Welcome to alumni live the podcast.

These are conversations with grand valley state university film and video

graduates about the industry, the film, video, major and alumni profiles.

thank you for joining us.

My name is Michelle Terpstra.

I'm from the class of 1995 filming video.

And today we have Sarah Ford from the class of 2018 and collab

at grand rapids based artists.

That's right.

So , they've shared directorial duties and filming duties on a music video featuring

several local, , rap and musical artists.

And it's called citizen.

, we're going to show you the video here just a minute.

It's about six minutes long and you're going to see.

Several familiar faces and places and name dropping.

It's a lot of fun after the video, we will come back and talk to

collab and Sarah about the project.

So here we go.

Well, here we are with collab and Sarah Ford who worked on the project.

That was great.

That's some real hometown pride there.

So , can you talk about how this all came together?

There's a lot of artists involved with it.

So how did you come together with, you know, manage everything and

shoot this all during a pandemic?

God, Sarah and lady A's like, for real, , it was a lot, I had the idea probably

maybe two years ago and I was just going through personal and family stuff.

So I, I took a break and, recently I just, I wanted to get back into it.

And, , I asked a few artists, a couple of them couldn't do it

because of the pandemic or what not.

And so.

The people that are on that made it.

And, , we made it work.

So did the artists I'll write their own lyrics or their rhymes.

Or did you write those or how did that happen?

Well, I wrote, I wrote the hook and my verse and no one else heard anyone

else's verse until it was done.

So they heard my maters and then the instrumental.

And so from there, they all just wrote off of my verse.

Kind of gave him the concept and, yeah, that's how it happened.

So how did you and Sarah connect, cause he is dope.

I seen some of her work and I was like, man, , I think I was

telling the lady, I was like, I gotta, I gotta know who to say.

I gotta talk to her.

I want to see.

Cause it was amazing.

And then, , I think this is a third, just doing something for the third

time together and this has always been top-notch so that's awesome.

So first let's talk a little bit about recording.

How, what was the process like recording all of these artists?

Well, , I was there for maybe a couple of them, but because of, , social distancing,

, I scheduled the appointment with, , 85 was here as the name of the producer.

I'm a producer.

And, , he was able to, work and fit people in because of

him not working at the time.

And so, , yeah, , Six to the artists recorder, wouldn't him and other two,

which will be rebel Cusco, and Jansz recorded with, , replay Ryan Payne.

And so, , I kinda just told them I need it by this date.

, we would try to stick to the schedule and people sent it in and we got it done.

So about the filming.

You, , you filmed Tom a bit and then the artists film, some of it.

Is that what happened?

Can you talk a bit about that, Sarah?

Yeah, for the most part, , because we were all separated and we were limited on

some resources and so collab and I kind of just went head to head with some ideas

and decided it would be a cool opportunity to let, , the artists themselves either

recorded or, , semolina step two.

We're a big part of it, as well as collab to film either on his phone or

whatever camera they had to kind of match the quality benchmark that we had

set . What was this quality benchmark?

Exactly.

How did you, , tell people this is what I want.

Yeah.

So we had kind of brainstormed the idea of the end product that we were shooting for.

I think that's something maybe you always start out with, even in

preproduction, you kind of talk about, okay, what would we want it to look like?

And we wanted it to have , an old school feel we're kind of like dipping

back into the roots of, , people from grand rapids that have been well known.

, some of the newscasters, even some of the old rappers, some of the old

places that people used to go to that are not the same establishment now.

And.

We decided we were going to go with the old school film

. So in that case, , with recent times everybody's got a phone

that can film at least 24.

And if they don't javelina had his phone there to film that for her.

Nice.

So we kind of just set the benchmark.

Hey, if you can do 24 frames per second at 10 80 P at least

some of them were like seven 20.

But a standard iPhone can film at least 10 80 P if you have

one of the latest versions.

So did you run into technical hurdles then with people sending you footage,

that wasn't quite what you needed and then you worked with it anyway?

I think it was pretty smooth sailing.

I think the only technical issue that I ran into was aspect ratios.

It had been kind of sat with that benchmarks, you film horizontally.

, but then there are a lot of add ins of B roll that people Shaq.

Cause that was also another thing that reached out.

, ladies reached out to her resources for all of that B roll of those

familiar faces that you see.

And, , they just, I think it's very easy when you have

an iPhone to film vertically.

, and that was really the only hurdle.

I kind of had to jump over where I had to just scale in like super big.

But it's still fit the look, which was very exciting for me because

it still gave it that grainy, look, it still fit the whole field.

It wasn't something where I had to reach back out and back these

people during this time already and say, Hey, we got to reshoot it.

It just happens to just that's great.

That's great.

Now you edited in premiere, you must have had just hundreds of pieces of footage.

What was it like dealing with such a, a large number of.

and is that something you're used to doing?

Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty used to taking, , a large sum of

things and condensing them down.

, with any film editing, , you might have 12 hours worth of footage

for maybe a two minute commercial or, , in this case, a six minute song

and , Reaching out to these artists.

, it was either , they gave us one take like one good take to a maximum of maybe five.

So between, , collab and the rest of the artists, I think

collab had maybe the most takes.

Cause we were trying to show the most variation between each hook because.

Repeats over and over again throughout the store.

We wanted it to look the same, but also have several takes that

we can cut back and forth from.

So as far as the artist takes go, , you kind of see what they,

what they gave me, which is really cool because it just offer them.

A bigger creative eye into, , those artists, , and like a different medium,

, they had their lyrics, they knew how they're going to present themselves,

whether their demeanor or the way that they wanted to present themselves.

But, it was cool to see the way they shot it after, , having the task

of, Hey, we're going to do this, , handheld, , kind of do it yourself.

So, how did you achieve the grainy film look?

Did, where did you use plugins or those are plugins CD, just a subscription-based.

Website that I use.

And it's just a film, grain.

Look.

A lot of them are older ones that I've used, , and just were used

over and over again, depending on how I manipulated them.

, but this one ended up just being like a film green look.

, we do have the kind of that super eight feel, but again,

when we first brainstormed this, , concept, we wanted to go.

The old school, , yes, we filmed on I-phones today, but we've still wanted

it to have the feel as if it was shot in 20, 30 years ago on some sort of camera.

So that's why we have the super eight net film grain mug.

Yeah, it works really, really well.

So collab, does this match the vision that you had for this.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, , anything that, didn't me and Sarah, this stayed in close contact.

I literally probably watched the video 77 times, like two days

before it was supposed to come out.

And just because, , this is very meticulous about, about Bangalore because

I had been in business for a few years.

, so basically when.

And I'm not out there.

And pride was like, oh, can you do this?

And, and, , she came through in the clubs, like always.

Oh, that's good.

So what did you learn from making this project?

Is there anything that you would've done differently now that

you've been through the whole.

, I would have got rid of quarantine and COVID,

other than that, , , it was lit.

It was fun.

It was even fun just seeing how people put their verses together and then

how people sent that clip standing and to see how Sarah, , Put it in a mess.

Well, we talked about like, it was so dope and just so good to

finally , see it, come to life.

And have you heard about the project?

, like what, what positive effects has this had?

, well, for, for a lot of us, it shows unity that artists can work together,

especially in a time like this, where the BLM movement and everything going on.

, We were kind of on it before, , everything kind of broke loose.

, and so it just showed me that we can work together.

We can get stuff done, whether we're in the studio together,

whether we're recording it through Sarah or we're recording it,

like it just showed, , teamwork

and some serious project management skills.

, so do you have anything new in the, oh, we have a question from Facebook here.

, Sarah, do you have a day job?

Was this project something you did on the side or because, you were off due to COVID

so I actually just freelance for a living.

And luckily, , some of my main projects that I'm working on was

working on was this, so we could keep it smooth sailing and consistent.

And some of my other clients that I worked for, , they also were doing things

that were consistent along the way.

So , it was a process of managing, , three to four clients

over the course of the COVID, which wasn't unmanageable by any means.

This episode is brought to you by the dirt counting Memorial

film and video scholarship.

Here's Gretchen vintage remembering draconic the coding scholarship enables

students to get that kind of an education, to be a good filmmaker, to be able to

express their voice and to continue Dirks during for more information

and to donate to the scholarship, visit the link in the description.

Now back to the show.

Do you two have anything in the.

Right now for the future.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

We do everything you can talk about or is this top secret?

I want to say, or that I literally wants there to shoot all my videos forever.

So yeah, we, we got a video, , coming up.

, Montana, basically dropping a video every other month and that's how

my project will drop, , throughout the year, every other month.

And, , my next project is titled depression.

, it's just a song about depression, cause we all go through it.

, everyone's been through it.

Everyone knows somebody that's been through it.

And, , I have a feature artists from, , Duvall county, Florida on there.

He's a really big artists, , burgeoning artists out that way, , on a project.

So that that'll be dope.

Okay.

We have another question.

It looks like here for Sarah when you were at GVSU, what

were you hoping to do for a job?

I think I've always just wanted to use, , the talents that I have.

For whatever God calls me to use them for.

, I've always kind of been spiritually based in, , his letting

his will be done in my life.

And.

Yeah, I think freelance allows me the opportunity to re really

feed into the faith aspect.

, cause freelance, you don't have, , apart from clients that you might have,

like reoccurring clients or longer projects, you have to kind of really

dive deep into that understanding of like, I don't have full control, you

know, and just seeing how it goes, but.

I knew that I wanted to try a lot of things.

And I can tell you that since 2018, I've tried a lot of things.

I've said yes to a lot of things.

I didn't want to move.

Maybe my downfalls, as I say, I don't say no enough.

, but it's also allowed me to really versatile with like my understanding

of things, but also, how my perspective has changed because it's a very

visual, , career to set yourself into.

Yeah, definitely.

So there's another question coming in about.

Sinking, , with a music video, how do you get everybody synced up where

they're in different locations?

I'm not sure if that's a question concerning the look of the video or

more on the post-production side of things as far as sinking with audio.

So I bet it's a post-production question.

Okay.

Yeah.

So premiere actually.

Real quick with that.

, they have added some updates that are so helpful, so efficient, and it's

actually just called multi-camera editing.

, so you have one audio track, which in, , in the case of a music video, you

have one audio track it, line it up and you sync it, , via audio of your video.

And you just have them track together, does sync up themselves and then

you kind of weed through and then edit as you go, which is cool.

Good.

It saves me a lot of time.

Cause I, I mean, I, Even when I started editing, you know, three,

four years ago in some of these programs, it wasn't that simple.

You had to take it to a third party plugin, and then bring

it back into your timeline.

, probably the red giant plugin, the name of it is I can't think of it at the

moment, but, , , if you've ever had to manually sync up audio and video

together as a night, And doing that much.

I can't even imagine.

So, , let's see.

Do we have any other questions out there?

Is there anything that you two would like to mention that

we haven't asked you about?

I just want to say thanks to Sarah and lady aids, because.

Oh, my God, just the way, , the teamwork was crazy.

And with everything going on, like with the vision I had, this was

something that was very important to me.

, and just like, thank you.

It was amazing.

That's great.

It's always been fun with this crew and people though.

That's the thing is like, I got connected with lady A's and I got connected with

this whole community, and this was a perfect opportunity to work with each

of them, but also bring them together for a common goal, which is cool.

So I've done a lot of like live event coverage of these artists

and they all have a different feel.

, but when they came together and somehow was just, like he

said before, like it really.

Spoken to unity, like where they were able to just pull it off.

Really cool.

I guess there is another question.

, here it is for Sarah upon graduation, how did you network?

, I think the easiest way that I have been able to network is

either through social media.

, just reaching out to those that maybe inspire me.

, but also locally.

I just talk a lot.

, , I knew I wanted to try music at first, the music scene, once you know, someone,

then they're asking, you know, then the following week, once you put out a video

of some sort, I find it that with video, you get yourself into patient halls,

but at the same time, you can use that, utilize that as a network opportunity.

, so when I went into music, obviously I was getting a lot of

people hitting me up for music.

And then to venture off of that, I would just reach out to, local, small

businesses, , healthcare providers, , and then a fair share of just reaching out

to people I knew that were already either on set or that had inspired me locally.

, just, I think just not being afraid right off the bat, you kind of

have to build that self-confidence through just engaging, , because the

creative process looked different, looks different for everyone.

, obviously there are benchmarks that you can.

But unless you get yourself out into the field and actually

experience that for yourself.

, you're not going to gain that.

Self-confidence to continue the flow of it, right?

Yeah.

Well, collab, you said that you had seen Sarah's work before you contact her.

Where did you see her work?

Was it just randomly on YouTube or was it a project that you saw?

I think I was doing, I'm not sure what show it was that.

So it was it's a show or if it was the jammies or I think that

she had done a, , I dunno what you call it, what do you call it?

Like a performance video, , for, for a lady eighth and we were in

the car and I seen like the, she emailed her a clip of it and I was

like, oh my God, like, who is that?

It was just crisp.

It was dead.

Right.

It was creative.

I'm like, I didn't see that she was boxed in, or it was in the

limits and just that little clip and, and I just want to, I went to

work with her after that, for sure.

That's awesome.

We've got another question here coming in.

, what advice do you have for young artists who are starting out, which

is a good question for both of you,

I'd say one consistent.

, that's like the number one thing, consistency.

, because there's not always going to be some one who likes your

music or likes what you do.

And you have to know that everything is not for everybody.

, you make the music from your soul, how you feel for your audience that you want.

And you just basically got to go from your heart, go from

your soul and never give up.

You got to keep going.

No matter what.

And so it's just consistency the thing.

And the second thing is to understand that it's the music

business, not just the music.

So depending on how far you're trying to go or what you're trying to do, you

need to understand that there's certain things business-wise that you have to

do to even be seen or get opportunities.

Very good point.

And Sarah, what do you think on that top?

Yeah I personally was taught once I turned film into like a career

that it was going to be cut throat and that's a little intimidating.

So I think again, just as glad was saying that consistency to know that the

creative process, especially with any medium, it's a form of self-expression.

So if you're not growing within yourself or you're not understanding

that it's coming from you, like you can bring in inspiration from

elsewhere, but if you're not solely.

Putting you out there.

. You're not going to be able to, , just keep growing or

keep networking authentically.

And I think that's something that might intimidate people or slow people

down because we always want to put out the best version of ourselves,

but the primary reason, , and we are artists is that we are able to sell.

Artistically uniquely to us.

, and so don't be afraid.

I would just say don't be afraid or hesitant to put yourself out there

because that's essentially your goal is for people to buy into you not to buy

into your talents or what you learned last week or what you learned a year

ago or where you went to college, it's you and the way you express

yourself, that is a very good point.

All right.

, well I think we're going to wrap it up here unless there's anything

else that you'd like to, , to add?

, I'll add one more thing.

I'll piggyback off of what Sarah said.

, network gang, you have to network and you have to have a team

to get stuff done, which was, , basically shown with this video.

Like we were basically a team, all of us, then we got it done.

The bigger the team is the more solid the team is.

Teamwork to Excel.

That's very true.

All right.

Well, I really appreciate you both.

Coming on our first episode of alumni live, it's been a lot

of fun and I learned a lot.

So thanks so much for having us good luck with your future projects.

I appreciate it.

Oh, do you want to tell us about that?

, authoritative six pack.

That's the album that, , it's done.

, I'm dropping depression is the next thing go.

, go watch the citizen on YouTube.

Go download citizen on every platform, every major platform.

, We have the citizen of grand rapids, Michigan.

T-shirts available on gr citizen.com.

Follow Sarah follow all the artists follow year 85.

Follow Michelle, Michelle.

Turkstra just following everybody and let's keep networking.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of alumni, live the podcast.

Subscribe to our podcast, to hear more from our alumni across the industry.

Check out alumni, live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

For more conversations and networking.

Let us know what topics you want to hear our alumni talk about the

grand valley state university film video alumni network is here for

you, and we're glad that you're here.

Thank you for listening.