No Holds Creative

As we closed this year, I started to look back to see what I accomplished in 2022. For one, I started to noticed that I’ve grown a lot in my interpersonal skills. How I deal with feedback, tough conversations, and communicating my feelings and needs (as odd as it is to put a benchmark on progress) have improved. I picked up a passion in cooking. My love for people, God, and myself have deepened. Lastly, I noticed better emotional and mental health. What’s funny is that none of this was due to the pandemic. In all honesty, because of my introverted nature, the pandemic really settled my mind with the alone time. I started to notice the shift when life started to pick back up. It’s like thinking you’re in decent shape, then going to a cross-fit class. I’ll go more in-depth at another time.

All of these are amazing things that I’ve been blessed with this year! As I looked at my creative outlets, I realized I haven’t done that many creative projects outside of my job (beside a senior photoshoot every once in a while). I mean, the last time I posted on my NH Media Instagram was a Lawrence concert May 2021.

It’s easy to brush it off and say “I’m creative at my job. I can just relax and do chores/life in my free time” which, as valid of a statement as that is, is crap. I’m a creative person. I create. The question came to mind How can I push myself creatively this next year? I have resources available. I have friends (both creative and logistical). I have platforms to post to. So how do I make this doable? How can I set myself up for success? Enter Malinote:

Malinote from Nov. 20th. It’s been updated A LOT since.

Yes, I like plans. Yes, that’s contradictory of usual creatives. Yes, Malinote is my merging of my left & right brain. Heck, I even put a SWOT analysis in there. I love it.

The main goal is to have one project every week that I’ll post on a platform. The secondary goal is to post an update three times a week. I know I have the skillset for it, and I’m setting up a “creative breezeway” for it. What is that you may ask.

One of the weaknesses I identified in the SWOT is that I’ll lose creative investment when set up is required. I’m in process of setting up a fast and effective creative workflow that minimizes the need for set up/tear down. This is where the breezeway comes in. A way to set up the least amount of stuff to maximize creative bursts.

This first month, that’s going to be my big project. Creating an effective breezeway for the next few months. There will be a few tests, failures, and experiments to get this up and running (again, mix of my left and right brain. I love it). I’m excited for this next year and what it will bring up in me!

Long Way Home BTS

This past month, I entered a competition called Music Video Jams, which if you follow all my things, you know I did last year with Kaylee Goins. Music Video Jams is a filmmaking competition where one band is teamed up with a filmmaker at random. From there, the filmmaker and musicians have two weeks to collaborate and shoot a music video with one of the bands songs. A few weeks later, all the competitors get together to watch each others music videos, and a winner is chosen.

Some BTS from last year with Kaylee Goins

This year, I entered it on a whim when they posted saying that one of the filmmakers had to cancel last minute. Not expecting to get in, I got in. Leading up to the initial kickoff event, I saw one of the bands I worked with before, Mountains In The Sea, was in the competition as well.

I shot them a quick DM and mentioned how great it would be if we were on a team together, to which they were confused until they looked at the recent Facebook post announcing they were in the competition. So we waited a few weeks and saw each other there. The decision process was a “pick a name out of a hat” style of decision. They went around to each musician, and one by one, other people were chosen. It felt like a pick up game of football with less choice. It came down to the last two musicians and filmmakers, to which both Mountains and I were in. They pulled a name out, and it was me. What chance. We hugged and got down to business. One of the challenging parts that came up quick was that they were out in LA for the first 5 days, leaving us 9 days to get everything done. “That’s not so bad” I thought to myself. Boy was I… right actually… that’s a first.

PRE-PRODUCTION

I spent those 5 days researching, story boarding, and listening to their song over and over. Our plan was to film that Monday, so I did weather research for the location, and it was supposed to be sunny with a few clouds. Perfect. The Sunday before shooting, I felt confident and ready to go. Due to budget, the plan was to use my Canon C100, their older Nissan, and open property so we wouldn’t have to pay for a location. The day before the shoot, I was able to get my hands on my father’s FDA licensed drone, and they were able to snag their friend’s ‘72 Chevy Nova (quite the improvement). Great pre-production leads to an easy production.

PRODUCTION

The shoot day started at 9:00AM at the Starbucks on Pines. We spent the first hour catching up and planning out the shoot day. At 10, we were off to our first location, which we got to around 10:20, and were set up for first shot at 10:30. We filmed the first scene when they’re stuck in traffic. This was achieved purely by parking my car next to theirs and over exposing the background. After we get a couple of different angles, we got some video of them driving, which was challenging. Yes, the car was shaky, but the biggest struggle was getting the angles we needed in a low budget. I get some of the shots I needed, then we proceeded to the drone shots. I’ve only ever flown a drone a few times, but it was really easy to get the hang of. We shot on the DJI Phantom 3 Pro, which flew like a breeze.

The plan for the shoot was to shoot the breakdown scene. The plan for that was that Phil would pop open the engine while Angela was in the car singing the bridge of the song. Towards the end, Phil would kick the car (not actually) out of frustration, which would result in more shots of them driving. On site, we decided that we should switch it up because at that point, it would make it more about the car rather than about the song (which is a love song talking about taking a detour to spend more time with someone). That’s when they made the joke of just abandoning the car and sprinting down the road, so we ran with it (pun intended). Looking back, I was so glad we made that decision because it massively helped with pacing and story. Since we didn’t have a stabilizer (more at the end on that), I used the drone to get a majority of the shots in that part. The end was a bit rough for that location, and I decided to try the “auto land” feature on the DJI, which resulted in their heads almost getting chopped off… didn’t use that feature any more.

Being as I was sure just about any location in Freeman would suite the feel of the music video, we went out to the high school, where just a quarter mile down the road, we found our final location. We set up, got into position, aaaand my C100 battery was almost dead… this was a problem. So being fast, we set up the area of the song we were filming, and got 4 quick takes in a relatively short amount of time. As we were packing up, Angela asked if I wanted to use the drone, and I said “Naw, I think I have enough”, which I caught myself and remembered that if I think it’s “enough”, it’s not enough. I popped out the drone, and sure enough, I needed those drone shots. #thanksAngela. So we shot the band on the car, getting in the car, and driving down the dirt roads. For our last shot, we had to go into town to get an in traffic shot, the opening shot of the music video. So we headed back to the Starbucks, I got in their car, and we drove up and down the streets until we were at a stop light. We luckily got the last shot, and my camera died. After a few “just in the NIC of time” puns, we got back to my car, exchanged gear, hugged it out, and I headed out to edit.

POST PRODUCTION

Do you ever have those shoots where you wrap, and you can’t wait to edit. This was one of those shoots. I got home, imported my footage, and started splicing away. After a first cut, I applied a rough color grade, and looked at the clock to see it was 9PM. I was astonished. We filmed, edited, color corrected, and had a rough grade in the span of 12 hours. I was hyped!

I spent the next few days not looking at the video to get a fresh look at it a little later. Once I did, I was just as happy of it as when I first cut it. By the end of that editing session, I was almost finished with a final edit. Problem was, I still had THREE DAYS left. Oh, I was not finished. That’s when I decided to do the “zippy zappies” in the video, which was a 3 hour commitment. I sent a copy to them, showed it to a few other people, and listened to all the feedback. The day before turning in, we had a finished product! I exported it and sent it in to CMTV the next day.

The actual viewing was about two weeks later.

This was shot for the Music Video Jams Competition . Camera: Canon C100, DJI Phantom 3 Pro Location: Freeman, WA Artists: Angela & Phil Lamb Cinematographer, Editor, Director, and Producer: Nicolas Hinman

Everyone came into the tiny room that’s called The Bartlett, and we watched each others films. Ours was the second, and it was met with extremely positive feedback. There was a guy who was confused about the “zippy zappies” that I mentioned earlier, but everyone else loved it. After we watched all of them, we came to the scoring. There was a crowd vote and a judges score. After they tallied up everything. The winner was Ray Badness and their music video (which was amazing and absolutely deserved to win). As soon as the winner was announced, one of the people I met and talked to, grabbed my arm, yanked me over, and said “you should’ve won that!”. Other people were more in to our “should've been” victory  than we were. Regardless of victory or not, it’s always great filming with Mountains In The Sea. Look out for the next music video we might do!

I'm re-doing my website!

If you’re one of the VERY rare people to read my blog, you would have noticed my website has changed a bit. I realized that I wasn’t using it very much, and I asked myself why. If I’m paying $16 a month to keep a website that I don’t use, why keep it?

Upon thinking about it, I came to the possibility that the lack of updating is because of the amount of “professionalism” I put in this website. I looked at it as the holy grail of my “brand”. So because of that, I’m being un-professional and more me. This means more random music (making the new page right now), random photos and videos, and (probably) more blog posts about random things!

With a new style, there’s also a new purpose for the website. I want this to be more of a “about me” website than a “go buy my service”. I don’t feel like there’s a lot more to add than that… so yeh. Give me time. I’m hoping this will give me a new inspiration to create and post more!

2018 Wrap

After weeks of procrastination and laziness, I’ve built up the motivation to write about this past year. Let’s start with events that took place:

  • Started my job as Worship Arts Director at Eastpoint Church

  • Took a memorable trip to Colfax and took some baller photos

Colfax 2018 in an abandoned barn

Colfax 2018 in an abandoned barn

  • Graduated From SFCC with a Digital Media Production Degree

  • Trip to Seattle with some friends

  • Played Bass with an awesome crew for a Kids camp

  • Built a bass

  • Shot a music video with an amazing musician that took 2nd place at a competition

  • Decided not to go to Eastern Washington due to 3 more years of school

“Means To An End” Music Video

“Means To An End” Music Video

  • Shot another music video with the same amazing artist

  • Got a job for Bella Baby Photography (and found out that it wasn’t my forte)

  • Soon after got a job for CPPS for the production team (which is my forte)

  • Shot on one of the most expensive cameras to date (Panasonic EVA1)

  • Built a guitar

This past year was full of new people, photo and video shoots, starts and ends, excitement, sorrow, and growth. I have absolutely no idea what this next year holds, but I’m excited (and scared out of my mind) for what’s ahead. How did all of your years go? Let me know! I hope to see each and every one of you at some point this year!

It's been a while...

Hello! I haven't posted in a while! Here's what I've been up to (in list form!):

1. Graduated from Spokane Falls Community College (next stop, EWU!)

Frame from "Wanted Ad" starring Maggie.

Frame from "Wanted Ad" starring Maggie.

2. I created a short film (check it out on Vimeo!) (Also, yes, that's me acting. Not Nicolas Cage.)

3. I left Spokane for the first time in a while and headed to Seattle with friends

4. Photoshoot with an amazing couple! 

Does this really need a caption?

Does this really need a caption?

Dakoda and Leah (July 2018)

Dakoda and Leah (July 2018)

This past month has been a lot of recouping and relaxing. When you go Mach 5 for two years, you need a breather! While I missed out on some opportunities, it was much needed. I feel more creative and energized than I've been in a while! Not only that, but it's opened up some new doors! Exited for what the rest of this summer holds! What have you been up to? Let me know!

Fun Little Thing

A couple of weeks ago, I messed around a little with some composites. I mashed together some photos from the past year, and I'm kind of a fan of how it turned out. What do you think?