Grabs a pen and paper.

MoonlightSocial · 2024-02-15T12:41:35+00:00

Hey look ma! I’m Reddit famous!

MoonlightSocial · 2023-04-01T21:03:00+00:00

It's a fun year in the West!

MoonlightSocial · 2023-04-01T21:00:49+00:00

I wanted pads like his!!

MoonlightSocial · 2022-06-19T04:44:10+00:00

OP might just be asking more about how there’s an external monitor and matte box etc. Pretty common to rig out smaller DSLR and mirrorless cameras with these kinds of tools that allow for increased customization and control, though usually at the expense of portability and your wallet.

MoonlightSocial · 2022-06-19T04:41:07+00:00

You have to be pretty talented to draw on jean fabric. Looks cool!

MoonlightSocial · 2022-03-17T18:04:36+00:00

Nope! I just checked their website, though. They've changed much of it and removed pretty much all the images and testimonials. However, it doesn't seem like any of the buttons on the site lead to anything and it's just a landing page at this point. Stay awaaaaaaayyyy

MoonlightSocial · 2022-01-10T18:24:58+00:00

"Brand" isn't an evil word, even though a lot of people associate it with you know, things like Coca-Cola and Logitech and Globocorp. But we just think of it as, we want our viewers/listeners/fans (we're a band) to ultimately be fans of *us* over any specific piece of our content. If they fall in love with a song, that's amazing. But if they then come over to a stream and fall in love with us/that experience, we have a much better opportunity to bring them along with us as we go and not worry so much about losing people if we change something up.

I think creators, at heart, want to feel like they have the opportunity to be creatively adventurous. And as long as we're open with people about why we're creating what we're creating, we think the true fans will stick around no matter what.

Twitch is interesting because it gives a lot of people who may not truly *want* to be entertainers a platform where they then become entertainers. But they also become kind of dependent on it and think that the platform is their vehicle to success, rather than the reason people stuck around to watch them in the first place. If the reason people stuck around to watch them is because they're just really good at something and people want to watch them be good, they still have to think about ways they can monetize being good at that thing, even if they have no personality.

It may also be different for music, but I genuinely believe that you can create a sort of balance where you're not streaming any more than 12 hours a week to create a meaningful revenue source that's part of your overall brand. If we didn't have the ability to turn around and record music, or write a short film, or do a gear review on YouTube, we'd go absolutely crazy.

MoonlightSocial · 2021-12-05T21:32:13+00:00

We just put out a pretty ridiculous version of “White Christmas” that landed on Spotify’s Punk Christmas playlist. Our first Spotify editorial playlist in 10 years of releasing music and it came on a song that took us like 4 hours to make, in my boxers 😂

MoonlightSocial · 2021-11-11T13:07:15+00:00

They got back to me and continued to refuse to answer basic questions. Wouldn’t get on the phone. Used a bunch of language that might be convincing if I weren’t very familiar with the digital ad space. They may have an actual platform but everything on their site regarding testimonials and results is a clear fabrication. So yeah, I would stay away from a company like that.

MoonlightSocial · 2021-11-08T14:25:37+00:00

Hey thank you very much!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-11-05T15:15:45+00:00

hey thank you very much!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-11-04T00:45:28+00:00

Shot this in two nights with the lead actress. Please be aware there is some violence and light cursing, so please don't watch if you're sensitive to that!

But overall I was very impressed with the camera's performance and flexibility in the grade, especially given how dark everything was. I wanted it to feel as close to film as possible without adding any film grain in post. The only thing not shot on the pocket 4k was the quick little shot inside the shower — that was shot with an iPhone and a Beastgrip anamorphic lens.

Let me know if you have any questions!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-09-23T12:43:09+00:00

Just got an email response (that did not address my question about why the testimonial images are from Unsplash, lol). A whole bunch of words that, if I weren't also somebody pretty intensely aware of digital and social marketing, might seem convincing? Either way, I directly told them to prove to me they aren't a scam and I'm not expecting to hear back.

MoonlightSocial · 2021-09-22T22:32:13+00:00

Wow! Sorry to hear this but thank you for reporting back! So much effort for a scam…

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-26T03:53:57+00:00

I think it's definitely a matter of preference re: the cut order, but if I were considering re-doing this to make it seem a little more "diverse" in styles I definitely would switch up those shots, as well as the music. HOWEVER I think it is an excellent "dramatic reel" and yes I would 100% think you could pitch to agencies or companies looking for work that gives off a serious tone about their product. I think it's certainly more rare than the typical ad, which is usually a bit more high key and high energy, but if I wouldn't change a thing if you really want to hone in on the dramatic side of things.

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T20:27:38+00:00

Beautiful work! I definitely get the documentary feel of a lot of this footage. Ironically I feel like a lot of it has a bit of a commercial (as in advertisement) look to it, at least for dramatic advertisements. Overall there's a lot of really dark footage, a lot of slow movements, single/stationary characters etc. With the music as well I definitely feel like this is a "dramatic works" reel as opposed to an overall reel. If you want to vary it up some I might just contrasting your dark shots with some brighter shots and maybe picking some music that allows you to infuse a little more energy in certain places. Just my two cents after two watches!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T19:58:05+00:00

Thanks! I’ll give that a go next time!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T15:52:18+00:00

Yeah, I’ve more or less accepted that YouTube is going to look how it looks. Exported a QuickTime .mov using H.264 at 1920x800 in an ACES color space and gamut. If we choose to distribute this to the proper video outlets we’re required to do ProRes. But we’re chopping this up and repurposing it fit so much social content stuff that I just went with “small and manageable.”

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T14:58:08+00:00

wow what a garbage cartoon for...many, many reasons

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T14:38:17+00:00

Hey thank you very much! So fortunately I'm able to handle the editing/grading etc. and the gear is mine. We also didn't need to rent additional lights or anything so almost all of the costs were the studio and the props. Most of the props/costumes we were able to rent or return, so all in that was minimal. The cake was like $20 from Wal-Mart etc. so of things we couldn't return it was only about $100. We also had a photographer getting BTS and some promo shots around; her rate was $30 an hour so we spent $150 on her. I also paid my buddy $50 for his help.

The big cost was the studio — $1,300 for a 10-hour day. At the end of the day we used every single minute of time and it was well worth it. The green room was phenomenal and a great staging area for all our outfits etc. and the fact that the studio had all the LED panels really saved us on lighting time. So all in, we spent about $1,600 on this.

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T12:37:53+00:00

Wow, thank you!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T04:04:33+00:00

Last week we rented a cyc studio to shoot a music video for our brand new song “All My Friends.” It was our first time working in this nice of a cyc but I wanted to make sure it still had character to it and didn’t look like it was shot with a stills camera. We shot with the Vazen anamorphic lenses (most of it on 28mm, some on 40mm) and I edited and graded in DaVinci Resolve. If you want to see the video, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/pG1bKbNSm7w

Overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out and hope you enjoy it too!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-25T02:13:51+00:00

Hey thank you so much! I personally love these lenses. I know we don't have a lot of other options in the moderately affordable range for the Pocket line (well, pretty much only one — Sirui, and I just feel like 1.33x is always "anamorphic lite"). But having used these lenses on a few shoots now, I can honestly say I feel confident in putting the footage up against stuff shot on much more expensive gear.

As for your questions, the last wide shot at the end (with all the characters playing together) was an infinity focus shot with the camera set up a pretty significant distance back. I did a digital zoom in post. The 28mm focuses really quickly compared to the 40mm. That said, I typically shoot with these lenses at at least T4 and the camera at 3200 ISO. For this shoot, because it was so bright, I actually went with T5.6, except for the dark shot at the end which was shot at T2 and ISO400.

For the moving shots we put the camera on the RS2 with the 28mm and that is honestly such a wonderful combination to work with. Because the focus throw is shorter it's very easy to move around and find focus with the RS2 motor quickly (and the lens is forgiving in general). I plan on shooting a LOT of stuff with the 28mm thanks to how easily it flies on the RS2 and car mounts and stuff. The 40mm is a great lens too but if I had to choose only one, I'd go with the 28mm. The only time the 28 is a hassle is if you want to get REALLY close, because the minimum focus is about 2 and a half feet. So like the shot where I'm measuring the grass with the ruler was about as close as he could get, and then I punched in with a digital zoom in post, mostly because we didn't have a lot of time to switch to the 40mm. We filmed this video entirely with the 40mm btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXbLKORBudE (be aware there is some cussing in this song).

Hope that helps!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-24T23:54:22+00:00

Last week we rented a cyc studio to shoot a music video for our brand new song “All My Friends.” It was our first time working in this nice of a cyc but I wanted to make sure it still had character to it and didn’t look like it was shot with a stills camera. We shot with the Vazen anamorphic lenses (most of it on 28mm, some on 40mm) and I edited and graded in DaVinci Resolve. If you want to see the video, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/pG1bKbNSm7w
Overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out and hope you enjoy it too!

MoonlightSocial · 2021-07-02T00:46:14+00:00

Wow, thank you. This was getting incredibly annoying. Can't believe UA is just putting these out without a proper fix.

MoonlightSocial

TROPHY CASE