May 7, 2025 • 37 mins
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What does it take to go from filming basketball workouts on an iPhone to becoming an award-winning cinematographer? Jonathan Boots Sigler's journey through the filmmaking landscape offers a fascinating glimpse into how talent, opportunity, and adaptability can forge an unconventional path to success.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Support the show
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Jonathan Sigler, most people call me
Boots, and I am a filmmaker fromCovington, louisiana.
I actually did a short filmwith Brian and TJ, so I'm super,
super excited to be with theseguys on their podcast.
I'm just really happy to be onthe NOLA film scene.
Man, it's been a long timecoming.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the NOLA film scene with TJ Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Boots, thanks so much for joining us.
We're happy to have you today,Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Boots.
Good to be here with you guys,man, so I'm excited.
I don't know what we're goingto talk about, but it's going to
be fun.
We've got you now.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So, as Boots said, we worked together.
We did a 48-hour film projectwas the first project we worked
on and Boots was our DP and hedid an incredible job and we
very quickly turned around.
Just it seemed like only acouple weeks later.
It might have been a little bitlonger.
We did the Abita Springs FilmFestival, which is the seven and
seven.
We had seven days to make thefilm and again he crushed it.
(00:54):
He did the filming, he did theediting and because it was a
film fest and it was just kindof a rush to get everything done
, it was kind of all hands ondeck, just kind of a rush to get
everything done.
It's kind of all hands on deck.
We all shared some of thoseresponsibilities.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And we came out victorious.
I have to let everyone knowthat we did win.
We got nominated for everything11 awards and we won four of
them Is that right, yeah.
So I think I'm really proud ofthat.
It was like two, that's rightyeah.
And then the 48 hour ones.
You guys both got nominated forthat too.
Right, right, correct, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I've lost to that guy matt whatever his name,
would know anyway.
But on the seven, and seven,you won for best editing editor
yeah, editor which is editingsame thing forgiven for that.
That's right.
Of course we got bad picture.
I got best actor and it was thefourth best script.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think he won he won best director and best director
.
He won two.
And then you won bestscreenplay and best director.
He won two, and then you wonone, and then I won best editing
.
Gotcha Cool.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But you were nominated for.
In addition to best editing,you were nominated for something
else.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I guess I was nominated for best DP, so just
those two.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We'll call it best cinematography, and if we're
wrong, folks, we apologize.
That's right yeah, talk aboutthat later, because it was
fantastic cinematography Iappreciate it was a western,
yeah, we went from the office inthe 48 hour film to out west in
the 77 and that was incredible.
All of us met our, which youmight have seen.
You might have met on thispodcast.
He writes phenomenally underpressure and he has that concise
(02:20):
story boots his cinematography.
He brings the equipment, theknow-how and your editing.
I was there when we were doingthe seven to seven cause.
We all met at a coffee shop and, I've said it before, it was
like watching Beethoven on apiano.
Your hands fly.
I'm like they do fly though,yeah.
And so.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I've got a pretty good descriptor for that.
Anybody that's ever editedbefore.
If you're editing content andyou do the speed ramp effect,
where you're, you're kind ofdoing a time-lapse and it starts
off slow and then it speeds uplike somebody's driving, for
instance, and it kind of speedramps it to the next scene.
That's what it looked likewatching you edit.
It looked like you were inspeed ramp mode when you were
(03:00):
cruising.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, man, it was funny Cause I told Matt on the
48 hour one, he was like youknow, you don't have to edit it,
he's trying to get me on board.
And I was like, well, perfect,dude, I really don't think I'm
that great of an editor, to behonest.
Just because of the creativity,wise part of it, you know, I
think I can obviously like putthings together quickly, but
just to have the actual eye foreverything, I was like no, I
(03:22):
don't.
He said, well, how much do youedit?
I was like I mean, I edit everysingle day.
And he's like every day youedit.
I was like yeah dude absolutely.
And so he's like so you thinkyou can do it, and I was like,
yeah, I mean I can probably.
And then once we had someone,that didn't work.
But yeah, I think the biggestthing is.
You know, I listened to TeamDeacon's podcast, was like Roger
(03:44):
Deakins, and he interviews alot of other filmmakers and they
talk a little bit about likethe one camera, like doing whole
films with one cameras, andbecause a lot of times people in
their head when you think of ashort film or anything like that
, you think that oh, that musthave like three or four cameras
and maybe for action scenes alot of people do.
But for instance, there's beena lot of movies like All Quiet
on the Western Front, 1917, bothOscar winning films.
(04:05):
They're only used one camera,one lens, right, and it's a
matter of just knowing exactlywhere to put it and it makes
everything a little bit lessstressful.
And especially, I think thathelps on the editing process.
It's kind of like, well, it'sthe cameras on Brian, say, brian
and TJ are doing a dialoguescene, right, you do, maybe a, I
(04:39):
do.
You know, I think for the mostpart I do a lot more of
interview work, you know, Iguess kind of like documentary
style, you do interviews withB-roll, and so that's kind of
what I was used to.
And then it was kind of cool toexplore the short film world
where you could kind of break alittle bit more rules, have a
little bit more fun right andget the film actors right.
That's like the best part.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Nice, yeah, I didn't know those other films.
Just use one camera and onelens.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I need to go back and like, watch and think about
that, which I love learning.
It's kind of a bad thing fromgoing from fandom to working,
you know, one side of the camerato the other it's like, oh,
this is great, oh, that's howthey did it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, that's still cool.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know what I mean.
A certain short actor, actionstar, might be standing on an
Apple box all day.
I'm not going to say who Imight think that is.
But, ladies and gentlemen, Idon't know, I guess that's an
older term for but to bringsomebody like an actor up to the
height of an act.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, it's still used .
It's still used.
Yeah, the most helpful thingyou can sit and eat some lunch
on it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, and I think our next step is to get like I just
did a short film and they had asound person and they had a
person just working the a littlelost in the terms, and then PAs
and assistants, I think as wegrow, Because on those 48-hour
films it's a tight crew and youhave to do everything.
And so movies I've done withMatt full-length features.
(05:53):
Tj was there too.
He had to make all thedecisions, so everyone had to
come to him and decide on everylittle thing.
So it took away a little bit.
He was able to handle it, butwe need to be able to, even as a
small film, let everybody dothe job that they excel at.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And not divide attention.
That makes it really reallychallenging.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, and it's hard because I feel like it's
something that I always tellpeople with the film, you know,
you call it film industry orjust content business.
Nowadays, with all thisequipment essentially becoming
cheaper, to where the buy-inprice to get a good camera and
to get a good light and goodsound equipment is so much
cheaper that it makes it a lotmore accessible for everybody
else, right, which means that itleads to a lot of people doing
(06:32):
run-and-gun jobs.
Right, I can do.
You know, just show up me mycamera, my backpack, maybe a
light, and I can do a coolrestaurant video.
Right, you can just knock itout yourself.
And at the same time, though, ifyou look at all the movies and
the documentaries and stuff,it's a team that did a lot of
this.
Right, there's supposed to besomeone that handles the
lighting.
There's supposed to be a DPthat handles the camera, the
lenses, the director, and a lotof times, with those people
(06:53):
running around with backpacks,it's dropping the price down a
lot to where people are kind oflike well, we can't afford a
whole crew.
I might as well just hire Jerryhere to come with his backpack,
and he can just make somethingreally cool for me that he's
just starting out, and so I feellike it's a lot, because, you
know, I'm 26 years old, so Ikind of started out when the era
of a lot more solovideographers, and so I think
that's something that strugglefrom going from solo to then
(07:14):
expanding to crew members andkind of getting that budget and
having enough clients willing topay that budget to then, you
know, pay your bills.
I think that's something that'sharder to find nowadays,
especially with all the strikesand everything like that too.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I think those big sets aren't there, so you have
to kind of make a lot happen onyour own.
Yeah, yeah, it certainly madeit a lot easier logistically
that you had all the kit because, you know we're talking about
it in advance.
Okay, who's got a field recorder, who's got camera, who's got a
boom?
And you came as a full packagedeal.
It just took a lot of weightoff for trying to find that
stuff.
I know we talked about it.
Tell us how you got started infilmmaking.
(07:52):
I know you started and you'vekind of progressed to the point
that you're at now.
You did a lot of film andsports.
Right, Right, yeah.
So to me that's a challengewith fast moving stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, it's true, and I feel like a lot of people have
said, when I was 10 years old,I had, like my grandpa's camera.
I was not like that, I couldcare less about it.
I had no love or desire for anyof it.
I did like watching movies.
Growing up, like my parents, myfamily, were big movie people,
right.
But it wasn't until mysophomore year of college.
I was just working a normalsummer job, right, that's at St
Peter's school, moving furnitureactually, and so the reason why
(08:24):
I liked it is because you getthere at seven, you get off at
three, 30, and I played collegebasketball, so then it would
give you enough time to go andtrain, right.
And I was working with thejanitors and I love them too.
They're like the best people towork with, like we had a great
time, and so I was yeah, Ialways loved working with them
because I was like, you know,you could get higher paying jobs
but at the same time, if I likethese guys, I'm just going to
stick here, right.
And so the thing was from sevento three 30, I would make $75 a
(08:47):
day, right.
So this is 2017 or so, so Ithink it was making like nine 75
an hour, which nowadays is likelaughable, but I think back
then, you know, it wasn't as bad, right, especially a summer job
for college.
That's right.
Yeah, and I had done itthroughout high school too.
So I've been doing this for man, eight years.
You know, sophomore year, goingto college, I was like, okay, so
I'll go train with MatthewBender and slide L.
He trained professionalbasketball players, college high
(09:10):
school guys, just basketballplayer development.
There's a guy that was workingout before me.
His name was Drew Guillory andhe played in Slovakia.
He played basketball inSlovakia, right.
And so he was like man, theseare some of the best workouts
I've ever have gotten.
You know, he's telling thetrainer like you go to Los
Angeles and all these guys havecameramen and that's why they're
so big.
You know, if you need to get acamera guy, you had a camera guy
, you could expand your businessand this could be huge for you.
(09:30):
And he's like dude, if I knewsomeone I'd pay him.
I just don't know anybody and Iliterally had taken like video
editing one-on-one, and I kindof had, like dabbZA in high
school, edited a lot of that,and so then I edited some in
college, but, man, I wasn'tpaying attention that much in
class.
I was mainly focused onbasketball having fun, and so I
kind of leveraged myself, thoughI was like hey, I could use
some extra cash, you know?
(09:51):
Hey, man, you know I can editthe video for you, but I don't
have a camera.
He's like dude, you should useyour phone.
I'll amazing, you know.
So I do it with my phone and mybuddy said my grandma gave me
this for Christmas.
So you put it like in your cupholder and it comes out for your
GPS to hold your phone.
He's like I figured you can usethat and I was like okay, so
(10:13):
that's what I did.
I like stood on the home Depotbucket, I did a little GPS
movement and stuff like that,just kind of like laughable
camera motions and all, and Imade a video of him working out
to send to his agent and all andeveryone loved it and he's like
dude, can you come backtomorrow?
And I was like, yeah, I can comeback tomorrow, kind of put a
bug in it, Right.
And then I went back to schoola week later and he calls me
when I'm on spring break and Iwas like, hey, what's up?
(10:33):
And he's like dude, I'm goingto the NBA combine.
You know, I just got in with anagency in gosh, I'm going to
have to buy a camera.
He said no, no, no, you justuse your phone.
I was like I want somethingbetter than a phone if I'm going
to the combine so I can standout.
I'm thinking this is goingalmost into my senior year now,
so I need to try to figure out ajob, right?
I go to B&H and get aninterest-free credit card with
no money to my name and buy itEOS 90D.
(11:00):
I get out the box, you know,just learn how to use it and
then everything kind of shutsdown with COVID and I was like,
oh, this isn't good.
The whole world shut down.
And you know, I was like, whatam I going to do?
But luckily, when I moved backhome, that gym that he was
training those guys in wasprivately owned, so that one
summer he went from trainingjust the you know two or three
pros to now 17 professionalathletes, and I be better.
What are the pros use?
What do they do?
(11:20):
What are their styles?
What are their methods right?
How do they edit?
So?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
you know just kind of getting that education.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
nowadays, with all this YouTube knowledge and
podcast knowledge that we havenow, you can really learn a lot.
And then eventually, at the endof the summer, I was like you
know, what I should do, eventhough I'm done school, was I
should really go back and use myfifth year of eligibility and
then kind of get another major.
So my first major was multimediadesign, which is more graphic
design, and then I went back andgot digital production and
broadcast and you're learning alittle bit more about cameras, a
(11:54):
little bit more about audio,kind of asking a lot more
questions in school, tellingthem, hey, I have a camera, can
I use my camera to shoot asports game or something like
that?
Right, that's just kind of likeall those reps, though added up
, it was something that I wasdoing as almost like a side
hustle throughout those last fewyears of school and then kept
on applying to sports teams,being like you know I'm with the
videographer position orphotographer, and they're just
(12:15):
kind of like.
You know, your resume is notthere.
I don't really.
You're filming guys in the gym,it's cool, you're getting a lot
of likes online, but there'snothing that we can use here.
So then I basically was like,well, I need to create something
for myself then.
So I basically was saying, okay, well, the athletes are going
to be there.
If I can essentially convince abusiness guy or two to do
business work for them and thenmaybe get involved in New
Orleans working on set, if oneof those three things is down,
(12:36):
the other one might be up, Allright.
So that was my game plan goinginto it, and you know, still to
this day it's been almost threeand a half years now.
It's pretty much stable, likethat I would say.
I don't really film as muchsports nowadays.
It's mainly more of helping outon set or just doing a lot of
my own work, but primarily withbusinesses.
And in New Orleans I workedwith Elephant Quilt Productions
for a while and they gave me ahuge opportunity.
(12:58):
Man, I was a PA for probablylike a year and a half.
It was a small productioncompany like a year and a half.
It was a small productioncompany like three to five
members, so I feel like I got alot more reps of wearing a lot
of different hats and learningabout lighting and book lighting
.
You know different techniquesand learning how to work with a
crew Right, and so I think thosereps were probably the most
important out of everything youknow.
You can learn a lot on YouTubeand all but once you kind of get
a lot of those hands-onexperience with guys who are a
(13:20):
little more obviously moreexperienced than you are, it
helps a lot.
So I definitely took a lot ofthat information and, you know,
try to apply it kind of like thecompetitive athlete in all of
us.
So you just want to get alittle bit better every day,
right?
So you just want to get a littlebit better every single day and
then it adds up to now youbecome experienced right.
Then you can kind of handle alot on your own and try to fit
into a role nowadays but, likewe talked before, it is hard now
(13:43):
with the strikes and everythingand there's not tons of set
work.
So it's a lot more on what canyou do on your own.
But it's definitely a funcareer, it's a fun job and, like
I said, I know I've talked fora while but it really has been
an interesting journey.
I feel like not many peoplekind of start on an iPhone and
then, like you know, come backup to a camera, to PA, to camera
world, to A lot of twists andturns in it.
(14:03):
You know, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Everyone's story is going to be different.
It's never cookie cutter Doingauditions.
Everything they tell you istrue, but when you break from
the norm that might get you thejob.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Kids start out out of high school and they start
taking acting and their careertakes off or drops down.
They come back or I startedlate in life and boom.
So that's fantastic, you'veshot a Western, you've shot a
mockumentary, commercials,sports I don't know if you've
shot anything else.
What's next?
What's the goal?
Where are you aiming for whatwould be a dream?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Man, my dream would probably say you know my wife
asked me this a lot is I wouldlove to be a commercial DP.
I would love to be acinematographer for commercials.
You know a lot of people Ithink really want to do movies
and all, and I think that'd beamazing too, but it is such a
hard world to get into and all.
I would say I would really liketo be like a DP for commercials
.
You know it's a very hard, hardpath to get there.
(14:57):
You know it's, it feels likeit's something that would be my
dream, but there's no map to getthere and most of the
commercials in New Orleans areaare from out of town DPs and
then's his favorite guy to workwith.
You know, someone told me likeyou can drive like a box truck
and eventually work your way upfrom like third to second.
I think it just takes a littlebit of luck At the same time
with that being hard to attain,and I'm, you know, I'm trying to
get there, I think.
For right now I label myself asyou know.
(15:19):
I'm basically a freelancer, butI also have like a production
business, right, productioncompany, the JSB Productions,
and so I'd say, just try to kindof continue to do that right,
continue to work with businessesto tell people's stories.
I think that's something thatcan't be replaced by AI.
So try to invoke morestorytelling, even if it's
something like dude, we want todo a video on our basketball
team.
Well, can we do like aninterview with the coach and can
(15:39):
we get maybe some stage shotsto kind of add a little bit more
storytelling and try to bring alittle bit more production
values to the jobs that mightnot even have the budget for it,
because then it's going toprove your worth, and I think
working with businesses and thendoing some documentaries I
think would be something thatI'm really interested in talking
with the guy now.
But I just think thedocumentary world is really
interesting and I feel like thatmight be a road pass that you
(15:59):
know, maybe lend yourself andyou do a good documentary, you
have a short film experience,maybe your resume looks better
for a commercial DP right.
But you know, we'll see whereYacht takes us, just kind of
taking it one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Right, yeah, well-rounded experience yeah,
that seems to be the key andthat's what you said.
You hit it on something reallybig when you said there's no
direct path, and I think that'skind of true for everything in
the industry.
Sure, there are sometraditional routes for a lot of
the different behind the scenesthings I mean on camera as well
that everybody finds a differentway to get there, and it's kind
(16:33):
of hard to plan out this careerbecause you never know what
twist is going to take youanother direction.
You might come across somebodyand a new opportunity comes up.
That's completely differentthan what you were thinking.
I've been trying to learn someof the stuff you were talking
about with the cameras as well,for my side hustle, and I kind
of feel like shooting on a phoneis like learning how to drive
(16:53):
with a stick If you can getgreat video with that, with all
the little ins and outs, withoutusing lenses and special stuff.
Then by the time you work yourway up to cameras, then you have
the foundation and that's whatI'm trying to do now.
I'm trying to learn how to usethe camera, all the features on
it, and it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, it is very fun and I think you know what's
important is, all these camerasnowadays are just like, packed
with all these features.
Right, for instance, theremight be a camera that the
features are more suited tosomeone that's doing like on set
role with a lot of people thatare working with you.
Right, that even the littlemarkings and the lenses are for
the camera team.
Right, for the guy.
That's point focused on theright side.
And I think, for justfilmmaking in general, you don't
(17:34):
need to know as much about theactual guts of everything, right
, to break all the rules as muchas you need to know, like,
what's the story you're telling.
And I think a big thing thatpeople overlook is the lens
choices.
Right, the lens choices, whatgives a character, and
especially the focal lengths,right, you know, do you want to
have a distorted background?
Is your thing more of like a?
For instance, the chosen is agreat TV show, right, I don't
(17:54):
know if you guys have seen thechosen thing.
It's the largest crowdfunded TVshow of all time.
Now, right, it's on Amazon andthis guy loved 19,.
Like seventies movies.
Right, like, or old school kindof movies where it doesn't have
a shallow depth of field, whichmeans that the background is
not super blurred.
You can just see the sky in thebackground, right.
(18:14):
And so instead of shooting wideopen and using the built-in ND
filters, like these features arecranking today, he prefers to
just stop it down to T4 or T8,right, so you can kind of have
nothing really blurred.
It just looks like I'm actuallyseeing this like an old movie
and that becomes your style, andso that's kind of a good
example to explain.
You know, sometimes the featuresare there, like the built-in ID
.
I can go walk out outsidewithout a map box and get
shallow depth of field and itcan look freaking awesome.
(18:35):
But at the same time you canget creative with it and break
the rules a little bit, and thenyou kind of find your little
style.
So sometimes the features itmight not all apply to you, but
at the same time you can use itto create your own style, which
I think is awesome, especiallyfor people that are starting out
too and just learning, becauseyou can just be like.
The possibilities are infinitealmost.
And even with iPhones with theportrait photo lens, it's kind
of like the same thing, right,you could do portrait mode on
(18:57):
your phone now blurs thebackground, or you could just
take a normal photo, whateveryou like best, and that's at our
fingertips.
It's really a cool, cool timeto be a part of this.
I think it's harder to findlike on set stuff and all, but
at the same time it's easier tojust create whatever you want to
create.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And your choices become part of the storytelling.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Set design lenses, like you said.
For us, it's the choices wemake as actors.
Am I going to be a mustachetwirling villain or grounded
villain, Like some of you mightmeet in real life, who just
happens to kill people?
What effect is that Comedyversus all those things?
It's always story.
Ai will never get that right.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You know what I mean.
It'll be bland and it'll be.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I will tell a movie.
It's that human element ofstorytelling.
But I find that fascinating.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Just never thought about it from a lens point or
from a technical point like thatyeah, no, it's, it's true, man,
and, like you said, it comeswith acting too, and that's what
makes good acting, makes beatsall good, camera settings right.
You know, if you're at, if it'sgreat acting, it's great acting
.
So it's pretty cool to hear youguys side of everything too.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, it's like we're all working towards the same
goal.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I'll ask you guys so are you guys, you know, trying
to work in a certain you I'drather work in comedies, or I'd
rather work in drama or realityor are you kind of more open to
whatever role kind of comesabout?
I'm always curious, like withactors, because you know, you
see, sometimes Leonardo DiCapriodo multiple different roles,
right, I don't know.
But then you see some guyswhere it's like I only do
(20:21):
comedies or, for instance, Ionly do sci-fi stuff, like
there's a lot of people thattheir whole career, if you look
at their filmography, isliterally just like sci-fi work,
right, right.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, some people do just like you were
saying.
Your style with filming bodywork ends up being a style for
some people.
They only do certain things.
There are some actors that onlydo commercials.
Commercials pay really well.
You don't see them doing a lotof film or tv for me.
I think I'm more geared towarddrama, darker roles, the bad guy
(20:52):
, the mean guy.
But I have done some comedy aswell and I mean I like doing
both and I don't know.
I don't think I'm as funny asbrian.
Brian's got more of alight-hearted personality and
it's easier to see him in thatrole.
I think that's probably whatthrew people off with me in the
48 is people aren't used toseeing me do the lighter stuff,
(21:13):
but I do enjoy comedy a lot.
I don't think there's anything.
Yeah, I don't think there'sanything.
So far that I've done that Ididn't like.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah, I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
What about you, Brian ?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I love doing it all.
I really love the monstermakeup, like being deaf.
Everyone knows me as a nice guy.
I think I am.
I try to be comedic genial, butI've played like four bad guys
in the past three months.
You know what I mean, right?
What do you mean?
He killed him, you know.
So that's fun.
And we're at the point in ourcareer where we can't be too
(21:47):
choosy, right, we can kind ofchoose what we submit to.
Yeah, as long as the script wasgood, I'm there, money's okay.
It's one way to look at it, butI can't think of anything that
maybe like if I was trying to beRambo like a big action.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So, but no, it's interesting though, because it's
kind of like, whenever you'restarting out, it feels like you
want to take almost everythingthat comes your way right,
because you're just trying toget experience.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'm like that too.
It's the same boat, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, my comedy is big and broad and I like being
goofy.
I like dad jokes, even you knowwhat I mean.
That's what acting is all about.
So when you can hit that markbecause there are days you try
and you just don't feel it- youcan relax and just get into it.
It's a great feeling.
And then I told y'all aboutthis movie this past weekend
(22:35):
without going into any detailsbecause I don't know if it'll be
released by the time this comesout.
I did a scene.
He's a him.
What I'm going to break my ownarm, pat myself on the back.
It was really good.
We did a take two for just incase for coverage, and they go
cut and a crewman goes.
How did it get creepier?
I did better than I did on thefirst take, which I thought was
(22:56):
great.
That's phenomenal, especiallywhen you look back to your first
classes and you're nervous andyou want to be an actor and
you're fidgety and everything'swrong.
So when you, when you hit thatstride, when you hit that moment
, there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So, Boots, what's something that's unique to you?
You might've heard othercameramen and DPs talk about
certain things that everyoneknows.
Every DP knows.
Hit our listeners withsomething that's just you.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, man, Something that's unique to me is I just
feel like the journey has beenreally unique.
I know everyone else kind ofstarts off with different
journeys, but I feel like a lotof these people nowadays that
are, you know, DPs of shortfilms or something like that, a
lot of them went to film school,a lot of them worked on student
films and they kind of gottheir experience that way,
Whereas I think it's not just me, it's a whole pack of us, but
(23:38):
there's a lot of these guys thatessentially learn from being
online or learn from being injust normal school.
Right, it's kind of like ageneration of videographers and
editors that are just sotalented but they're not taking
the traditional like DP route tothings.
Right, they're almost justmaking it happen on their own
with a camera lens from B&HPhoto and they're just getting
(23:58):
super creative.
And I think that's alsosomething that not a lot of
people talk about.
It's becoming not as much oflike oh, this guy can fit in
this role.
He could be a great gaffer, agreat grip, and a lot of times
it's just kind of like we cancall you know, jeffrey or
something.
He can come and make this videoawesome.
Maybe he brings another guy,almost kind of like a
photographer You're just coming,you're like doing a second
shoot of a video and like twomain crew just knocks.
(24:25):
This is supposed to be right.
I think we're supposed to bedoing what we are great at, but
a lot of times there are these,you know, group of us that are
just so.
You know we wear so manydifferent hats, you know.
They say it kind of like youknow Jack of all trades, but
master of none, and so that'sthe one thing that's kind of
hard that no one really talksabout either, is that, although
that is great and I think that'sthe future right, is guys
making it happen on their own,but at the same time, when it
(24:46):
comes down to like you know,fitting into a role, right, like
, I want to be a DP?
Well, look at your portfolio.
You're doing everything on yourown but at the same time, like
you, had DP experience of youjust being one, you know.
Or do we just hire you becauseof the products that your
business puts out looks reallygood?
And can you operate Aria Alexaright Because good.
And can you operate Arri Alexaright Because, although you have
all this great portfolio work,you might've done this on a Sony
(25:08):
that you got online, but do youknow how to work with a gaffer
and operate different kind ofcameras?
I remember when I was just kindof like PA and what I talked
about with Elephant Quilt theyasked me to set up the cameras.
I never worked with Sony.
I film all the time, but I justdon't film with this camera.
Well, you're expected to knowlike this camera needs to.
You know this is the base ISO.
This is what we need to set up.
This is how you meter exposure.
(25:28):
I just think that the landscapeof everything is so unique and I
think that me, starting fromsports and all, is something
that's different.
I think a lot of guys don'tstart with that.
They start with passion,projects and all.
So I think that's somethingthat'll make me a little unique
in that I've pretty much done alot.
I feel like a lot of peoplemore yeech down and that's kind
(25:51):
of like my fall.
I'm not doing good enough job,but just like niching down.
He says, like a Western, I'vedone weddings, I've done
Westerns.
I've done, you know, a lot ofmockumentary.
They're like nine or 10mockumentary things and I've
done business or corporatethings, many documentaries.
You know, a lot of highlightmixes.
So I feel like I don't do agood job of niching down.
I've kind of done a little bitof everything.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
That's good though.
Yeah, that's good to build thatresume up.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, it gives you a cool perspective.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, you can't niche down if you don't have the
opportunity, that's right.
So if we were, let's say, inArizona, they'd probably film a
lot of Westerns there.
Just because of what it is,they may have more chance to
keep, and it would be thereverse.
You know what I mean.
Right, it's coming.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, no, it's kind of crazy because they start off
in sports.
Right, I want to be a sportsspecialist, this is what I love
to do, I'm passionate about it,love it.
But then you're like, you know,think of it like this, nfl
hires salary guys, collegesports have students that do it
for free, and then they alsohave one or two salary guys.
Right, you have your high thoseavenues.
What are you going to do withsports If everyone's taken up
(26:51):
with salary positions?
You know, some of the salariesare not very appealing.
It might be 40 grand a year tocome film for these guys.
And you're like, okay, well, Imight be able to make that on my
own if I just freelance itrather than just trying to chain
myself up and work for them.
Obviously, every opportunity isdifferent, right, but it's a
crazy field, man, and I feellike it's changing so much.
And I used to get paid to doIGTV videos and then it was like
(27:12):
59 second mixes and then it wasYouTube stuff.
And then you know, tiktok cameout and then changed the game
with the reels and then you know, can we have any vertical stuff
?
Can we get with this brandingvideo that you want to do?
So it just changes a lot, youknow, and that this is only in
the span of what?
Two or three years?
Yeah, how many other businessesand fields change so much in
one to two years?
(27:33):
It's crazy how fast this isprogressing and how different
avenues are being opened up.
Like you said, tj, I mean thefuture might be filming on
iPhones.
There's videos like the Appleshot on iPhone commercials that
they have nowadays.
That looks amazing.
It looks unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, yeah, I was actually going to bring that up.
Yeah, I was going to mentionthat, but you brought it up.
That's a great point.
The filmed on the iPhones, onthe Apple commercials are just
incredible.
I would say lighting is very,very important when it comes to
that.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, and that's something that's changed so much
too.
Man, it used to be tungstenfixtures, right, that'd get so
hot you have to get gloves onand LED lights came out and they
were kind of crappy and makeeveryone's skin look weird and
you know you can get fired forthat.
You know you have your actorcome out of makeup and then
they're like green skin.
Yeah, it was just like the badled lights on me and not making
it look good.
And then they're like well, youknow you're the dp, you gotta
make it look good.
(28:22):
But nowadays the amount of powerthat you can get for a price
that you pay, with aperture andsmall rig and you know they have
like four foot tubes that canchange different colors, you
know like tubes and the qualityof leds has gotten so much
better.
It's just crazy.
Like the nfo sidelines, if youever watch them, they have astra
6x just like a normal whitepanel, right like a 4x4, just
(28:42):
slap a v-mount battery on it.
You don't need to plug it intoanything.
You know you do littleinterviews at a sideline power
button knob going and it looksgreat and you're like wow, it's
just crazy how the simplicity ofeverything and the quality of
fixtures were as 20 years ago.
You had to plug in a whole liketungsten fixture and make sure
you don't blow someone's outletout and it's going to get so hot
afterwards and you can't dim itdown unless you get a dimmer.
(29:05):
But nowadays you can get aBluetooth app in your phone and
just wheel it down.
It's to be getting easier tolight things now too, that's
right.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
You're saying what can you do with your sports
filmmaking knowledge?
Make a sports movie.
We need a full contact checkersmovie and you're the guy to do
it.
That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I'm kind of partial to tackle basketball, but that's
just me.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
What can we do with croquet?
I don't want to ask aboutcornholing no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Then your screen's right there and you could have a
vertical 6k camera for $3,000.
Canon c400 just came out.
You could also turn it sidewayswith the rig.
Screw it in, you have avertical camera.
You can flip the screen up, andso you know camera companies
are making it to where you canfilm vertical content easily,
and tripods have always been theone where you can rotate the
screen up, and so you knowcamera companies are making it
to where you can film verticalcontent easily.
And tripods have always been theone where you can rotate the
(30:35):
tripod and make it vertical.
But now, with the cameras beingable to rig vertical and I have
the old Black Magic, the 6K Proif I turn mine sideways, the
settings will change, so it'sall forward.
So then you can do it like thatvertical filmmaking man.
It's crazy, because those willget more views and get more
attention than something that'sfilmed horizontally.
Unless you have a big nameactor or someone that's in for
(30:58):
the most part, these reels willoutperform the nicer content Now
, which one has a longer shelflife can be more value to your
business.
That's something that'sdifferent, but it's something to
be said that, yeah, it'sdefinitely a future, and pretty
much every job that I donowadays, people want reels out
of it.
So it's kind of like I have toaccept that.
For a while there I was like Idon't do social media work.
I only want to do stuff foryour website, youtube.
I quickly just like this is aterrible game plan.
(31:20):
Social media is exploding, youknow.
So it's the future.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, it is, and there's a plugins now that help
with that as well.
We were talking off camerabefore we started about game
streaming and OBS, and there areother softwares, too that you
use to record screen record whenyou're game streaming.
They have plugins available nowwhere it'll pull it out and
give you vertical clips at thesame time that you're recording
(31:48):
your regular standard yeah.
It's all about creating contentand churning out product.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, it's turning us into machines, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
It is.
Ai helps a little bit.
Yeah, I know right Not the AIthat takes us over and pretends
to be us, but as far as editinggoes, Right, it's fun, though I
mean.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I think it's like I said, it's more accessible.
So you get to do more, you getto work more.
It's a little nuances, but atthe same time, like no one's
going to have a job, that's just.
Everything's a hundred percentperfect all the time.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Even people think, oh , these professional athletes,
like they're so happy.
It's like most professionalathletes are very unhappy with
their situation.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Either they're not playing enough or they want new
money.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Physical pain.
They don't feel like yeah,physical pain.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
They don't like the coach, they don't like the
situation, and then they go to anew one and they realize they
got the same problem.
It's kind of like we're notmeant for this world, almost.
It's just like you know.
It's hard to be 100% satisfiedwith everything that's going on.
Yeah you can't, you're gearheadand all this stuff.
(32:56):
But I do find it interestingthat a lot of these cool
companies and I did the mendiziofilms like a china I think I
get their base out of china theymake these lenses and
anamorphic lenses used to besomething that's what like forty
thousand dollars, fifty, youknow panavision anamorphic
lenses were like crazy expensiveand nowadays, or blizzard, for
instance, is another one.
You can get three anamorphiclenses for like two grand I
think, and they're like goodanamorphic lenses.
(33:17):
And then you can get the dzo.
They have a bunch that areprobably under 2000 per
anamorphic lens and so there'slike cool things like that are
happening.
You know they have this one dzor list prime.
It's like a one four cinemaprime.
They compared it to like thezeiss $20,000 one.
It's not that much of adifference.
I'm sure if you were using itin a real setting it might be a
little bit.
But man, the image quality ofsome of these things is.
(33:38):
It's fun.
It's exciting that you canessentially get these things at
cheaper prices, you know what'syour main lens that you're
running right now?
on your road, mainly just kindof sigma primes right like Like
photo lenses.
For most jobs I don't ever useautofocus, I usually manually
pull everything but, I have likethe 18 to 35, the 70 to 200.
I do have a Vespid 40 that Ilike to do for you know, maybe
(33:59):
some pepper in the sauce, but atthe same time I do like using
lens rentals a lot Like.
I feel like if I'm going torent something for, like you
know, a short film, or maybeeven want to elevate a look of a
project, I'd rather just rentsomething instead of pay the big
bucks and then kind of have theSigma lenses for and maybe you
could put up a dream filter onit or something to give it a
little different look forsomething that's cheaper.
(34:19):
But you know to own some ofthese for my financial state now
my wife would not be happy,right, but I would love to.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I'm running a Sigma lens on this and it's a prime
lens, but it's still great,great quality and it's not
expensive you know, compared tostuff that's available yeah,
they use the same glass andtheir stills lenses that they do
in their cine lenses.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So you think of it like, oh, these cine lenses are
five grand.
Let's actually the same glassin the one.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's like 700 bucks , you know, and you're like oh,
is it zeiss glass, or is itsomebody else that's making it?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
That I don't know.
I think it's Sigma that makesit, but I don't know if it's I
don't think Zeiss makes it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, I have a webcam and a microphone.
That's right.
I love that TJ has finally gotsomeone who can talk the
minutiae and gear.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Tech stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's cool because it helps you get the unique look
right.
I think that's what we're allkind of after is aspiring DPs
and all this.
How can I get a unique lookwithout maybe having to get a
super fancy Alexa camera right?
You want to try to find waysthat you could make yourself
stand out, whether that'slighting methods, whether that's
lenses or filters.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It's kind of like you know how can you make your own
sauce Right?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I worked on a movie Wheel of Heaven it should be
coming out soon and he used aGame Boy camera to catch some
footage, just to drop intosomething weird you know, what I
mean.
It just clicked Like I knew it.
Oh, that's cool, but listeningto you talk gave it a whole new
level of appreciation for me.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
So get weird folks.
I know I love like the isbecause like there is some
moments where they'll let me uselike GoPros or like Game Boy
cameras almost like littlethings and they'll rig it to the
camera.
So maybe if he opens the fridgeand pulls the milk out of the
fridge, the camera's liketracking with them.
Right so like sometimesbuilding that creative rig with
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I find that stuff really interesting.
You know, leave the camera onthe door and as he opens it up,
it stops on his face and helooks down at the milk or
something you know.
Yeah, Someone, no one's noone's thought of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
That's right, Like if you ever seen Bullet Train.
They do a lot of cool stuffwith like the water bottle scene
in.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Bullet.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Train, yeah, and that was a movie where I was like
this is like I love those coolideas for those shots.
Man, it's sick.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Nice, cool.
Now we just got to get you aboot camera and the circle will
come complete.
That's right Boots.
It's been a blast having you on.
Do you have any social mediayou want to share with folks?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, you can follow me at jspproductions underscore
and then wwwjspproductionscomorgis some of my work that you can
see, and I'd say that the bestis yet to come.
Yeah, Everyone asks me likewhat's your favorite project,
and it's of the next one.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
The next one.
Yeah, that's a good answer.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
The next one that you , the viewer, will hire him to
do.
And he'll hire us.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
That's right.
It's the circle of life.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
You guys are the best man.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
I'm happy to come on anytime.
Thank you, thank you, we lovehaving you.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
We appreciate you.
My name is Jonathan Sigler, most people call me
Boots, and I am a filmmaker fromCovington, louisiana.
I actually did a short filmwith Brian and TJ, so I'm super,
super excited to be with theseguys on their podcast.
I'm just really happy to be onthe NOLA film scene.
Man, it's been a long timecoming.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the NOLA film scene with TJ Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Boots, thanks so much for joining us.
We're happy to have you today,Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Boots.
Good to be here with you guys,man, so I'm excited.
I don't know what we're goingto talk about, but it's going to
be fun.
We've got you now.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So, as Boots said, we worked together.
We did a 48-hour film projectwas the first project we worked
on and Boots was our DP and hedid an incredible job and we
very quickly turned around.
Just it seemed like only acouple weeks later.
It might have been a little bitlonger.
We did the Abita Springs FilmFestival, which is the seven and
seven.
We had seven days to make thefilm and again he crushed it.
(00:54):
He did the filming, he did theediting and because it was a
film fest and it was just kindof a rush to get everything done
, it was kind of all hands ondeck, just kind of a rush to get
everything done.
It's kind of all hands on deck.
We all shared some of thoseresponsibilities.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And we came out victorious.
I have to let everyone knowthat we did win.
We got nominated for everything11 awards and we won four of
them Is that right, yeah.
So I think I'm really proud ofthat.
It was like two, that's rightyeah.
And then the 48 hour ones.
You guys both got nominated forthat too.
Right, right, correct, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So I've lost to that guy matt whatever his name,
would know anyway.
But on the seven, and seven,you won for best editing editor
yeah, editor which is editingsame thing forgiven for that.
That's right.
Of course we got bad picture.
I got best actor and it was thefourth best script.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think he won he won best director and best director
.
He won two.
And then you won bestscreenplay and best director.
He won two, and then you wonone, and then I won best editing
.
Gotcha Cool.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
But you were nominated for.
In addition to best editing,you were nominated for something
else.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I guess I was nominated for best DP, so just
those two.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We'll call it best cinematography, and if we're
wrong, folks, we apologize.
That's right yeah, talk aboutthat later, because it was
fantastic cinematography Iappreciate it was a western,
yeah, we went from the office inthe 48 hour film to out west in
the 77 and that was incredible.
All of us met our, which youmight have seen.
You might have met on thispodcast.
He writes phenomenally underpressure and he has that concise
(02:20):
story boots his cinematography.
He brings the equipment, theknow-how and your editing.
I was there when we were doingthe seven to seven cause.
We all met at a coffee shop and, I've said it before, it was
like watching Beethoven on apiano.
Your hands fly.
I'm like they do fly though,yeah.
And so.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I've got a pretty good descriptor for that.
Anybody that's ever editedbefore.
If you're editing content andyou do the speed ramp effect,
where you're, you're kind ofdoing a time-lapse and it starts
off slow and then it speeds uplike somebody's driving, for
instance, and it kind of speedramps it to the next scene.
That's what it looked likewatching you edit.
It looked like you were inspeed ramp mode when you were
(03:00):
cruising.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, man, it was funny Cause I told Matt on the
48 hour one, he was like youknow, you don't have to edit it,
he's trying to get me on board.
And I was like, well, perfect,dude, I really don't think I'm
that great of an editor, to behonest.
Just because of the creativity,wise part of it, you know, I
think I can obviously like putthings together quickly, but
just to have the actual eye foreverything, I was like no, I
(03:22):
don't.
He said, well, how much do youedit?
I was like I mean, I edit everysingle day.
And he's like every day youedit.
I was like yeah dude absolutely.
And so he's like so you thinkyou can do it, and I was like,
yeah, I mean I can probably.
And then once we had someone,that didn't work.
But yeah, I think the biggestthing is.
You know, I listened to TeamDeacon's podcast, was like Roger
(03:44):
Deakins, and he interviews alot of other filmmakers and they
talk a little bit about likethe one camera, like doing whole
films with one cameras, andbecause a lot of times people in
their head when you think of ashort film or anything like that
, you think that oh, that musthave like three or four cameras
and maybe for action scenes alot of people do.
But for instance, there's beena lot of movies like All Quiet
on the Western Front, 1917, bothOscar winning films.
(04:05):
They're only used one camera,one lens, right, and it's a
matter of just knowing exactlywhere to put it and it makes
everything a little bit lessstressful.
And especially, I think thathelps on the editing process.
It's kind of like, well, it'sthe cameras on Brian, say, brian
and TJ are doing a dialoguescene, right, you do, maybe a, I
(04:39):
do.
You know, I think for the mostpart I do a lot more of
interview work, you know, Iguess kind of like documentary
style, you do interviews withB-roll, and so that's kind of
what I was used to.
And then it was kind of cool toexplore the short film world
where you could kind of break alittle bit more rules, have a
little bit more fun right andget the film actors right.
That's like the best part.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Nice, yeah, I didn't know those other films.
Just use one camera and onelens.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I need to go back and like, watch and think about
that, which I love learning.
It's kind of a bad thing fromgoing from fandom to working,
you know, one side of the camerato the other it's like, oh,
this is great, oh, that's howthey did it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, that's still cool.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know what I mean.
A certain short actor, actionstar, might be standing on an
Apple box all day.
I'm not going to say who Imight think that is.
But, ladies and gentlemen, Idon't know, I guess that's an
older term for but to bringsomebody like an actor up to the
height of an act.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, it's still used .
It's still used.
Yeah, the most helpful thingyou can sit and eat some lunch
on it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, and I think our next step is to get like I just
did a short film and they had asound person and they had a
person just working the a littlelost in the terms, and then PAs
and assistants, I think as wegrow, Because on those 48-hour
films it's a tight crew and youhave to do everything.
And so movies I've done withMatt full-length features.
(05:53):
Tj was there too.
He had to make all thedecisions, so everyone had to
come to him and decide on everylittle thing.
So it took away a little bit.
He was able to handle it, butwe need to be able to, even as a
small film, let everybody dothe job that they excel at.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And not divide attention.
That makes it really reallychallenging.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, and it's hard because I feel like it's
something that I always tellpeople with the film, you know,
you call it film industry orjust content business.
Nowadays, with all thisequipment essentially becoming
cheaper, to where the buy-inprice to get a good camera and
to get a good light and goodsound equipment is so much
cheaper that it makes it a lotmore accessible for everybody
else, right, which means that itleads to a lot of people doing
(06:32):
run-and-gun jobs.
Right, I can do.
You know, just show up me mycamera, my backpack, maybe a
light, and I can do a coolrestaurant video.
Right, you can just knock itout yourself.
And at the same time, though, ifyou look at all the movies and
the documentaries and stuff,it's a team that did a lot of
this.
Right, there's supposed to besomeone that handles the
lighting.
There's supposed to be a DPthat handles the camera, the
lenses, the director, and a lotof times, with those people
(06:53):
running around with backpacks,it's dropping the price down a
lot to where people are kind oflike well, we can't afford a
whole crew.
I might as well just hire Jerryhere to come with his backpack,
and he can just make somethingreally cool for me that he's
just starting out, and so I feellike it's a lot, because, you
know, I'm 26 years old, so Ikind of started out when the era
of a lot more solovideographers, and so I think
that's something that strugglefrom going from solo to then
(07:14):
expanding to crew members andkind of getting that budget and
having enough clients willing topay that budget to then, you
know, pay your bills.
I think that's something that'sharder to find nowadays,
especially with all the strikesand everything like that too.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I think those big sets aren't there, so you have
to kind of make a lot happen onyour own.
Yeah, yeah, it certainly madeit a lot easier logistically
that you had all the kit because, you know we're talking about
it in advance.
Okay, who's got a field recorder, who's got camera, who's got a
boom?
And you came as a full packagedeal.
It just took a lot of weightoff for trying to find that
stuff.
I know we talked about it.
Tell us how you got started infilmmaking.
(07:52):
I know you started and you'vekind of progressed to the point
that you're at now.
You did a lot of film andsports.
Right, Right, yeah.
So to me that's a challengewith fast moving stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, it's true, and I feel like a lot of people have
said, when I was 10 years old,I had, like my grandpa's camera.
I was not like that, I couldcare less about it.
I had no love or desire for anyof it.
I did like watching movies.
Growing up, like my parents, myfamily, were big movie people,
right.
But it wasn't until mysophomore year of college.
I was just working a normalsummer job, right, that's at St
Peter's school, moving furnitureactually, and so the reason why
(08:24):
I liked it is because you getthere at seven, you get off at
three, 30, and I played collegebasketball, so then it would
give you enough time to go andtrain, right.
And I was working with thejanitors and I love them too.
They're like the best people towork with, like we had a great
time, and so I was yeah, Ialways loved working with them
because I was like, you know,you could get higher paying jobs
but at the same time, if I likethese guys, I'm just going to
stick here, right.
And so the thing was from sevento three 30, I would make $75 a
(08:47):
day, right.
So this is 2017 or so, so Ithink it was making like nine 75
an hour, which nowadays is likelaughable, but I think back
then, you know, it wasn't as bad, right, especially a summer job
for college.
That's right.
Yeah, and I had done itthroughout high school too.
So I've been doing this for man, eight years.
You know, sophomore year, goingto college, I was like, okay, so
I'll go train with MatthewBender and slide L.
He trained professionalbasketball players, college high
(09:10):
school guys, just basketballplayer development.
There's a guy that was workingout before me.
His name was Drew Guillory andhe played in Slovakia.
He played basketball inSlovakia, right.
And so he was like man, theseare some of the best workouts
I've ever have gotten.
You know, he's telling thetrainer like you go to Los
Angeles and all these guys havecameramen and that's why they're
so big.
You know, if you need to get acamera guy, you had a camera guy
, you could expand your businessand this could be huge for you.
(09:30):
And he's like dude, if I knewsomeone I'd pay him.
I just don't know anybody and Iliterally had taken like video
editing one-on-one, and I kindof had, like dabbZA in high
school, edited a lot of that,and so then I edited some in
college, but, man, I wasn'tpaying attention that much in
class.
I was mainly focused onbasketball having fun, and so I
kind of leveraged myself, thoughI was like hey, I could use
some extra cash, you know?
(09:51):
Hey, man, you know I can editthe video for you, but I don't
have a camera.
He's like dude, you should useyour phone.
I'll amazing, you know.
So I do it with my phone and mybuddy said my grandma gave me
this for Christmas.
So you put it like in your cupholder and it comes out for your
GPS to hold your phone.
He's like I figured you can usethat and I was like okay, so
(10:13):
that's what I did.
I like stood on the home Depotbucket, I did a little GPS
movement and stuff like that,just kind of like laughable
camera motions and all, and Imade a video of him working out
to send to his agent and all andeveryone loved it and he's like
dude, can you come backtomorrow?
And I was like, yeah, I can comeback tomorrow, kind of put a
bug in it, Right.
And then I went back to schoola week later and he calls me
when I'm on spring break and Iwas like, hey, what's up?
(10:33):
And he's like dude, I'm goingto the NBA combine.
You know, I just got in with anagency in gosh, I'm going to
have to buy a camera.
He said no, no, no, you justuse your phone.
I was like I want somethingbetter than a phone if I'm going
to the combine so I can standout.
I'm thinking this is goingalmost into my senior year now,
so I need to try to figure out ajob, right?
I go to B&H and get aninterest-free credit card with
no money to my name and buy itEOS 90D.
(11:00):
I get out the box, you know,just learn how to use it and
then everything kind of shutsdown with COVID and I was like,
oh, this isn't good.
The whole world shut down.
And you know, I was like, whatam I going to do?
But luckily, when I moved backhome, that gym that he was
training those guys in wasprivately owned, so that one
summer he went from trainingjust the you know two or three
pros to now 17 professionalathletes, and I be better.
What are the pros use?
What do they do?
(11:20):
What are their styles?
What are their methods right?
How do they edit?
So?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
you know just kind of getting that education.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
nowadays, with all this YouTube knowledge and
podcast knowledge that we havenow, you can really learn a lot.
And then eventually, at the endof the summer, I was like you
know, what I should do, eventhough I'm done school, was I
should really go back and use myfifth year of eligibility and
then kind of get another major.
So my first major was multimediadesign, which is more graphic
design, and then I went back andgot digital production and
broadcast and you're learning alittle bit more about cameras, a
(11:54):
little bit more about audio,kind of asking a lot more
questions in school, tellingthem, hey, I have a camera, can
I use my camera to shoot asports game or something like
that?
Right, that's just kind of likeall those reps, though added up
, it was something that I wasdoing as almost like a side
hustle throughout those last fewyears of school and then kept
on applying to sports teams,being like you know I'm with the
videographer position orphotographer, and they're just
(12:15):
kind of like.
You know, your resume is notthere.
I don't really.
You're filming guys in the gym,it's cool, you're getting a lot
of likes online, but there'snothing that we can use here.
So then I basically was like,well, I need to create something
for myself then.
So I basically was saying, okay, well, the athletes are going
to be there.
If I can essentially convince abusiness guy or two to do
business work for them and thenmaybe get involved in New
Orleans working on set, if oneof those three things is down,
(12:36):
the other one might be up, Allright.
So that was my game plan goinginto it, and you know, still to
this day it's been almost threeand a half years now.
It's pretty much stable, likethat I would say.
I don't really film as muchsports nowadays.
It's mainly more of helping outon set or just doing a lot of
my own work, but primarily withbusinesses.
And in New Orleans I workedwith Elephant Quilt Productions
for a while and they gave me ahuge opportunity.
(12:58):
Man, I was a PA for probablylike a year and a half.
It was a small productioncompany like a year and a half.
It was a small productioncompany like three to five
members, so I feel like I got alot more reps of wearing a lot
of different hats and learningabout lighting and book lighting
.
You know different techniquesand learning how to work with a
crew Right, and so I think thosereps were probably the most
important out of everything youknow.
You can learn a lot on YouTubeand all but once you kind of get
a lot of those hands-onexperience with guys who are a
(13:20):
little more obviously moreexperienced than you are, it
helps a lot.
So I definitely took a lot ofthat information and, you know,
try to apply it kind of like thecompetitive athlete in all of
us.
So you just want to get alittle bit better every day,
right?
So you just want to get a littlebit better every single day and
then it adds up to now youbecome experienced right.
Then you can kind of handle alot on your own and try to fit
into a role nowadays but, likewe talked before, it is hard now
(13:43):
with the strikes and everythingand there's not tons of set
work.
So it's a lot more on what canyou do on your own.
But it's definitely a funcareer, it's a fun job and, like
I said, I know I've talked fora while but it really has been
an interesting journey.
I feel like not many peoplekind of start on an iPhone and
then, like you know, come backup to a camera, to PA, to camera
world, to A lot of twists andturns in it.
(14:03):
You know, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Everyone's story is going to be different.
It's never cookie cutter Doingauditions.
Everything they tell you istrue, but when you break from
the norm that might get you thejob.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Kids start out out of high school and they start
taking acting and their careertakes off or drops down.
They come back or I startedlate in life and boom.
So that's fantastic, you'veshot a Western, you've shot a
mockumentary, commercials,sports I don't know if you've
shot anything else.
What's next?
What's the goal?
Where are you aiming for whatwould be a dream?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Man, my dream would probably say you know my wife
asked me this a lot is I wouldlove to be a commercial DP.
I would love to be acinematographer for commercials.
You know a lot of people Ithink really want to do movies
and all, and I think that'd beamazing too, but it is such a
hard world to get into and all.
I would say I would really liketo be like a DP for commercials
.
You know it's a very hard, hardpath to get there.
(14:57):
You know it's, it feels likeit's something that would be my
dream, but there's no map to getthere and most of the
commercials in New Orleans areaare from out of town DPs and
then's his favorite guy to workwith.
You know, someone told me likeyou can drive like a box truck
and eventually work your way upfrom like third to second.
I think it just takes a littlebit of luck At the same time
with that being hard to attain,and I'm, you know, I'm trying to
get there, I think.
For right now I label myself asyou know.
(15:19):
I'm basically a freelancer, butI also have like a production
business, right, productioncompany, the JSB Productions,
and so I'd say, just try to kindof continue to do that right,
continue to work with businessesto tell people's stories.
I think that's something thatcan't be replaced by AI.
So try to invoke morestorytelling, even if it's
something like dude, we want todo a video on our basketball
team.
Well, can we do like aninterview with the coach and can
(15:39):
we get maybe some stage shotsto kind of add a little bit more
storytelling and try to bring alittle bit more production
values to the jobs that mightnot even have the budget for it,
because then it's going toprove your worth, and I think
working with businesses and thendoing some documentaries I
think would be something thatI'm really interested in talking
with the guy now.
But I just think thedocumentary world is really
interesting and I feel like thatmight be a road pass that you
(15:59):
know, maybe lend yourself andyou do a good documentary, you
have a short film experience,maybe your resume looks better
for a commercial DP right.
But you know, we'll see whereYacht takes us, just kind of
taking it one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Right, yeah, well-rounded experience yeah,
that seems to be the key andthat's what you said.
You hit it on something reallybig when you said there's no
direct path, and I think that'skind of true for everything in
the industry.
Sure, there are sometraditional routes for a lot of
the different behind the scenesthings I mean on camera as well
that everybody finds a differentway to get there, and it's kind
(16:33):
of hard to plan out this careerbecause you never know what
twist is going to take youanother direction.
You might come across somebodyand a new opportunity comes up.
That's completely differentthan what you were thinking.
I've been trying to learn someof the stuff you were talking
about with the cameras as well,for my side hustle, and I kind
of feel like shooting on a phoneis like learning how to drive
(16:53):
with a stick If you can getgreat video with that, with all
the little ins and outs, withoutusing lenses and special stuff.
Then by the time you work yourway up to cameras, then you have
the foundation and that's whatI'm trying to do now.
I'm trying to learn how to usethe camera, all the features on
it, and it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, it is very fun and I think you know what's
important is, all these camerasnowadays are just like, packed
with all these features.
Right, for instance, theremight be a camera that the
features are more suited tosomeone that's doing like on set
role with a lot of people thatare working with you.
Right, that even the littlemarkings and the lenses are for
the camera team.
Right, for the guy.
That's point focused on theright side.
And I think, for justfilmmaking in general, you don't
(17:34):
need to know as much about theactual guts of everything, right
, to break all the rules as muchas you need to know, like,
what's the story you're telling.
And I think a big thing thatpeople overlook is the lens
choices.
Right, the lens choices, whatgives a character, and
especially the focal lengths,right, you know, do you want to
have a distorted background?
Is your thing more of like a?
For instance, the chosen is agreat TV show, right, I don't
(17:54):
know if you guys have seen thechosen thing.
It's the largest crowdfunded TVshow of all time.
Now, right, it's on Amazon andthis guy loved 19,.
Like seventies movies.
Right, like, or old school kindof movies where it doesn't have
a shallow depth of field, whichmeans that the background is
not super blurred.
You can just see the sky in thebackground, right.
(18:14):
And so instead of shooting wideopen and using the built-in ND
filters, like these features arecranking today, he prefers to
just stop it down to T4 or T8,right, so you can kind of have
nothing really blurred.
It just looks like I'm actuallyseeing this like an old movie
and that becomes your style, andso that's kind of a good
example to explain.
You know, sometimes the featuresare there, like the built-in ID
.
I can go walk out outsidewithout a map box and get
shallow depth of field and itcan look freaking awesome.
(18:35):
But at the same time you canget creative with it and break
the rules a little bit, and thenyou kind of find your little
style.
So sometimes the features itmight not all apply to you, but
at the same time you can use itto create your own style, which
I think is awesome, especiallyfor people that are starting out
too and just learning, becauseyou can just be like.
The possibilities are infinitealmost.
And even with iPhones with theportrait photo lens, it's kind
of like the same thing, right,you could do portrait mode on
(18:57):
your phone now blurs thebackground, or you could just
take a normal photo, whateveryou like best, and that's at our
fingertips.
It's really a cool, cool timeto be a part of this.
I think it's harder to findlike on set stuff and all, but
at the same time it's easier tojust create whatever you want to
create.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
And your choices become part of the storytelling.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Set design lenses, like you said.
For us, it's the choices wemake as actors.
Am I going to be a mustachetwirling villain or grounded
villain, Like some of you mightmeet in real life, who just
happens to kill people?
What effect is that Comedyversus all those things?
It's always story.
Ai will never get that right.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You know what I mean.
It'll be bland and it'll be.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I will tell a movie.
It's that human element ofstorytelling.
But I find that fascinating.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Just never thought about it from a lens point or
from a technical point like thatyeah, no, it's, it's true, man,
and, like you said, it comeswith acting too, and that's what
makes good acting, makes beatsall good, camera settings right.
You know, if you're at, if it'sgreat acting, it's great acting
.
So it's pretty cool to hear youguys side of everything too.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, it's like we're all working towards the same
goal.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I'll ask you guys so are you guys, you know, trying
to work in a certain you I'drather work in comedies, or I'd
rather work in drama or realityor are you kind of more open to
whatever role kind of comesabout?
I'm always curious, like withactors, because you know, you
see, sometimes Leonardo DiCapriodo multiple different roles,
right, I don't know.
But then you see some guyswhere it's like I only do
(20:21):
comedies or, for instance, Ionly do sci-fi stuff, like
there's a lot of people thattheir whole career, if you look
at their filmography, isliterally just like sci-fi work,
right, right.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, some people do just like you were
saying.
Your style with filming bodywork ends up being a style for
some people.
They only do certain things.
There are some actors that onlydo commercials.
Commercials pay really well.
You don't see them doing a lotof film or tv for me.
I think I'm more geared towarddrama, darker roles, the bad guy
(20:52):
, the mean guy.
But I have done some comedy aswell and I mean I like doing
both and I don't know.
I don't think I'm as funny asbrian.
Brian's got more of alight-hearted personality and
it's easier to see him in thatrole.
I think that's probably whatthrew people off with me in the
48 is people aren't used toseeing me do the lighter stuff,
(21:13):
but I do enjoy comedy a lot.
I don't think there's anything.
Yeah, I don't think there'sanything.
So far that I've done that Ididn't like.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah, I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
What about you, Brian ?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I love doing it all.
I really love the monstermakeup, like being deaf.
Everyone knows me as a nice guy.
I think I am.
I try to be comedic genial, butI've played like four bad guys
in the past three months.
You know what I mean, right?
What do you mean?
He killed him, you know.
So that's fun.
And we're at the point in ourcareer where we can't be too
(21:47):
choosy, right, we can kind ofchoose what we submit to.
Yeah, as long as the script wasgood, I'm there, money's okay.
It's one way to look at it, butI can't think of anything that
maybe like if I was trying to beRambo like a big action.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So, but no, it's interesting though, because it's
kind of like, whenever you'restarting out, it feels like you
want to take almost everythingthat comes your way right,
because you're just trying toget experience.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'm like that too.
It's the same boat, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, my comedy is big and broad and I like being
goofy.
I like dad jokes, even you knowwhat I mean.
That's what acting is all about.
So when you can hit that markbecause there are days you try
and you just don't feel it- youcan relax and just get into it.
It's a great feeling.
And then I told y'all aboutthis movie this past weekend
(22:35):
without going into any detailsbecause I don't know if it'll be
released by the time this comesout.
I did a scene.
He's a him.
What I'm going to break my ownarm, pat myself on the back.
It was really good.
We did a take two for just incase for coverage, and they go
cut and a crewman goes.
How did it get creepier?
I did better than I did on thefirst take, which I thought was
(22:56):
great.
That's phenomenal, especiallywhen you look back to your first
classes and you're nervous andyou want to be an actor and
you're fidgety and everything'swrong.
So when you, when you hit thatstride, when you hit that moment
, there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So, Boots, what's something that's unique to you?
You might've heard othercameramen and DPs talk about
certain things that everyoneknows.
Every DP knows.
Hit our listeners withsomething that's just you.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, man, Something that's unique to me is I just
feel like the journey has beenreally unique.
I know everyone else kind ofstarts off with different
journeys, but I feel like a lotof these people nowadays that
are, you know, DPs of shortfilms or something like that, a
lot of them went to film school,a lot of them worked on student
films and they kind of gottheir experience that way,
Whereas I think it's not just me, it's a whole pack of us, but
(23:38):
there's a lot of these guys thatessentially learn from being
online or learn from being injust normal school.
Right, it's kind of like ageneration of videographers and
editors that are just sotalented but they're not taking
the traditional like DP route tothings.
Right, they're almost justmaking it happen on their own
with a camera lens from B&HPhoto and they're just getting
(23:58):
super creative.
And I think that's alsosomething that not a lot of
people talk about.
It's becoming not as much oflike oh, this guy can fit in
this role.
He could be a great gaffer, agreat grip, and a lot of times
it's just kind of like we cancall you know, jeffrey or
something.
He can come and make this videoawesome.
Maybe he brings another guy,almost kind of like a
photographer You're just coming,you're like doing a second
shoot of a video and like twomain crew just knocks.
(24:25):
This is supposed to be right.
I think we're supposed to bedoing what we are great at, but
a lot of times there are these,you know, group of us that are
just so.
You know we wear so manydifferent hats, you know.
They say it kind of like youknow Jack of all trades, but
master of none, and so that'sthe one thing that's kind of
hard that no one really talksabout either, is that, although
that is great and I think that'sthe future right, is guys
making it happen on their own,but at the same time, when it
(24:46):
comes down to like you know,fitting into a role, right, like
, I want to be a DP?
Well, look at your portfolio.
You're doing everything on yourown but at the same time, like
you, had DP experience of youjust being one, you know.
Or do we just hire you becauseof the products that your
business puts out looks reallygood?
And can you operate Aria Alexaright Because good.
And can you operate Arri Alexaright Because, although you have
all this great portfolio work,you might've done this on a Sony
(25:08):
that you got online, but do youknow how to work with a gaffer
and operate different kind ofcameras?
I remember when I was just kindof like PA and what I talked
about with Elephant Quilt theyasked me to set up the cameras.
I never worked with Sony.
I film all the time, but I justdon't film with this camera.
Well, you're expected to knowlike this camera needs to.
You know this is the base ISO.
This is what we need to set up.
This is how you meter exposure.
(25:28):
I just think that the landscapeof everything is so unique and I
think that me, starting fromsports and all, is something
that's different.
I think a lot of guys don'tstart with that.
They start with passion,projects and all.
So I think that's somethingthat'll make me a little unique
in that I've pretty much done alot.
I feel like a lot of peoplemore yeech down and that's kind
(25:51):
of like my fall.
I'm not doing good enough job,but just like niching down.
He says, like a Western, I'vedone weddings, I've done
Westerns.
I've done, you know, a lot ofmockumentary.
They're like nine or 10mockumentary things and I've
done business or corporatethings, many documentaries.
You know, a lot of highlightmixes.
So I feel like I don't do agood job of niching down.
I've kind of done a little bitof everything.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
That's good though.
Yeah, that's good to build thatresume up.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, it gives you a cool perspective.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, you can't niche down if you don't have the
opportunity, that's right.
So if we were, let's say, inArizona, they'd probably film a
lot of Westerns there.
Just because of what it is,they may have more chance to
keep, and it would be thereverse.
You know what I mean.
Right, it's coming.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, no, it's kind of crazy because they start off
in sports.
Right, I want to be a sportsspecialist, this is what I love
to do, I'm passionate about it,love it.
But then you're like, you know,think of it like this, nfl
hires salary guys, collegesports have students that do it
for free, and then they alsohave one or two salary guys.
Right, you have your high thoseavenues.
What are you going to do withsports If everyone's taken up
(26:51):
with salary positions?
You know, some of the salariesare not very appealing.
It might be 40 grand a year tocome film for these guys.
And you're like, okay, well, Imight be able to make that on my
own if I just freelance itrather than just trying to chain
myself up and work for them.
Obviously, every opportunity isdifferent, right, but it's a
crazy field, man, and I feellike it's changing so much.
And I used to get paid to doIGTV videos and then it was like
(27:12):
59 second mixes and then it wasYouTube stuff.
And then you know, tiktok cameout and then changed the game
with the reels and then you know, can we have any vertical stuff
?
Can we get with this brandingvideo that you want to do?
So it just changes a lot, youknow, and that this is only in
the span of what?
Two or three years?
Yeah, how many other businessesand fields change so much in
one to two years?
(27:33):
It's crazy how fast this isprogressing and how different
avenues are being opened up.
Like you said, tj, I mean thefuture might be filming on
iPhones.
There's videos like the Appleshot on iPhone commercials that
they have nowadays.
That looks amazing.
It looks unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, yeah, I was actually going to bring that up.
Yeah, I was going to mentionthat, but you brought it up.
That's a great point.
The filmed on the iPhones, onthe Apple commercials are just
incredible.
I would say lighting is very,very important when it comes to
that.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, and that's something that's changed so much
too.
Man, it used to be tungstenfixtures, right, that'd get so
hot you have to get gloves onand LED lights came out and they
were kind of crappy and makeeveryone's skin look weird and
you know you can get fired forthat.
You know you have your actorcome out of makeup and then
they're like green skin.
Yeah, it was just like the badled lights on me and not making
it look good.
And then they're like well, youknow you're the dp, you gotta
make it look good.
(28:22):
But nowadays the amount of powerthat you can get for a price
that you pay, with aperture andsmall rig and you know they have
like four foot tubes that canchange different colors, you
know like tubes and the qualityof leds has gotten so much
better.
It's just crazy.
Like the nfo sidelines, if youever watch them, they have astra
6x just like a normal whitepanel, right like a 4x4, just
(28:42):
slap a v-mount battery on it.
You don't need to plug it intoanything.
You know you do littleinterviews at a sideline power
button knob going and it looksgreat and you're like wow, it's
just crazy how the simplicity ofeverything and the quality of
fixtures were as 20 years ago.
You had to plug in a whole liketungsten fixture and make sure
you don't blow someone's outletout and it's going to get so hot
afterwards and you can't dim itdown unless you get a dimmer.
(29:05):
But nowadays you can get aBluetooth app in your phone and
just wheel it down.
It's to be getting easier tolight things now too, that's
right.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
You're saying what can you do with your sports
filmmaking knowledge?
Make a sports movie.
We need a full contact checkersmovie and you're the guy to do
it.
That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
I'm kind of partial to tackle basketball, but that's
just me.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
What can we do with croquet?
I don't want to ask aboutcornholing no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Then your screen's right there and you could have a
vertical 6k camera for $3,000.
Canon c400 just came out.
You could also turn it sidewayswith the rig.
Screw it in, you have avertical camera.
You can flip the screen up, andso you know camera companies
are making it to where you canfilm vertical content easily,
and tripods have always been theone where you can rotate the
screen up, and so you knowcamera companies are making it
to where you can film verticalcontent easily.
And tripods have always been theone where you can rotate the
(30:35):
tripod and make it vertical.
But now, with the cameras beingable to rig vertical and I have
the old Black Magic, the 6K Proif I turn mine sideways, the
settings will change, so it'sall forward.
So then you can do it like thatvertical filmmaking man.
It's crazy, because those willget more views and get more
attention than something that'sfilmed horizontally.
Unless you have a big nameactor or someone that's in for
(30:58):
the most part, these reels willoutperform the nicer content Now
, which one has a longer shelflife can be more value to your
business.
That's something that'sdifferent, but it's something to
be said that, yeah, it'sdefinitely a future, and pretty
much every job that I donowadays, people want reels out
of it.
So it's kind of like I have toaccept that.
For a while there I was like Idon't do social media work.
I only want to do stuff foryour website, youtube.
I quickly just like this is aterrible game plan.
(31:20):
Social media is exploding, youknow.
So it's the future.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, it is, and there's a plugins now that help
with that as well.
We were talking off camerabefore we started about game
streaming and OBS, and there areother softwares, too that you
use to record screen record whenyou're game streaming.
They have plugins available nowwhere it'll pull it out and
give you vertical clips at thesame time that you're recording
(31:48):
your regular standard yeah.
It's all about creating contentand churning out product.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, it's turning us into machines, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
It is.
Ai helps a little bit.
Yeah, I know right Not the AIthat takes us over and pretends
to be us, but as far as editinggoes, Right, it's fun, though I
mean.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I think it's like I said, it's more accessible.
So you get to do more, you getto work more.
It's a little nuances, but atthe same time, like no one's
going to have a job, that's just.
Everything's a hundred percentperfect all the time.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Even people think, oh , these professional athletes,
like they're so happy.
It's like most professionalathletes are very unhappy with
their situation.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Either they're not playing enough or they want new
money.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Physical pain.
They don't feel like yeah,physical pain.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
They don't like the coach, they don't like the
situation, and then they go to anew one and they realize they
got the same problem.
It's kind of like we're notmeant for this world, almost.
It's just like you know.
It's hard to be 100% satisfiedwith everything that's going on.
Yeah you can't, you're gearheadand all this stuff.
(32:56):
But I do find it interestingthat a lot of these cool
companies and I did the mendiziofilms like a china I think I
get their base out of china theymake these lenses and
anamorphic lenses used to besomething that's what like forty
thousand dollars, fifty, youknow panavision anamorphic
lenses were like crazy expensiveand nowadays, or blizzard, for
instance, is another one.
You can get three anamorphiclenses for like two grand I
think, and they're like goodanamorphic lenses.
(33:17):
And then you can get the dzo.
They have a bunch that areprobably under 2000 per
anamorphic lens and so there'slike cool things like that are
happening.
You know they have this one dzor list prime.
It's like a one four cinemaprime.
They compared it to like thezeiss $20,000 one.
It's not that much of adifference.
I'm sure if you were using itin a real setting it might be a
little bit.
But man, the image quality ofsome of these things is.
(33:38):
It's fun.
It's exciting that you canessentially get these things at
cheaper prices, you know what'syour main lens that you're
running right now?
on your road, mainly just kindof sigma primes right like Like
photo lenses.
For most jobs I don't ever useautofocus, I usually manually
pull everything but, I have likethe 18 to 35, the 70 to 200.
I do have a Vespid 40 that Ilike to do for you know, maybe
(33:59):
some pepper in the sauce, but atthe same time I do like using
lens rentals a lot Like.
I feel like if I'm going torent something for, like you
know, a short film, or maybeeven want to elevate a look of a
project, I'd rather just rentsomething instead of pay the big
bucks and then kind of have theSigma lenses for and maybe you
could put up a dream filter onit or something to give it a
little different look forsomething that's cheaper.
(34:19):
But you know to own some ofthese for my financial state now
my wife would not be happy,right, but I would love to.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I'm running a Sigma lens on this and it's a prime
lens, but it's still great,great quality and it's not
expensive you know, compared tostuff that's available yeah,
they use the same glass andtheir stills lenses that they do
in their cine lenses.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So you think of it like, oh, these cine lenses are
five grand.
Let's actually the same glassin the one.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's like 700 bucks , you know, and you're like oh,
is it zeiss glass, or is itsomebody else that's making it?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
That I don't know.
I think it's Sigma that makesit, but I don't know if it's I
don't think Zeiss makes it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, I have a webcam and a microphone.
That's right.
I love that TJ has finally gotsomeone who can talk the
minutiae and gear.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Tech stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's cool because it helps you get the unique look
right.
I think that's what we're allkind of after is aspiring DPs
and all this.
How can I get a unique lookwithout maybe having to get a
super fancy Alexa camera right?
You want to try to find waysthat you could make yourself
stand out, whether that'slighting methods, whether that's
lenses or filters.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It's kind of like you know how can you make your own
sauce Right?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I worked on a movie Wheel of Heaven it should be
coming out soon and he used aGame Boy camera to catch some
footage, just to drop intosomething weird you know, what I
mean.
It just clicked Like I knew it.
Oh, that's cool, but listeningto you talk gave it a whole new
level of appreciation for me.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
So get weird folks.
I know I love like the isbecause like there is some
moments where they'll let me uselike GoPros or like Game Boy
cameras almost like littlethings and they'll rig it to the
camera.
So maybe if he opens the fridgeand pulls the milk out of the
fridge, the camera's liketracking with them.
Right so like sometimesbuilding that creative rig with
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I find that stuff really interesting.
You know, leave the camera onthe door and as he opens it up,
it stops on his face and helooks down at the milk or
something you know.
Yeah, Someone, no one's noone's thought of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
That's right, Like if you ever seen Bullet Train.
They do a lot of cool stuffwith like the water bottle scene
in.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Bullet.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Train, yeah, and that was a movie where I was like
this is like I love those coolideas for those shots.
Man, it's sick.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Nice, cool.
Now we just got to get you aboot camera and the circle will
come complete.
That's right Boots.
It's been a blast having you on.
Do you have any social mediayou want to share with folks?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, you can follow me at jspproductions underscore
and then wwwjspproductionscomorgis some of my work that you can
see, and I'd say that the bestis yet to come.
Yeah, Everyone asks me likewhat's your favorite project,
and it's of the next one.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
The next one.
Yeah, that's a good answer.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
The next one that you , the viewer, will hire him to
do.
And he'll hire us.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
That's right.
It's the circle of life.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
You guys are the best man.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
I'm happy to come on anytime.
Thank you, thank you, we lovehaving you.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
We appreciate you.
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