Movies & Videos
Backstory
From the first time I picked up a video camera, I was fascinated. I was determined to make a movie, so I made up a storyline as I went along with my brother and friend in, and I just paused the tape, dictated what was to happen, and started it back up again. Unfortunately, I have no idea where that tape is.
After writing a few musicals, I got into writing screenplays. I will attempt to find most of them and post links to them, but it’s worth noting that only a couple were ever made, and even then, it was by either me or a group of scrappy, young Australians that were probably a lot like me (with better editing equipment). So I did make a couple of movies (one short, one long), but they were on a non-existent budget, and while I had a script and a plan, I was still figuring things out as I went along. This resulted in my having an IMDB profile which is linked from the footer of every page.
Beyond personal filmmaking, I used my musical skills to contribute to a couple of soundtracks, and these days, I use what I learned from filmmaking to create videos for friends and family, which is usually weddings though I did do the Pride of Broken Arrow’s senior photo montage videos between the time my middle child was a senior and youngest child was a senior.
Wedding Videos
Since I mentioned wedding videos, I figured I’d talk a bit about how I did them. To date, I’ve shot and edited four weddings: three for family and one because they saw the one I made for my sister, which is the one I got permission to show below.
I take a cinematic approach to every video I make. The weddings have all used multiple cameras set around the venue on order to get the best shots possible without disrupting the event itself or showing up in any pictures. I usually sit somewhere in the audience with another camera to catch the action from there as well. Where possible, the bride, groom, and pastor have had microphones on to get their voices. I load all of the videos into Adobe Premiere, sync them all up and cut between them in a live production fashion to emphasize the moment as well as I can (as well as cutting past all those times the photographer walks in front of the camera).
For what it’s worth, everyone seems to like the outcome, and I hope it’s not just because there are no other options.
The Wedding of Tabitha Willson and Jason Henninger - May 23, 2015
What is unique about some of my videos are the extras I throw into them. They contain credits to remember everyone in the wedding, associated with it, and what music was selected. I generally get the music used so I overlay it on top of the wedding audio to make it actually audible. And since these two play video games, I created a custom “Xbox Achievement” to blink on when it was complete.
And to be honest, I learned a fair number of things not to do that I improved upon with subsequent videos.
Production Videos
Alien Proof (2006)
A script I wrote for some guys in Australia, and as of the time of this writing, it is the only movie I wrote for someone else that was actually made. They had requested a sci-fi comedy with a few specifics to it, and this is what turned out. They cut out about half the script and it is definitely low budget, but I enjoyed seeing it all the same. Has a sort of charm to it, actually.
You can read the original script at http://www.fempiror.com/otherscripts/AlienProof.pdf
No Better Loved Than Lost (2007)
A short I wrote to try out some moviemaking. It was intended to be simple, and I edited the whole thing in Windows Moviemaker (which will become clear when you see that sweet papyrus font).
Synopsis is: A woman tries to come to terms with her man jilting her…or is that what really happened?
No Kind Of Life (2008)
This is my big production. Ok, small production, but I did the whole thing. Produced, directed, shot, edited, music, everything. Ok, my brother did the lights and sound including the music recording.
The script was one of those someone asked me to write, but as these things go, they never did anything with it, so since it was written to be low budget, I made it instead. It barely crosses the “feature length” threshold, but technically, it is a full movie.
I have a laundry list of things I’d fix or do differently, so there’s probably no criticism anyone can give that I haven’t noticed myself.
Other Videos
Not everything is intended to be a “Hollywood production.” Here’s a collection of other videos I made through the years for the sole purpose of showing off video editing or production skills.
Dishonest Trailer for Friday The 13th Part 3
If you’ve never seen Friday the 13th “Part 3-D”, no one will hold that against you. I took the movie and the dishonest trailer route, however, and highlighted the romantic subplot of the film to make like the movie was a fun, teen romance. I put it first because it’s one of my favorite creations due to its sheer ridiculousness.
Lennie Niehaus Sketch #5
This is me on trombone, but the video skill here is syncing sound and video. I am playing all three parts with a metronome in my ear to ensure they are exactly together, and then all three videos are placed together on the same timeline to make one piece of music. I have several versions of these types of videos, but I’ll put all of these on the music performance pages.
Hit By A Truck
Ok, ok, this is my favorite video. When my brother hits himself with his own truck, how can it not be. Although only 9 seconds, this thing took hours to make. It isn’t perfect, but I did it at home for fun. What do you want? Made using Adobe After Effects and following a tutorial while using my own footage, we still get a kick (or hit) out of it.
That’s my middlest looking shocked at the end.
Kitchen Fireball
More After Effects playing. It’s mostly about the timing, some glare, and trimming the edges of the effect. Nothing spectacular, but light amusement.
Amazing Grace - 7 part harmony
This is one of my most watched videos, and one of the most copyright disputed. I had to fight with YouTube for more than a year over the fact that Amazing Grace was public domain and no one owned the rights to it.
Video-wise, the experiment here is obvious. One person. Seven parts. Layer then like a choir. And ignore that somehow the camera recorded multiple lighting levels and the rather poor cuts around my head(s). I mean, left me looks ill.
No Kind Of Life Movie Trailer
Of course, my movie had a trailer, and of course, I made it.