, a location, uh, scouting is, is always great if I can get it. Uh, cuz that helps me to plan out like what my shots could be. Um, and, and that doesn't always happen, but a lot of times I'm falling back on instinct to just show up and then just my brain immediately it's like, okay, I can get this shot, this shot mm-hmm. <affirmative> this shot, and then I try to go for it. And so, um, but it always starts with asking the client, what's the purpose of this video? And, um, a lot of times I'll just ask them, if, if you can describe what you're wanting to communicate with, with one word, what is that? And then, um, I'll ask them, okay, what's another word?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And then what's another word? And then that helps to focus the idea of what this video should be. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And oftentimes if you have that, then um, you have a great, great starting point in kind of the aesthetic, the shots. Um, and so, and of course the specific shots like a closeup shot or down low or whatever, that's all dependent upon the location, the lighting, all that kind of stuff. Um, so there was one particular shot, it's actually one of the favorite shots that, that I've ever done, but it was in their library and they had this big window and whenever sun wasn't shining directly onto it, it was giving this beautiful kind of like sunlit back rim light. And so I used that as kind of like a rim light to hit the back of them. And then I was shooting kind of their, the, the front of them in shadow.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Um, and it gave this amazing kind of bloom effect mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, like I just couldn't get enough of that. I just kept shooting. I was getting different shots, wide shots of like two or three kids around the table. I was getting close up shots of them interacting and talking to each other. And they're just having fun little conversations and laughing and it was just really, really awesome. But I couldn't set up any lights. I couldn't do any of that, but I was just working with just kind of this amazing location and the sun was doing what I needed to do, and I just placed my camera where it needed to be according to the light that I had. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then just started going. And, um, you know, after I got some of the wide shots, I was like, I need to get some of these closeup shots to see the emotion on the kid's face.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
They're having these conversations, they're laughing a lot. I need to capture that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, the space was, was beautiful. It's surrounded by books and, and, uh, I was like, I need to make sure I get some of this stuff, uh, kind of in the shots. And, you know, it was just one of those situations where I knew that things were just really good. So I just tried to get as many different types of shots as I could. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so yeah, that oftentimes that happens. I show up on location and then I have to just make a quick kind of instinctual decision on what I'm gonna shoot, how I'm gonna shoot it, and then just go.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So yeah. It's always a good day when things just fall together like that. Yeah. Yeah. When you're like, wow, this is
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. <laugh>,
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So if you're somebody like, so for us, we work with individual clients mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and so there's not a whole lot of ability for us to just like stockpile B-roll Yeah. Just because we're working with lots of individuals. But for you mm-hmm. Where you're like at one church with mm-hmm. A set group of people and that kind of thing, um, what kind of things should people do to kind of create that repository mm-hmm. That they can use?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Uh, one is make sure you have a robust, uh, backup system for hard drives. Uh, a lot of people underestimate, uh, storage. And if you're shooting 4K video at 60 fps so that you can slow it down mm-hmm. <affirmative> and get slow motion out of it, um, you can end up shooting for 10 minutes and end up with a 20 gig file mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and, uh, a lot of times I'll walk away from a shoot from a location shooting 30, 40 minutes and I'll have like 60 gigs, 70 gigs, and you do that often enough, you're gonna end up with, um, you know, terabytes and terabytes of footage. So one, don't underrate the needed storage. Right now storage is, is fairly inexpensive. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and like, uh, if you are a videographer, if you are, um, shooting video regularly, then you need to be buying hard drives on kind of a regular schedule.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
It needs to be kind of part of the regular budget. And so every six months, every three months, whatever it is, depending on what you're shooting, but having a proper storage and system to do that. Um, and then now, you know, you can store it, now you shoot, um, again, SD cards. Um, on a day I might go through a couple of different SD cards mm-hmm. <affirmative> just because I'm, I'm recording to two at a time for redundancy. And then, uh, if I'm shooting a, a ton of B-roll, then I could end the day with like a hundred, 20, 150 gigs of footage mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so having enough, uh, storage. And so that's all the technical stuff, um, as far as, uh, doing that. But, um, oh, another part is naming conventions. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, make sure you're naming your files because if you do a search for, you know, footage and it's not named properly, you could have to go back through and prove, view all the footage to, to see if it's what you need.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Uh, okay. All the organization stuff out of the way. Um, super important. But, um, as far as like shooting, uh, just having an idea of the, again, communicating, um, having an idea of what, what is needed to be communicated and then, uh, making sure you're covering your bases. Um, getting enough wide shots mm-hmm. <affirmative> getting enough, um, medium shots and close shots. Um, getting enough interaction type shots. Um, like, uh, one of the hard parts about like one of the ministries that, that the church does is the Master's garden. And it's very much seasonal and it's very much, um, dependent upon who's out there. And so I don't have a schedule on who's going out there when to pick fruits or to work on stuff. Uh, and then when I do, it's often on like a Saturday morning where, you know, I've, I've been working for six days, so I either get this or don't.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
And so, um, having to go there and just kind of guess like what's gonna be there and, um, just kind of adjusting to that. But, you know, I've only started shooting that stuff and so I don't have a great repository of, of footage for that. But, you know, over the next three years, five years, that'll build up mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then I'll have plenty to pick from and then I'll just keep adding to that so the more I can shoot the better. And I shot a ton last summer when I first started working there. Um, but um, yeah, just kind of taking the time to shoot a little bit at a time. It doesn't have to be much, just go out, shoot for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, get what you can get and then, you know, add that and then just kind of plan to go out a little bit later.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah. But that really helps when, when you're doing specific projects Yeah. And you don't have to necessarily go and, you know mm-hmm. Get all of your B-roll because now you have a project. Yeah. And if you have this repository, yeah. You can go back and go, okay, this is about, you know, the mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don't know the children's ministry. Yeah. Well I've got, I've got stuff from this past year that I can already pull in. So
Speaker 2 (24:17):
That's, that's kind of the hard part about a lot of videos that I'm doing now is, um, before I got there, they, they weren't really shooting a lot of that stuff. At least they didn't have a videographer on hand. And so they were shooting some stuff with a little like Osmo, dgi, Osmo Gimbal. And um, what they were getting was okay, but it wasn't like what it needed to be. And they weren't shooting a lot and they didn't have videographers of the compositions. The, the attention to lighting and stuff like that wasn't there. And so I'm, I'm starting kind of from scratch. Uh, I do pull from some of that old stuff when I, when I have to. But for the most part, I don't have a huge library of backstock of footage. And so there have been a lot of videos that I have to create just on a short deadline where I can't schedule out to go get B-roll for it and I just have to work with what I get mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
<affirmative> and it's hard, um, to do that because I want to be able to put more B-roll in it. But, um, part of the issue is just like having enough time. Cuz I, I, I do a lot of different stuff there. It's not just the video production stuff. Um, I'm also the technical director mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, I, I deal with multiple locations at the church and so it's really difficult and whenever I can get B-roll footage I will, but you know, at a time you just kind of have to just go with what you got and deal with it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, so it really kind of hurts since like, I love shooting B-roll and that was kind of something that I did a lot here at Dogwood. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I would have a little bit more time to, to shoot B-roll stuff. So, uh, kind of hurts that I, I don't have as much right now, but I'm trying to build that library, um, where I'm at now.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, for sure. Future Nick Will will say thank you. Yeah. Right. <laugh>, any other little nuggets of wisdom you wanna throw out before we wrap up?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Um, about B-roll probably. Uh, shooting B-roll is, is just, it's a hard thing to teach and to learn. Um, you have to just do it. Like really just do it. So like when I first started doing real estate videography, uh, shooting B-roll for that was, was very different than shooting B-roll for because there's no people mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and so, um, understanding what needed to be shown, how I needed to shoot it, everything's different. Like I use different kinds of lenses and focal lengths and apertures and because you're capturing an entire room and not just an environment or a situation or, or whatever, or product or whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you have to have an understanding of what you are going to be shooting and make the adjustments and then just try a bunch of things. So if you go through my B-roll, um, a lot of times you'll find multiple shots.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I'll, I'll go one direction, move the other, go back and forth until I find something that that works. Um, and then I kind of know when I, when I got the shot and a lot of times I don't have a ton of time to make sure it's perfect. So sometimes the shot ends up a little bit shaky, but understanding the tools and post-production, uh, of how to fix that. Oh, maybe a little bit shaky, but I know how to destabilize it in post. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so I'm good and we keep going or the color wasn't great here, but I know I might just be a little bit overexposed, but I know I can bring it back in post just understanding that because uh, a lot of times I'm shooting solo, I don't have a crew with me, I don't have someone to set up one camera while I'm shooting one location.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Uh, a lot of times I'm not shooting with multiple cameras so I can just grab another camera with a different lens on it. So, um, time is a huge, huge factor and so I have to just um, kind of understand what I can capture and if it's good, um, or good enough and, um, I hate to to say that, but sometimes it is you just have to say, okay, this is good enough. I know I can make it look good in post. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, don't ever do that. If you can help it shoot it right. Shoot it right the first time. Um, as far as videography, um, just gotta shoot you just gotta do it. You gotta test a lot of, when I got started with, uh, actual on, uh, it was a mirrorless camera but like a dslr, but the first time I started shooting on it, there was a lot of things about it that I didn't understand, uh, the settings wise and um, being fast was changing those settings based on the situation and to get fast, you do it more, you build the muscle memory, you build the instinct.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Um, and now I can go into a location, get my camera set up within seconds and start shooting and if something needs to change, I know which settings to change and I can get be changed in a few seconds and go. Um, and that just takes time and experience and just doing it. And so if you ever want to get good at anything, this doesn't just apply to videography, but if you ever want to get good at anything, you just do it. You don't have to do it for particular purpose, but just do it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, if you're gonna be an artist, if you're gonna get into watercolors, you just have to paint watercolors, paint more, get better, try to make changes, paint more. If you wanna be a writer, you have to just write, get the words on the page and move on. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> try to tell a story and then move on, try to write something else and then move on. Try different types of writings, like poems, try to write articles, try to write different things and then just move on. No one ever has to see any of it, but at least you're getting that time in and you're building that instinct to do it. So same thing goes for videography. Um, you just gotta do it. You just gotta shoot, build the muscle memory, build the instincts.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Yep. Alright, well thanks so much for being our guest today. It's been really fun getting to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Sure, yeah. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Hopefully we'll have you back another time for some other topic.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Anytime. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Alright guys, well next episode Brian and I will be talking about email marketing and specifically how to create a successful email newsletter. So I hope you'll join us for that. Um, if you like what you're hearing, head on over to our website and you can check out the other blogs that we've written, as well as check out other podcast episodes that you might have missed. Um, if you're looking to connect with us, the website's a best place to go. You can fill out our contact form or you can connect with us on social media. All of those accounts are linked there as well. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. That helps us a lot with reaching the right people. So as always, thanks for tuning into the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. And until next time, happy marketing.