PHOTO: Music Video with Anthony Evans, “Meaningless”
In any sport, a coach knows the right team at the right time on the field is a winning combination. Why should production be any different? Continue reading
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Choosing the Right Team
Posted in Concepting, Production Technique, SilverLeaf Entertainment
Tagged Christian Director, Christian Media, Christian Producer, Christian Production, Church Media, film production, John Magyar Media, music video, production business, Production Technique, SilverLeaf Entertainment, video production
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Become an Avid Student
A student is what? Webster’s defines “student” as, “…a person who studies and investigates”. I believe that we finish school, whichever level we determine is enough to launch our career, and then we quit learning.
As a student of light, I want to illustrate using lighting.
PHOTO: Taken off of my deck, overlooking a pond. Amazing light blazes through the back windows in the late afternoon. Continue reading
Posted in Production Business, Production Technique
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Good, Fast, Cheap…
You can only get two out of that equation, no matter how hard you try. You may have your production good and fast, but it won’t be cheap! You may have it cheap and fast but it won’t be good. I can produce good and cheap, but it won’t be fast.
CAPTION: Cheap & Fast / Construction 21st Century copyright 2009 John Magyar Photography (johnmagyar.com) Continue reading
Concepting 101
I call my blog site, “Imagine. Concept. Create.” because it is the workflow that I employ to go from ideation to completion of a production and/or a photo image. SilverLeaf Entertainment is more than a production company. We enjoy, in fact, practically insist on, getting involved at the concepting stage. So, I feel as if I have something to offer here. I’ve had the opportunity of sitting through “writing sessions” with song writers and concepting is similar in nature.
CAPTION: Abstract / Sometimes it helps to get outside of the obvious, think abstractly, to generate original thoughts Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Concepting, SilverLeaf Entertainment
Tagged advertising, concepting, creative production, Imagine Concept Create
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Client Communication
Good communication skills are paramount in my book. I read an article a few years ago that said, “With the onslaught of internet businesses, what will separate the great companies from the good, average and below average companies will be great customer service.” And customer service starts with great communication in and out of your company. It amazes me how many companies continue to stay in business when their customer service is mediocre and their product or service of equal or lesser value.
CAPTION: THE ENEMY Make sure that you are communicating what you think you are communicating.
Posted in Production Business
Tagged business communication, production business, Production Technique
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Spread Your Creative Across Your Budget
In my career, I have stumbled across a few producers, and even directors, who have a bent toward only working for a demo reel instead of serving the best interest of their clients. One of the quickest ways this will manifest itself is when a production has, for example, a show-stopping animated open, where clearly a great deal of money was spent, only to have the open dump out into the rest of the production that is poorly lit, no substantive story line, and little technique applied, all of this at his client’s expense.
Above is a frame capture from a VBS promotional production, Boomerang Express VBS that I wrote, produced and directed for LifeWay Christian Resources. Their theme was centered around Australia. Continue reading
Dubious About Advertising
When was the last time you listened closely to what was being said in advertising? Larger advertisers know that we “check out” when we watch TV and so they can, and do, say just about anything they want in advertising calculating which phrases you’ll pick up on and remember when you’re at that particular isle in the grocery store. They use phrases such as, “…doctor recommended…” so that you visualize a man in a white coat staking his reputation on a drug only after he had performed the most extensive, personal research on the drug. While that may be possible, it’s more than likely not probable. It is more likely that samples were given to a few doctors who in turn gave it to their patients and that, they call, “doctor recommended.”
Baby cardinal waiting to be fed whatever the mother cardinal chooses to place in its mouth
Active or Passive Participant?
If you have ever played a sport, then went to sit in the stands and watch that same sport, you have some idea of the difference between active and passive participants. (Though, I’ve seen a few people in the stands who thought they had the right to act as if they were in the game) A coach is another good example of a passive participant. Yes, he can see the game from the edge of the court, but he cannot feel the elbows in his jaw or ribs that the players may feel in a basketball game, for example.
When you are setting up your shots, you have a choice and the choice is where you will put the audience. After all, the camera is the audience. Where you place the camera, you place the audience. If your camera is faced one direction that shows a peaceful scene, and there is havoc going on 180 degrees from that action, behind the camera, the audience only knows peace and tranquility, because that’s what you’re allowing them to see. Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Concepting, Production Technique
Tagged advertising, concepting, Imagine Concept Create
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Director’s Notes
Generally speaking, I put directors into two camps, technical director and actor’s director. James Cameron, I consider to be a master technical director. Ron Howard, generally speaking, a master actor’s director. I consider myself more the latter. One look at my work and you’ll quickly notice that I don’t engage many effects. These days, it seems they are over used to compensate for low or no budget, or to make up for inexperience. All valid if you are just getting started in the business but a plug-in should not serve as a replacement for lack of planning and technical understanding or for little understanding for what good “directing” should be. And so I write…
Taken during pre-light of a performance video for Christian group Avalon, “In Christ Alone” Pictured with me is my very good friend and trusted craftsman/DP (for close to 30 years), James Reid, with pencil to mouth
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Keep the Story Short
“In August of 1945, American pilots dropped atomic bombs on two major cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pilots, humans just like you and me, were just following orders. But they must have felt something; they must have wondered whether what they were doing was right, ethically, morally.”
A short excerpt from my first short story that I wrote in high school. Writing short stories has been a hobby of mine ever since.
“As they flew to the drop site, what was going through each of their minds? Did they grapple with the ethical and religious issues as they flew? Did they compare their own lives, wives and children, to the ones they were about to destroy?”
I later spent many years traveling overseas to write and produces news features for humanitarian aid and Christian organizations. With all of the sounds and smells going on around me, I couldn’t contain my creative thoughts and so I would spend my nights in the hotel penning short stories, many in hand-written journals that I still have on my shelves today.
PHOTO: taken in Chennai, India on a trip with Samaritan’s Purse. copyright John Magyar Photography 2009