Testimonial:

Producing Professional Music Videos

Pinnacle Real User: Dwayne McCauley

How does someone go from skilled bricklayer and amateur VHS camcorder user to being a multi-camera shooting, country western music video producer? According to Dwayne McCauley, cameraman, editor and producer of Nate Sparks’ music video Daddy’s Shoes, “you just do crazy stuff and keep filming as you go.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have an artistic eye, a flair for the creative and an I-can-do-that attitude.

“Nate Sparks had a listing on Craig’s List looking for a producer for his latest country music video,” recalled Dwayne. “I forget exactly how it was posted, but I contacted him and told him that I have an unusual eye, a real taste for art, and that I thought I could create something for him. We talked and chatted for a while. Then, after things got going, we met and I showed him the work I had been doing with Photoshop, taking pictures and blending them together to make one. He liked my talent and gave me the job. He’s the one that turned me on to Pinnacle Studio ™. I think it was Studio 8.”

The first cut of the video Dwayne shot and edited for Nate Sparks turned out just the way Dwayne had envisioned it. Unfortunately, it was not quite the way Nate had envisioned it. Still, Nate told Dwayne not to worry about it, admitting that he had turned down first cuts from even paid professionals, and he encouraged Dwayne to try again.

“He liked the first and the last part that I did, but he wanted to add some musicians to it. He was my client and I wanted to make him happy. I had my work cut out for me and after 8 edit takes I had a winner that Nate liked. With the use of Pinnacle Studio 11 it made my work easy and I enjoyed working on each and every one of them. He has tried to market it and see how it goes with television. I think it got played in ABC Australia and other places.”

Dwayne had used a VHS camcorder to record, then used Pinnacle Studio to transfer the content into a digital format on his computer where he then edited the video using Pinnacle Studio 8. Nate Sparks now hosts the final production on his website, www.natesparks.com. Obtaining the rights, Dwayne submitted the music video to a Pinnacle user contest in which he took third place.

“I was really struggling to overtake first place, because I wanted to win the digital camcorder that Pinnacle was offering,” said Dwayne. “I was hustling everybody on MySpace and YouTube, making up fliers to look at the video. I really wanted that new camera.”

Dwayne continues to hone his filming and video editing skills by watching numerous Hollywood-produced movies and professional music videos. When he sees techniques he likes, he takes those ideas and experiments with his own equipment. Sometimes he has to create new tools to effectively reproduce the effect.

“I’m not going to go out and spend $6,000 on a piece of video equipment,” insisted Dwayne. “I have a God-given talent to duplicate just about anything. I started to watch the pans and the zooms in movies and then I started to think of ways to do it myself. I made some slide rails and a jib crane for the camera so I could get that same up and down effect and I could swing around in a complete circle from one spot.”

One movie that gave Dwayne several ideas to incorporate into his own filming and editing repetoire was the 2005 remake of King Kong. In particular, Dwayne recalls a scene on top of a mountain at sunset where the camera pans in while keeping the actors in focus.

“The camera pans up, then swings back and down, then walks back,” explained Dwayne. “I can’t say for sure how they did it, but just seeing the effects in the movie, I’d say it’s done with a jib cam crane on a rail system. I decided that I could make a jib cam that could swing the same way and walk it on a rail system, so I’m building one. I have a lot of stuff stirring in my brain. I typically leave the movie theater wanting to try all the techniques I just saw, try to figure out how they did something and how I can broaden that technique.”

But setting up the scene and finding creative ways to get the Hollywood-looking shots are not the skills that make a great, amateur movie. There’s the actual video editing, where Dwayne can really express himself artistically.

“The more I use Pinnacle Studio, the more tools I find and I start to lose track of how much time passes,” confessed Dwayne. “I just started experimenting when I was working on the Nate Sparks video, and I’ve been hooked on Pinnacle ever since.”

Another feature that appeals to Dwayne’s artistic eye is the ability to integrate photographs with the video, or as a slideshow with music, various creative transitions and pan-and-zoom.

“I had a client whose mother had passed away,” Dwayne recalled. “She had a lot of pictures and some VHS footage, so I was able to use Pinnacle Studio to blend the movies with some upbeat music. I cleaned up the photos and used Pinnacle to zoom in and out, overlap video clips, fade-in and out, then back to a movie. For the end, I used this one scene where she takes off in her car listening to the radio that she got for her birthday; she was happy and really having fun. The client liked the final piece a lot.”

Although he describes his computer skills as moderate, Dwayne attributes his nearly immediate success with Pinnacle Studio to its ease-of-use, rather than his personal qualifications and experience.

“I’m still relatively new at using Pinnacle Studio; and actually, I didn’t even have a computer until 2001 or 2002,” said Dwayne. “I have watched people on the Pinnacle Systems web site and the stuff that they have done and I really don’t have all the skills that some of the other guys have, but I’m learning every day. The more I play with Pinnacle Studio, the more I learn. It makes editing so much easier. I started with Pinnacle Studio 8; and based just on my experience with that, I went out and bought Pinnacle Studio 11 and that version’s just unbelievable!”

After seeing his videos, Dwayne is often asked how he, a bricklayer by trade, was able to produce such professional-looking results. And Dwayne is always happy to share his little secret.

“I say Pinnacle Studio 11 and I tell them the price. Sometimes they say that’s a lot of money, but I say it’s really not enough money if you want to know the truth! But then I just start showing them how easy it is and I put them on the computer and let them try it alone for an hour and when I come back, they always tell me they had no trouble and everything worked just like I said it would.”

Dwayne recently had the opportunity to compare notes with one of his son’s friends who is currently attending college and taking classes in video editing using software designed for the Mac.

“I was showing her Pinnacle, and she said my software looked just a little more user friendly than hers,” said Dwayne. “I was going through the tools and features more quickly than she was with her software so I teased her about her going to college for editing and I wasn’t. With my software, I was able to keep up with her and all her professional training. There’s a lot of trial and error when you first start using Pinnacle, but it’s so user friendly. It really blows everything else out of the water.”

A little over a year after his first attempt editing the Sparks video, and Dwayne is still passionate about Pinnacle Studio and quick to share it with anyone who will listen.

“The overall product is just off the hook!!! Pinnacle Studio is the pinnacle of its class, that’s the only way I can describe it,” said Dwayne. “I’m not a salesman for Pinnacle Systems, and I’m not a pushy guy, but of course friends and family are always easy to sell to. They thoroughly enjoy what I’ve done.”

Sometimes Dwayne’s family enjoys being part of the video action too, as in Dwayne’s comical video production, Kung Fu Fighting.

“The video is of my brother in-law and I doing stupid stuff together, it’s pretty funny to watch,” said Dwayne. “It’s up on YouTube where some people comment that they like it, some don’t, but it was fun to make. It’s exciting being able to say ‘I did that,’ and to hear what other people say about it. You can’t please everybody. It’s all a numbers game. The more people you talk to, the more feedback you will get. The majority will say it’s good.”

Dwayne has also produced Kung Fu Fighting to DVD to share with his 80-year-old mother, who, once she figured out how to view a DVD, really enjoyed the movie.

“She calls me and says, ‘How do I get this stuff to work?’ I told her all she had to do was put the disc in the computer and that it should run. When she told me she did put the disc in the computer and that nothing happened, I asked her to open the door and see if the words are on top. She said no, so I tried not to laugh and told her she had the DVD upside down.”

After seeing what he has been able to produce, Dwayne has already been approached by several people who have asked him to create something for them. Some have footage from a wedding and want it on DVD; others have footage on VHS they want transferred to DVD.

“It’s easy using Pinnacle Studio,” said Dwayne. “They love the results, and it makes me feel good to do it for them. The only problem is, when I finally get on the computer, four or five hours fly by and the wife says, ‘you’ve been on since 4:00 O’clock and now its time to go to bed.’ Before I know it, its 11 pm! I can get lost in time just playing with Pinnacle Studio.”

More recently, Dwayne has been practicing filming like a National Geographic cameraman, capturing nature as it happens in his own back yard. He has also been experimenting with the green screen feature.

“I love that green screen because I can look like I’m at the beach and not even really be there,” said Dwayne. “With Pinnacle, everything is just so easy. There is so much to explore, there’s just so much to do. If I wasn’t a bricklayer and I could be a Pinnacle expert, that’s for sure what I would do.”

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The contents of www.natesparks.com and Daddy's Shoes music video are copyrighted Nate Sparks, Capitol Management-Nashville and published by Bobby & Billy Music/Sony/ATV. All rights reserved.