So this was to throw out some credibility of myself in the film world. With the tools that are coming out today, it makes it possible for talented individuals to deliver great visuals to a compelling story. If not a compelling story, at least good visuals. But I find it funny that so many people don’t take the time to understand how to use these tools. It’s more than pressing record, focusing, and composing. Some people I’ve dealt with say “Why pay someone 5k, when I can buy a camera for 5k?” I always laugh and shake my head on those ignorant comments. For those who don’t know the answer to that question, let me ask you this? Do you even know the concept behind shutter, aperture, or iso? Do you know the concept of color temperatures? How about accessories that are needed to make filmmaking easier? How about lighting work to manipulate shadows? Or how about knowledge of lenses to shoot certain styles and give different looks?

Did I mention anything about using the camera in just hitting record and composing the shot? There are tons of things aside from the equipment to understand. And when you do understand those things, hitting record on the camera probably makes better sense as you’ll start to capture great images.

There are too much BS on the internet these days. If you pick up a camera, please do your due diligence and put a thousand hours into self-educating yourself on how to capture great footage. Or go to school and learn how to make a great image.

I learned in the last 10 months that the tools are the last thing to worry about when it comes to making a film.

I must say, if I did not know it was shot on the Canon 5d Mark II, I wouldn’t have noticed. The image quality was so good. I noticed a little more shake and some parts were a bit distracting because of it, but who cares. The told the story well, the cinematography was awesome as usual, and it was done on the 5d!!!

After watching hundreds of clips on the web, this blows everything out the water and shows that with the right combination of great lighting work, props, acting, and great content will make your story stand out no matter if it’s shot on a 16mm, 35mm, or a DSLR camera.

I’m proud to be apart of this new technology as my first camera is the 5D. I embrace and love it. Can’t wait for the new generation of cameras after this one to come out. And it better be cheaper =)

The story of my life is that I have to work hard in everything I do to make something work for myself. I did not come from a rich family and people did not give me things willingly. I had to work hard to prove myself for things I want. If my life in 2009 was drawn with a graph to see my progress level, there would be a lot of swiggly lines going on the upwards trend. With what had been going on, I managed to get a lot of things done from Writing/Directing/Producing my first short film, obtaining a management contract from Credible Players in the music industry, and picking up a new skill that was needed which was Photography and Cinematography.

People look at my accomplishments for 2009 and call it a lucky year for me. But I don’t consider any of that luck. I consider that hard work that required diligence, patience, motivation, and passion. I believe with the drawbacks I’ve had, it actually stopped me from doing more on what I wanted to do. But I will hope for great things to happen in 2010.

So with that, I’d like to toast to those who read my blogs! “To inspiration, motivation, determination, and passion! Let success not be just about money, but about happiness and being content to what you love”. That’s my new year’s resolution!

Happy new year !

First of all, Major’s shot themselves in the foot for producing great singles and terrible albums in the past. They forced people to buy albums for 1 or 2 songs that they liked on the album. Now the tides changed where people have more control on what they want to buy and not buy. They don’t need to buy albums, but can download singles. Well, if Majors got it right in the beginning or stopped taking advantage of what they knew was happening, then maybe people would be buying albums and not be pissed off for making them buy terrible albums just for 1 great single. Fully albums should be expected to have quality songs.

Anyways, they set no “real” standards for the industry. There were no standard pay rates, no unions to help fight for those who are trying to break into the industry, and so much conflict of interest. They had “Uneducated” A&R’s working for Majors that couldn’t even type a damn professional e-mail. For someone that is professional, I expect someone would be able to write in complete sentences. So already, major labels have uneducated staff members to help run their business. Their ethics are poor, at least most that I’ve encountered, and were probably taking advantage of their network and contacts for their own self-interest and purposes.

In the corporate world, there are rules and regulations with regards to conflict of interest. And trust me, those rules and regulations were enforced and those who got caught, regretted it! Well in the music industry, it’s the wild wild west. Anything goes. They set their own pay rates. If you were unknown in anything, you are expected to do it for free until you get lucky with one great opportunity. Almost like a little rat looking for a crack in the dark to escape.

The industry is designed in a certain way for people to fail miserably. What if a music producer had to have a masters degree in music in order to “present” music to the major labels? What if an Artist had to go through a certain certification to get access to certain things and certain people that can help boost their career? Maybe it’s dumb, maybe it’s not. But if we had certain standards like what we have in any other damn industry like Medical, Law, Finance, and etc, maybe just maybe there would be consistency and people who have a passion for something can get into an industry that is reliable where any talented person with skills can make a living off their work, instead of having to work another job that’s consistent and reliable to support their passion. Right now, we have any JO that makes a beat think he is a “producer”. LoL….well that’s another blog

Now is the time to change. With the declines in revenue, quality, and so forth, why not go for it? Thoughts and opinions?

If we see a photography with an assistant that holds a softbox/umbrella and  a flash, we assume it’s somewhat professional. If we see a photography with 4 assistants, 2 holding a flash and 2 hold reflectors giving this high profile photoshoot look outdoors, we automatically assume it’s professional and it’s going to turn out great.

In music, whenever anyone wants into a high end studio that’s loaded with gear, nice setup, clean, and just looks really professional, people will assume great “quality” sounding music will come from there vs. someone with a home studio setup, sorta messy, and no vocal booth. That’s a terrible perception these days.

In film, whenever we see a 35mm format, a crew of people working with the director, and high end lights, we assume it’s a decent budget film and it’s going to look great. But when we see a person with a tiny camera, tiny crew, minimal lights, we assume it’s amateur.

I guess we as human beings have this perception of what big production and professionalism is suppose to look like and be like. Well, just a news flash if you guys have not caught up to technology, equipment are becoming much cheaper, more compact, and “much” better and advanced. Think of the first IBM computer where you had to load a floppy into the drive to boot it up. Windows didn’t even exist yet and memory was 512kb. And color monitors wasn’t available. Yet, the damn computer was bulky, weighed a ton, keyboard was extremely loud, loading took like 10 minutes.

That’s the same thing that’s happening in music and film. So when you walk into a homestudio, don’t underestimate the sound quality like most do. Or if you walk into a film set and see a director holding a photography camera (VDSLR 7d, 5d, 1d) shooting his next feature. It’s the new age and it’s about the people behind the tools that make it work.

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Anonymous: What it tells you is that producing is a lousy business – especially for hip hop.

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.

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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.

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It was a great learning experience. I learned that you really can knock 10 birds with 1 stone. It was not easy as I must have put massive hours to educate myself of all the technicalities and approach to the business. But it was sure worth it.

Now that I can do photography, be a film maker, a songwriter, a record producer, an engineer, and I guess an Actor, I can finally feel confident about my company Kvibe Productions being a 1 stop and shop Media company. I understand that some may view it as a jack of all trades, but my work speaks for itself. If you enjoy looking at my Film or looking at my photography work or listening to my music, then I did the job on getting quality content to the audience.

Now, how do I take all that content and make a profit out of it? Well, I’m still crawling but I’m reaching to the point where I can finally walk as new ideas and marketing strategies I developed has come into the light. While I work on my next short film and featured film, my music projects, and my photography projects, the marketing strategy I have will change how an Independent Artist in the entertainment industry can market themselves with a low budget to create new opportunities for their career. That’s my goal and I’m sticking to that goal.

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Khoa Le

Thanks for taking the time to read my blogs. I’ve been a bit behind on this as I’ve been working hard in furthering my knowledge in this exciting entertainment industry. My photography knowledge has drastically improved as well as my film knowledge. With that, I finished 2 scenes for my short film and in the process of editing and preparing for the final scenes.

So what did I do in a short amount of time to gain massive to do all of this? I joined a film meetup group in westchester (very educational) thanks for the host Holly and I asked tons of questions and I spent a lot of my nights reading forums, articles, youtubes, and blogs for best practice techniques and understanding of the process. But 75% is trial and error as you really got to get out and just “DO IT”. I shot a practice scene and seeing how long it took me to do the post production gave me a better insight on what to do the next time around. Without having any film education, it was common sense to me to have a shot log, shot list, distributed crew for certain roles that I can’t do by myself, and etc.

So the moral of this blog is to show my progress as well as tell everyone that if you are reading this and if something inspires you, stop thinking about it and do something about it. Life is too short to be lazy in life (unless that’s what really makes you happy). If you want to know, yes, I do have a day job that I like doing as it supports my passion.