Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today we're joined by Rod Zapien, Video Producer and actor, and we will be talking about video production. Welcome, Rod.
Rod
Hi, guys. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.
Esther
You're very welcome here.
Rod
How is everything on your neck of the woods?
Esther
It's all bright and sunny, hopefully. Anyway, Rod is joining us all the way from sunny Tijuana in Northern Mexico. We're very thankful that we have this opportunity to talk to you today and find out more about video production and why it's important for our businesses.
Rod
Great. Okay. Yeah, go ahead.
Melanie
Well, I wanted to ask the first question, Rod, how long have you been doing video production and what set you up for in the first place?
Rod
Okay, that's a great question. I started it off, I think, somewhere around the year 2000 that I was invited over to a production studio from an old student of mine, an old student, that's a whole other story. They had just set up a production studio that was pretty fancy. It would still be pretty fancy up until this day. They had an awesome editing bay. They had a blue screen at the time, which is now more common to have green screen. They had an audio booth. They had a recording studio for music. They would bring in bands and record all the instruments separately and stuff. I was invited to the place just to show it off. It was incredibly impressive to me to see all this equipment in just one place and to see what they did. I got a taste of what they did just with a one day tour. I was pretty impressed with everything they did. I was like, I want in. She said, Yeah, you can come in and join us and just be like an unpaid intern. I was like, All right, so I can do that. At the time, I was an engineering student, which has nothing to do with video production, may I say. When I was brought in, I was an unpaid intern. Then I went back to school and I said, Can I actually, for real, intern there? And the school said, Yeah. I was like, It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with my career. The person who was in chart said, Yeah, just don't mention, just put something else. I was like, All right. The person saw me super excited. I came in and I started to be like an assistant to the main editor, which was my student, and she became my boss at the time. I was brought in. And the first thing that I did was work in post-production, which has been what I've done for the past 20-something years. I haven't done it for the entire 20 years, but I've done it for a good chunk. And what I did was that they would give me the audio tracks and the video tracks separately, which is the common way that films are shot. And at that time, the movies that I was editing were shot in 16 millimetres. This was way, way before the digital era. They would shoot the… Yeah, it's pretty awesome. They would shoot it in negative film. They would develop it, and then they would give me all the audio files in a format that was like… Do you guys remember the cassette tapes that we used to listen to? You would go out and buy a cassette type?
Esther
Yeah, we're old enough.
Rod
Okay, yeah. They would bring it to me in these big… Are they called Reels? R-e-e-l? Yeah, like audio Reels. And… They would bring that to me, and there was… I remember the machine that we would use to record was called the Nagra, N-A-G-R-A, I think it was. I would put those and I would bring them on digitally to the machine, and then they would bring me the digital version of the 16 millimetre footage that they had, and I would basically upload all of that to the system and then put it together and make it match. I was the video synchroniser between audio and video. I'm talking about that at that time. Now it's actually way more for a 90-minute film, they would shoot approximately between six and eight hours of footage. It's just to create a 90-minute video. I would be in charge of putting together all these hours and hours of footage. I did that for a bunch of films. And then as the months went by, I was offered a position to just stay. When my internship ended, I was okay, so I'm done and stuff. They offered me a proper job, which paid nothing because I was 21 or so, I think. Then I went from being a synchronising editor. I don't know if that's the real name. I think that she just made it up, which I would bring together the two tracks, the video track and the auto track. Then I started editing, putting the scenes together. I did that for a bunch of movies as well, probably like 20 movies or so. This was a Couple of-.
Melanie
Is there any movies you know?
Rod
No, it was Mexican movies. It was low-budget movies. It's a very specific market. It would be like B movies, the equivalent of B movies. I don't know if you've ever heard of that term, a B movie.
Melanie
-oh, yeah.
Rod
Yeah, not like the Bee movie where the Bee is flying around. No, that's not the one. That was voice by Jerry Seinfeld. No, that's not the case. But that was a bad joke. Sorry about that. You can cut it out if you want. But I would-.
Melanie
This stuff is gold. We tend to keep this stuff.
Rod
Like a dad joke? Like a proper dad joke? Okay, I have tonnes of those. There was one movie, though, now that you mentioned it, that was in theatres, because these B movies would actually be... I'm in Tiquana, Mexico, and for those who don't know exactly where that is, it's in the northernmost, westernmost part of Mexico. I have to the west, I have the Pacific Ocean, to the north, I have the US. And so there's basically nothing else in this corner of the planet. And so there's a reason why they shot those movies here and why they were edited here at the time because they were commercialised and brought into the Southern California market, which was a bunch of Mexican immigrants that were there at the time. That was the content, quote-unquote, content, that term didn't exist back then, that they would take to watch movies from back home. You know what I mean? It was like their only contact with what they had back home. And the movies were just bad. They were just really, really cheesy content. Yeah, you have what's up?
Melanie
Rod, you've explained in good detail there your background and your experience. And this is precisely why we wanted to bring you on to the podcast.
Rod
Okay, cool.
Melanie
Because the type of people that are listening to this podcast, a lot of them are just watching YouTube videos or maybe picking up some stuff from influencers occasionally, and it wouldn't be as technical as something you would probably create yourself. Is there any hot tips that we can give not to completely green people, but to people that have some knowledge and experience?
Esther
Do we need that whole editing suite and the whole studio set up with all the different areas to record separately? I mean, should we record our voices first and then record the images? What do we, as lay people, trying to get our content, because you mentioned content there, how do we get it out? With good quality.
Rod
Well, okay. I was going to say to get it out, I would talk to you guys. You guys are the marketing experts.
Esther
Yeah, but I mean, recording it, recording it and producing it to a standard that we'd be happy with.
Rod
Right, right. That's a great question, and it has a lot of answers nowadays. It wouldn't be the same answer I would give you 10, 15 years ago. But today, fortunately, we have these wonderful devices, smartphones that shoot pretty decent video.
Melanie
That is mad. You're recommending your phone.
Rod
The lenses are pretty good, yeah.
Esther
I do have to ask, though, do you recommend it portrait or landscape?
Rod
Well, it depends on where the content is going to go, actually. In my opinion, there's a reason why landscape is like the universal standard. And the reason is an anatomical reason, is because our eyes are next to each other side by side, not one above each other. And the reason why a smartphone is vertical is because it's just easier to hold it with our hands, and that's why video came about. So both video types, I guess, or orientations are like that because they're based on an anatomical reason more than anything else. I mean, the reason why we have vertical video is because it's easier to hold in our hands more than anything else. But if you're going to show a video, like if you're creating, if you're making publicity for your company, and your video is going to show on YouTube, most of the videos are going to be horizontal. They're going to be landscape, right? But if it's going to be showing on a smartphone, then it would be vertical. Now, it's ideally as you do both versions. Now, there's all these companies that you watch a video on your computer and you get the landscape version and you watch another video and you get the same commercial vertically on your smartphone. If you're watching it on a smartphone, now, a platform like YouTube is very well aware of where you're actually watching the video. So my recommendation would be to do both. Now, the smartphone is pretty decent media to do it. However, it's not professional. You were asking on why you do it separately. Do you have to do it separately? The quick answer would be no. Right there, what I would say is to go and buy some decent equipment, invest on decent equipment that makes you sound well enough in which you can actually manipulate the audio, because afterwards you have to go into a fancy editing software and actually work with your audio levels, clean the audio, because it's never going to be perfect. It never is. There's probably background noise that is going on that we're not aware of, that is not registering. You have to go into software and actually clean it up. The same thing happens for video. Now, the difference is whether you do something with a professional camera versus doing it with a smartphone is that with a professional camera, it actually does look different. I mean, you're not going to go and watch a Coca-Cola video that is being shot, a Coca-Cola spot or commercial that is being shot on a smartphone. That doesn't happen. They actually use professional equipment, and you can see the difference. You know, unconsciously, if you watch, let's say that you're looking for a service provider for X whatever service. Let's say that you want to buy, I don't know, office equipment like office chairs or office desks and stuff, and you look at a bunch of publicity on YouTube, and you go and look at this company that shot everything vertically, like with somebody talking in the selfie mode and stuff like that and showing their stuff off versus watching another company that you can tell the quality footage was shot with a professional camera. The one that was shot with a professional camera is probably going to generate more trust unconsciously. So you're probably going to be inclined to go there versus doing it in somebody who did it with less quality, even though probably both of them have the same quality product in the end. You know what I mean?
Esther
Interesting.
Melanie
Can I pop in there just for a second? Because the one thing that confuses me a little bit with this aspect of video recording is authenticity.
Rod
Of course.
Melanie
People are saying, I'll say people, conversation online. They want people to appear more authentic, and the more rehearsed and the more pro it looks, apparently the less authentic it can look. Can you make a professional footage look authentic still?
Rod
I think so.
Esther
Without sounding rehearsed?
Rod
I think so. I mean, that's where the term of a professional actor comes in. I mean, a professional actor is going to make it look natural, whether they do it a thousand times or they do it once. You know what I mean? There's this thing in acting that is said that there is no improvising without rehearsing. That sounds like it defeats the purpose of improvising. But it's true. I've been on stage many times, and it's true. You never, ever improvised unless you've done it a bunch of times before and you know that it works. You know what I mean? You're not going to go out there and just try it out to see what happens.
Melanie
Go cold.
Rod
Exactly. You don't do that. So a Professional actor-.
Melanie
But what about the entrepreneurs? They're not professional actors. Our listeners are just SMEs, and so they're not crossing stages and going to red carpets. They're just trying to make the best of what they have got with them price-wise, time-wise and knowledge-wise. So how can they remain authentic but still rehearse?
Rod
Well, that's actually a very good question. I would say they just shoot the same thing a thousand times. Just to do a selfie type video shot and do it a bunch of times and just upload the one that they feel the best with. So that would be my recommendation. Just do it a bunch of times. Don't do, I would say at the beginning, before you get the hang of it, don't do any live videos. Just record yourself on a selfie type thing or set it up on a tripod or whatever you want and do it a bunch of times, a bunch of times, a bunch of times. Look at the footage. Take the time to actually look at the footage, listen to it, make sure that the audio quality is as good as you want it to be. The audio levels are good enough. And if you're not satisfied, do it again. But I guess another thing would be to invest time-wise. Take the time to actually go in, look at the footage, make sure it looks great, and then upload it. Even if you don't do any colour correction or even if you don't do any editing or if you don't correct the audio or anything, but just do it a bunch of times. If you're not going to invest the time or take the time in editing, just do it a bunch of times. When I get auditions that I have to send a self-tape or an audition recording, I do it probably 10 times until I actually look at it, watch it, say, Okay, I like this one, and then I send it in. But otherwise, I don't do it. I just can't do it. I can't look bad doing it. And I know that at least at the fourth time, I'm going to get it right or something close to being right. And I would recommend the same thing for shooting video. And to be honest, sorry, to be look honest, I do recommend doing selfie type videos. I mean, I have nothing against it. Sorry about that. Go ahead.
Esther
No, that's fine. So practise makes perfect.
Rod
Oh, yeah.
Esther
Invest in equipment.
Rod
Yes.
Esther
Would you also say with that equipment you mentioned the tripod there, there are, what about selfie sticks or what do you find? Do you, like I personally, feel like I get a little seasick if I'm watching somebody that moves in a video, but I'm also probably that person that if I were to ever record a video, I would be moving and fidgeting and just nervous doing it. So how can all of that… You have to be conscious of what your customer will be looking at, not just what you're comfortable with, but how can you stabilise? I think that's the technical term, isn't it? Stabilise the video so that it's not all wiggly jiggly and people aren't going, well, where's she going now?
Rod
Right. Well, oh, goodness. You make me think a lot about that.
Esther
Technical term, wiggly jiggly.
Rod
Wiggly jiggly. Yeah, that's exactly what you say when you're shooting a film. Don't make it so wiggly jiggly. I'm just kidding. But… Well, I just found out that, for example, the iPhone I have has a video stabilisation. I didn't know that because I was shooting something. Yeah, I remember clearly that I was shooting a video and I moved the… I think I tripped or something. I was trying to shoot a video or whatever it was. I noticed that the image actually didn't move that much because I did something like this. I shook my hand for some reason. I tripped or I don't remember what it was. I remember that I was looking at the video and the video moved very little. The video shifted a little bit to the side and I was like, Okay, that's amazing. I didn't know that. I really didn't know that. I had no idea it could do that.
Esther
And for the benefit of our listeners, Melanie and I both just grabbed our phones to go look for the mode on our iPhones going, really?
Rod
Right. It has a video stabiliser, but I mean, it can only do so much. But it's pretty decent for when you're walking. It doesn't seem like a shaky cam, like you're doing doesn't look like a World War II film. Have you seen those? That there's all these… And it's a style of camera work that when they're going for a scene in which they're doing out in the field, like shots and they're fighting and all that stuff. And you can see the shake you can't, but that's the idea to make you feel like it's a nervous situation.
Melanie
You see them when they're running as well.
Rod
Exactly, yes.
Melanie
So that you feel like as the person watching you're running, it adds the anxiety to the whole scene.
Rod
Right. And I don't know if you can deactivate that, but you probably could. There's all these settings, but I've never really looked into it.
Melanie
That's fascinating. That's already something I've not ever heard of before. so thats pretty cool.
Rod
I'm telling you that I noticed this last week. I didn't know that. I think I was shooting my kid. He was doing something cute, whatever he was doing. And I was doing that, and I noticed that. In the end, how you're going to shoot it pretty much depends on what your market is, what your niche is, and what you know that they're looking for. If you know what your market is, then you know what type of video you're going to shoot for real. That's what I would tell my clients, No, I don't want to invest in fancy equipment and all that stuff. Okay, that's fine. That's fine if you don't want to. But what does your end client want? We were shooting a video for a pretty fancy architect here in my hometown. We did about three videos, I think. We would show the entire house, and she would build these very elegant houses for a very specific high-end market that she was going for. I remember that she was very picky on the way that we shot, that we did the… We moved the camera side to side. We would pan to the side to look at the walls and the chandelier and the doorway and the floors that she just put in and stuff. And that was a very specific way of, quote-unquote, directing that she wanted to move the camera around. Now, that's a very specific market. There's a reason why you would shoot in that style. But it wouldn't be the same if you would probably want to, I don't know, sell some clothing for young people. You probably have somebody in front of you, somebody hipster looking, you would get a proper actor or invest in an actor that looks really young and really hip and really nice, would be wearing the stuff and probably shoot it with the camera vertically and stuff. Because we actually put the camera, like a film camera, sideways, so it would shoot vertically, like a proper film camera. We would actually shoot videos like that. You would see a selfie style video, but with a professional camera. It looked amazing. Yeah, sorry, you were going to say something.
Esther
wow.
Melanie
Yeah, no, that's a really good point, actually, because one thing I've noticed with a lot of people is they tend to put photos and videos of the subject in the very centre at all times, unless it's like a commercial video where they're going to have an icon or a picture in picture come up next to you and that's all quite obvious. So do you think people could try and approach the beginning and the end of the video and maybe section out parts of the video just by side swiping or going up or going down, rather than just keeping the subject right in the centre at all times just to keep it varied?
Rod
Well, in that case it would be, again, it depends on what your market is. I don't know. Nowadays, I wouldn't give you the same answer 10, 15 years ago. It depends on, and it's changed so much. It depends on what your market is, really. And what I wouldn't recommend under any circumstance so far, I don't know if I would give you the same answer next year because things just shift around. But let's say that you're shooting a video in which you're in the frame, right? And then you want to move out and just shoot whatever you're looking at, right? I most of the time do not recommend to do this motion and move out and shoot that. That just looks like sloppy video work, in my opinion. In that case, if you actually shoot it that way, I would tell you, invest on doing a little bit of editing, cut yourself out and make it look a little bit more elegant. If you do a couple of cuts here and there, it looks way more elegant than just you moving out of the frame. For some reason, that doesn't look as well as I think it does and you don't see that many videos in which people do that. You usually see cuts here and there, like editing cuts here and there. Yeah. If you look at actually, even the most popular YouTubers actually don't do that. These video channels that have millions of subscribers, they don't do that. Even they do horizontal landscape stuff and they do vertical YouTube shorts. Yeah. So invested video. There you go.
Esther
Okay. So much information there for us today, Rod. Thank you so much again for joining us. Before we wrap up, where can people find you? How can they get in touch with you if they have any questions for you? And yeah, tell us about your latest movie as well.
Rod
Oh, cool. Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. For as long as I've been in video production, probably about two years difference, I've also been an actor on stage and in film and all that stuff. Stage is my first love, as many actors would tell but it doesn't pay as much. You prefer to probably be in front of the screen, even though getting in front of the screen is a lot more difficult. They can get in touch with me just by finding me on social media at Rod Zapien, ROD, and then my last name or my surname is Z-A-P-I-E-N. Now we have an English academy. We teach people how to speak English as a second language as you know I am in Mexico. It's most peoples and it's not their native tongue. Most people speak Spanish and want to speak English, so you could find our stuff at Maestro, which is master in Spanish, Maestro, and Profesor, which is teacher in Spanish, but with one S, like the word professor, but with one S. So it's maestroprofesor.com. You could look us up there. And IPA is actually going to help us do our stuff.
Esther
We are. I was going to say don't look at the website just yet. It is in the process of being changed.
Rod
No. If it looks super crappy is my fault. That's why I got in touch with IPA because I need something to look a lot more professional. All the advice I gave you for video, you need to apply that as well with your online presence and have professionals do it. That's why I don't do it and I don't plan on doing it. Our latest movie, we shot a movie through the pandemic, half of it before the pandemic started and half of it during the pandemic. The movie is called Contratiempo, which is a little bit of wordplay. It means against time, but it also means it's a word for high hats on a drum set, on a drum kit. It's the same thing because it's the movie that talks about the life of an old drummer from the early 2000s who was trying to put his life back together after being through a very difficult time working against alcoholism and trying to bring his life back to you. This is a nice, interesting drama about musicians that a lot of musicians go through that. That movie is probably, hopefully, we're working on it at the end of the year, is going to come out in Amazon Prime.
Melanie
Oh, wow.
Rod
Hopefully worldwide. We have the stuff for US. We're trying to get it into Mexico, and it's probably going to go everywhere else soon enough. There's a couple of other movies that are yet to come out that I've worked with, and there's a movie that we're shooting next month as well. I can't mention much about it because I'm not allowed yet.
Esther
You heard him here first, guys, and I've seen the movie, obviously, that Rod and I go way back. It's actually my brother-in-law. I've known Rod for many years. I've seen him on stage, I've seen him in movies and can't recommend it highly enough. It's also in film festivals going around the different countries at the minute as well. So we do thank you so much for your time, Rod, and we realise that it is super early in the morning. So we will let you go and all of that information will be at the bottom of the show notes when they are ready. So thank you again, Rod, for joining us today and talking about video production. And we'll be back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys. Have a great week.
Rod
Bye-bye. Thank you guys for having me. Bye-bye take care.
