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General Q&A

So I thought what I would do is maybe have dane, shawn and bly come back up because I certainly can't answer all of the questions and we can field anything that you guys want us tio want us to respond, teo, but I felt like those last two examples were sort of two ends of the continuum terms of one man band versus medium sized band, and you can really see that the production value changes, you know, the level of production, the level of sophistication when you start adding people to the equation, so wow, completely blown away, I mean, I'm just sitting here and all of these videos, so that was incredible, incredible shots, just incredible stories, I think I could do this for three days, I don't know about you guys, but we were silent in this room, all right? I do have a question this question came in from dave, and dave asked earlier if cory, you could talk a little bit about the first time you received a call from a client wanting to book you on assignment when you were in college? How ...

did that? How did you feel? And how did this begin all the things that I think that's a great there's, a great story behind that I'll give the I'll try to do this in like, two minutes or less. I told you guys in the first session of creative lives that I took six months off from college and went on the road and photographed rock climbing around the united states and dipped into mexico a little bit, and when I came back to college, I actually bought a light table of course I was shooting slide film and because I promised my father I'd go back to college, I actually did ijust never finished college didn't go back to college, and while I was sitting in my dorm room editing film, I decided to ship the best twenty rock climbing pictures to climbing magazine, sort of the the best lifestyle images and sort of the grittier action images to patagonia. I grew up looking climbing magazine in patagonia catalog, and I read somewhere that it was worth spending the extra nine dollars to fedex versus using u s mail, so I fedex my forty best images to patagonia, and the next day I'm sitting in my dorm room this's pretty cellphones, and I'm kind of dating myself here, and I'm sitting in my dorm room and the telephone rings and I, you know, had to be like charlie down the hallway, so I answered it like a typical college student was up, you know? I did one of those numbers, and there was a silence at the other end of the phone and then an adult voice came in said is corey rich and shit you know it's like it's one of my it's got to be one of the faculty members and so I like uh hang on just saying let me see if he's here of course and I'm trying to like match whose voice like which teacher is this so I cleared my hello this score on this woman on the other end of the telethon said uh hey cory, this is this is jennifer ridgeway at patagonia she said who are you? It caught me really off guard and I said who and uh no, no, this is corey and she said no, I mean, who are you again? She went on to say we just got this submission of forty slides and, like every single one of them is pretty impressive and went on to say some pretty complimentary stuff and I was just, like, caught so off guard I was, like, floored by this phone call because when I read the article about, you know, spending the extra nine dollars on fedex what the article said pretty clearly was you're going to ship your slides off and about nine months later they're going to come back in an envelope all out of the sleeps with a letter that says keep your day job but thank you for submitting and she went on to say, you know, we like some of these pictures in the best part of the phone calls, she said we'd like to actually publish a few of them in our next catalogue and keep in mind, I just spent six months on the road with three thousand dollars to my name, and I made every single dollar count and, you know, I was just so blown away that they were going to publish the photographs and then she went on and I don't remember the number is exactly what she said, you know? And we're gonna pay you fifteen hundred dollars an image and, you know, I dropped the phone and I, like, pick it up, and I'm doing the math in my head and I'm thinking, should I could drop out of school right now? Like I just I just made forty five hundred dollars from this one phone call, and it wasn't about the money it was actually about the fact that I could go out and buy, you know, another hundred rolls of film and film my honda civic gas tank for, like, nine more months on the road, and that was really that was the beginning that was the game changing phone call that, uh, that changed my life and it's why I don't have a college degree great great story love that I mean I think we're all waiting for that phone call pretty much cory do any of you guys have similar story regards to how you got into this or patagonia ever give you a call in your dorm room go ahead name I think being in the right place in the right time for me it was just that there was more jobs opening up for a video content because the internet was starting to blow up youtube started become a viable option for marketing for businesses and I just caught that wave and was able to get in with a company and and have a platform to show your work on and especially some of these companies their marketing teams are hiring staff people you're actually working you know, five days a week and but being able to test and toe work and you know, make mistakes and only published the things that you know I work for you so I think just being in the right place the right time that's actually where I met cory doing working for these same companies and you know, we've kind of things just kind of roll from there that it is a big part of it for all of us which is beyond whatever a skill set so it's like it's a good group of guys and and I keep on saying this but I really mean it danes a super talented guy belies a super talented guy shawn's a super talented but on top of that we're all great guys in terms of you want to spend time around them they're enjoyable to like hang out with and that's I think that's a night with no exaggeration fifty percent of the equation it's talent skill set and being a good human being and I just want to add and hard work you know, a lot of people a lot of photographers on critical I talk about this all time it's the right place at the right time there's luck involved but people you guys just work a ton you worked really hard you really put in the effort so I actually think there's an equation or a formula I think it's some raw talent because I don't think it's all raw talent like there's very few people that are just so gifted that despite every other aspect of their life their successful it's, some raw talent a heck of a lot of passion which is the hard work part and not being an asshole like those three things those three ingredients and you're gonna go you're going to go once before and not just in work in life that's really important way have any questions from you guys would like to ask through a follow up question that so for someone who wants to break into the commercial adventure world whether it's videography of photography maybe more than photography side giving tips for people nowadays in this market to build those connections and to get their work in front of the right people that eventually get some jobs sure, I mean I think that that hasn't changed actually that's the same it's been the same for twenty years and that is go out and tell the stories that you care about don't call the magazine and ask furnace I'm god and do it and show them that you have an amazing body of work a compelling story you understand how to communicate that story and the work will follow and I'm simplifying that but it's really true great pictures find a home it's that simple great stories in terms of video content find a home where you get hired to god and tell another story there's actually this isn't my quote this is I think it was bob gill ca the national geographic said this something to the effect of you know I have a roll of ex full of photographers and I have to business cards of guys that have great ideas and so it's like it starts with the ideas it's still like that's the key, you've got good ideas and then you've got to go and do it and like no one's gonna hire you to do that idea until you've proven you can do it over and over and over again and in fact you know we're professionals we work you know this is what we do every day it's still pretty hard to sometimes pitch an idea that you're passionate about so it starts with very simple answer you go out and tell the stories that you want you kicked butt you do it alone if that's what it takes you higher your buddies asked a favour you put tons of ours and behind the computer tons of ours and in the field and when you have compelling content it's never been easier because of the internet toe like let the world see it and the world they're the greatest judge you put it on you to put it on the mule you put it on your website people actually see it may other respond with a thumbs up or thumbs down if you get enough thumbs ups it's like it's work that it leads to opportunity todd review says what's next this for all three of you what's next technology for you in two years what are you talking about? So I think it's already at least in the video scope like um we almost feel like if we don't have a couple aerial shots in there that you're kind of you're missing you're missing the action and a lot of times we'll get we'll get hung up on those toys and everything and then those videos that you see as we're just searching through videos it's people who who haven't didn't use any of those toys that the videos that surprise you, eh? So I think you know there's always going to be these technology advances but really it's pressing record on the camera, snapping the shutter in a great environment, you know, at the right time of day with the right talent I mean, I agree with you about the aerial shots there's nothing that is is more a motive for me, you know? It moves you in a way that regular that shots from the ground don't so I don't know about those helicopters, sean all right? Um, hotshot ass, what has been the biggest game changer for you guys? I guess it wouldn't be the aerial shots, I would say just being able to pull off shots that you envision, I think having more stabilized camera movement doing more complex movement, but still that enhances the story it's not just there for a gimmick, you're using it for a reason and that's part of you know, all these price points are coming down and it's allowing more filmmakers even just she and on a big sense of camera, which that's only like we're only three years into that and that was such a huge thing to be able to make you know, your films look like something that's coming out of a out of hollywood and I would even back up a little farther and said that I think the biggest changes its video enabled still cameras right? It's lars first it happened I mean, I really pointed the nikon d ninety totally changed the world that's why we're teaching this class right now and now you look at two thousand thirteen and you look a camera like a nikon wanna j three it's like I don't even think people understand this but a nikon j three and this is real technical but you can roll full hd video while depressing the shutter and shoot raw photo the simultaneously without interrupting video stream that's game changing I mean that's part of our futures you talk about shooting still in motion on location you know simultaneously when you start combining that functionality with large sensor red epic style camera that's the future and then you combine it with no shawn said it when he's describing rc helicopters now right now it's super hard I mean you saw how hard this shawn's committed its life to flying these helicopters and like shit goes wrong one day you're gonna have this little camera that's nine k and you can shoot still photos at the same time with the separate shutters there's no mirror flipping up and you're going to have an rc helicopter that can fly to thirty two thousand feet you can control it from your mouse pad and the beauty of all of that will be that it still comes back to like your idea what story are you telling agree with that? I guess you know I'm always surprised at how few of us photographers use the video function on our cameras you know there's well it's a small it seems like a very small percentage of us that are actually shooting video and we're really intimidated by the video scared of the video and not sure what to do which is why a lot of photographers watch workshops like this because they're trying to cross over do you see a lot more photographers moving into video or do you think it will always be a small a small portion of the population that really gets in the video? What do you think I'm biased? Of course, but I know I think it's the future I think the photographer that's sitting there right now in their living room and saying, I know I'm gonna catch something this one you got it saying that this isn't for me like it's not part of my future that guy's gonna disappear in the ether because the future is still in video our this is our future right it's a screen that's our mobile device with it's a laptop we have an interactive device that plays sound, we can watch videos, we can look it still images we can read text and if you can only do one one thing which is take a still picture, you better be really damn good and have a like some super unique specialty, or you're going to become obsolete pretty quickly and it's amazing to me how multi help, multi talented all of you are that you do so many different things simultaneously, or on a trip that you're responsible so many different role. So I think that that's important to have that as well, and I would take, I would say, one of the thing it's, not just about becoming obsolete or talking about this is a professional it's also just fun. I mean, the reality is it's super fun when you can actually communicate whether it's with your family, with your friends with, you know that the public at large in a format which is more compelling video combined with still photography combined, it sound combined with words, is a lot more compelling than a single photograph, except for maybe one or two situations in the history of the world, where one photograph summed it up better than all the other media. Yeah, all right question from confucius jones, curious of court, has any plans to do a feature filmworks directing would greatly enjoy to see a fulling movie from him and his team. Their work is very cinematic probably not feature film like hollywood style feature film work I'm just not good with the big cruise but we're definitely looking at some some pretty pretty fine documentary film style projects that looking at a few different ideas right now and that's certainly one of my long term goals and I think if we do it hopefully I'll suck all these guys into getting involved or want or they'll find the idea no suck me into it all right well let's go down the line and why don't you guys tell us where you were what what's your next project where do you guys see yourself a year from now what's coming up in the future for each one of you well winter's coming and a big part of what we do is that ski snowboard adventure video so that's that's definitely what I'm ramping into currently my production company working on a small documentary and that's kind of got us going at full speed but uh yeah wintertime so skiing and snowboarding the exciting thing the excitement for me is just kind of not knowing that next step you take what comes to you and and kind of really living on the edge and yeah you lined some stuff up and kind no it's in your near future but as faras kind of making that next big leap who knows what it's gonna be because you know like we've been talking about technology's changing like crazy and um, you know, who knows what's next? Yeah, we were talking about this earlier today that part of, like, being on a path and, you know, going towards your dreams, it doesn't always look like what you thought it would look like. So being flexible and changing, changing direction and being able to kind of, you know, embrace something that you didn't think that it would what it would look like, it looks a little different, so absolutely right, sean europe. Yeah. Um, kind of that same working off the same thing dane was talking about winter time's coming. Be exciting to try and shoot some skiing and snowboarding. All of us are passionate about the mountains. Um, and we enjoy spending lots of time in it. So if you could get paid to document people also having fun in the mountains, it's not a bad thing. So that's er that's what? I'm looking forward to a swell couldn't agree with you more. All right, cory, what do you think? That's? A tricky one for me. I'm thinking about, like, the next three months of my life and I'm not allowed to talk about a single project it's coming up, but but what I will say is I I'm trying tio menu all net on creative live maybe my daughter is upstairs right now with my wife and for the first time in my life actually have learned to maybe do one or two projects to learn to say no and try to be a little more selective about the projects I'm working on, and by doing that, I think it's opening the door to doing some kind of longer format, more long term projects that take a lot more energy a lot more time, and you can only do those projects if you actually commit and you know it, and I'm not constantly distracted by doing a little project after little project. So check in with me and twelve months, and I'll tell you that worked, and we hopefully will. So, do you have any final words or anything else you want to leave us with? Cory, you know, I think that the final thing that I would like to say is I'm just saying it again, but I'm going to try to say it in a slightly different way. We're living in one of the most incredible times in history in terms of being storytellers, everyone in this room, everyone on the internet watching this course, we've never been more empowered to tell stories with motion and still photography and that's because of the technology. If you're nineteen years old, right now, are sixteen or thirteen, and you're watching this, and you're thinking about what your life is going to be right now. Never before have you been able to, sort of, as babe ruth used to be a point over the fence, you're going to show us actually where the world was going, like, where did the old dogs that it's really true? But you know, madison sitting in this room, she's going to show us what the future of storytelling looks like and embrace that. And if you're one of the old dog's already, you still need to embrace it, because it's a heck of a lot of fun and guarantees that your the rest of your career will be fruitful, but it starts with ideas. Be passionate about the stories you're telling, embrace the technology. Don't be afraid of it, and just have a heck of a lot of fun in the process.