News

2025 IDEA Conference Recap

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 11:31:58 Z

We just wrapped up yet another incredible IDEA conference! It was great catching up with friends I have made over the years, and hearing about what the major sports teams have been working on. I look forward to this event every year because I get to be in a giant room of like-minded creators and innovators, soaking in all their energy and creativity. This year was no different!

This year's conference was in Boston, Massachusetts. Our team consisted of Ryan, D.J., Rachel and me. A big part of my recap revolves around the history of this city. I don’t usually delve into the history of places, but being dropped into it for four days, I found I couldn’t help but be interested in all the things that Boston has to offer.

The first day of the event was packed with different cool opportunities to see Boston and chat with other attendees. We visited TD Garden to tour the facility and see how the Celtics and Bruins execute their gamedays. The history in that building is incredible - I had no idea that between the two teams, they have been able to hang 18 banners in that arena (12 Celtics, 6 Bruins). They also had a Bruins “museum” where we got to see historic memorabilia and some high-tech displays. To end the day, we had dinner at Fenway Park and got to see their landmark ballpark and control room.

To break up the outings - during the conference we were staffing our trade show booth! There were a lot of great opportunities to talk about what we do at PEG and meet people from all over the country who work in sports! (A big shout-out to all the amazing IDEA folks who make this happen every year.)

Okay, back to the fun with my favorite stop on the trip. We got to visit Harvard University and see their historic football stadium, as well as several other sports facilities, all while watching the MLB All-Star Game on a huge outdoor LED board. I learned that Harvard has 42 collegiate sports teams, more than any other college in the country!

The IDEA Conference never fails to recharge my creative battery and get me excited about creating new and innovative sports content. Seeing old friends, meeting new friends, and going to seminars inspire me to continue growing in our field. One more big thank you to the organizers of IDEA for continuing to bring us all together and planning another excellent experience. I can't wait for next year already!

Our Favorite Video AI Tool

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 08:43:00 Z

Our favorite AI tool comes from a company called Topaz Labs. They have multiple tools that help increase the overall quality of footage or images. As you can imagine, that is major for PEG, as there are plenty of times projects that require media from other sources may not meet our high standards. So, let's get into some details of the incredible things Topaz Video and Photo tools have to offer.

I'm going to highlight each of the enhancement options available in the program and briefly explain why it's so important to us. To start, I will cover the aspect of these tools we use the absolute most: increasing the resolution of your media.

Increasing Resolution

This feature is self-explanatory and sounds simple, but I want to stress how incredible this is in the world of digital media. When we capture a clip, we keep it forever, but as time goes on we may not be able to continue to use it. This is because as technology improves, so too does the quality of the media we capture.

With this tool, we can refresh older, lower-resolution footage by adding pixels via AI. This allows us to take years of high-definition footage and make it usable in a 4K ecosystem without quality loss. We have always been able to scale up footage to try to use it in 4K projects, but that is a destructive way of utilizing old footage. Since those pixels don’t actually exist, it created a fuzzy, almost pixelated effect on that footage.

In the example below, I showcase the value of increasing resolution in older footage.

As you can see, this tool allows us to use otherwise low-quality footage in our projects, which means we can be more creative, and more flexible, using the shots we think fit the overall direction of the piece.

Denoising

The second amazing feature in Topaz I wanted to highlight is AI Denoising. Denoisers have been around as effects for a long time, but have never been perfect. There will always be some level of noise remaining, and due to the nature of how a denoiser works, the more you want a clip denoised, the softer the overall image becomes. Because these tools are not “smart” tools such as Topaz, they are reducing the general noise throughout the entire scene. Topaz can tell what the subject in a noisy shot is and retain the sharpness of that subject.

In my example below we had a lot of noise in the footage and needed to denoise it all, just look at the amazing difference between one of our initial footage and the footage denoised with Topaz AI.

Frame Interpolation

Next, another amazing new tool in our belts for cinematic story-telling: Frame Interpolation. This is the name of the effect inside of Topaz, but the easy way to think of it is “the ability to add frames to previously captured video.”

This is something most editing software can do when you are forced to use footage with fewer frames per second than you need. But, we generally avoid it because it doesn’t do a great job when pushed too hard (For instance, if you need to double the frame count in a clip from 30 to 60, it is pretty noticeable that something is off.)

Now we can use Topaz to double or even quadruple the number of frames in a single clip provided the action happening is not very fast. This allows us to take b-roll captured at normal speed, and make it super slow motion without it looking bad. That is a lot of explanation to say, we can make anything look super cool now! Check out one example below.

Much like these other tools inside of Topaz AI, this allows us to have even more creative freedom during the editing process than we have ever had before.

Stabilization

I will wrap up with this last awesome tool, which is stabilization. In Adobe we can stabilize clips with “Warp Stabilizer” or even stabilize a bit more manually in After Effects. In general, the success of these depends on the level of shakiness in the footage we are attempting to stabilize. While the same is true for the stabilization feature in Topaz, it definitely does an overall better job than anything we use in Adobe as it uses AI to analyze the motion in the clip and counteract it as much as possible. Below, I have a few examples of clips stabilized in Topaz AI.

Focus Fix

Ok, I know I said that would be my last one. But, I also wanted to shout this one out for any teams who have struggled with missed focus. Topaz has just added a feature allowing you to take missed focus and fix it with AI! This is a new tool so I have not tested it thoroughly (we never miss focus) but I am excited to see what it can do if the need ever arises!

This tool has changed the way we think when it comes to what is possible in video. We love it as a team and more and more I am getting requests from our editors to “run this through Topaz please!” AI content creation is certainly cool, but content creators using AI tools to create in an improved way is so much cooler. I love seeing these types of tools emerging on the market and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

The Future Of AI In Video (According To Our Team)

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 09:00:00 Z

Get caught up on the first part of this series (written completely by AI) here.

No AI tools were used in the creation of this blog. Much like myself, they get self-conscious talking about themselves.

In every conversation with my peers for the last six to 12 months, the only guaranteed topic during our chat is Artificial Intelligence (AI), and whether or not it will replace us all. AI is an extremely hot topic, not only in the video industry but across the entire world.

From creators to small business owners, AI has quickly proven it can be helpful to anyone in some way or another. As PEG's Production Manager (and mostly as a nerd) I have been fascinated with AI news and I have played with every AI tool or platform I can get my hands on. Because of this, I will likely be writing several AI-focused articles throughout the next year as more and more tools become available to us.

I think to start my AI blogs off, I want to look at a blog we did in April of last year titled: The Future Of AI In Video (According To AI). I want to quickly look at some of the predictions that the AI made and speak to where those predictions stand today.

(Keep in mind this will not be all-encompassing, I will likely speak to functionalities more specific to our workflows, as that is what I keep my eye on. This means what I speak about will be mostly in the Adobe or standalone AI app environments. At PEG, we do not spend much time in Davinci Resolve outside of color correction, and we do not use Final Cut, so any tools specific to those won’t be mentioned.)

Automated Editing

For me, one buzzword over the last 10 years in our industry always proved to be a bit overhyped; Automated. I have always been excited at the concept of automation in our editing platforms, but for the most part up until about 2-3 years ago, they all fell short of being the game-changing time saver we all hoped for.

The first prediction AI made was about “automated editing.” When I first saw this I immediately disagreed with the title, but when you read the explanation the AI gave it was really just talking about streamlined, efficient editing. It predicted that tools would exist to analyze footage and help select shots, locate scene changes in a single media file and automatically add transitions, automatically add speed adjustments to clips, etc…

These things do not equate to a fully automated video edit, but it did predict something pretty awesome for editors and creators: a ton of automated AI tools to enhance our workflows. In one way or another, every bullet it listed as a future capability now exists, as well as many, many more AI-powered tools (which I will dive deeper into in a future blog.) What’s more, all of the things it listed were implemented directly inside of Adobe software, powered by their AI engine: Adobe Sensei.

The most exciting thing about this prediction is that even AI was not able to anticipate the amount of tools and capabilities that have been added to our workflows in under a year's time. Tools for our editors are what I keep my eye on the most, and it is almost difficult to keep up with the amazing things emerging in our industry.

Personalized Content

This specific prediction is less noticeable for me, but I think this one was low-hanging fruit to some degree. It speaks to targeted advertising and curated user experiences and on that front, we were already using machine learning to optimize advertising and experience before we were using the term AI. It was pretty safe to assume it would improve as quickly and efficiently as AI engines improve, and I think that has definitely been the case in the marketing world. So I guess, good job AI! You guessed it!

Interactive Elements

One odd thing that it threw into this category was “Interactive Elements.” It predicted that AI will be used to generate elements within videos such as quizzes, polls, games etc. And while I am certain some video platforms are using AI to generate polls, I haven’t seen much else in terms of interactive AI implementations during videos.

I think there is potential here for far more than the AI mentioned, such as video review tools that offer similar suggestions to what I or our Creative Director would, or catch flash frames, or cropping issues. To me, that idea is exciting and somewhat falls in line with the idea of AI studying a video and automatically creating something based on that. So, I am curious to see where things go on this front.

Choose Your Story

Lastly, it made an odd prediction that hasn’t really come true at all yet, but again could be cool. It anticipated AI curating “choose your story” style videos similar to the movie Bandersnatch, which allowed you to direct the character in the movie to take certain actions. This to me was the first major miss by the AI, but maybe when I check back in a year we will have all sorts of amazing AI “choose your story” videos to play around with. Time will tell.

Real-Time Video Analysis

Anything specific to live events will spark interest in me, and in this category, AI predicted several AI tools that will do all sorts of amazing things in the live events world. From identifying key moments, such as a touchdown or goal, to automatically cutting a show, to more in-depth social media integration, it had a lot of big ideas for AI in the live events world.

Unfortunately, while these things sounded very cool, a lot of them did not come to fruition in a noticeable way this last year. Certain elements of these bullets exist in all sorts of other video-based media, but the only one I see having a big effect on actual live broadcasts right now is live AI transcription, and to a much smaller extent, I do have to assume that certain social media feeds on streams are monitored via AI. But if it were me, I would always have some human element approving any crowdsourced media (you never know what could happen, we never want to show something inappropriate and end up trending for all the wrong reasons.)

The action/object tracking idea has existed for a while in gimbals and PTZ cameras, but now these tools are becoming more and more reliable in our systems. I should also note it doesn’t just affect cameras that can move, but also cameras attempting to decide what to autofocus on. This is another example of a tool that in the past we never fully trusted only more and more reliable.

Improved Visual Effects

This category was the one I was most excited to talk about, since behind live events, animation is my favorite part of my job. In the AIs prediction it hits on so many things that made me excited to think about, and what’s even more exciting: these things are happening (for the most part.)

Object Removal/Insertion

Object removal and insertion can be tedious in video depending on the scene and needs. It can take a lot of manual keyframing and masking/compositing to make it look natural. Sometimes, spending all of that time to remove a trash can you forgot to move out of the frame in a dolly shot really gets to you. So having tools to assist with this process is amazing.

I will say no integrated Adobe tool (yet) lets you select an object in a video and just remove it outright. (There are whispers of this though.) But even just Adobe’s generative fill is fantastic for creating a patch to track into your footage. It saves a lot of time upfront manually creating a patch in Photoshop.

There are also standalone AI tools that offer this exact service if you are really struggling or are on a tight timeline. Apps like Hitpaw can do this, but on this front reliability is still pretty low on complex shots with any motion.

So, if you already have the skill set to do this type of patching/compositing work, there are certainly AI tools to make you even more efficient. If you don’t have this skill set and are hoping for a tool to do it for you, I think we are closer than ever, but not quite there yet.

Image/Video Restoration

The last thing in this category I really wanted to talk about is Image/Video Restoration. To me, this has been the coolest and most noticeable upgrade to our workflows yet. Working with nonprofits and companies that have been around for decades, the quality of media we receive is not always at a high level. Since the AI prediction, so many tools for media quality improvement have been released. These tools can do any number of things revolving around resolution, frames per second, clarity and stabilization.

I can take old standard-definition footage and generate pixels between pixels to increase the resolution by up to four times the original size or more. I can take 30p footage and generate frames between frames allowing me to slow it down in post without any choppiness or stuttering. I can denoise and sharpen footage and images to a level I had never thought possible without severe quality loss. This specific prediction not only came true, but it blew my socks off and it is still improving every day.

With all of the things I just listed, I have still only scratched the surface of these tools and their capabilities. I will be doing an entire blog coming up on just this AI resource with some fun examples.

Automated Captioning

To summarize this category, the AI prediction absolutely nailed this one.

This is another major benefit and change generated from AI in our industry. Machine-generated captions and transcripts have existed for quite some time, but like everything else AI has given these features significantly better results and usability. Captions and transcripts in any language are available in a single click, though as a professional I still have to recommend you proofread them if they are being viewed by your client or the public.

My favorite change, and I guess my suggested editing hack if you aren’t already doing this, is no longer subclipping 45-minute interviews. Now we can do an automatic transcription and cut a story entirely via text, then check the shots for quality and swap around if needed. This was a massive time saver and gave us the ability to make this type of edit more affordable by cutting review time for clients. It also allows us to quickly provide a transcript to the client so they can curate their own rough outline based on their expertise and informed knowledge of their needs and vision.

Because I have been noting weird predictions, the only strange point in this category to me was AI customizing the actual style of the captions based on the user. Not saying it couldn’t happen, just saying that is an odd prediction in a world where most platforms don’t even offer the ability to customize captions beyond size and even that is limited.

Final (Human) Thoughts

Overall the AI did a pretty good job predicting the future of AI in video! This was interesting to look back on, re-evaluate and talk about.

AI is exciting, but I do think the word automated is still being thrown around a bit too heavily. It does a great job, but nothing it does is perfect, it creates amazing efficiency, but it doesn’t do the whole job for us. It can create captions, but you still need to proofread them. It can automate a video cut based on footage, but how likely is it that we don’t make any tweaks to that?

To me, AI represents not automation, but incredible efficiency and time savings in an industry where time is everything. I am still just as enthralled with it as I was a year ago, and I cannot wait to see how it changes our processes next.

Keep an eye out for my next AI blog post!

Benefits of a Dual-Operator Drone

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 08:11:00 Z

We often talk about our high-end DJI Inspire 2 drone and we mention that it is a dual-operator drone, but what does that mean? What are the advantages of a drone like this and why would it benefit your shoot?

Let's break it down.

What is a dual-operator drone?

What is a dual-operator drone? A dual-operator drone is one that can be controlled by two people, but likely not in the way that you are thinking. Each person does not have control over the flight systems of the drone, rather responsibilities are split between two controllers and operators.

One drone operator is the pilot, this person is in control of the drones flight and their controller is fully dedicated to that job. The other operator has full control of the camera moves and the gimbal on the drone and handles every task not related to the flight of the aircraft.

How is it different?

I want to briefly touch on why this is so important by comparing it to other drones that are easier to access on the market.

The only lower-price drone that DJI offers with this technology is the new Mavic 3, and this does not offer nearly the quality that the Inspire 2 does when it comes to video and post production.

The other lower-end drones are all single operator which means in order for them to be able to focus on the shot they are getting, they almost always need to use a waypoint smart function to handle the flight of the drone. This means much more set up time for each shot as they need to first program the waypoints, and then run the flight automatically while controlling the camera to get the shot.

With dual operator drones there is no need to run a waypoint path as we can maintain constant control of the drones flight path and full control of the camera every time, right from the start.

Why is it better?

Better Use of Battery

First, a dual operator setup is a lot more battery efficient, because we don't need to spend that time mapping out waypoints. When we want to execute a move, we communicate it and execute it. This gives us more flight time spent shooting and less time spent setting up, maximizing the amount of useable footage we can get while in the air.

Target Tracking

Another huge advantage is tracking moving targets while tailing them, for instance a helicopter flying ahead of you in the sky. On a single operator drone this would be very hard, they would likely choose to control flight for safety and the ability to adapt to the vehicle. By choosing to control the flight, they now must use another smart function of the drone to automatically track the helicopter. This may work, but the smart tracking on drones is not always clean, and doesn’t account for any framing choices you may want to make, it just keeps a subject in frame to the best of its ability. We are able to constantly make purposeful adjustments to both flight path and framing simultaneously, which is always going to provide a higher-end shot.

Flight Safety

In my previous comparison, I mentioned safety, and that is another huge benefit of a dual operator drone. There are many times where, for the sake of safety, you need to be in full control of the flight of the drone. With single operator drones this limits you in each of those scenarios to relying on a tracking feature or simply not moving the camera at all. In the long run your shots will feel much less dynamic in situations where safety is a concern, whereas a dual operator drone allows safety to be front of mind at all times. We even take it a step further for safety and employ a Visual Observer to call out any possible hazards during our flights.

Best Person for the Job

The last major benefit of this system is that we are able to pair the best pilot with the best camera operator for each situation, ensuring that both tasks are handled as well as possible. A single operator setup someone may be a fantastic pilot, but not have an eye for creative shots, or vice-versa.

Our dual-operator setup truly allows us to be as efficient and safe as possible – while capturing the absolute best shots on every drone flight.

Myth Busting: MORE Video Shoot Myths

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 09:57:00 Z

Today I am revisiting a blog I wrote last year on some common video shoot myths! I got quite a few of them in my previous entry, but there are still a few more I wanted to touch on. Similar to the first blog, this is meant to dispel any fears or misconceptions an interviewee may have about being interviewed, or that a business owner may have about their space being filmed! No need to fear, PEG is here.

Video Shoot Myth 6:
“It's So Hot Under the Lights”

To start up this list, I wanted to do one that I find funny, because I got to see the transition of this particular topic from past-day reality to present-day myth. That topic is interview lighting! People always assume that our lights are going to be 4000°F, and this is because about 10 years ago lighting WAS all really hot!

The longer it ran, the more likely you were to be feeling some heat (depending on the care taken in setting up.) Nowadays this is a myth for sure, while our new LED lighting does generate some heat it is not directed at the subject. Our lights actually have heatsinks and fans in them now, so they give off some ambient heat, and the housings may get a little toasty, but this is nothing that would ever make you sweat on camera.

And if, like myself, you break into a sweat if you peel an orange too fast, don’t worry! We would never let you sit on camera for your professional interview looking sweaty. We would give you a break and get you as much time as you need to be looking your absolute best for the interview!

Myth 7:
“We Can Just Photoshop That”

The second myth I want to cover is the classic “we can just photoshop that out/in during the edit!” comment. This is always a fun one to try and explain, but to cover the gist of it: No matter how simple the ask, adding something into a shot or removing something from a shot in post is not an easy task. There are certainly things that affect the difficulty level of doing this, such as frame rate, resolution, duration of the shot, and whether or not the shot has motion.

The last one there being the biggest factor by far, if the shot is moving, that means whatever work we do to patch would also need to move at the same speed and direction as the camera. That means the shot will need to be tracked and that adds its own layer of complexity to this whole unfortunate process. My recommendation when it comes to things you want added or removed in a shot is whenever possible it is best to fix those things before the shot is captured, as it will save you a lot of hours in post editing!

Myth 8:
“You Can Fix My One Word Flub”

Next, we have another combo shoot/post-editing myth - audio splicing. Many times we will be filming in an interview setup (whether it be a true interview or prompter) and the interviewee will flub a word. This happens, so never feel bad about it. You get as many takes as you want, so just give it another go! What you should not do, is just say the word you flubbed by itself, and ask to splice that in. Unfortunately this just doesn’t work the way you might expect.

It's like the old Madden games where they just pre-recorded the announcers saying every number from 1 - 99. It just isn’t natural sounding if it doesn’t follow the flow of the sentence you were saying. At the very least, start a sentence before your flub and continue through the script for a short while after. This gives the production team a big, perfect puzzle piece to fit into the story as opposed to just the one word that was flubbed!

Myth 9:
“The Camera Adds 10lbs”

I thought for the last myth in this blog I would hit the most popular one of all: “The camera adds 10 lbs!” This is just incorrect, there are ways to make a person look wider or narrower with lensing, and I am sure it would be really fun to goof around with, but at PEG it is our job to make you look good. We would never put a super wide angle lens on our main camera and get super close to you, and this is one of the few ways to really make someone look significantly larger than they actually are. We always choose a lens that either gets you looking as close as possible to how the human eye sees you, or if anything we do something with a slightly longer throw that may even may you look a bit thinner! It all depends on the interview set up, but for the most part we try to stick to the most natural looking setup. So again, no worries here. We are always gonna make you look good.

That about wraps up this blog. I hope you enjoyed some more video shoot myths and if you did check out more of our informational content on our website!

Myth Busting: Five Video Shoot Myths

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 12:57:15 Z

There are plenty of things people think before they are on camera that make them nervous or uncomfortable with the filming process. But we want people to always be comfortable in front of a camera, so I am here to dispel some of the common fears or “myths” that are commonly associated with being on a video shoot.

Video Shoot Myth 1:
“I Will Look Bad on Camera”

Firstly, I am not sure how to even label this fear/myth correctly, but we will NEVER let you look bad on camera. Our number one goal on any interview shoot is to make sure you look and sound your absolute best. Before every interview we check the interviewees clothes for any fuzz or hairs, we check their teeth for anything lingering from lunch that day, and we make sure that the current lighting isn’t producing any bright or shiny patches of skin. I cannot stress enough, we will make sure you look your best whenever the camera is rolling.

Myth 2:
“I Have to Memorize Everything”

Another one that people get hung up on is “I have to memorize everything I want to say.” This is just not true for a number of reasons. We actually do not want it to sound rehearsed or prepared in most cases, and if we do, it is very likely we will provide a teleprompter and coach you through the flow of that. More often than not, we prefer you to truly answer the question with your knowledge of the subject, and not to try to recite lines from memory. The resulting piece will feel so much more natural and conversational, even if it means you have to answer the question a few times to find your perfect train of thought. Which leads me into our next myth.

Myth 3:
“I Only Get One Shot”

“Oh jeez, I only get one shot at this.” If we are recording your interview for a post-produced piece (not live) then this is also not true. For us, repetition is everything. The more times you answer a question the closer you will get to a complete polished answer. Again, we don’t want you memorizing, but as you formulate your answer and add little bits and collaborate with the team on site, the answer gets closer to its best form. Never feel like you need to nail something in one take, at any time you can request to answer a question again if you think you can improve on the previous answer.

Myth 4:
“It Only Takes a Few Minutes to Set Up”

Another common myth, or misunderstanding that we get often is “You guys can just get here like 20 minutes before right?” Unfortunately, in most, if not all cases, that require an interview set up we need a minimum of an hour to set up. This stems mostly from our attention to detail. For us to find our best framing for all angles, set up our lighting and audio, and then adjust the room (move distracting background elements, add in appealing background elements, correct or remove room lighting, turn off anything making noise, etc.) it takes time, and the more time you give us the better it will look and sound!

Myth 5:
“I Can't Talk with My Hands”

Last myth! “I have to keep my hands down, or at my sides” You don’t! Even in the strictest corporate settings, I encourage anyone on camera to talk to the interviewer or the camera the same way they talk to anyone else. Be yourself and use your normal conversational devices. This will help you to remain comfortable and answer the questions the way you normally would. There are more of these, and I may do a second take at this once I have them all together, but that is all for now! If you are going to be on camera soon, keep some of this in mind and remember to try to be comfortable!

Want more? Check out the Second Part of the Video Shoot Myth Series!

Showing Off Your Space with 360 Media

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:29:25 Z

It seems like an important time to remind everyone that 360 media exists (and is more accessible than ever!) Even though you can’t safely have large groups of people visit you, 360 photo and video offer you a really cool way to show off your space in an exciting and interactive way - 100% remotely. It has so many possible use cases in these strange times.

Showing Off Your Space with 360 Media

If you would normally walk new employees through other parts of your facility to help them understand your process, that could be hard to do currently. One client we work with has 360 photos of each lab space in their facility, which allows them to take anyone they want on a pretty cool virtual tour from anywhere. This could have a lot of different uses in the world of virtual tours. Be it onboarding or just showing off a space you can’t openly invite people to walk around in, 360 media is an awesome way to teleport the viewer into a whole new room and allow them to explore freely. I should also mention this could be as simple as just taking the 360 pictures, optimizing them and then posting them or a slightly more complex process of creating a video with a bunch of fun graphics and callouts that give information on things in the space! I am a very big fan of the latter, because it really takes the experience to the next level. Instead of just standing in a room, now we have the ability to include facts and information popping up in fun, interactive ways!

The 360 Media Tour of the Akron-Canton Airport with text overlays that gave facts about the airport to viewers.

Grabbing Attention with 360 Media

Something to always consider when creating a 360 piece is the timing and placement of graphic elements. If things are coming up in sequence, maybe we use that sequence to draw the viewer to a certain part of our image. This is something we have to consider as content creators, because normally people just view the awesome video you put out and see 100% of it right away. With 360 media you can’t control where the viewer is looking at any given time! It is a strange concept to think about. We could spend 40 hours working on an intricate 3D animation that floats in our 360 space and the viewer could just decide to look in the complete opposite direction of it. So, we work to find the balance between the viewers freedom to explore, and our desire for our content to be viewed in the best possible way. It leads to a lot more planning and consideration than normal edits, as we want to be sure we aren’t accidentally hiding important parts of the piece! But luckily, there is always a way to make sure we still leading the viewers attention and create a memorable piece they are sure to come back to time and time again. No matter how we do it, it is still a cool experience for the viewer, and a unique one to boot.

Viewer Engagement

Viewer Interaction

Viewers are more likely to stop on a 360 photo or video during their scroll and interact with it. First, because they know there is something to interact with, which is something traditional media cannot offer. And second, they know there are parts of the image they can't currently see and are inclined to move around in the space and find out what's hiding.

Repeat Views

Unlike traditional media views, you can't see the whole 360 space in one view. This means viewers are likely to repeat watch and try to look at different areas each time to try to get the whole video story. Repeat views generally mean more interest, more engagement and more retention of your brand's message.

Increased Visibility

As far as visibility and user experience goes, 360 opens a lot of doors. You can not only allow more people into your space, you can allow groups of people that might not have had access to you before. Anyone can interact and engage with your space from anywhere in the world in one click. No passports required.

More Accessible Than Ever

The tech is not necessarily new, but it becomes more accessible every day. The cost of creating 360 media is on par with traditional options and most platforms now now accept 360 natively as a standard upload option. This is rapidly lowering the barriers and allowing more people to see and use the media than ever before.

On-Cam Interviews: Tips, Tricks and Safety

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:24:44 Z

In my 10 years of experience in the video production industry, I have done hundreds of interviews. Here are a few big things I see people surprised by, along with a few key tips and pointers for preparation. Let’s start with the surprises!

Interview Surprise #1

Interviewees are often surprised by having to repeat an answer several times. We will ask an interviewee to do an answer over again for many reasons. It is possible there was audio interference or the audio technician caught a stumble in the answer and wanted to get a cleaner take. Also, there are times where even if you nail it perfectly we may look to get an alternate take anyways, just so we have options. Don’t be discouraged by having to repeat an answer, it is a part of the process and we are just trying to do everything we can to make you look and sound good!

Interview Surprise #2

Another thing about these shoots I often see surprise people is the amount of time it may take to set up an interview. One of my favorite things to say to an interviewee is “These shoots are two hours of setup, for one hour of filming, for about five minutes of video.” This mostly holds true with our shoots – most times we spend twice as much time setting up as filming. That is just part of the process, before you sit down to be interviewed we want to make sure everything is perfect. If you are anxious to get it done and over with, which is a common thing we see, just remember that our main goal is to make everything just right so that the end product looks as good as possible. So please be patient and let the camera people make everything just right! I feel like it is worse to sit down and be ready to start talking, only to have the crew make 20 more minutes of adjustments.

Interview Surprise #3

This is a small one, but sometimes it does surprise people. If you have taken the time to prepare answers and have a good amount of notes you will not be able to hold them in your hands as you are interviewed. Our microphones are very close to you and will always pick up the sound of the paper either against your skin or even just moving around. We can keep your notes close by, but you won’t be able to hold onto them. If you are preparing for an interview it is better for your answer to flow from your mind as you form it, rather than trying to memorize a prepared answer. So when taking notes on answers, I recommend not writing out an answer in full and trying to recite it. It will actually make you sound less genuine and more robotic. I always tell people to leave bullet points for the key parts of your answer and try to naturally get to all of those bullet points as you speak. I know that is much more difficult than just reciting a prepared statement, but it almost always feels more real.

COVID-19 UPDATES

Our main goal on our recent shoots is very similar to what it has always been – we want you to be as comfortable as possible. So, there are some updates we have made to our shoot procedures and some new things to mention.

Mask or No Mask on Camera

It is likely that for the purpose of your end video your team may or may not want you to wear a mask during your interview. It is up to you, but this should be decided beforehand and be sure to let the video crew know as we may want to capture audio a bit differently. But know that regardless of the decision to wear a mask on camera or not, our team will be in masks and PPE the whole time.

Crew Sizes

We are keeping our on site crew limited to as few people as possible for your safety and ours. If your company or the filming location has specific policies in place for number of people, we can work within those as well and be sure everyone is comfortable.

No Physical Contact

To make sure we practice safe social distancing, there may be times in which we guide you through the process of something we might have previously done, like putting a lavalier microphone on yourself. If you are reading this and that makes you nervous, I promise you, it is nothing to worry about! We aren’t judging you for your mic skills and our microphones are good enough that if you get it close, everything will be just fine.

Set Sanatization

The only other thing to keep in mind regarding the new safety procedures is that after we have staged the area or if one of our grips has been sitting in your chair to help frame the shot up, we will always sanitize the entire area before asking you to step in. We have a full clean kit with us on set filled with everything we need. So, no need to worry about germs!

Final Thoughts and Quick Tips

To wrap it up, I want to throw a few final tips on here:

Always brush your teeth before an interview!
Have a lint roller handy (At PEG we keep one in our kit at all times, but if you are working with someone else, you will want to make sure you are hair and fuzz free!)
I always check our interviewees for makeup problems and have them smile to see if there is anything in their teeth. If you are being interviewed and are worried about that, ask someone to come check for you, or try to remember to check yourself.
Remove anything from your pockets before being interviewed. The outline of a phone is very recognizable. Also, any random lumps in your pockets may be distracting or just not look good in the final video.
Silence your cell phone! It would be the worst if you were giving the best answer you have ever given and you got a notification.
Unless you are told otherwise, speak to the interviewer in the same way you would a friend in a conversation. By that I mean if you talk with your hands, or often use gestures in speaking to someone you should do that during the interview as well. If that is how you are most comfortable, we want you to be as comfortable and natural as possible on camera.
Dress to impress!
Remove any jewelry that might “jingle.” We have had bracelets and necklaces make quite a bit of noise during answers and cause retakes.

I hope this was informative for you. Go out there and crush your next interview!

Drone Shoots: What To Expect

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 11:00:11 Z

Drone shoots are always an exciting idea, but there are a few things you need to be aware of before you can jump right into the action. When planning a drone shoot for commercial purposes, there are several rules you must follow that were set in place by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

A few notable rules are as follows:

You may not fly at night without permission from the FAA.
You may not fly over people or major roadways without permission from the FAA.
You may not fly in an airport's airspace without an airspace authorization from the FAA.

There is a whole book of more rules, but these three are the ones most likely to affect your shoot, so we would want to plan for them beforehand.

Getting Approvals

If your shoot content requires us to go against one of those specific rules, say to fly at night, we will need to put in an authorization request with the FAA. As long as we describe our safety procedure and all precautions we are taking, we should get approved. This goes for the other two rules as well. Generally, as long as we describe our safety process and plans for flight, the FAA should grant us the authorization. But it is definitely important to keep these in mind when planning, though. For instance, if you know your space is near an airport then you know we may need to apply for airspace authorization. And some of these authorizations can take up to a full month to receive, so the more notice you give us, the better! One last thing that should be taken care of during the planning process is a shot list! Obviously, we will want to hear what you have in mind, and we might add a few artsy shots as well, but it is always preferred to have this list before we arrive for the shoot.

The Shoot

Once we get through the planning phase, we can start talking about the shoot.

We will almost always have a 3-person crew on-site to operate our DJI Inspire 2 Dual-Operator Drone:

The Pilot
- This person is in control of the aircraft itself. Any move you see the drone do was executed by this person and was communicated to the rest of the crew.
The Camera Operator
- This person is in control of our 6k Raw camera controls during the flight. They control the iris, white balance, ISO and focus as well as the 3-axis gimbal that the camera is mounted on. They can keep the camera locked on your facility as we do a high-speed fly by or whatever fun move we come up with!
The Visual Observer
- This person is in charge of safety during the flight. They make sure that the drone is never over people or major roadways. They will always have their eye on the drone and will be relaying important positioning information back to the pilot.

These three people will be in constant communication via our wireless headsets. We often have a very large monitor for viewing our shots on site, the client is welcome to view the monitor and see all of the shots as they are captured. Our drone can fly for about 17 minutes at a time before we need to land and change batteries, so you get a good amount of time to see the subject of your shots during flight. This is nice because you may come up with more ideas for cool shots just based on what you see. Plus, while we are flying, we are charging our other batteries so that no matter how long the day, we can be constantly in the air. All in all, there is a lot to love about the drone process. It is a real team effort that allows everyone on the ground to see the shots, give notes and adapt on the fly (pun intended). With a lot of knowledge, a little planning and our two experienced, FAA-licensed pilots, we are here to ensure your drone shoot is both safe and successful!

Streaming Tech: YouTube Premiere

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 11:56:12 Z

We are always looking into techniques and tech for video and recently that has meant lots of time focused on streaming live content. We just wanted to share a few of our favorite recent deep dives... YouTube Premiere and using Zoom or Teams as a streaming meeting platform.

YouTube Premiere

First lets take a look at a really cool YouTube feature called YouTube Premiere. The reason it came up while researching live platforms is that it provides a very similar experience to a live stream, which you can also do on YouTube. But the main difference is that it has to be a pre-produced video that gets uploaded to the channel that is set to be "premiered."

Feels Live, but Isn't

So, for instance, we could produce an awesome, high-end video for your company, and you could decide to use this YouTube Premiere to debut it to anyone with the premiere link. What is really great about this is that when you log in to the premiere there will be a big countdown displayed and live chat just like any other live streamed video. And when the countdown ends, the video basically acts like a live video in the browser. Viewers will not be able to skip or scrub ahead - meaning they all will experience this video at the same time and be able to chat about it while it is happening. The concept of this is just so fun to me and it's really the best of both pre-produced video and live event worlds! You can create a high-end, well-executed video to announce big news for your company (or any big news at all) to make sure everything is professional and perfect, but then you get to have everyone watch it as if it were live, too! It really takes the experience of the announcement to a fun new level. But it isn’t even just that, this feature has a ton of prospective uses. You could recap an entire event and get it cut together exactly how you want it, and then play it through a premiere as a “look-live” video. A look-live video is something that was shot and edited to look and feel as though it is happening live, even though it's really not. And then once the video is finished its "live run" - it will live on as a regular video that people can view normally on YouTube.

Using YouTube Premiere

A really cool example of this type of video was sent to me - our friends at the Akron Rubber Ducks simulated an entire game of theirs on MLB The Show 2020 and added in all of their live game day promotions. They even did a pregame in which the Governor of Ohio threw the first pitch! How cool is that? And perhaps even cooler was how well YouTube Premiere worked with this style of video. People watched the game in real time and got to see some of the fun pre-recorded promotions from past Rubberducks games mixed in. It was as close to a live sporting event as you could get. This example is a near perfect use-case for Youtube Premiere.

Making it Perfect

One good reason to do this versus trying to stream live is you can edit and adjust and make sure that every fade and every shot is perfect instead of relying on everything going right while streaming it live. One thing to note though, is that this idea was technically possible before YouTube Premiere by starting a live stream and just playing a pre-produced video the entire time. But YouTube Premiere streamlines that process though. You no longer need to set up a stream box with a playback solution and rely on solid upload speeds. Now you can upload the video in advance and it will just play back at full quality in a really cool "live" setting.

Zoom or Teams as a Meeting Streaming Platform

Another thing we have been looking into is using something like Zoom or Microsoft Teams as streaming solution for corporate meetings. A very cool piece of hardware we use at PEG is our Blackmagic Web Presenter. It allows us to set up our normal, full live production hardware (2-3 Cameras, a playback laptop, soundboard and mics, switcher, recording decks, etc.) and then we can take the output of our switcher and plug it into our Web Presenter and then plug the Web Presenter into the host computer. Long story short - once all of this is done, the computer will see our switcher output as a webcam and audio source. What this allows us to do is pipe our production feed into a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call very easily, basically as if it was a "participant" on the call. So, you could, in theory, set up a zoom call for your entire company and live stream a full quarterly meeting to them remotely with the security of a standard Zoom or Teams call. How easy is that? What I found in my research of this is that Zoom is generally a better solution for this because of a couple key features:

Zoom allows a scaling amount of people to join a call while Teams is limited to 20 people.
Zoom allows you to disable the other callers video and audio permanently, putting them into a “view-only” state. Teams does not have the same capabilities, so it would make it harder to organize and control the event.

All in all, this seems like a very good way to stream an entire informational event to your team. If your team (or your corporation's IT department) is already very comfortable with Zoom or Teams it will feel very natural for them to use instead of needing to view the content elsewhere. We'll keep looking at all types of ways to get your content out there. So, what live stream tech do you want us to talk about next?

Staying Organized - From Files to Gear

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:13:47 Z

On any given day editors at PEG may need to sort through thousands of video and image files to complete whatever project they are working on. Our gear closet is always growing as well, so how do we make it easier for our editors and shoot crew to find the things they are looking for? We stay really organized. I will split this into a gear side and a file structure side to explain both.

Keeping Files Organized

When I first started at PEG, we had just implemented a templated folder structure that would work for each project we take on. Prior to that I think it was just a folder that said “Client Name” or something of the like, and that folder was just FILLED with random things. You live and you learn. The new template has been in place now for over 4 years and has only gone through minor changes. It has folders for every piece of a project, and makes sure everything has a place to be.

I won’t break down the full folder structure, but I do think it is important to emphasize the uniformity of it all. If your profession requires that you handle many files that come together for an awesome end product, you should be keeping it all organized! What if your client comes back to you a year from now and you aren’t able to remember where anything is because you never created a uniform system.

As early as you can in your professional career you should adapt to a consistent organization across not only your projects for clients, but even your personal file structure. Knowing where things are saves small amounts of time, but it all adds up. An example of a good structure for client projects is to have a master folder for the client, and inside of that have a folder for each specific project you are working on or have completed for the client.

Then in the most organized way possible, each project folder would contain everything you would ever need for the project, except maybe the footage, which in our case is stored on a separate network drive built for speed. But if you are editing entirely locally and have no need for a network drive to host all of your footage you can even include that in the structure as well. In the end, find a system you are proficient at navigating and that causes you no headaches!

Keeping Gear Organized

Jumping back again to when I first started here, one of my first big projects was creating gear tags for every bag and case PEG owned. The purpose of the tags was to let any of our employees know exactly what lived in each bag. Prior to this freelancers and people new to the company had a really hard time helping us tear down our bigger video shoot setups because they didn’t know where to put anything. Since then, we haven’t changed from the gear tagging system, but we are still trying to find better solutions for newer employees to really know what goes in each case without having to memorize it.

One larger change in the last 4 years has been our conversion to Pelican cases instead of PortaBrace bags. This has given us the opportunity to create adhesive labels for each and every case, and to really increase the size of the text so that you can tell right away what is meant to be in each one. We have gotten much better at creating custom foam inlays for the cases, with cutouts for all of the major components of the gear that lives there. This helps a person (who might not know where something goes inside of the case) open the case and look for the right sized cutout for what they are trying to put away. It still isn’t perfect, I think one way to improve on this further is to laminate pictures of the case in its loaded state and keep them handy. But anyway, enough on the cases!

There is another side of gear organization, and that is where all of these cases and bags live. When we moved into our new office next to the Diamond Deli in Akron, we installed 7 really sturdy shelving units and labeled each position on a shelf for a specific piece of gear. It goes without saying, but everything should have a place that it always lives. This way you know exactly where to go to get it, and there isn’t time wasted looking through stacks and stacks of cases. Across the board our gear closet is labeled twice for every piece of gear, once on the shelving and at least once on the pelican case. We did things this way so that if someone had to go get us something from the office in an emergency, they should never struggle to find it!

In summation, we take organization very seriously at PEG. And for as much thought as we have put into it, we are always putting more thought into ways to improve it. So take the time to really think on a uniform organization strategy for your team – or even just for yourself. It pays off!

Video Q & A: Where Should I Host My Video?

Tue, 21 May 2019 16:12:33 Z

Question: Where Should I Host My Video?

Answer:

In my time at PEG, even we have been a little undecided on what platform is the best place to host a video.

Consider The Purpose

We decide where a video should be hosted based on what the purpose of the video is. The use case we have experimented most with is presenting a video to a client. When I first started at PEG we would always provide a Vimeo link, but now we use an awesome service called Frame.io. It allows clients to comment on every frame of a video. They can also draw on each frame to be sure they are describing their edits in an easy to understand format. We love it! Clients are able to provide feedback without listing out time codes and instead of trying to describe something they want removed, they can actually circle it! But to get to that point we had to be open to new platforms. We might still be sending out Vimeo links today if we never explored the possibilities of other places to host video.

One-Off Video vs. Starting a Channel

So, to really get into where you should host your video, I have to emphasize that it really depends on the purpose and the intended audience. If you are someone who put together a fun vacation recap and you want to show it to all of your friends, it might be easiest to let it live on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and call it a day. But if you think you might build a collection of family videos and want them all to be in one place, then you should create a YouTube or Vimeo channel and then link your videos to any social channels you want! That way they can all be organized in one place. You can even create playlists to display the videos by category or series. It's pretty easy. We use a plan like this when linking our internal videos to our websites, because we know there is going to be A LOT of videos. Having them live in one place lets us track the views accurately and allows us to enter in all of the info and descriptions in one place. Then we just use the Embed URL on the back end of our sites and it links right to our account.

YouTube vs. Vimeo

If you are thinking about this from a business standpoint, I have to recommend using Vimeo over YouTube for embedding into sites. Vimeo is a premium hosting service, which means it will cost some money monthly and it will still limit you depending on how much you pay. But the reason I think it is worth the money is that you can customize the embedded video player to match your brand and you can even remove any parts of it that you don’t want to see. This is not an option with YouTube embedded videos, they will always have the YouTube branding and color scheme. If you don’t mind that, feel free to just embed from there. The price points for Vimeo aren’t bad for what you get though. Here is a link to their pricing and the things you get per price point.

Business vs. Individual

A lot of what I have said has targeted more of the business side of hosting, but if you are just an individual with a bunch of family clips or a lot of cool video games recordings you can easily take advantage of these sites as well. You don’t have to only host things you make on a social media platform, creating a YouTube channel is easy (and FREE). You can also use parts of Vimeo for free as well. So don't be afraid to play around. These platforms can help keep your video content easily viewable by whoever you want to see it. If you plan on producing a good number of videos you should definitely familiarize yourself with one of these platforms so you can stay organized and share your work!

Final Thoughts from NAB

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 10:53:48 Z

A Video Nerd's Paradise

The show floor at NAB was a video nerd's paradise. I was able to try so many different things that I’ve always wanted to play with, including the Canon Cinema Prime Lenses, which were awesome to finally try out.

It was an amazing networking experience as well. I was able to meet so many people who knew so much more about the gear than me. I met with reps who offered free rentals of gear that I would love to take out on a shoot! Everyone was so knowledgeable and professional, and the other attendees were also a blast to connect with! They were all just as excited as I was to play with everything and see the innovations in our field.

The Coolest Gear

There was a robot camera that moved at awesome speeds to follow an object thrown through a waterfall into a backpack. I know that sounds ridiculous, but ridiculous was the name of the game for some of the booths. There was a whole different robot camera that was doing crazy fast moves from the floor to about 12 feet off the ground, and it was recording a step-and-repeat backdrop so people could do fun poses and see slow-mo recording of themselves.

Being able to get our hands on the new gear being put out by companies we already use was also really cool. The Sachtler flowtech, the Anton Bauer Titons, and the new Easyrig were just a few of the upgrades I got to see.

The Coolest Software

Every lap I made of the show floor, I would find a new booth I had missed before. The software booths were just as much fun, if not more fun, than the gear booths. BlackMagic Design has training seminars for Davinci Resolve setup right across from Adobe’s Creative Cloud training seminars. They were great to watch, and I actually managed to get into quite a few hands-on training courses with the BlackMagic guys. (I even won a training book for answering a bit of trivia!)

The Coolest People

It was a blast hanging out near those booths. I may have spent a combined 10 hours just standing and listening to all of the seminars and learning from the pros. I also got to see all of the other software we use, and got to see a 3D animator create a scene from scratch in Cinema 4D. At night, when I wasn’t at the convention, I still ran into a ton of people who really knew their stuff. I had a conversation about 360-video in an In-N-Out Burger! It was surreal to have so many people around who understand the problems of a content creator.

I have a stack of business cards and about 10 sales reps to follow up with, and I couldn’t be happier with all of the things I learned at NAB. I can’t stress enough that I wish there were five of me so that I could take every single class they offered. If you were ever on the fence about going, let me tell you here that it was the best learning experience of my professional life.

Checking In From NAB

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:00:03 Z

Post Production World

I flew into Las Vegas on Friday, unsure of what to expect from the NAB conference. But the detail of the classes I took for Post Production World was incredible. They prove that no matter how long you have worked hard in a field, there is always more to learn.

The people teaching the classes are faces I have seen in many Lynda and Creative Cow tutorials, they are widely recognized as some of the best in our field and to be learning from them and getting to talk to them about common editing and shooting issues is such an amazing resource. Other than classes, Post Production World also has seminars at the beginning and end of every day with even bigger names in our industry! I learned about Davinci Resolve from the lead colorist on CW’s “The100” and he was amazing! I love color correction and listening to someone who only does color and has become so successful was awesome inspiration. Here are just a few of the classes I was able to take on Saturday and Sunday:

Mastering After Effects Expressions
Mastering Color In Adobe Premiere Pro
Aerial VR Techniques and Resources
Working Faster and Smarter in Premiere Pro
Log Correction and Creating LUTs
Motion Tracking and Warp Stabilization in Adobe After effects

I have pages and pages of notes from all of these classes, and I wish there were five of me so I could’ve taken all of them.

A big moment for me that legitimized this conference was when an instructor solved a huge problem in Premiere that even our best editors struggle with, and the audience went nuts, including me and a friend I had met here. It was such a cool moment to be in a room full of people who understand the frustrations of our work and who appreciate this as much as I do. I will be writing another blog regarding the show floor and my impressions overall, but I really want to stress how helpful and incredible the classes have been for me as an editor. Imagine taking a course on Lynda.com for After Effects expressions, and being able to raise your hand and have the instructor answer any questions you have.

That is what this whole weekend was for me; it was mind-blowing.

Who is Who On a Video Shoot?

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 08:36:52 Z

Obviously, the crew that come along on a video shoot depends on the size of the project at hand. But, I am still able able to give you an idea of the responsibilities that we each have when we are out on a shoot for PEG. I think the best way to do this is to break it down position by position and give a brief description of what will be asked of that person on an average video shoot. And I think the best (and possibly most obvious position) to start with is the Camera Operator, so let’s jump in!

Camera Operator

The Camera Operator is the person behind the camera! That is straightforward, but what is expected of them on a shoot to shoot basis? Well to begin with, before our operator even steps behind the camera their job is to keep a look out for creative, unique and eye-catching shots. There may be times we don’t have a set shot list, so this is a very important part of the shoot. But it isn’t just as simple as seeing something that looks nice and filming it! Our operators all have to know our cameras in and out to be able to make a shot look epic. Exposure, white balance, crisp focus, correct frame rate and shutter speed, etc... Depending on the scale of the shoot our camera operators may also need to ask interview questions and monitor audio. The operator is responsible for all of these things being executed correctly on every single shoot.

Director

The Director on a PEG shoot gets a live feed of what the Camera Operator is shooting, and is there to make sure that the client is getting what they want. If the Director sees anything they think doesn’t align with our clients wishes, they will tell the Camera Operator to adjust the shot accordingly. The Director on a PEG shoot also monitors all audio that we record to ensure there are no problems during each take. As the Director, you are also responsible for talking to the client representative throughout the shoot and making changes per their feedback. It is also important that the Director has a sense of our post workflow, as they are able to make adjustments during the shoot that may help speed up the Video Production process. With a Director on site, our team never has to worry about capturing the right content, they always exactly get what the client wants on every shoot.

Grip

The Grip is most likely the person running around the most. They are in charge of doing anything that the Camera Operator, Director, or really anyone, needs. This role is by far the most variable so I can’t describe it in great detail, but if something needs done that doesn’t fall into the responsibilities of other roles it is most likely the Grip's responsibility. I personally Grip often and the job ranges from standard shoot setup to screaming in slow motion for a Cavs commercial. You just never know! The grip does anything they are asked and is expected to have full knowledge of all gear on a shoot, and sometimes gear that is on location. The Grip also watches the camera operator during any fast-paced video shoots and makes sure they are operating safely and that no one is stopping them from doing their job. Sometimes I like to pretend I am the secret service, but instead of the president, I protect Camera Operators! This position has a lot of responsibilities and may run you around a lot, but I can confirm it is also a lot of fun. Well, I think I will wrap this up, but we do have plenty of other positions! Audio Technician, Drone Pilot, Drone Camera Operator, Drone Visual Observer, On-site Editor, etc… but I just wanted to describe our main three that you would most likely see on every video shoot. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this. And don’t forget to check out some of our behind the scenes videos now that you know what these positions do! And, of course, for more great PEG content, be sure to follow us on social media!

My Creative Inspiration: Josh

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 12:40:02 Z

Creative inspiration for me comes from 3 places:

Past experiences
New content
Good brainstorming sessions (with good friends)

Past Experiences

Now to be clear, the past experiences part of this isn’t just copying something I have done in the past. What I mean by this is trying to take advantage of any “should’ve” or “would’ve” moments from previous projects. Any of those cool ideas we just didn’t have time for or didn’t think of until too late. I always try to make note of these ideas and do my best never to forget these moments so that when a quote or concept meeting comes up, I will have these on standby. Sometimes things that didn't work in the past are perfect for a new project. You never know!

New Content

New content is exactly what it sounds like. I watch as much new, awesome content as I can when I am struggling to find a creative solution. It is nice to be able to look at so many pieces from so my many unique and creative videos for inspiration. It almost refreshes me. It lets me see things a new and different way and it hopefully helps me find what I have been looking for in the creative process.

Brainstorming

Last but not least, brainstorming! I love bouncing ideas off of co-workers and friends. Each little piece of information, each idea can build an amazing piece. Being able to have so many different people involved ensures we are creating something unique. We all have a personal editing style, but one way we can break those styles and avoid uniformity in our pieces is to break out, try new editing techniques! I couldn’t ask for a better group to get tips and ideas from than my co-workers here at PEG, and I appreciate them for always being helpful and creative! Everyday is something different, and that makes it pretty exciting.

My Editing Playlist: Josh

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 10:30:40 Z

Music is a driving force behind my work ethic and creativity. I get more video editing done if I can jam out and lose the rest of the world for a while. Music is important to everyone for various reasons. Some music is great when you are happy, some better when you are sad. For me, one band covers the spectrum of circumstances in which a person may need music: Coheed and Cambria.

Excuse Me While I Nerd Out

Coheed and Cambria is all I listen to when I am video editing at work and really need to focus, or when I need creative inspiration. One of the many reasons for this is the story they tell with their music. I have always been a nerd. I love comic books, fiction novels, Rubiks cubes, video games, Magic the Gathering, building computers... the list goes on. The reason Coheed’s music can’t do wrong by me, is that their music is all based on a fictional universe created by the bands lead singer Claudio Sanchez. When he was young, he created a series of comic books called the Amory Wars, and each album they have released corresponds to a specific part of that amazing story. How cool is that? A band of four comes together and tells the stories of comic book heroes and villains that their friend created. I can’t properly describe how awesome, unique and inspiring that is to me.

Brotherly Bond

My second reason for my love of this band’s music, is the amazing relationship it has given me with my brother. He was the one who introduced me to this amazing band. He knows the story and talks about them the way I do. Despite our differences, we text each other lyrics that match up with the story and discuss it for hours. Music has done a lot for me over the years, but Coheed’s music has truthfully improved my life more than any other bands combined.

A Love of Great Stories

I could go on and on with reasons that I listen to this band so much, but I will give one more and call it quits for this post. As a storyteller myself, I love to dive deep into stories and talk about what makes them great. Whether it be what I am currently reading or something I have read in the past, it’s fun to bounce ideas off of someone who also read it and get their feedback. There is nothing better than someone who has read a story I love and wants to discuss, decipher and debate it with me. So, that’s what I listen to when I work, or hang out at home or anywhere really! I listen to Coheed all day and I will never get tired of it. Not so much of a playlist, more of a discography, but hopefully this gives you some insight to what inspires me and what drives my creativity. Do you have any bands that make you feel like this? Leave them in the comments below and let me know!

Getting To Know PEG: Josh Kuss

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 10:10:04 Z

Here at PEG, we've created a little series of videos for you to get to know our team. Here is the first video in this series, featuring my favorite PEG employee, me!

News

2025 IDEA Conference Recap

Our Favorite Video AI Tool

Increasing Resolution

Denoising

Frame Interpolation

Stabilization

Focus Fix

The Future Of AI In Video (According To Our Team)

Automated Editing

Personalized Content

Real-Time Video Analysis

Improved Visual Effects

Automated Captioning

Final (Human) Thoughts

Benefits of a Dual-Operator Drone

What is a dual-operator drone?

How is it different?

Why is it better?

Myth Busting: MORE Video Shoot Myths

Video Shoot Myth 6: “It's So Hot Under the Lights”

Myth 7: “We Can Just Photoshop That”

Myth 8: “You Can Fix My One Word Flub”

Myth 9: “The Camera Adds 10lbs”

Myth Busting: Five Video Shoot Myths

Video Shoot Myth 1: “I Will Look Bad on Camera”

Myth 2: “I Have to Memorize Everything”

Myth 3: “I Only Get One Shot”

Myth 4: “It Only Takes a Few Minutes to Set Up”

Myth 5: “I Can't Talk with My Hands”

Showing Off Your Space with 360 Media

Showing Off Your Space with 360 Media

The 360 Media Tour of the Akron-Canton Airport with text overlays that gave facts about the airport to viewers.

Grabbing Attention with 360 Media

Viewer Engagement

On-Cam Interviews: Tips, Tricks and Safety

Interview Surprise #1

Interview Surprise #2

Interview Surprise #3

COVID-19 UPDATES

Mask or No Mask on Camera

Crew Sizes

No Physical Contact

Set Sanatization

Final Thoughts and Quick Tips

Drone Shoots: What To Expect

Getting Approvals

The Shoot

Streaming Tech: YouTube Premiere

YouTube Premiere

Feels Live, but Isn't

Using YouTube Premiere

Making it Perfect

Zoom or Teams as a Meeting Streaming Platform

Staying Organized - From Files to Gear

Keeping Files Organized

Keeping Gear Organized

Video Q & A: Where Should I Host My Video?

Question: Where Should I Host My Video?

Answer:

Consider The Purpose

One-Off Video vs. Starting a Channel

YouTube vs. Vimeo

Business vs. Individual

Final Thoughts from NAB

A Video Nerd's Paradise

The Coolest Gear

The Coolest Software

The Coolest People

Checking In From NAB

Post Production World

Who is Who On a Video Shoot?

Camera Operator

Director

Grip

My Creative Inspiration: Josh

Past Experiences

New Content

Brainstorming

My Editing Playlist: Josh

Video Shoot Myth 6:
“It's So Hot Under the Lights”

Myth 7:
“We Can Just Photoshop That”

Myth 8:
“You Can Fix My One Word Flub”

Myth 9:
“The Camera Adds 10lbs”

Video Shoot Myth 1:
“I Will Look Bad on Camera”

Myth 2:
“I Have to Memorize Everything”

Myth 3:
“I Only Get One Shot”

Myth 4:
“It Only Takes a Few Minutes to Set Up”

Myth 5:
“I Can't Talk with My Hands”