FOR AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, CLICK HERE.
I began making videos in 2001 when I got my first camcorder for Christmas. Back in then, I spent my Summers taping my own episodes of my favorite game shows in my Papie’s living room. As I grew older and more exposed to the internet, I began taping video blogs, hosting a YouTube series called JJH Vlog from January to October 2009. The show was filmed with my camcorder, later with my digital camera, and it was edited in Sony Vegas 7. I was your typical penniless twenty year-old, using my basic knowledge of three point lighting and chromakeying to put on a pretty good show. But I grew bored and pulled the plug on it all, deleting my seventy-some odd videos.
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- Season one (January 2009) – This setup included green fabric, with my desk lamp as a key light and my tree lamp as a fill.
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- This was standard definition film, so the keying was rather bad.
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- The background changed as I changed topics. The full reel can be found under the “Motion Graphics” link.
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- From this point, I began using green poster board as a green screen. This was easier to stow and hang up, and also eliminated having to fight with wrinkles when it came to keying.
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- Mid-season, I began using a teleprompter made out of my old laptop and a sheet of Plexiglas, hence the blurry image.
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- For season two (March 2009), I heavily updated my graphics and began using our photogenic lot as a backdrop.
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- On a creative high during season one, I made a virtual set that I only used once. This was from a video response to Phil DeFranco, then known as SxePhil (sexy Phil).
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- Every season had its own standard font. Season one used RoadGeek, a remake of the federal highway fonts, season two used Square Gothic, season three used Context (Helvetica) and season four used Lubalin Graph.
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- I also pimped some of the many creations in my room. For the record, the bug read “STBY” for the intro shot.
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- Some swine flu humor. Episode 214, I believe?
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- The season two lower-thirds in full.
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- I would also update the graphics based on special topics, such as the second anniversary of my graduation. I knew nothing of color correction at this time.
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- Season three from June 2009. Though I had more videos in season two, I made longer ones for season three.
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- I brought back the virtual set from season two, only removing the monitor and posts from earlier.
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- One of the background monitors was keyable, allowing me to enter different pictures based on the topic at hand.
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- These were my rather bulky lower-thirds. All of my lower-third graphics were loosely based on CNN.
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- Season three featured sub-series. This still was from a three-part video (thirty minutes in total) for a rant segment called “No F*cking Love Lost”. Though season three had the best graphics, I always made use of old ones. This virtual set also had mood lighting concepts, as you can see.
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- Improved lighting for my desk videos.
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- Three-point lighting at its best. I began using a work light as my key, my desk lamp as my fill and my tree lamp for the hair light. I ended the video blog series in a rather bitter way, and it’s unfortunate as hell that I deleted ALL of my graphics, etc. from seasons three and four.
As time passed, I learned more about film techniques, using improved but still limited resources to revive my video blog series under the Javan H. banner. This was in 2011 into 2012. The reception was much better as I was less…immature and vulgar as a host. The lighting was decent, the video quality was as best as I could get it (a Flip camera, then a digital camcorder) and I began working with many other video bloggers. But 2012 was a rather busy year for me, and time didn’t allow for me to focus on the videos as much as I had hoped; I ended up pulling the plug once again.
I returned to video after shadowing a local producer in early 2014. Now armed with a Canon DSLR camera and a Tascam recorder, I became the official/unofficial videographer for my campus, filming for the school talk show BRCC Today.
BRCC Today HVAC Promo, 2014
This led to other videos, ranging from scenery around the house, to public events here in Baton Rouge.
BREC Cafe’ Ribbon Cutting, 2014
Canon Rebel T3i Test 2, 2014
Canon Rebel T3i Test 1, 2014
Below is an upload from the revival video blog series.
#6 – I Know My Worth (and My Work), 2012
I taped in my bedroom with the TV on an auxiliary channel (blue screen). I also made use of a clamp light and desk lamp for lighting. Old-school! Anyways..there were many more videos uploaded from this run of the video blog series. But as time passed, I grew less proud of those too and removed them.
For both series, I got as creative as possible with the editing, mostly for comedic purposes. I would add sound effects, I would sometimes bleep out cuss words and for the latter series, I would also use video stills as on-screen memes.
Fast forward to 2014–I began shadowing the producer mentioned above. He gave me all the info necessary to get where I wanted, needed and deserved to be, and in working with him, I realized how much power I actually have. He’s said repeatedly in those few weeks that he’s created a monster; best believe, he has. What started as a handful of modest video blogs would eventually turn into a slew of broadcasts, lauded by locals and professionals alike.
See for yourself in the Credits page.
