DerekNation- How I got started

Hey everyone!  If you haven't ready first post make sure you read it! It's the behind the scenes to my first real video on YouTube: Southern Utah - Desert Voyage

Let's move on shall we?;)

I've always been attracted to filmmaking. For those who can't comprehend on why I like it so much is that it's an art form! I can use MY imagination to express myself. I was never good at conventional art, so that was out of my equation, but I kinda had a knack for film; more so than drawing or sculpting.

Now that I had a passion for filmmaking, I always wanted to make the next James Bond/007 or some AWESOME action movie with lots of explosions....can't forget about those! :)
The problem I faced, though not massive, I didn't have really any friends who were passionate about filming like I was. I'm not saying that I didn't have friends, because I did, my action movies just didn't appeal to their tastes.

I'm very grateful for one of my friends Jared. Unlike my other friends, he always wanted to help me with an action film! And I just want to thank him for all the times he came over to help me film!

What I loved about action films were the VFX or the Visual effects. I thought it was SOO cool to have an explosion, occur feet from the camera, or a bullet come wizzing past the character, like Neo from Matrix. So I began the long process of teaching my self! I went on different websites and ALL over YouTube for tutorials on how to do just that!

One day I found a link to a website still dear to me, even to this day: VIDEOCOPILOT.NET
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Videocopilot.net. Andrew Kramer has such a talent and skill for teaching that I thought only Hollywood productions would only have access to this incredible site. But Nooo!

I started doing his tutorials for a very long time! To this day, I have probably clocked in a good 2-3 thousand hours just on video editing with some sort of VFX in the shot.

However, not all dreams are meant to come true. Now that I'm older, I realize it's much more of a hassle to do an action movie, than do something Devinsupertramp would have done.

For the longest time I ALWAYS wanted to create a cool action packed short film, like something Corridordigital would do or like FreddieW (now Rocketjump) would have done.

Most of my friends liked what Devin graham or maybe you know him as Devinsupertramp has done. I wasn't really into that style of filmmaking.

I started watching his videos and I thought to myself, "Hey, maybe I could get into that".

Now that I'm almost a senior in highschool, I wish that someone would have told me to utilize any and every opportunity I've had. What this means is that if your highschool has a video production program, JOIN IT, UTILIZE IT!
If I wanted you to get anything out from reading this, it would be utilize every opportunity you get your hands on!
I wrote down the 10 commandments to filmmaking that I follow everyday and every time I touch a camera. It's not how to operate a camera, but how to express yourself as a filmmaker; Never to make an excuse NOT to film, or that it's all about the shot. Your shots will differentiate yourself from the next filmmaker. It's not necessarily the story or the shot style but the type of shot you get! The quote,"it's all about the shot" comes from my now favorite Youtuber: Devinsupertramp.

Now back to the story.

In highschool, my film teacher, had access to the Glidecam. The Glidecam is Awesome! It let's you get shots that not many people can get. If you normally hold the camera with your hands, then you get to much shake when you walk. But when you UTILIZE the glidecam, your footage looks like it floats in the air. Now not everyone can just pick one up and get AMAZING shots with it...like everything else, it takes time and dedication to master. Now if you're passionate about something, then you'll see something to the end. I was passionate about filmmaking so I stuck with it, and that meant everyday using it.

I can see why devinsupertramp loves what he does. Now that I'm older and have realized what I really want to do, which is make movies, then I'll be fine with whatever style I choose to film; whether that's action shorts, a long documentory, or anything in between.

I finally got confident with the glidecam, so about 2 weeks before my trip down to southern Utah, to film: Southern Utah- Desert Voyage, I finally bought an Autopilot Camera Stabilizer. It's JUST like the glidecam, just 400 dollars cheaper. I started practicing with that. I then went down south and that's the beginning of DerekNation! :)

I thank you for reading this long blog entry on why and how I got started.

I'll see you next time! :)

Make sure to look me up on youtube!: DerekNation

ALSO!!! I am in need of a composer to help write some scores for my videos! If you are interested in that, contact me! With the subject being: MusicNation

If you want to contact me for business or personal questions, contact me here:
Derek.whitton97@gmail.com