Sunday, July 24, 2011

Distractions


Alright here we go, I have been wanting to do a blog on this topic for time now, but I have just kept putting it off. I think it is important for me to point out that even though I don’t mention any names in this I will be talking about a few people I know. And that if they read this I hope it motivates you to do what you want.

I find that many people have goals or things that they want to do in life, but many of us don’t reach those goals. And those people blame certain things or reasons as to why they don’t reach them. But I am sorry to say they have no one to blame but themselves.  And the main reason they don’t achieve these goals is because they are lazy. Now being lazy doesn’t just stop at fitness, cause yes it is the number one reason people are over weight or out of shape. You can’t get fit sitting in the couch playing video games and guess what the same applies to making your dreams come true.

So much talent is wasted because of things like video games and Television. I have more then a few friends that want to make movies or do photography. But lack the drive or self-motivation to do so. And I have no problem helping someone by giving them the opportunity, but I will not to all the work for them.  If you want to make a film I will help you with the script and other areas, but don’t expect me to do all the work while you do nothing. At that point it’s not really your film it’s mine. And don’t tell me how to make a low budget film when you yourself have never done it. I have made three and know what you can and can’t do.  And the order you should do things in.  I wont be a nazi about it, but take from what I have learned and don’t make the mistakes I have in low budget filming, use the KISS method Keep It Simple Stupid. If you want a bar but have no money to rent one, maybe change your script a bit, a house party will work just as well. Way easier to get a friend’s house then it is to shot in a business.

Now one big problem I see that holds everyone back is video game’s. Yeah they are fun and after work but you don’t have to play them all night. Set yourself a time limit play for an hour or two then work on the project you want to work on. Or work on your project first then play your game.  The game isn’t going anywhere you can play it at anytime. Your dream won’t be going anywhere ether if you don’t work on it. Things wont just fall into your lap, that doesn’t happen for everyone. It takes time and a lot of trail and error.  But if you really want it you should keep at it, you don’t want to look back and regret that you never tried at least. I’d rather try and fail then never try at all, and trying is more then a lot of people do.

Another thing that holds people back is other people. Some people tell you that it will never happen or your dream is stupid. Well a lot of the time these people are just jealous that you have the guts to try while they don’t. Other people might give criticism towards your work. Learn how to take it, sometimes criticism is a good thing it lets you know where you need to improve. Don’t stop or get mad cause someone doesn’t like what your doing. It might not be there style or they don’t understand what you’re trying to do. Now if they are a person with considerable experience in the field you are trying to get into ie) writing, photography, editing, listen to what they have to say, it may sound like they are putting you down but they are trying to help you succeed, odds are they wouldn’t have agreed to look over your project if they didn’t think you could do it.

 The main point is don’t get mad and stop trying to reach your dream. Don’t let the little things distract you and keep you from trying. Someone once told me “do something everyday that takes you one step closer to your dream” now at times I have lost sight of that advice but I tell you what it’s true. Do at least one thing a day to help you reach your goal.  Now stop reading this and go work your own dream, and I hope you make or at least put in a damn good effort at trying.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Respect for others time

One thing that I always try and stress in this business is respect for other peoples time. The reason I say this is for a photo shoot or film shoot you have multiple people working with you. And if you are the photographer or the talent if your late you are wasting everyones time, and that isn't fair to the people you are working with. I know personally I don't like my time waisted, and in an industry like this it is true time is money! And now let me explain this for you.

Now let's use a video production for example and a single location day for your shoot:

7am:
 call time so that you can start setting up and the talent can get hair and make up done - estimated time 1.5 hrs

830am:
travel to your location (this can change depending on where your location is from your base camp) So lets say .5hr

9am
blocking and one rehearsal estimated time .5 - 1hr

930 am - 10am
Start shooting estimated time 6hrs

4pm
Finish shooting because you no longer have this location after 5pm

4pm - 5pm
Break down and clean up.

Now this is a rough estimate of your day. So lets say your talent is late by an hour. it now pushes all your time back. Which means you will start shooting later then you want too, which means you will not get all the shots you want. And you may not be to happy with what you do get.

So how do you make sure this doesn't happen?? Well you can't really people are people and you can't really stop people from being late mistakes sometimes do happen. But you can stress the importance of being on time. Clear time sheets stating when call time is and the date, also clear communications in emails or texts messages if you are not making call sheets. Stress the date and the time a number of times in the messages you send out. This way no one can use the excuse I thought it was later or on a different day. Also on your call sheets try using the 24 clock, this way no one get confused with AM or PM.

If you are late all the time this looks bad and since you will be costing people money, you may not get hired back and that is never good. I know if your late on me or a no show all together you'll never work with me again and when people ask about you I wont say bad things about you but I will warn people that you are often late. And that is only fair that I warn others.

So people what I am trying to say is this respect other peoples time, make sure you know when your supposed to show up for your call time. If your going to be late at least call. If I am taking your picture if your a half hour late the chances of me being there when you show up are slim to none unless you call me to inform me your running late. I have had a few no shows lately and this has now forced me to start charging a 50 dollar booking few. If you cancel with 24 hours notice then you will get you money back. If less then 24 hours sorry no refund for you. This might sound harsh but if I am putting my time in to find you a location to shoot and arranging make and hair for you, and you cancel i do believe I should get paid for my time just a little don't you?

Christopher

Monday, June 20, 2011

Gary's Angels

Hello everyone!

So I was going through my youtube videos and I came across a short I made oh I'd have to say 4 years ago now. This short was made shortly after our film "Inner Thoughts" was canceled. The reason being is because we lost our location. Just a reminder to you all making a short film with no or very little money can be done. Just don't use a store used by a corporation to do it unless you talk to there head office and not the store manager.

Anyway the film I am talking about is called Gary's Angels. It was shot as an informercial you would see on late night tv for sex ads. You know the ones I'm talking about "Call now and talk to local hot girls in your area" one the women in those ads are always hot, two women that hot aren't waiting at home to be called they are out getting hit on by other hot people. So we made this short to make funny of those ads. We made ours about escorts and added a lot of comedy well stuff we thought was funny anyway.

We had to be careful with our casting ad and make sure people knew what they were getting into before they showed up. We stressed that there would be no nudity and I am really happy that even though this is the closest thing I have shot to being porn it's not porn! We caught a little slack due to the content, a rumour went around that we were doing it to only see women walk around lingerie. So not true if I wanted to see that I'd ask my girl friend....well when I have one right now I'm single, but i had one then. Hell we even a guy respond thinking we were an escort company and wanted to know our rates.

Day 1

We started shoot in my friend Rogers computer store Apollo Computers. We did the call centre scene and the testimonials, where your truly makes an appearance. They day went really and I was pretty happy with it.

Day 2
Ah day two was a funny day. Our girls showed up and we even had two extra girls show up. One worked with one of our actresses and she wanted a part in the film, the other was a friend of a friend and she also wanted a part. We also some how got a box of sex toys from somewhere as props. So we started shooting and lunch rolled around and we ordered pizza (I know what a healthy lunch for women) So the pizza guy shows up and of course he comes in and what does he see, girls in skimpy clothes, sex toys and a video camera. You just knew he was thinking we were making a porn. And I went to school with this guy so I know that rumour went around town for sure. Day two went awesome our bouncer didn't show up but I think we covered that scene rather well without him.

Day3

Day three....I don't remember much about day 3 other then we all had fun and said our good byes.

Gary's was a really fun project to work on and everyone seemed to have fun on it. We managed to get a behind the scenes video and a pretty funny blooper reel out of the deal.  And as I am sure you can tell the videos are posted below all three of them. So feel free to check them out and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did working on them.

Christopher Renaud







Saturday, June 11, 2011

King Pin Tattoo Emporium

One of the things I like about my job is the fact that I get to travel. And in doing so I get to find some amazing places, one of these places is King Pin Tattoo Emporium in Port Alberni British Columbia Canada.  Why am I talking about Tattoo's you might ask well they are art just on a living moving canvas. And Christopher Renaud Media will be doing a Documentary on Tattoo's very soon. Anyway back to King Pin

I first walked in to King Pin wanting to get a Biohazard symbol tattoo (for my love of zombies) That's when I met Brian Snively. Brain suggested his own spin on the tattoo saying that just a plan symbol might be a bit boring. He was right of course and his suggestions were awesome. I had to two choices to choose from, the symbol could look like an infection spreading in my skin, or like someone carved it into my skin, I picked the carving myself. After all was said and done the Tattoo looked great! And I asked Brain to design the tattoo for my mother that I always wanted but could never find the right artist. I told Brian what I wanted and he told me to come back in a few days. 

The Tattoo for my mother

The Wonderland Tattoo a work in progress

My Bio Hazard Tattoo
I came back and Brian had a design all ready for me I really liked it. I made an appointment for a few weeks later and left really looking forward to getting my tattoo. I came back and Brain told me he wasn't happy with the dragon in his design and that he wouldn't put something on me he himself wasn't happy with.  I gained a lot of respect for him then, not every artist will do that. He told me that he would re design it that next day but we could start the tattoo anyway. I agreed and we sat down and started the tattoo. After he was done I asked if i could come back and get the other half done the next day, I didn't want to walk around with a just part of this tattoo done. Oh the tattoo is of a Dragon watching over a Unicorn just so you know, and we had just did the unicorn portion of the tattoo.  Brian agreed and i was back in the shop the next day to get my dragon added to my arm.

Since then I have been back a few times for more work, you see Brain does great work and for a great price I honesty think the guy should be working in a place like High Voltage Tattoo (LA Ink). He is now working on my twisted Alice in Wonderland Tattoo. So far we have the lower part of my arm almost done. And will soon start the upper portion of my arm. 

King Pin also does piercing and sells novelties such as swords, knifes, clothing, and etc. 

So if you want a great Tattoo at a great price come to Vancouver Island and see Brian, or if you want to get a piercing see Cory Embury. Here are the following links for the shop

http://www.facebook.com/pages/KingPin-Tattoo-Emporium/280807211247

trust me you wont be disappointed.

Christopher Renaud

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Photoshop

Well one thing is clear I really need to get a better handle on photoshop. I am pretty good (well I think anyway) at colour correcting. But beyond that I am so lost and it really sucks because I think and so I have been told that i take some really good pictures. So just knowing photoshop would make my photo's that much better.

So last night I went to Chapters and picked up the Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers which is a pretty thick book. I don't often read instruction manuals or books, not because I hate reading I love to read, but because they are so boring...but in this case i will. Photoshop isn't really a program you can just try to play around with and figure out. Well I am sure you could but man that would take awhile and i am sure you would miss something.

So it looks like I have some heavy reading a head of me. So hopefully my pictures will look that much better. I guess only time will tell. And hey if I don't get through the book at least I will have a very interesting paperweight.

Christopher

Friday, May 27, 2011

My last ten days home










Well as most of you know I do a lot of traveling in my job mostly Vancouver Island in and around the Nanaimo area, and I am only home in Calgary for ten days at a time. Well my last ten days where rather busy. I was arranging interviews for the Tattoo documentary I am working on and trying to get some photo shoots in as well as meeting with Lori to get my logo done. So while I was home I had 4 photo shoots with some pretty awesome models. But right now I only want to talk about one of the shoots.

I was bored one day and texted my friend Jewels Sherren who is a Make Up Artist and told her i was bored and asked if she knew anyone who wanted to shoot. She told me she did and that she could arrange it in a few days. I told her that would be great and that I looked forward to working with her again (Jewels is awesome). So that day of the shoot roles around and I arrive at Jewels house and find Jewels, and  Jory Davie (Hair stylist) putting the finishing touches on our lovely model Sara Galloway.  Sara wanted to do a Suicide Girls kind of look to her, but not the trashy look the more moderate look and I think Jewels and Jory did a great job. Now it was my turn to make there vision a reality on camera. So Jory, Sara and myself load into my Escape and head downtown Calgary to shoot!

Now this was a very interesting shoot for me as I had never really done anything like this, most of the time the people I meet want to shoot in a park. And let me tell you I was very happy no to be shooting in a park this time around (we did end up there for a few shots but that was my idea, I wanted to use the stage in Princess Island Park). We ended up in an older part of downtown Calgary where the buildings are just a little run down. And the results where great for the look that Sara had. We ended up driving all over the place finding new places to shoot and shooting in places I had been too but never thought of taking people. So all in all it was an amazing shoot and I look forward to working with the girls again as we discussed a few shoot ideas for the next time I am home. Not to give to much away but it is going to be dark and a little twisted I love it!!

Well everyone hope you have a great evening and an awesome weekend. I am waiting for a model to show up and shoot here on the island so I am sure another blog post is coming shortly.



Christopher Renaud

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Logo

Hello All

I would really like to thank Lori Hill from Green Eyed Monkey (@greeneyedmonkey and http://www.greeneyedmonkey.net) for the design of my logo. She has a breath of fresh air after a horrible attempt to get a logo done by another designer whom I paid but never delivered. I wont name names but you know who you are, and karma will find you. I found Lori a joy to work with and she really understood what I wanted from start to finish, she really listened to me and my ideas, and kept me informed during each phase of the design. She also designed my business cards (image of cards below) as well and I can't wait to receive them! I strongly recommend Lori to anyone who needs design work, so please check her out and make sure you tell her I sent you.


Christopher Renaud

Hello and Welcome

Hello everyone

I would like to say welcome to Christopher Renaud Media and I hope you enjoy what you read and see here. My name is well yes you have guessed it Christopher Renaud. I'm a 28 year old Photographer and Videographer from Ottawa Ontario, but I know make my home in Calgary Alberta, that is when I am home. I spend most of my time on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. I first fell in love with media in High School when I joined the Sound and Light Club (AV Club really) I took my Co-op class at TV Cogeco. Then I went to College and took Police Foundations, I dropped out of that course after a semester and kinda went adrift. years later I found myself working as an extra on the film H2O and again fell in love with the media. I then found myself working as a Production Assistant in Ottawa and later an Assistant Unit Manager (for list of films I have worked on see here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1944699/ ).
I have written and directed three short films as well. I now work as a contractor for Shaw Cable, it's not a media job but it gives me the ability to travel and do what I love, until I can do this full time again.

Well that is all for now please stay tuned for many more updates and blogs to come. A lot is happening in my world and I am sure you wont want to miss it.

Christopher Renaud