Stop talking and Do It!

I'm just a guilty as anyone with this one... I have been talking about making a website for years. Heck I have been paying for the darn domain name for at least 4. Why didn't I do it sooner?  I was intimidated and didn't really know where to start. I even had a friend start to help (Thanks Jason Fong) but I felt I was wasting his time and never bothered him about it again. I even thought of paying of trading someone to do it for me.

I didn't want to do a template based site I wanted to do a big awesome original site with all the bells and whistles.   Did I need that? No.  Was it that idea that was hanging me up so I could not expand my brand? Yes.

So now I finally did it! I now have a website. Its simple and clean and does everything I need it to do. It tells clients about me and what I do. There is a place to show off videos and films I produce, a place to sell my photos and a home for this blog.

Check it out here jdknightfilms.net  Its still a work in progress and I'm sure there will be changes, I know of a few things I would like to add, but for now it's a start

The Devil's Chain Gang, the music video the keeps going

So about 2 years ago a friend asked me if I knew anyone who produced music videos. I had done a couple but nothing  really great, but I said I would talk to the band and see if it was something I could do.  So I went to see The Nickel Slots at a local club and they were great they had a very catchy americana sound, and as they played I looked around and almost everyone in the audience was singing along with the band's original songs. I thought I need to work with this band.  A few days later I met with Steve Amaral The lead guitarist and he gave me a CD to check out, It was great! It stayed in my car's CD player for several months.

Once the band decided on a video we got to work.  My first idea was big and epic and in the long run it probably would not have worked... We kept it simple. I was a little bummed that it wasn't a "big" production, but it turned out it was for the best.

Once we had an video idea where everyone was happy. I put together a small team of people  to pull off this shoot... My friend and co-director Sean Kime was in from day one, and then we brought in  Ryan Black as our director of photography and  steadicam operator, along with a few others to help with make up and lighting we were ready to shoot.

Our location was awesome, it was almost it's own character. We could not have built a set that good. The old hotel in Woodland Ca was a good find by the band. The only downside was we were shooting on the second story and had to run extension cords from the first floor to power our lights.

Sean and I tag teamed the video shoot where we leapfrogged from scene to scene so there was always someone working ahead.

I think so many things fell into place for the video. Good band, good song, good location, good concept and good crew.

When I got home after the shoot I was so tired, but as I started to load the footage to my computer I knew we had something great.  I got a second wind and stayed up until 2am throwing together a rough cut of the video, just to show the guys how their hard work paid off.  And between the rough cut and the final version there wasn't a huge difference.

Now I only thought the video would live on the band's website and I would submit to a couple film festivals. and then it would be done, and that was pretty much it. In 2013 the video played at the Sacramento Film and Music Festival, the video won 3 awards! Best Video Jury Choice, Best Video Audience Choice, and best Independent Video. The video also was accepted to The American Online Film Awards in New York City where it won best Music video from the US... Needles to say we are so proud of everyone's work.

Wait there's more, the band got a promoter for the video and it is now being see all over the world. It is being showed on Zuus, CMC in Australia,  and now it's on CMT.com and MTV.com

There is so much more I can write about this video.... I'll have to save it for another post.
I have to say that is pretty cool that so many people have seen and liked our video. Thank you to everyone who worked on the The Devil's Chain Gang  for putting your best foot forward.

Welcome to my my first blog post

First off I never thought I would ever want to write one. I guess I thought no one would care what I have to say. But I thought I would give this a shot and see where it goes.
I  am going to try to write at least one post a week. Most topics will be on working in TV and film, freelancing and cameras. I'm sure I will write a little about life as well.

I realized just the other day 2015 marks my 20th year in TV.  I have worked in the TV industry since 1995, I started at a station in Yakima Washington as a studio camera operator, from there I moved into the control room and became a technical director, and by the time I was 20 I was directing the 5-6 and 11pm newscasts.

Just before I turned 21 I made my first big life decision.... I was offered a job at UPN 31 (now CW 31) in Sacramento as a technical director for the show Good Day Sacramento. So we packed up my dad's truck and hit the road. Before I knew it I was in California away from family and away from friends... It was the scariest time in my life.

Shortly after the move I thought I was in over my head, So I jumped in head first and did OK. Three months after I got hired  the station laid off half of their staff. Luckily I got to stay. I did get bumped out of the technical director gig into a utility player, I would shoot, edit, mix audio, and floor direct, until a full time photographer position opened up. (I'll do another post on being a news photographer later on) After working for Good Day for 5 years I was offered a job at the markets #1 station I jumped on that in a heartbeat, and I have now worked at KCRA for 12 years.... The first 8 years I was a news photographer traveling all over the state and the country covering news.

Then about 4 years ago I made a big career change and left the world of news for the world of station promotion. It was a good change, the Creative Services department is more quality vs quantity, that was a nice change from the run and gun of news.

So I realize after 20 years of TV and film I may have some knowledge to share
Check out jdkinghtfilms on facebook and thanks for reading.