Monday, January 3, 2011
New Brand, New Site!
www.coldtwelvemedia.com from Andrew Zaragoza on Vimeo.
Formerly Hero Productions
Cold Twelve Media
www.coldtwelvemedia.com
Hello and let me introduce you to the new site, ColdTwelveMedia.com. With the launch of the new site, comes the new brand that I will be filming under which was formerly Hero Productions, now, Cold Twelve Media. I'm very excited for the change, a change in which I knew was going to come one day, I just wasn't sure when. If you were to Google "Hero Productions", my blog would not be first on the list, and it would be followed by many many other "Hero this and that's" of the world. I knew I had to make a change. So with the praise and help from the Cold Twelvers I adopted the name and became a part of the Cold Twelve family.
What started off as just a hobby to film drifting while my track car was out of service, turned into quite the side job. I'm proud of what I did with Hero Productions and putting myself on the "media map". Hey, Googling popular terms like "Hero" and "Productions" and having my old site be second on what pops up is pretty cool in my book. Still, the name and what I did with Hero Productions was not unique enough to separate myself from every other "hero" or every other production company on the web. So in comes the new excited, happy and healthy baby that is "Cold Twelve Media". I can't wait to make this thing grow into something bigger than I could have ever imagined when I started Hero Productions.
I thank everyone that was ever a part of Hero Productions, especially those that closely followed the old blog. Hopefully I did something to catch your attention then, so much so that you will follow me here on this site and watch Cold Twelve Media grow in 2011. Big thanks to the Cold Twelvers themselves, E.C, Monsrock and El Rob, guys I can't wait to build even more this year. I wouldn't be here with out Vchi Studios for picking me up and letting me be apart of that empire. And last but most certainly not least my family and my fiance who is seriously my back bone when it comes to all this.
I can't promise anything, but I'm not getting any younger and I don't plan on keeping my day job much longer. What that means is more time dedicated to filming and editing to bring you the highest quality entertainment you've ever seen.
That would officially be the cheesiest post I've ever made and it will be the last. Save it because you won't see it again. Happy new year and lets make 2011 one to remember.
Sincerely,
Andrew Zaragoza
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Cash Dreed - Get the Green$
Extremely fun shoot. A 2 day shoot starting out in mid town Sacramento, Ca with the talented nor cal MC's , El Rob and Monsrock, or better known as Cash Dreed. Day two was back in south Sacramento at the home studio of Monsrock. After a few takes, these guys looked like they've been in front of the camera for years. All in all, I think this turned out quite well considering this was my first official music video.
The entire video was shot on a Canon T2i, 18-55mm kit lens, 50mm Nikon, 28mm M42 prime lens and edited with Final Cut Pro. I finally got a chance to use my newly purchased Indislider Delux mini, and despite all the negative reviews online, this slider worked out great! The pistol grip was a huge help as well as the added base legs. The only issues I had were my tripod wasn't sturdy enough for me to pull of clean slides and when I placed it on a desk, button mashing made it vibrate quite a bit. If you don't mind putting in some work to get the shot you want, I do recommend the indislider.
The "Get the Greens" single is dropping sometime in October. This is only the first single, you can bet you will be seeing much more from Cash Dreed and Hero Productions VERY soon.
Enjoy the Cash Dreed - Get the Greens official music video!
Cash Dreed - Get the Greens
The entire video was shot on a Canon T2i, 18-55mm kit lens, 50mm Nikon, 28mm M42 prime lens and edited with Final Cut Pro. I finally got a chance to use my newly purchased Indislider Delux mini, and despite all the negative reviews online, this slider worked out great! The pistol grip was a huge help as well as the added base legs. The only issues I had were my tripod wasn't sturdy enough for me to pull of clean slides and when I placed it on a desk, button mashing made it vibrate quite a bit. If you don't mind putting in some work to get the shot you want, I do recommend the indislider.
The "Get the Greens" single is dropping sometime in October. This is only the first single, you can bet you will be seeing much more from Cash Dreed and Hero Productions VERY soon.
Enjoy the Cash Dreed - Get the Greens official music video!
Cash Dreed - Get the Greens
Thursday, July 15, 2010
All Star Bash X
Video Here:CLICK HERE
Please continue on and read more about this event!
This year's All Star Bash did not disappoint. I hope in this video you can get some sense of the speeds these drivers are hitting, the angle they're getting, and how close they're getting to each other! Just Drift really knows how to throw a "bash" and Ziptied, as well as their peers, really know how to drive. I said it this time last year, All Star Bash is the best drift event anyone can attend in the entire United States. A year later and I still stick by that statement. The people on and off the track make this quite the amazing experience. I must thank Charlie, Just Drift Staff, Drivers and all the station workers who helped make this possible.
All Star Bash is an invite 2 day extravaganza. The best of the best come out and show off their cars and show off their driving. Amateur to semi pro to full on professional drivers were on display. The event itself isn't like that of any other. Its just one big party on and off the track. The first day is on Streets of Willows at Willow Springs raceway, this continues on through the night for the Team Tandem Competition and on the second day drivers are allowed to hit Horse Thief Mile, a mountain style course. Although there is a competition at night, the main purpose of this event is to have fun. I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say we reached our goal. Even those who had car issues can agree we had fun. Drivers helping other drivers in fixing their cars or fixing their problems on the track, ASB is just a great environment all around. I wish everyone could experience All Star Bash. If you were sitting on the fence of going this year, you missed out! When the next ASB arrives, don't miss your opportunity, you must go.
With the addition of my new Canon T2i, I was able to run two cameras at the same event for the first time. David Perez did and exceptional job, even though he had never even touched a Canon HV20. The image quality is very noticeable, but I think it worked out well. The extreme winds made audio from three sources (Canon T2i, HV20 and Zoom H2) unusable. A higher end wind screen for the H2 is definitely a must after this. Luckily we have the great sounds from the .Label Media Group. El Rob, E.C, Monsrock, and Elephant Gun came in BIG with the soundtrack to this years ASB-X. If you like what you heard, most of their music is down loadable FOR FREE. Just visit The .Label Blog and have a listen and down load what you like.
The highlight of the event for me is something I didn't think I would see so soon. Three maniacs from Nor-Cal go to So-Cal compete in the biggest event of the year and come home as winners of the Team Tandem Competition! I was amazed at how well everyone drove, but especially Ryan Kado, Yee Xion, and Julian Jacobs. In the video you can see how fast and how close they are to each other on almost every run. I'm extremely proud of these guys on the inspiring win down at Willow Springs. At the end of the video, you can see just what an amazing event ASB-X is. Where else will you find that many cars, on track, drifting at high speeds? NO WHERE! Direct from Ryan Kado, "If you are going to go to one drift event in your life, make sure it is All Star Bash". Couldn't agree more.
I hope you enjoy the ASB-X montage. I had some computer problems, but nothing as major as I had thought. Took much longer than expected, but during the editing phase of this video, I shot two more events and found my self back logged quite a bit. Thanks to everyone who made this happen, BIG thanks to David Perez for filling in as my second camera man, you have quite the artistic mind. I can't wait to work with David again. I wish I could say it is time to sit back and relax, but I'm off to edit some more footage. What am I saying, I love doing this! I GET to go edit some more! Follow me on twitter at twitter.com/localstreethero and receive all the latest updates on videos as well as when they are released.
Thank you for watching,
Andrew Zaragoza
Hero Productions - Vchi Studios
Please continue on and read more about this event!
This year's All Star Bash did not disappoint. I hope in this video you can get some sense of the speeds these drivers are hitting, the angle they're getting, and how close they're getting to each other! Just Drift really knows how to throw a "bash" and Ziptied, as well as their peers, really know how to drive. I said it this time last year, All Star Bash is the best drift event anyone can attend in the entire United States. A year later and I still stick by that statement. The people on and off the track make this quite the amazing experience. I must thank Charlie, Just Drift Staff, Drivers and all the station workers who helped make this possible.
All Star Bash is an invite 2 day extravaganza. The best of the best come out and show off their cars and show off their driving. Amateur to semi pro to full on professional drivers were on display. The event itself isn't like that of any other. Its just one big party on and off the track. The first day is on Streets of Willows at Willow Springs raceway, this continues on through the night for the Team Tandem Competition and on the second day drivers are allowed to hit Horse Thief Mile, a mountain style course. Although there is a competition at night, the main purpose of this event is to have fun. I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say we reached our goal. Even those who had car issues can agree we had fun. Drivers helping other drivers in fixing their cars or fixing their problems on the track, ASB is just a great environment all around. I wish everyone could experience All Star Bash. If you were sitting on the fence of going this year, you missed out! When the next ASB arrives, don't miss your opportunity, you must go.
With the addition of my new Canon T2i, I was able to run two cameras at the same event for the first time. David Perez did and exceptional job, even though he had never even touched a Canon HV20. The image quality is very noticeable, but I think it worked out well. The extreme winds made audio from three sources (Canon T2i, HV20 and Zoom H2) unusable. A higher end wind screen for the H2 is definitely a must after this. Luckily we have the great sounds from the .Label Media Group. El Rob, E.C, Monsrock, and Elephant Gun came in BIG with the soundtrack to this years ASB-X. If you like what you heard, most of their music is down loadable FOR FREE. Just visit The .Label Blog and have a listen and down load what you like.
The highlight of the event for me is something I didn't think I would see so soon. Three maniacs from Nor-Cal go to So-Cal compete in the biggest event of the year and come home as winners of the Team Tandem Competition! I was amazed at how well everyone drove, but especially Ryan Kado, Yee Xion, and Julian Jacobs. In the video you can see how fast and how close they are to each other on almost every run. I'm extremely proud of these guys on the inspiring win down at Willow Springs. At the end of the video, you can see just what an amazing event ASB-X is. Where else will you find that many cars, on track, drifting at high speeds? NO WHERE! Direct from Ryan Kado, "If you are going to go to one drift event in your life, make sure it is All Star Bash". Couldn't agree more.
I hope you enjoy the ASB-X montage. I had some computer problems, but nothing as major as I had thought. Took much longer than expected, but during the editing phase of this video, I shot two more events and found my self back logged quite a bit. Thanks to everyone who made this happen, BIG thanks to David Perez for filling in as my second camera man, you have quite the artistic mind. I can't wait to work with David again. I wish I could say it is time to sit back and relax, but I'm off to edit some more footage. What am I saying, I love doing this! I GET to go edit some more! Follow me on twitter at twitter.com/localstreethero and receive all the latest updates on videos as well as when they are released.
Thank you for watching,
Andrew Zaragoza
Hero Productions - Vchi Studios
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Bart Series Beat Battle: Oak Vs S.F
Click Here to watch Bart Series Beat Battle Video
A very exciting event put on by Phillip Drummond and Beats Rhymes & Life, and a very enjoyable Friday night at Club 6 in downtown San Francisco. I had only heard of this beat battle a few hours before I set sail towards the bay with Monsrock to meet up with E.C, but I'm glad I had my camera ready to shoot whatever came my way. Prior to this event, I had never been to a beat battle in any way, nor have I really shot in a night club setting. Two new experiences and I enjoyed every bit of it
Phillip Drummond hosts many of these events, and his experience was apparent. There was rarely a dole moment the entire night, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and I got plenty of good footage. Hanging out with my .Label mates was fun, watching them battle it out with some of bay area's finest, was even better. I really didn't know what to expect and no disrespect to everyone there, I really wasn't expecting much. As soon as that first beat dropped by E-Train, I instantly knew this was the real deal. Producer after producer, great beat after great beat, I really started to enjoy myself after a few beats. No doubt there was a lot of talent inside Club 6 that night, I really wanted to be on par video-wise with what I was hearing. The audio was challenging, but the low light setting was really the biggest hurdle here.
Using only my Canon T2i, SpiderBrace and Zoom H2, the low light was a big problem. Early in the video, you can see even trying to get a decent white balance setting was difficult. I actually ended up using a few different ones until I got the picture to look good on the LCD screen. Once I got back to editing, I had to do a lot of color correcting. I used my 50mm Nikon Nikkor the entire night set at F1.4. Trying to use the kit lens was way out of the question. So much so I didn't even bring it. I might have gotten away with the popular Canon F1.8 prime lens, but the ISO would have been through the roof. ISO's did vary through out the night, but there was no way I was going to get around introducing "gain" in the picture. If I wasn't trying to conserve battery life on the Zoom H2, the entire show would have gotten great sound. The quality of these recorders is amazing, I highly recommend Zoom products, and if on a budget, the new Zoom H1 packs a huge punch in a small body and very affordable price of only $99. The SpiderBrace is an awesome product for this type of situation. A tight space full of people and not really knowing what to expect, its great to be versatile and mobile.
Phillip Drummond can throw a great event, and as good as his shows are, he's even better as a person. Very nice and easy to work along side with. If you are in the bay area and want to experience some real underground hip hop, stop by philthybeats.com and see what Phillip has in store. I hope you enjoyed the video and to those who participated. GREAT job and keep making beats. Eat sleep beats.
-Andrew
A very exciting event put on by Phillip Drummond and Beats Rhymes & Life, and a very enjoyable Friday night at Club 6 in downtown San Francisco. I had only heard of this beat battle a few hours before I set sail towards the bay with Monsrock to meet up with E.C, but I'm glad I had my camera ready to shoot whatever came my way. Prior to this event, I had never been to a beat battle in any way, nor have I really shot in a night club setting. Two new experiences and I enjoyed every bit of it
Phillip Drummond hosts many of these events, and his experience was apparent. There was rarely a dole moment the entire night, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and I got plenty of good footage. Hanging out with my .Label mates was fun, watching them battle it out with some of bay area's finest, was even better. I really didn't know what to expect and no disrespect to everyone there, I really wasn't expecting much. As soon as that first beat dropped by E-Train, I instantly knew this was the real deal. Producer after producer, great beat after great beat, I really started to enjoy myself after a few beats. No doubt there was a lot of talent inside Club 6 that night, I really wanted to be on par video-wise with what I was hearing. The audio was challenging, but the low light setting was really the biggest hurdle here.
Using only my Canon T2i, SpiderBrace and Zoom H2, the low light was a big problem. Early in the video, you can see even trying to get a decent white balance setting was difficult. I actually ended up using a few different ones until I got the picture to look good on the LCD screen. Once I got back to editing, I had to do a lot of color correcting. I used my 50mm Nikon Nikkor the entire night set at F1.4. Trying to use the kit lens was way out of the question. So much so I didn't even bring it. I might have gotten away with the popular Canon F1.8 prime lens, but the ISO would have been through the roof. ISO's did vary through out the night, but there was no way I was going to get around introducing "gain" in the picture. If I wasn't trying to conserve battery life on the Zoom H2, the entire show would have gotten great sound. The quality of these recorders is amazing, I highly recommend Zoom products, and if on a budget, the new Zoom H1 packs a huge punch in a small body and very affordable price of only $99. The SpiderBrace is an awesome product for this type of situation. A tight space full of people and not really knowing what to expect, its great to be versatile and mobile.
Phillip Drummond can throw a great event, and as good as his shows are, he's even better as a person. Very nice and easy to work along side with. If you are in the bay area and want to experience some real underground hip hop, stop by philthybeats.com and see what Phillip has in store. I hope you enjoyed the video and to those who participated. GREAT job and keep making beats. Eat sleep beats.
-Andrew
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Studio Sessions Part 1 - Fresco, El Rob. & Monsrock (Cash Dreed)
Believe it or not, Hip Hop does live here in the Woodland/Sacramento area. I was invited to the "Detox Box" by the very talented producer, Monsrock, located in south Sacramento this past week. I've been listening to Cash Dreed (Monsrock and El Rob) since I recently started working with E.C (See previous work with E.C here) and I've instantly become a fan. Especially since both originally resided in my home town of Woodland, Ca. We'll be working side by side from here on out and I couldn't be happier. All three of these guys have equal or more talent than most musicians you hear on a day to day basis. This is just a start, but "Studio Sessions" will be an on going documentary leading up to shows, album releases and much more. If you like what you see, subscribe on youtube or vimeo to follow us climb our way to the top. If you don't like what you see, give it another shot and see if you like it. If you don't like it after all that, I'm man enough to sit here and say, watch it again and again until you like what you see.
Vimeo link:
Click HERE
Studio Sessions Part 1
I couldn't wait to get into Mons' studio and see how these guys get down. Fresco, a very talented artist, was first up. You couldn't meet a nicer person. Very easy to work with, he was not shy from the camera and lyrically sound. He seems to do a little bit of everything. We only captured one verse, but after one day of working along side Fresco, I'm really looking forward to hearing what comes from this artist in the future and I look forward to working with him again soon.
On deck was El Rob. Taking nothing away from anyone who needs more than one take to lay down lyrics on a track, but Rob does not need more than one attempt to nail a song. What you see in the video is what really happened. Monsrock made the beat on the spot, played it and Rob laid down the entire song in one try. He later laced the track with some doubles, but for the first take, there are no smoke and mirrors, and no editing involved. That was the real deal. To say the least, the song itself is quite impressive. Rob said he doesn't like to waste time, apparently, you can hold Rob to his word.
I Can't wait to film some more of these Studio Session videos. There are some big things on the horizon for Cash Dreed. I can't mention exact details, but know it is going to be good. I will make sure to keep everyone up to date with what is going on, but please stay tuned, you will definitely not want to miss out on what is coming.
You can find more info on Cash Dreed and E.C at coldtwelvers.blogspot.com
and cashdreed.blogspot.com
You can contact me here, or through email at LocalStreetHero@gmail.com
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy!
-Andrew
Vimeo link:
Click HERE
Studio Sessions Part 1
I couldn't wait to get into Mons' studio and see how these guys get down. Fresco, a very talented artist, was first up. You couldn't meet a nicer person. Very easy to work with, he was not shy from the camera and lyrically sound. He seems to do a little bit of everything. We only captured one verse, but after one day of working along side Fresco, I'm really looking forward to hearing what comes from this artist in the future and I look forward to working with him again soon.
On deck was El Rob. Taking nothing away from anyone who needs more than one take to lay down lyrics on a track, but Rob does not need more than one attempt to nail a song. What you see in the video is what really happened. Monsrock made the beat on the spot, played it and Rob laid down the entire song in one try. He later laced the track with some doubles, but for the first take, there are no smoke and mirrors, and no editing involved. That was the real deal. To say the least, the song itself is quite impressive. Rob said he doesn't like to waste time, apparently, you can hold Rob to his word.
I Can't wait to film some more of these Studio Session videos. There are some big things on the horizon for Cash Dreed. I can't mention exact details, but know it is going to be good. I will make sure to keep everyone up to date with what is going on, but please stay tuned, you will definitely not want to miss out on what is coming.
You can find more info on Cash Dreed and E.C at coldtwelvers.blogspot.com
and cashdreed.blogspot.com
You can contact me here, or through email at LocalStreetHero@gmail.com
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy!
-Andrew
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
2010 TDPSC Round 1 Ver. 2.0
With a new track that inspired a new video, but no new footage, I went back and did a super quick montage of the last video. Here is a simple, but awesome montage of the 2010 ThunderDrift ProAm Series Competition:
TDC Rnd1 Ver 2.0
As you can see, or in this case hear the music produced by E.C is nothing short of amazing. With this video, we some what resurrected E.C's "Brewer's Sessions Vol. 2" and brought a classic back to life. With such high demand, we have made this single available for all to download FOR FREE. CLICK THIS LINK and enjoy the complete song which features E.C, Dame-O-Supreme, Clev-R and Jhyles.
Thanks for supporting local artists!
-Andrew
TDC Rnd1 Ver 2.0
As you can see, or in this case hear the music produced by E.C is nothing short of amazing. With this video, we some what resurrected E.C's "Brewer's Sessions Vol. 2" and brought a classic back to life. With such high demand, we have made this single available for all to download FOR FREE. CLICK THIS LINK and enjoy the complete song which features E.C, Dame-O-Supreme, Clev-R and Jhyles.
Thanks for supporting local artists!
-Andrew
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
2010 ThunderDrift ProAm Series Competition - Finally!
First off, I am sincerely sorry for taking so long to complete this video. I set out to do more for this video than I've done in previous ones, and it really opened my eyes on how much work is really involved when multiple people are needed for a project. I never intended on taking this long to complete this video, but with busy schedules, music being produced, me trying new things, getting extremely sick, oh and dealing with the regular daily routine really dragged the project on much longer than expected. I can only hope the drifting community can accept this video for what it is, a big risk on my part for taking a totally different approach to it, and understand that it took many people to finish this project, all of which have had zero drifting experience prior to this. I joked around when I started this by saying this video would be broadcast ready. Meaning a 22 min video giving a network 8 mins for commercials. Well, I guess the joke is on me. I kept an eye on that, just teasing with the thought, and the final result actually came out just above 21 mins. I hope you enjoy the video, but I also hope you are interested in what went on in the making of this video. Whatch the video, and please return here to read up on what took place during the past few weeks.
Enjoy
http://vimeo.com/10221152
Music
I really wanted this to be a true independent video and using commercial music that I did not have the rights to would totally go against that. The first call I made was to the very talented Producer, Eddie Z. It was an easy decision. Not only is Eddie a talented Rapper and Producer, but he lives only a few mins away from me here in Woodland. He created the music so seamlessly. I gave him the mindset I had and a few "drift terms" and out came the "ThunderDrift Theme". Need I say more? I was ecstatic when I heard the first cut. Soon after, he quickly produced what I called "Bracket Beats", for the back ground music I needed. For more of Eddie Z's music, please visit his page at
I was pretty content with the music I had, but like a $20 bill next to a chip you find in your couch, EdotC comes out of no where with more music. Hailing from Alameda, EdotC blessed me with some of the nicest beats I've ever heard from a local underground Producer. I listened to his first album entitled "Fresh Brewed Music" and instantly fell in love with the track "EdStrumental". After I was given the green light to use the instrumental, EdotC passed along some randoms for me to use. In those "randoms" as he called it, I found another gem by the name of "Stop Hold" the remix from DBG featuring - Cash Dreed and EdotC and produced by Monsrock. I wish I had the excuse to play the entire track, but I only needed to loop the first 8 bars. You can find more music from EdotC, Monsrock and the whole crew at:
Be on the look out for a release from this camp coming this summer!
Sally Sidewayz
What can one say about Mrs. Sidwayz? Well fresh off the set of NBC's show "Trauma", Kenyon Page fit the character just right. Once Kenyon arrived back from Treasure Island where they were filming Trauma, we started talking about what direction we would go in. I don't know where I got the idea for a Drift enthusiast from Camden, but some how it worked. I remembered Kenyon holding an entire conversation in a British accent as if she had grown up in London, so I asked if she could pull off the entire video in that form. With no hesitation, she jumped right into character and got to work. Now, before this project, Kenyon knew nothing of drifting. No drift cars, previous movies, terminology, nothing. After a few scripts I wrote for her, she was able to get a handle on things and delivered a more than adequate performance. With Sacramento's own Lindsay Rickman lacing up Sally with the fresh wardrobe, Mrs. Sidewayz was set. A huge thanks to Kenyon for making time and jumping into a project with out knowing what to expect.
Putting Sally Track side
From the video, you can see that I am no expert on Green Screen. With out the help of Franco "Steve" Leopold, the picture quality would not have been no where near what it is. Steve has been my mentor for a while now and is always willing to help. Normally, he is the one calling the shots and I'm just trying to listen, learn, and follow directions. This time around, I was behind the camera and the man in charge. Steve came through HUGE with help on lighting up the set for the green screen footage. Its a bit amazing how much ones brain can know. It seems that Steve can teach you anything you need to know when it comes to film making. He set up the lights, gave me a tutorial, and really helped this video get to the next level. Big thank you goes out to him for helping out with such a busy schedule.
Editing
This is the part I like. I have (almost) everything I need and its time to get to work. Text and intros are something I really wanted to pay more attention to. Its no secret, you can view any of my previous videos and see that my text effects and things of that nature are sub-par. I finally dipped into Apple Motion on this project, and what a program that is. I built the moving brackets and tandem titles in Motion. I know I know, anyone who has dealt with Motion is probably laughing at the fact that I am proud of those two Motion projects, but to me, they are MUCH better than anything I have made before which has opened up so many doors and the creativity will soon be spilling out of this computer. Other than that, it was a fairly easy edit. No quick cuts, no special effects, just a video showing you what is going on. Something I haven't seen since an old NCDA video from years ago. To the best of my knowledge, a drifting video with all this has never been made for NorCal Drifting. Although there are many parts that could be much improved, I can be proud that my name is on this one.
Here are some behind the scene photos
When in a pinch and in need of a sound booth, make your own:
The Audio work station:
Numerous cups of tea, chi and what not:
Green Screen Prep:
Sally Prep:
Filming Green Screen:
Enjoy
http://vimeo.com/10221152
Music
I really wanted this to be a true independent video and using commercial music that I did not have the rights to would totally go against that. The first call I made was to the very talented Producer, Eddie Z. It was an easy decision. Not only is Eddie a talented Rapper and Producer, but he lives only a few mins away from me here in Woodland. He created the music so seamlessly. I gave him the mindset I had and a few "drift terms" and out came the "ThunderDrift Theme". Need I say more? I was ecstatic when I heard the first cut. Soon after, he quickly produced what I called "Bracket Beats", for the back ground music I needed. For more of Eddie Z's music, please visit his page at
I was pretty content with the music I had, but like a $20 bill next to a chip you find in your couch, EdotC comes out of no where with more music. Hailing from Alameda, EdotC blessed me with some of the nicest beats I've ever heard from a local underground Producer. I listened to his first album entitled "Fresh Brewed Music" and instantly fell in love with the track "EdStrumental". After I was given the green light to use the instrumental, EdotC passed along some randoms for me to use. In those "randoms" as he called it, I found another gem by the name of "Stop Hold" the remix from DBG featuring - Cash Dreed and EdotC and produced by Monsrock. I wish I had the excuse to play the entire track, but I only needed to loop the first 8 bars. You can find more music from EdotC, Monsrock and the whole crew at:
Be on the look out for a release from this camp coming this summer!
Sally Sidewayz
What can one say about Mrs. Sidwayz? Well fresh off the set of NBC's show "Trauma", Kenyon Page fit the character just right. Once Kenyon arrived back from Treasure Island where they were filming Trauma, we started talking about what direction we would go in. I don't know where I got the idea for a Drift enthusiast from Camden, but some how it worked. I remembered Kenyon holding an entire conversation in a British accent as if she had grown up in London, so I asked if she could pull off the entire video in that form. With no hesitation, she jumped right into character and got to work. Now, before this project, Kenyon knew nothing of drifting. No drift cars, previous movies, terminology, nothing. After a few scripts I wrote for her, she was able to get a handle on things and delivered a more than adequate performance. With Sacramento's own Lindsay Rickman lacing up Sally with the fresh wardrobe, Mrs. Sidewayz was set. A huge thanks to Kenyon for making time and jumping into a project with out knowing what to expect.
Putting Sally Track side
From the video, you can see that I am no expert on Green Screen. With out the help of Franco "Steve" Leopold, the picture quality would not have been no where near what it is. Steve has been my mentor for a while now and is always willing to help. Normally, he is the one calling the shots and I'm just trying to listen, learn, and follow directions. This time around, I was behind the camera and the man in charge. Steve came through HUGE with help on lighting up the set for the green screen footage. Its a bit amazing how much ones brain can know. It seems that Steve can teach you anything you need to know when it comes to film making. He set up the lights, gave me a tutorial, and really helped this video get to the next level. Big thank you goes out to him for helping out with such a busy schedule.
Editing
This is the part I like. I have (almost) everything I need and its time to get to work. Text and intros are something I really wanted to pay more attention to. Its no secret, you can view any of my previous videos and see that my text effects and things of that nature are sub-par. I finally dipped into Apple Motion on this project, and what a program that is. I built the moving brackets and tandem titles in Motion. I know I know, anyone who has dealt with Motion is probably laughing at the fact that I am proud of those two Motion projects, but to me, they are MUCH better than anything I have made before which has opened up so many doors and the creativity will soon be spilling out of this computer. Other than that, it was a fairly easy edit. No quick cuts, no special effects, just a video showing you what is going on. Something I haven't seen since an old NCDA video from years ago. To the best of my knowledge, a drifting video with all this has never been made for NorCal Drifting. Although there are many parts that could be much improved, I can be proud that my name is on this one.
Here are some behind the scene photos
When in a pinch and in need of a sound booth, make your own:
The Audio work station:
Numerous cups of tea, chi and what not:
Green Screen Prep:
Sally Prep:
Filming Green Screen:
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