I was browsing the web and saw Vincent Laforet announcement of his contest. I thought it was a GREAT idea to take a still image, interpret it, and turn that interpretation into a short film of 2-4 minutes. Not only does it give you exposure, but it gives you a purpose which drives motivation and determination which is the foundation to success in any industry. In addition, it would help build a reel (portfolio) of my work in all categories of filmmaking.
So in this film, we had to interpret a treasure chest in a warehouse. I had a million ideas how to take it, but of course, have to stay within budget which “NO BUDGET”. But I knew that the only time we can do it was at night and I had the perfect location to shoot it. But as the result, I needed a shoulder-rigg which I had to dish out, out of my pocket. We shot using natural lighting which is pole lighting from above and used a flashlight for a “spotlight”. It was about 20 degree below and we took 2 nights to shoot it (5 hours each). After we shot it, I spent well over 40 hours of editing, sound designing, music scoring, and overall production on this film. I can tell you that within that 1 week of editing, I only slept about 3 hrs a night. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the film!
Brief Synopsis:
An ordinary man and woman stumble across a mystical clan of spirits yearning to break free from their dwelling inside a vintage 1950’s radio.
Kvibe Productions, LLC
Produced by: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Directed by: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Written By: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Director of Photography: Khoa D. Le
Editor: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Original Music & Written By: Khoa D. Le
Sound Design by: Khoa D. Le
Behind the scene photos: George Rivera
Production Assistants: Kim Nguyen, Joe A. Nunez, Eggie Belizario Escueta, Alyssa Pontecorvo
Actors:
Jean / Girl: Jean Farinella
Man: Paul Santiago
Jean’s Friend: Alyssa Pontecorvo
In 2 weeks, I finished 5 songs, finished 2 short film screenplays, setup online distribution stores to sell songs from Artist I worked with as I’m doing Independent releases to my records, and shot a wedding for my photography work. I also entered into the Vincent Laforet Contest to shoot short films with a deadline for each submission. And this is on top of my 9-5 job at Ernst & Young.
People ask me how do I find the time to get things done. Well, lately I’ve been sleeping around 4:00 am – 5:30 am and having to wake up at 8:00 am for work. I guess you can say that I’m more motivated than ever as I feel I am producing quality work, very confident in my abilities, and I smell something happening around the corner. I also think having management to help me expose my work motivates me as I finally have a vehicle to drive my music to another level. I have someone to take my work, present it, and I don’t have to go out of my way to do small talks with people just so they are comfortable on who I am so they can “place” a song for me. If only they used their ears instead of relying everything on reputation, it would be much easier for me.
Anyways, that’s my update! Please go to my iTunes store or Amazon or whatever stores that are posted on my page and download and support! Thanks!
I had forwarded the link to a few buddies of mine which I won’t reveal, but I had an email conversation with someone about the post I had put up yesterday (read yesterday’s post). I think he hit the nail on the head when he replied to me that the Article tells him that it is a dying industry and it sucks to be a producer and songwriter. Here is the conversation:
Anonymous: What it tells you is that producing is a lousy business – especially for hip hop.
Me: Basically. And it tells you that you really need a hit record to go anywhere. But it also tells you that you need to have a lot of passion to be in it.
Anonymous: Unfortunately it is a passion and no longer a way to make a living at your passion. It tells you that it is a dying industry that barely functions by not paying people.
When the market can no longer support full time producers and professional song writers you wind up with songs no one wants to buy. But as the tide turns it will be acts and musical groups that survive due to touring – everything else will be incidental.
I think the key will be finding new ways to monetize your songs – the traditional methods really don’t support making a living. Even at say 40K a song – how many can you sell per year? Say at your peak it is say 10 0r 20 a year – major acts make that in a week.
I still think the only way to make $ is the 360 deals – they just have to be well funded.
Me: You make a great a point. I think I want to blog this topic. I think its realized, but I think many are in denial still thus not fully expressing their opinions and complaints. Not sure what that would do but I don’t read too many talking about it.
Thoughts and feedback are always welcome. Please add me to facebook and follow me on twitter.
Below is a brief description of what the producer’s have to endure from the business aspect of the game. The A&R who wrote this Article is “Conrad Dimanche”. He talks about “producer contracts, up-front/back end fees, royalties, technology and everything else in between.”
Here’s a brief description of what he has to say:
Ok let’s get right into it. Once the track is confirmed to be on the artist album what happens next?
Well first we have to go into negotiation and come to an agreement on how much the track or the song is going to cost. How much the label is going to pay for the track depends on who the producer is and what caliber of producer he/she is. When I say caliber I’m not referring to how dope they are but their track record as far as singles hitting the charts. You have some producers that have been in the game for over ten years but they’ve always had album cuts only. It doesn’t mean too much, just because you’ve been in the game for 10 years and have been on 20 albums doesn’t mean you automatically have the right to charge $40,000 a track. You have producers that have been in the game for 15 years and are still getting $12k-15k a track because they can always give you that dope album cut but it’s the singles that really make your price rate jump up.
Understood, so after the price is agreed on what’s the next step?
So lets say the cost is $5k and everybody is good with that, the producer then submits an invoice for $5,000 and before they get paid they have to sign what is called a ‘producer declaration’ which is also called a ‘work for hire’ or in some cases the producer will sign a deal memo. Before they get paid the producer is agreeing that they’re not going to sell that particular track to anyone else. The whole point of the producer signing the producer declaration is to get the first half payment. The agreement is simple, usually one sheet and within 30 days of signing the producer should receive the front end which in this case would be $2,500.
At this point has the producer turned over the music files to the label?
I like to let everyone know that I’ve officially signed with Hitclub Entertainment (www.hitclubentertainment.com). They are a management / production company and they will help bring my career to the next level in entertainment from a wide range in music and film. To brief everyone on their recent activities, one of the writers on the team “Lonny Bereal” received 4 grammy nominations as well as 4 song placements on the latest “Chris Brown” album.
I’m also please to announce that my short film “Denial” has been accepted to the New York International Indie Film Festival and BCB Productions International Film Festival in Las Vegas. Still waiting for a few more notices on other festivals.
Please check out their discography at www.hitclubentertainment.com. Also please be sure to add me to facebook and send me a comment or message.
This is only a test of my cinematography abilities. Learning how to convert 30p to 24p, color grade, and establishing a workflow dynamics in CS3. So as part of my Journey to success, I am writing a short film. So since this will be my first, I’m practicing as much as I can. This video shows one of my practices that took me about 10 min to shoot, and a few hours to edit as I’m still learning how to do it correctly =) Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
Here’s a song that I wrote months ago. My Artist Stefanna, who’s 16 yrs old with incredible vocal abilities, is ready to do some live shows. This video is in my recording studio where we were rehearsing just to rehearse. I thought she did so great that I thought she was ready to do a live performance at a place in the city called the Sugarbar.
It’s a pretty high end place where they do Thursday night open mics with a lot of great acts. So I’ll be having her perform and see where it goes. I hope you guys enjoy the song titled “Crazy Love”. If you guys like this video, please do share it and please subscribe to my website and youtube channel. Thank you
I just started working with an upcoming Artist/songwriter named Jean Elizabeth. She’s incredibly talented and she’s probably one of the few encounters I met throughout my 9 years of being in this industry that have potential of becoming a star. Of course, becoming a star is more than being talented. And of course, it’s up to their work ethics, commitments, priorities, sacrifices, and intelligence that will determine their success.
Below is a clip of a new song that Jean and I wrote. Too bad I didn’t get the chance to blog the making of the track and because I have a lot of other videos that shows how I created the song, I decided to just show how the record came out. Let me know what you guys think. Leave me comments, subscribe to my youtube channel, rate the video, and if anyone have questions for me, please do contact me.
In my next blog post, I’ll be posting my first TUTORIAL about recording. Please do subscribe to my website (on the rightside) and youtube channel (link below)
In this very short video, you’ll see the process of making this simple track, writing the melodies/lyrics, and recording it in under 3:00 minutes. It’s not a tutorial (soon will come), but it’s just to give you a sense of what we do in 2 sessions. Sometimes I do get to finish all of this in one session and then mix the following day. Please leave me comments or ask any questions. Also if you can, please subscribe to my youtube page.
It’s been about 2 weeks since I bought the Canon 5d Mark ii. And this is the first time I shot video on it. I did the track in less than 60 minutes. Just building up a foundation to the track and then later on do some real production to it. What I usually like to do is lay down a skeleton track, see if I can sing a melody to see if inspired melodies are delivered, and then write to it with a certain arrangement to the track. After it’s written (which isn’t on this track specifically), I then start “real” production. If live strings are needed or adding more drums and other sounds, then that’s what I need to do.
So here’s a clip of laying down the foundation to the track. Leave me comments or questions on my forum so I may answer it. Thanks
Richard M. Ponce: “A Flock of White...
Shavon Grass: I would be interested in submitting...
Khoa Le: Major labels shot themselves in the foot....
Robert M: Great topic and I think I can add...
Khoa Le: You too Tuan! It’s always nice to...
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Richard M. Ponce: “A Flock of White... Shavon Grass: I would be interested in submitting... Khoa Le: Major labels shot themselves in the foot.... Robert M: Great topic and I think I can add... Khoa Le: You too Tuan! It’s always nice to...