Big Budget Live Productions

Mike Hernandez joins Ariel Martinez on this episode to discuss a few recent productions, including some big-budget productions that needed to be broadcasted live.

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• Transcript

  We are back on the Miami video podcast and our friend magic. Mike is here. that's right. You got a new name now? Huh? Since I think the last time we do this together. Yeah. Now it's Miami video podcast. No longer eye filmmaker anymore. Um, yeah, it's going in too many directions with everything that I do. So the yeah.

  Long story short. Keeping it simple, keeping it all internal, keeping it all in one place. Nice. How's it been going for you? Good. Except for my . You have an extra, you have an extra member in your family since you last we're on the podcast. Oh, you know what? Hold on a second. I didn't search it to my headphones.

  So are you getting a double audio from me or no? No. I just hear. Cool. Here we go. So, uh, yeah. Got a new baby. She's super delicious. She's uh, four months yesterday, four months old. So she's in that really delicious stage where you just wanna chew on the thighs she has, she has like thighs on top of thighs right now with chunk of thighs.

  I feel like putting like some garlic on her, uh, roll she's so delicious. I love my, I got two little girls now. I'm a good, uh, I'm a, I'm a girl, dad. I've always told my wife. She always thought that I would want all boys, but like, listen, I, I would be super happy with all girls. Like, that's that? That's gonna be fun too.

  Yeah, that's gonna be, that's gonna be super people would assume with your football background and, and all of that. I mean, don't get me wrong. That is awesome. That is awesome. but girls, like, it's just, it's different. It's a whole different experience, I think. Yeah. And I could, I could speak to that. Um, there's nothing like the love of a daughter.

  She you're, you're her first hero. Yeah. And, uh, you know, she, she looks at you and, um, it's just like the love that she pours out. It's like, it's one of those things. It's unexplainable. Yeah. You. It'd be nice to have a boy. Of course. I, I wanted that second one, one to be a boy. Um, but yeah know, there's like gifts from God.

  Yeah. That what, it's what I needed. It's what she needed. And there's just nothing like that. That just means he's gonna have to bless you with a lot more provision. oh my gosh. I don't, I don't know if we're gonna do go for a boy knowing my luck. I wind up with like triplets and they're all girls. the proms, the weddings to come, the everything

  Now I have to get like seven more careers going. Oh boy, speaking of careers. Um, I think this is a good episode, I guess, since you've been here, we've been quite busy and, um, we can catch up on a lot of the stuff that we did more specifically. So I did a solo episode earlier, um, uh, on live streaming and some of the stuff from my point of view, but I figured we can go ahead and tackle that as well.

  And, and go ahead and basically kind. Talk about your role a little bit. And how kind of we tag team some of these projects. Um, these were monsters. These were . These were projects, huh? Quite the undertaking. Yeah. These were quite big projects. So. Really to get down to it. We had this one big project that I, I spoke about earlier.

  It's the, uh, VI this award show. So for those of you that, that don't know what that is essentially think of the Oscars, but for green. Uh, organizations. So individuals that have made a breakthrough in some green climate change type of, uh, scientific technology or organizations and, and, and, you know, nonprofits that have done really good in the green, you know, energy type of, uh, sector and have made advances in that they, they win awards and they win grants and all that stuff.

  So. That was kind of what that was, but Emil's VI, this is, I guess, the event, the annual event that, where they issued those awards and they treated very much like the Oscars, you know, there's, there's, there's a host or, and the, our case, we had one host, uh there's and, and in our production, we had. A total of six cameras going on at the same time.

  And we had two steady cam operators. We had a jib out there and they hired those guys were, those guys were beast. Yeah, they were, it was monsters. They, they they've that's, you know, steady cam operating is not something you could just jump into. I definitely don't have the knees up and down the stairs with a steady cam system.

  That's definitely something like being a steady cam operator. I considered it, I considered it. So when I was assisting as a jib assistant back when I started, um, I saw the steady cam ops. I thought they were so cool, you know, and I still do. Um, and I thought, especially back then, like I ha I was at my peak in terms of physical fitness.

  I thought, man, I could do that. You know? And I think it looks easy, you know, it would be fun. Um, I, I, I took a different. I, I still think I could have done it if I, you know, really decided to, to really pursue that route. But, um, yeah, it's something that it's, it's a specialty. You can't just pick up a steady cam and be good at it.

  Like you have to practice at it. Um, just like you have to practice shooting to be better. Mm-hmm you gotta practice steady cam to, to get good at it. Cuz that takes some maneuvering. Um, and you're essentially a tripod. So there's many cameras that go on top of your R so you have to do well versed. And from small rigs, like we use these small cannons on there.

  We had to add, add some extra weight to it. Then you've got these massive RAs and reds and yeah, you'd have to have some good experience in production too. Yeah. It's uh, steady camming is something that you, you gotta put work into it and listen. Profitable. Uh, this was actually the first time I hired proper steady cam operators.

  And that was not a small invoice that I got sent I had, I mean, we're talking, I think we're talking like 25 to $3,000 per day. Yeah, yeah. For the day. And it's worth it. I mean, the specialty that they bring to the production. Yeah. No, these guys, like it's not joke. It's absolutely worth it for the production.

  Obviously the budget has to, no, let's be clear for those who don't understand steady cam some of, some of us think steady cam when they think of the stuff that you get on Amazon, absolutely not. You don't buy a steady salmon on Amazon. You can't. Yeah. A steak. So just imagine for those who are wondering what we're talking about.

  Just, just imagine movie. Yeah, the way they make movies, those massive steady cam systems that they use. Sure. It has. The vest has the arm, but it's got the extended arm down here with the monitor at the bottom. Like it's no joke. It's not like a little tiny, um, weighted system here. It's uh, the big stuff.

  Yeah, no it's steady cam operating is, is a monster. And to do it live is a whole nother monster. So it was like, and mind you, we had two of. We had two guys, so they, they were great. They were awesome. You knew one of them actually, uh, funny enough. Yeah. I actually just married one of my good long term friends.

  So funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Small world. Uh, so we had two steady cam operators and a jib operator, which just makes everything look beautiful. Jibs are just awesome. I've hired out jibs before, so, um, yeah, the value that they bring to your production. beautiful, which is gorgeous. Um, and then we had the opportunity to, um, I've had the opportunity to build, uh, jibs and operate 'em too with the Ji.

  Oh yeah, yeah. 15 foot, 1820 something. Yeah. Those are, those are fun. Fun. They're awesome. Um, yeah, I've I've I can still probably build out a full Jimmy jib by myself. Um, there's a process though. There is a process. Get it. It's like, why wait this piece, doesn't go into this one. how did it end up here? yeah.

  It's and these are like really big parts. So yeah, there's a process and it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, so we had those three specialty cameras and then we had three stationary cameras, three cameras on sticks. Then we had to bring out a teleprompter, but this was no ordinary teleprompter. This was a TV. That was placed just wasn't it like 80 inches or 70 inches.

  It was like a 70, 75 inch TV that cuz this is a huge auditorium. This is a big place. And you know, the, the, a cam and B cam were very, very far and the TV needed to be placed just underneath those two cameras. Um, and it was at a very large, long distance. Um, And for those, for those that, um, huh. For those, for those that are local and they know this area of Miami, it's the Adrian arch center.

  Yeah. And it's, it's a really, it's the big one. There's two of them. There's one that's smaller than the other. Yeah. And this is the big one. This is the big one. Um, and then, you know, they needed a live streaming. They needed video switching. Originally I was going to do both. This was something that this was something that look I, I have experienced live stream.

  I have experience doing everything all, although every single one of those jobs except steady camming. Um, but obviously you need a team to make it all flow correctly. Right. And then once I saw the most I've ever done, switching live was three cameras, three cameras and graphics. This was six cameras and graphics to go live

  Um, so. Already. So I had, um, I had a, a guy already set to do the live streaming and the graphics and all that stuff. He has, he has a lot of experience. Um, and like two weeks before the show, he was booked like months in advance, two weeks before the show, the guy says he can't do it anymore. That is a big bummer for me because the moment you do that, and I've said this in, on the show before, you've pretty much, don't expect another call from me because you can't just drop me like that and not give me some sort of solution to this problem that you just created.

  So, yeah, that's, uh, not calling him again, but he's the, unfortunately, he's the only other person that I knew. That I've worked with before and you know, me, I don't like to hire at least like without vet properly vetting them. I don't a risk. I it's a big risk. This was too big of a project to risk this on.

  So ultimately I decided, you know what, let me go with what I know what I can do, what I know how to do, and the people that I can trust. Now you've never done live streaming like that before. Mm-hmm , but I know that you're fully capable. I know that you're a smart person that you could figure it out and that you're proactive.

  You don't need a lot of oversight. So that's yeah, the great thing is I had experience with OBS, correct. Dealing with churches. And so, right. Um, the software you chose was very similar to that. So all it was was just seeing where their buttons are. So, yeah. And then adapting to some of the changes to a live.

  This is like a Grammy show. So that was really cool. A little bit different than church yeah, no, this was a, this was a, a behemoth. Um, and so that's when I asked you to kind of come on board and. I knew what I needed to teach you. Cuz I had done, I guess, the legwork in learning the program, learning the software and if there's an issue, I know that you're good at troubleshooting stuff.

  So I, I had full confidence in that, over hiring somebody that has done it before, but I've never worked with before. Yeah. Um, and mind you good thing that the other guy didn't work out because I, I worked on other projects after that with him, not cuz I hired him just, we have a mutual client and. The guy is just, I mean, I'm not, I'm not gonna say his name here, but he's, doesn't doesn't work very well.

  Yeah. All over the place. It is not that he's all over the place. He's very like, he, he, he's on his phone more than he's paying attention to the cameras. Uh, and I mean, is, it's not my, my I'm in that particular project. I'm my job is to, and my guys is to provide the feed and whatever you. Switches and whatnot.

  And that's where my responsibility ends there at the video switching mm-hmm and it turns out I guess that's fine saying it here, but it turns out he, he messed up pretty bad. He never recorded. Oh, yeah. Never hit record. that's why we, like, we never make that joke. You know, like we do that on set. We're like, oh, too bad.

  I wasn't recording. It's like karma, sometimes I, yeah. And I specifically asked him, are you recording this? He goes, no, that was never requested. You know? And, but he, he, he had, no, he had, no, listen it, listen. It's a simple hit the record button type of deal. Like it's not more work. I wasn't asked to record it internally on my cameras, but I did.

  Mm. And you know what so happens. They needed it, cuz that guy never hit record, but now they have ISO feeds and they're. You're gonna have to edit that in post. It's not, you know? Yeah. I give's something down program. Yeah, exactly. I give 'em the feed, but whatever, anyways, but that, that kind of comes into mentality of just do just enough, you know, exactly what the client says, nothing more.

  Um, I've had that happen with, uh, many shoots where they'll be like, Hey, we don't have a laptop to dump the, to offload the footage and we don't have an option and we need to get this done. And just so happens. I brought one just in case, uh, there was a few times. Where we shot at night mm-hmm we were supposed to shoot inside the house and I just happened to just in case bring some extra lighting.

  Yeah. And, um, and it helped, you know, it helped in those situations. Uh, it's nice to have that mentality if you're here for the client. Yeah. And, you know, you can always negotiate charging them for that afterwards, but at least you have the option sure. To do it. Yeah. Yeah. You never want to have a huge problem like that.

  Like, you always strive to be the hero with your. Right. Ha that's the name of this podcast? strive to be the hero, man. Like if you have a solution you've came through for me several times, sandbags a cart, whatever it is like, you just have it with you. Awesome. I love it. Uh, you know, I do it like a broom out of a little tiny suitcase, pull it out and it's just like never ending production stuff.

  Yeah. The thing with me is like, I go, like, I don't just have a cart. Like I have a grip cart, you know, which is hard to bring every single time. Uh, so for me, I, I always have to pick and choose the kind of gear that I should be taking and, and try to make the work. Uh, for the work that they're asking for. I, I, you know, I always usually take a little bit more, but it's always that one thing I don't take is what what's needed for the job.

  Right. It's just too much. Uh, but anyways, um, I guess going back to this, uh, whatever, he didn't work out, thankfully because the, the client, in this case you saw, they were pretty hands on. They were like right over our shoulder, the entire two hour show. And I don't know how he would've handled it. I don't know if I would've wanted him, like, I guess speaking with the client anyways.

  Um, but anyways, you, you took the job. I'm very happy you did. Cuz I think you did a phenomenal job. There were no issues. We had absolutely no issues. Um, I guess the only issues like the, the main, I guess big issues that we had were almost out of our control in the sense that we didn't know who was, who.

  When they called up the winners, our job was to be like, I guess my job was to find the study cams were ready to find a winner. Who's gonna get up and start cheering and all that stuff. And then they see somebody. So they run to the person. And then I guess a couple times we ran to the wrong person. It's just a person getting up to go to the bathroom.

  yeah. Something. Well, I mean, it's so messed up. I mean it's so it was at an award ceremony. Yeah. You know that they, they just announced the winner. Yeah. And this lady just stands up at the exact moment and that steady camp ran out together, her and then she turns the other way to go to the restroom was on the other side.

  Yeah. The funny thing is we're on her for like a good 10 seconds, like 10, 15 seconds on her. Yeah. As she's trying to squeeze in out of her. meanwhile, the winner is actually getting up on stage at that time and she's, we're on the wrong person for a while and it's not, and it wasn't the, your fault, like, yeah.

  I mean, who does that? not only that, I mean, how, how, how do we know? Like we, and yeah, we're on calms. Everyone's letting us know. And, but as soon as we find out, I was like, oh man, go back to the wide. Let's see, let's find that person. And you know, it was, it was, uh, a very interesting scenario. Can I tell you something?

  It was really funny is, uh, at that exact moment, I had just put my phone in selfie mode and I started recording us with the producer in between us and that exact moment I captured a video where we all were like, no one lady, we got the wrong person in person. Oh, it was great. It was great. We gotta pull that.

  We'll pull that up with the snippet of this segment. Um, so yeah, it was, you know, those things that are almost out of our control and our rehearsal really wasn't a rehearsal, you know, and that was, that was rough. That was rough. Um, Uh, but yeah, it really wasn't a rehearsal finally, toward the end of their rehearsal, that was their rehearsal.

  They were just literally skimming through what they were gonna do. It didn't help us whatsoever. So what we decided to do was just abruptly get up on stage, somebody go through the motions, steady camps, let's practice these movements. Um, and let's see what we got going on, because if then we're not gonna know we're gonna be learning while we're live.

  And we don't want to do that. So. That was rough. Um, one takeaway I had was, um, cuz my, one of my main jobs was streaming, but also yeah, queuing up the lower thirds of the graphics. Yeah. And um, you know, you gotta put in the work when I, we were midday, few hours left to, to go time and I get dropless like 10 page, um, script of the whole night and she's like, here you go.

  Figure it out. And what's funny is so I'm Cuban American, right? Yeah. But I'm like second generation and I was born kind of, or raised kind of Greeno so I can speak Spanish. I can, I can hold my own, um, reading. I'm pretty good writing. I suck. But, um, the whole thing's in Spanish and I'm like, oh God, this is like harder than normal.

  Like I'm, it's like it wasn't clear. Which is the lower third. So I literally had to read through the whole script and, um, I had like, it took me about two hours and I was like, I'm not messing this up. And I went through it twice and second round. Sure. Enough found a few little extra things. And then the producer came and how are you doing?

  I'm like, great. I have a few questions. I noted down everything. I marked it with, you know, uh, highlighter. And, um, we took the due diligence of making sure that everything was well done. And sure enough, when Showtime came, literally it had the lower third standing by ready to go. She was super impressed.

  She said she hadn't worked with anyone. That was that thorough before. That's good. And I'm like, man, this is Spanish too girl. So , I'm just happy to be here and make it work. Oh my gosh. You and she was real happy. What's funny. Is that any other person that does this for a living? This is a walk in the. Any other person, right?

  for us, we're like freaking out, like we're so nervous. Palms are sweaty. Like at least for me, I'm like, I hope I don't hit the wrong camera to go live and putting the wrong names on screens for, I guess, for you. And yeah, actually I haven't mentioned your job, your job for this was to, so my job, what I decided to take on was, uh, pick the right cameras.

  I'm just cameras switching. That's. But it ain't easy because your show collar. Yeah. You're show, call I'm show calling. I'm cueing the cameras and I'm for the, um, specifically for the, uh, the, the, the two studies and the jib. I have to direct their movement. So I have to let them know what I want them to do when I want to, to do it, to queue it up, go now all at you're live now.

  All right, you're done. Don't get in the shot, et cetera, et cetera, like that. that's a little nerve wracking for me, cuz that I've never done that. I've never, I've never switched between moving cameras so that, you know, it definitely took a lot, um, a lot off my shoulders for you to just worry about all the graphics, worry about the live streaming, that's it, you know, and once you figured it out, you know, you were good to go.

  Um, they were very happy at the end. Another thing that we had that was a big issue. And again, out of our control was the lighting. So the, the, the lighting people at the Adrian art center, the way that they work is that they have their own in-house crew that are union based and they work nine to five hours.

  They work hourly rates or whatever, very helpful people though, by the way, They were amazing. Yeah, they were great. They were very helpful. I used to union being really rude. yeah, no, no, no. They were very, very helpful. Um, now for some reason, the girl that was doing the lighting, like the house lights, like we, we practiced this as soon as they call a winner, the house lights have to go on so that the steady cam cameras can capture the people coming out from the audience they weren't doing.

  They just were not doing that. And those shots came out so dark, like incr ridiculously dark, um, while we're live, I cannot, I can't be looking at that stuff nor did I even, I'll be honest. I didn't even notice all that often. You know, sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't cuz they did it every now and then, but they.

  Man, they just weren't doing that. And now at the end of the show and all that stuff, like even two, three weeks separated from the show, I'm getting a call from the client, Ariel, what went wrong? Like what happened here? I'm like, man, baby, you remember like we coordinated the lighting and he, he even knew like what I was gonna say, like.

  the light. They just never went on, you know? Um, that's until the end of the show, they finally got their act together and they added all this light. Yeah. He was like, he, he, the thing that frustrated him the most was just the lighting for the winners. As they're walking up, they were saying it was too dark, et cetera, etcetera.

  Like, well, of course, of course it's too dark. There's no light on them at all, you know? Yeah. It's kind of out of your control and I can't, I, we can't. , you know, first of all, it was way too dark for my, those cameras that we were using. Uh, but it was just dark for any camera really. And we can't be switching camera settings in the middle of shooting like that.

  Like it has to be all that. We practiced it anyways. Um, so. so that was another huge issue. That was definitely did not go unnoticed. Um, uh, but man, other than that, it was a pretty smooth show. Awesome. Considering all the moving parts. Yeah. So many moving parts, so many moving parts, it was very nerve wracking.

  It really was. Um, um, can I speak to that for a second? Yeah. So go ahead. Speaking to nerve wracking. So I was super nervous all day, right? Yeah. Thinking this is live, like you screw this up and this is a problem and, uh, so I knew I was gonna have the producer right next to me in my ear, the whole show, tell, calling me, telling me what's next coming up.

  And so I decided I'm gonna get a stack of gum. Right. So I'm chewing gum. I wanna have nice fresh breath for her. And I'm just like, okay, we're good. . For about a week and a half, I had no jaw strength. you were chewing way too hard. I was chewing so hard cuz of the nerves all night. And I literally had gum in my mouth the entire night, just added nerves of calling, you know, every little thing that I'm not kidding about next day I woke up and I felt like I was in a boxing ring with someone just punching my jaws and uh, no kidding, bro.

  It was like a week and almost. Where I just could barely chew food. It was that bad. oh my gosh. I was a little nervous, but uh . Yeah, that was, that was my escape. oh my gosh. And so, I mean, you know, when you think about production, especially the ones that we normally do, you don't think about projects like this.

  Um, and you know, I, I've been taking a lot more of these kinds of projects, one, you know, they're profitable and I kind of know what I'm doing. Right. Um, But too, like, you know, I'm, you know, we're, we're building a production company, like we're building a, you know, a business and you want, you, you're gonna have to get out of your comfort zone.

  And I gotta tell you that's probably the most uncomfortable I've ever been. well, I wanna tell you, like, I, I have to give you props, man. When you told me you were taking this on, I thought. Is he qualified for this? Like, , this is big time. And, and I don't know if he's done this stuff before. I mean, definitely hasn't done it with me.

  The, and, uh, as we were setting up and I'm seeing all the people arrive and all this stuff, and, you know, you're taking charge and mm-hmm , and I'm like, he's sure acting like he's done this before. and dude, I have to give you props, bro. I, I don't know that I would've taken this kind of project project on.

  Um, and you did it with. Such a confidence that, uh, I have to commend you. It brings security to, to the client. I know at one point you made a joke, like I've never done this before. And the client was like, no, I don't wanna hear that. Don't tell me, I don't wanna hear that. I, that wasn't a joke. and that's the thing he didn't know was it?

  Wasn't a joke. but uh, I gotta give you prop. Oh my gosh. That was incredible. What you took on. Thank thank you. Thank you. I mean, look again. I've I can. The the, the, the comforting, the comforting part is that I know how things are supposed to work. Right. Mm-hmm I know what an SDI cable is. I know how to use it.

  I know what a video switcher is. I know, you know, graphics, lower thirds. I know, live streaming. Like, again, I've done these individual jobs, but when we're talking at a major scale, it requires a lot more brain power. Mm-hmm , you know? Yeah. A lot more focus. And that's really where it comes down to on, on bigger projects like this there's bigger moving parts.

  So people would hire producers and stuff like that. But, um, and normally on big projects like this, normally I don't do anything physically like any of the physical labor, but because my guy dropped out on me and I didn't have confidence in anybody else, I kind of didn't have a choice originally. I was just going to kind of step back and make sure that everything was moving properly.

  Um, And I just kind of took the plunge and kind of, you know, I, I, I decided, you know, I'm just gonna do this myself then, I guess, and, and we will, we'll see where this goes, but also this is also one of those cases where. I didn't know it was gonna be that big surprise. Oh God. I was not so nervous because look also, we, we have to take preparation into account, you know, mm-hmm , um, whatever's needed is needed and whatever needs to be paid is gonna be paid.

  This is kind of one of those clients, you know, they, I don't wanna say they spared no expense. But they had a budget that's unlike a normal client that I normally have. Right. Well, put it this way. They, they had the budget to get whatever needs to get done. Done. Okay. So. You know, if having a tele, you know, originally they were gonna go for presidential teleprompters and this and that.

  And we kind of actually, no, I think they still went for the presidential. Yeah. Yeah. They still put those up. I, I forgot that. Yeah. Cause the right one was, uh, super dirty yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Oh my God. The camera kept looking through that. But anyways, I mean, again, these, these, uh, projects now.

  Like it gives me even a whole new level of confidence that to take on projects like that after going through something like that. And yeah, it could have been very disastrous, but having some sort of experience, if I've never done it at my church before, I don't think I would've ever done that. You know, I would've just tried to find somebody to do it, but, you know, yeah.

  I've only done three cameras. Six is a whole nother level and these are three that are moving. So. It just takes a certain amount of focus to, to kind of accomplish that. And so I'm happy. I'm happy with the outcome. I'm happy that the client was super happy. I'm happy that they wanna come back and make it an annual thing.

  Nice. Um, where we can make it better next year and, and kind of see where we went wrong and, and make it even better, you know? Um, mm-hmm they were super duper happy, so, and yeah, I mean, it. It, it was no small project, but it, you know, it took a couple of visits to this location to kind of see where everything's gonna go and where everything's gonna land.

  And you know, now we know for next year, we're not even gonna. uh, mess with things that we already know. That's not how it's gonna be. We already know where the teleprompter's gonna go. Cause that, that was a big question. What kind of, teleprompter's gonna be good enough to see from that distance? We weren't even considering a TV before mm-hmm so yeah, so things like that, like we already know.

  And there's no question about that. Um, So I'm, I'm very happy with how it turned out with how you did and, and, you know, the whole team, they just, they just nailed this one. Mm-hmm um, it was really good. I'm very happy. And now I have, we have another, uh, another type of work that we can add to our resume and the biggest compliment from a client is a callback.

  So, uh, that's great to hear. Oh yeah, no. Yeah. They want to make it an annual thing. That's big. You know, I saw that you were posting that you ended up show calling for another production. Oh my gosh. I'm sure this experience kind of helps help that one. Yeah. This was a very bizarre one. Very bizarre, never been a part of this kind of thing before, but again, we, we, we take 'em.

  I know how to show, call when a client, when a client gave me the scope of this project, it sounded very similar in terms of like the job of what I needed to do with some. basically, there's already a team in place. There's already a video switcher. There's a live streamer. There's camera operators. There's PTZ cameras already in place.

  Everything Ariel, all you need to do is call the show. Tell 'em when to go to what camera, tell 'em what camera goes, where tell 'em all this stuff. That's all you need to do. I'm like really? That's all you need to do. That's all I need to do. and you're paying me. A pretty good rate too. Yeah. Was it for like two days to do that?

  The good thing is, you know, everything works cuz everything is yeah. I mean it, this is at this in Miami. It's a building called the new world symphony. Gorgeous gorgeous place. Technologically advanced. I spoke with, I got to meet and speak with the guy that put it all together. That built it. I was like in awe of how organized, we're talking hundreds, hundreds of SDI cables running through this building.

  Custom made SDI cables running through this building in such a beautiful, beautiful, organized fashion organized. I could not believe the technology and how advanced this place is with regards to shows, putting together shows. And they made sure that this place was put together in such a versatile fashion that it could be used for anything there's big stages you could add.

  They have platforms that rise. To, to make a, a normal stage. You could add additions that rise to make an extended stage, and they could all go down to make one long flat surface to do regular. And they have projectors that go onto like the, the, the walls. And like, it was just so beautiful how it all came together.

  Like it was a beautiful, beautiful place. Uh, so the reason why they needed me as a show caller, because they already have everybody hired, they come with the, I guess the rental of the location. it's like the package. Yeah. It's a whole package deal. You come, it comes with the video feature. It comes with everything.

  It's that? So that's a good question. So what was your reason for yeah. Being hired for that? The reason I got hired for it is because they don't do the show calling because if something goes wrong, there's a bad camera called something. They, they don't blame them, you know? So. If you go and you say you want to do a show there they'll request that you bring your own show caller, somebody that knows the show that knows how things are gonna flow.

  That way. If anything goes wrong, it's on them. It's not on the building or the company. So that's kind of the reasoning for that. So the client kind of took some time when I got there, my desk was located. I had to sit at a desk that was right next to the video switch. And they had two ginormous, like 85 inch monitors, 85 inch TVs, really that showed all the cameras that we had to play with.

  And, uh, everybody there was super nice. They were super helpful. Um, and all I had to do were, were on coms. They showed me how everything worked well, but, and I had to press to get through to the client, but I didn't have to talk to the client too much. I was really talking to. The video, switcher graphics operator, the PTZ camera operator and the camera operator.

  So four people really that I'm talking to, there's one guy that's handling like five PTZ cameras. And then for those that don't, uh, know what that is. Explain it. Yeah. So a PTZ, camera's essentially a camera that a robotic camera that is controlled via a remote control. Uh, I guess surface, you know, mm-hmm um, An interface.

  So, which is funny, cuz that's what my wife used to do in Telemundo news. Oh nice. Yeah. Coming outta college. She used to operate the cameras from a different room. Yeah. So normally like when you look at a PTZ camera, like you could even find 'em on Amazon, all, all over the place. you'll normally find them like inside of these little domes that kind of look like these security type cameras that, that move around inside of a little dome.

  That's a, that's your whatever standard PTZ camera. These aren't like that these PTZ cameras are big cinema type cameras with big semi lenses with motors and focus rings and all that stuff. This, these were not small RS. These were. 70 $80,000 PTZ cameras that are in place. Yes. Um, and remote controlled like that by one guy.

  And, uh, so, and they looked beautiful. Like the image looked great. Um, So whenever I said, and these guys were good, they're really good. Uh, you know, when I would call, you know, camera one, stand by and camera one, ready and go. And he goes live right away. Like they're so fast with it. The video switcher guy.

  Did they have any particular, um, lingo that they requested from you? No. So I requested it from them actually, cuz I wanted to make sure that I'm communicating properly. So I went. Through the coms. I, you know, it was quiet when I walked in, everybody was quiet. It was like a library. I was like, I was, as soon as I put the coms on, like then that's where I'm speaking to everybody, I guess.

  Yeah. Yeah. It's like the, she just tapped into the middle. Exactly. so I'm talking to these guys and I'm like, look guys, I normally, um, I normally say, um, uh, two stand by. two, you live or something like that. And then they told me, and I actually have heard this before. Not this ain't the first time I heard it, but the normal standard way of saying it is when, you know, when you're communicating with your team and camera ops is ready.

  One, take one. That's all it is. Mm-hmm ready. One means camera one, be ready to go. You're about to go live. Yeah, don't be shifting around. Don't be shifting stand. Still. Keep your shot. take one means camera one. You're live right now. Right. Um, and the reason they say it that way is because it's a lot less words you communicate faster, you know, mm-hmm so, yeah, I, I was saying it longer.

  I say, stand by, you know, so the word stand by and the word ready, which one's shorter. You have ready there. And then one you're live or cam one, Cameron, one you're live. Um, that's a lot longer than take one. yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the reason that's actually the industry standard. So of how you say it defines it.

  That's. I'll be honest. So I, it took me actually a couple of hours to get used to saying that, cuz I just wasn't used to it, but I wanted to make sure that I was communicating the way they communicate. So I was, I had to get used to it. Consider it ready. One, take one. Ready two, take two. Now every now and then I, I just, because I'm not even thinking about what I'm saying, I just knew what camera I wanted.

  I would always revert back to my original. All right. Three stand by. All right. Get, get, get three. Ready? I would always like too many words. Yeah. Too many words. The good thing is these guys did not complain one single bit. These guys knew exactly what I was trying to tell them. Um, it was just me and my like, I guess, nervousness or trying to I'm I'm , I'm, I'm thinking faster than I'm talking.

  So I need the talking to, to kind of catch up to my thinking. So I just knew I wanted three to get ready. and three, just get ready. Three it's always three. It's always three . And this, this is the funny part. Um, I. The, these guys are so good. These guys over there are so good. Especially the, the mixture, the, by the way, the mixture, the, the, the video switcher was ridiculously big.

  Like I was even confused. I knew the basics. I could see like 10% of what I would be able to use on that. It's like an airplane inside the cockpit. oh my gosh. It's like, I could see the preview and the live buttons. Nothing else. I knew any, I knew nothing else there, but anyways, um, whenever I called the wrong camera.

  He wouldn't even listen to me. because he don't ride. Normally he's like a robot. Normally I tell him where to go. He goes it right away and he's fast and he gets there. But the moment he hears , if I, if I, if I'm calling two and I really should be calling, uh, camera eight, because that's the close up camera and that's the camera we gotta be at when the person's on the podium, whatever.

  I'll go. All right, ready? Ready? Three and go three. He's like he won't even budge. He goes, are you sure? he would just hold it right there for a second. Cuz he knew that's the wrong camera. You're not supposed to be on that camera. The good thing is about this show is that it was a pattern also. So you okay?

  Yeah, it it's just a wash wrench. Repeat same exact deal. somebody comes on the podium, they introduce people. And then the two people that they introduce are three people. They go straight over to the middle of the stage, where they have chairs, ready for them to have a conversation. That is it. Mm-hmm . Um, I guess when the person's walking, we normally have a close up of them walking and, and waving to the crowd or whatever.

  And I was gonna go to like, I don't know which one, and it was the wrong one and he just did not budge. And. That happened. Well, at least he's got your back, so that's good. He's got my back. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, it was, it was, uh, uh, it was an experience. It was an experience. It was, it was, uh, an interesting one, but no, I'm glad we got to do that.

  And it was a great to see the, how they operate, you know? Yeah. That whole broadcast world is, is, and again, that, that building is beautiful. Just beautiful. Uh, but yeah, and. Yeah. I mean that, those, those were the shows and, and I'm, I, I, yo my add is kicking in for those who are listening. They're not gonna experience this, but how about them legs are showing off today, bro?

  you're showing up your legs. All the show, man. I know, man. I know I'm wearing shorts today. You did leg day. That's why you wanna show off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm wearing, Hey, I have a question. So what's up, uh, and you may not use this. You may cut this out, but. I saw in your BTS pictures of that day, on that production, um, that the talent on camera talent was, uh, Probably someone you don't align with politically what, what are your thoughts on working on gigs?

  Like, well, I don't know that it, this one really affected you, but yeah. Yeah. Working with on camera talent or anything like that, that it's just so opposite of what you, yeah. How does it, how does it feel? Does it affect your work? You know, what's your thoughts? Not really. Not really. I mean, Yeah. There's there's things.

  And I, I, I think where I stand politically is no is no, especially if you follow me on social media, it's no secret. Um, so we had, you know, uh, we had, you said, Nancy Pelosi, you, you didn't say, I said it. I didn't say it. yeah, I know we had Nancy Pelosi out there. There. I had nothing to do with this, which is, which is fine.

  I mean, look. when it comes to politics. I mean, this wasn't a, I mean, I guess it depends how you see it. Like, I don't, I didn't see it as a political job. Right. Um, so I'm fine working with people that I, you know, we disagree with politically that's gonna happen as a matter of fact, it's inevitable. It's gonna happen one way or another.

  Um, And listen, that's fine. That's and you still need to be professional. You still need to be professional. Still need to be respectful. She is she's the speaker of the house. And as such, I will absolutely respect her. Um, now. There have been, there have been jobs where that I've been offered specifically for political campaigns, where they specifically say, listen, we need to take this person down and you have to be a part of this.

  Cause I've, it's specifically like that. I'm not even paraphrasing. That's specifically what it says, like to, to be a part of this job, you have to be a part of this movement and this is where we're headed and you have to be on it. And so of course, It's better that they're upfront with that. Cuz then I can be upfront with the fact that I it's just not the job for me.

  And that has happened a couple of times before. And that's not just political. Uh, it's happened with my religious views as well. You know, there have been documentaries that I've turned down great opportunities by the way. That I've turned down. I've never even gave 'em your number or anybody else's because I don't, it's just not something that I know people wouldn't take.

  Right. Mm-hmm at least the people that I know. Um, but with respect, full respect, and I tell them, listen, uh, with, with full respect, I just, I, you don't, you're not gonna want me to be a part of this documentary. And then the client was, you know, they were a little taken back, but. They wanted to pursue and ask and kind of dig in what's going on here.

  Why wouldn't you take this project on? It's a great, it's a great story. It's a great cause. And I said, well, I kind of disagree with that. Cause I, I disagree with that. And. You know, with, with all respect, you know, I think you should have somebody that really agrees with that because mm-hmm, , they could have more passion in telling this story.

  It's just not gonna be me. Um, you know, so, you know, I'm, I'm sorry, I can't even recommend anybody to do this, but you know, I do wish you luck. Uh, and you know, there doesn't have to be any big, you know, any big argument or anything like that. It's just respectfully you can't. You know, at least I can't be a part of certain jobs and I'm okay with that.

  It's it's happened throughout my entire career. Now this one specifically, I think they were talking about climate change and all that stuff and whatever they, you know, they were talking and whatnot is just. Because, you know, look, I, I disagree with a lot of the stuff that I've shot, you know, uh, a lot of the stuff that, that I shot, but it's not my message.

  It really isn't. So, and mind you, I don't post that stuff. So that's, that's pretty much that's it there, but we can still work together, you know, we can still, uh, absolutely work together. Um, I just thought it was funny. They couldn't get her to stop talking. it. They could not get her to stop talking. And the mediator, uh, the moderator, I guess, was, had to stare cuz I had one of my cameras.

  All the moderators faced the entire time. It wasn't live, but I could see you see the reactions getting frustrated, the frustration, but I think that's a typical politician. Like they, they, they need to talk. They need to talk. Yeah. And kind of get their point across and all that stuff. So it was and answered the question.

  They wished they were asked . But anyways, I, I thought, yeah, that, so that's kind of my stance there. I. Uh, and if you're not in politic into politics at all, uh, more power to you cuz you could do a lot more things. Uh, but I like to be very careful with the messages that I help. Promote, you know, so, uh, that's really a conviction thing.

  That's really a, you, you and yourself type of situation, every situation is different and you make the best decision for yourself. Yeah. I recently had a, a text from a guy I worked with and I was like, yo, I got a job coming up this week, end of the week. And I would love to work with you. I was so happy with the work we did together.

  Um, this is, uh, I have very limited information. But are you available for this? We're gonna do the same rate. The rate was really good and all these different things. The rate was really good. And, uh, so I wrote back. All right, cool. Since there's not much information, let me just make sure I say some of the things that I, that I need to say before I, before we move forward, cuz he wanted to book this quick and I went through kind of a laundry list of the things I'm not into.

  So I said, look out of disrespect for production, everything. Um, if this is. Uh, I, I, I make sure I worded it real, real carefully, but I basically gist of it was that if there's major profanity, if there's sexual content, if there's any kind of pornography, any kind of blah, blah, blah. And I went through a little bit of list.

  I'm just not down for that. I don't judge it. I just don't take on gigs like that. And it's so funny. The guy wrote back much respect to you, brother. No worries. I'll talk to you next. Oh, my gosh. And, uh, it was cool cuz he respected it, but obviously it, it got me out of a sticky situation cuz I would've also had to edit that and to bring that into my home.

  And, and I think at the end of the day it was some kind of nudity involved and stuff like that. And I'd just rather not do that. Yeah. And um, then I'd have to bring that into my home. Yeah. Cause that's where my office is then my wife and everything like that. It's just not, not a good, yeah, not a good thing I wanna do.

  So it, that saved me from that kind of position and that work. Yeah, there was, uh, has, has there ever been work that you accidentally took on that you were like, ah, maybe I shouldn't have done this one, but now I'm stuck here. Let me, let me just finish this through. I'm gonna pray about it and all that stuff.

  Have you ever done something like that? Yeah, I got stuck on a, on a shoot forum, a clothing brand and, um, It was, it was earlier in my career. I got asked of D I T or digital tech is photography. Yeah. And, um, I was kind of learning the ropes and, you know, at the beginning stage, try a little bit of everything in the terms of, um, options on work.

  And I was learning this the system and I'm like, yeah, I I'm down for this. Put me on there. So I'm like trying to get the lessons I'm on YouTube, trying to learn how to, how to use capture one and their whole system and filing cuz that's super organized and. Next thing. I know it's like all their outfits were see through on these women.

  Oh. And I was like, how do I, how do I do this? How do I get through this? And I'm like, you know, and they even seemed self conscious. I thought was very interesting. And, um, And so basically I looked over my, my boy over here and he's like all excited and I'm like, okay. So I'm like just basically doing my best to just do my job, to be respectful and not look up and everything.

  But sometimes you gotta do certain things. And I was just like, Yeah, next time. I'm gonna start asking. Yeah. You know, what's involved here cuz I just, I just thought it was a, you know, fashion clothing, you know? Yeah. And next thing you know, everything's starting to get more seat through as, as the day goes on.

  Like, all right, Lord. I, I apologize. oh my gosh. Yeah, no, it happened to me also. Actually you were at that shoot at that rooftop music video type of shoot. Oh Lord. And I had no idea it was gonna be that way. uh, what, what was this artist's name? I don't even, she's in a movie as a teenager now. She's big in, in music.

  I don't know her name. No, I think, yeah. She's one of those Disney channel. Yep. Yep. Artist that came transitioned kind of like Miley Cyrus and writing ball she just went, yeah, she just went nuts. Yeah. Had to get some BTS of her while you were setting up for the, for the stage shot. And, um, she. Drinking. And I'm not, I mean, it is what it is.

  What's her, I's, what's her name against all these things. Yeah. What's her name? She started, um, smoking some stuff and then doing some other stuff. And then I had to like kind of stop recording her cuz it was. It was getting, uh, kind of intense. Yeah. And, uh, and so I had to just kind of walk away at one point and then the people around her, it's like, they're entourage, you know, it's like a, it's a culture.

  And, um, she just started acting really strange. And I was like, I was like, all right, I think I got enough here. I'm gonna head back over to you. um, it was interesting. Yeah. I don't know her name though. Oh my gosh. She's gonna kill me now. Um, now I gotta find her name. What's. It's still, I think it's in my archives, but yeah, no on this one, um, we had to do what they call a sunset series.

  This is for trier and, uh, we had to do the sunset series. Here we go. A trier sunset series. Here it is.

  Uh, Beorne. That's what it is. Bella thorn. That's right. So be thorn was the artist that we had to shoot. And I basically, we shot two music videos on this rooftop, over at the trier house when they were in Miami. Um, it's a shame because I think it came out really, really nice. And, but I, I, I have no interest in sharing any of that, but it was very uncomfortable, especially editing it.

  The, the, one of the two videos more specifically was the uncomfortable one. The one where they had the bed on the bed. Yeah. On the bed up top and all that. And it was like, remember you, me and Chris, we got together and we actually prayed . I was like, guys, you gotta pray on this one. Cuz I'm now, now I'm uncomfortable.

  Um, so it catches some demons outta that place. Yeah, man, it was no. For those who were wondering what happened? All it was is, you know, she was in a skimpy outfit, it's a bed scenario, think of a music video and she's just essentially booty dancing in front of the camera. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I was like, all right.

  Yeah, yeah. It was what it is. Yeah. It is what it is. Uh, but that doesn't, I mean, to me personally, it doesn't make it. Okay. Um, I don't think that I would've accepted another job like that. Uh, yeah. Without knowing more of what, and that's kind of like Trier's Mo with when, you know, I've kind of worked with them and the information that they give me.

  So I, I gotta be more cautious when accepting jobs like that. But yeah, that's the beauty, the beauty of what we do is that we get the option to say yes and no to, to gigs, you know? And we're not really. Yeah. I don't like. I don't condemn people that take 'em and stuff like that. That's just the freedom that we get to have in this industry is to say yes and no, you know?

  Yeah. I'm just, yeah. I'm, I'm sharing my convict. Um, I don't think that, yeah, it's not a job that I should have been on, but anyways, uh, we got it done and, you know, with with a bunch of prayer, um, and uh, I went home to my wife. I'm like, babe, this is what happened. This is what happened. This should happen.

  Just so you know, if you see something, this is what happened. This is what happened. I showed one of the, my, my brothers from the church kind of. Why I'm like editing this and you know, my wife also and all that stuff and like, all right, just get it done quick in the area. It's funny, cuz I think you, you eventually shared with me, I dunno if it was a draft or the final and I showed it to my wife and she's like, all right, cool.

  Yeah. Just don't show anybody that . Yeah, no, it's not, not something to be happy about, but uh, anyways, uh, yeah, those are the jobs that we. probably, I wouldn't take again I wouldn't want to be in that, but yeah. And you said the beauty of what we do yes. Uh, at our level, for sure. Uh, that we're able to, to reject work, you know, mm-hmm uh, so that's, that's a good thing.

  And, you know, it's, it's definitely good to practice. If you have some sort of moral code, you know, some conviction that, that you walk through. It's, it's not a bad thing I've been doing it even since. Um, since when I, even, when I first started, um, I. One of my earlier ones was, uh, a guy. I had accepted a job.

  I accepted it before I even heard of it, but it was like early in my career. And this guy was ready, came down with a $6,000 down payment. To me that's a lot of fricking money. Like, especially starting off. I was like, okay, what do you need me to do? And he had the check ready in his hand. I saw it I saw the check and then he said that he.

  he wants to share his story on how he overcame. I don't know if it was leukemia or something like that and how he overcame his sickness. He wants to share it in a small, short documentary. And I told him it's a very long project and whatever. I gave him the pricing, he came down with the down payment, me, he was, he was serious.

  And then he's finally said, well, I wanna share the story on how I came over it with, through the spirit world and this world. And it was just started getting very dark and I'm like, oh no, why. Why? And in my head, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna lose this money. Yeah. Cause obviously I can't, I can't do something like that.

  So, but I did it like, it wasn't a smooth letdown. It wasn't like, that was more when I, I was a little more right. And animated at that time. so I had to tell him, like, these were my exact words. I cannot help you promote a lie. oh, I literally told him this I cannot help you promote a lie. And we obviously, we got into it and Ooh, we got into it.

  you didn't just say no, you kind of attacked them. I felt that I had to kind of wash myself from like, Everything. He just started sharing and we got into it. This was at, at my church too. Cuz when I first started my office was based in the church. Oh. So I was kind of meeting with him at my church and I, you know, I guess that's probably why I had a little more animation to me, but um, and then we, we talked for like five minutes.

  It was like, look that's to me, that's that's all lies, you know? And I, I can't be a part of something and I just told him bluntly why I couldn't do it. Obviously he wasn't happy. Yeah, that's it? That was termination I'm sure. Uh, but yeah, then the money's gone. You're like, oh, would've been nice. Yeah. But you know, I, I believe how worth it.

  It's definitely not worth it. I was more, I was more concerned. Uh, uh, you know, I was fearing the Lord more than. I was wanting the money, so yeah. Which is yeah, healthy. It's very healthy. But, uh, anyways, I think this was a good catch up episode. yeah. Right. It's been a while. It's been such a long time, so, um, hopefully we've been working yeah, no, we've been so busy, but now this summer it's been a little slow.

  Yeah. I don't wanna say slow. I, I think it's like maybe back to normal-ish. You know yeah. Slow considering where we just came from. So, um, how busy it was a little while there. So anyways, glad we were able to do this episode. Um, and hopefully it's not too long before we do our next one. Hopefully we can do another one very soon.

  Yeah. Good stuff, man. I've been enjoying traveling with you too. We gotta talk about that in the next one. Oh yeah. Once we just got back from Texas. Well, there's our next episode. all right, buddy. All right, buddy. Thank you guys for listening to this episode and catching up with us and, uh, we will be back for another one soon later.

  Yep. See ya.