Kerry Beyer

August 1, 2014 by Kerry Beyer

FAQ

How to have an incredible photoshoot, expand your brand, and have fun!

“The battle is won before it is fought.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Preparation is key to a successful shoot. Please take a moment to read this entire FAQ – it will help you maximize your photo session.

All sessions must be reserved with a non-refundable deposit. 5 days notice must be give to reschedule. When you book your session, please make sure you will be available on your shoot day. If you cancel with less than 5 days notice, you loose your deposit.

Please familiarize yourself with the rates for the session, prints, retouching, makeup, or any additional studio services so there are no surprises.

WHAT TO BRING TO THE SHOOT

Bring a good selection of clothes (mostly shirts, with a variety of collars and necklines), mid tones to the darker colors. (Maroon, Navy, Black, Brown, etc.) Also, bring a white t-shirt or camisole and a denim shirt. Women should bring black and tan colored bras – (white bras tend to reflect light when worn with thinner t-shirts, etc, and this is not good). Avoid patterns, and logos. Solids work best. Bring a pair of jeans and some slacks. Bring a suit with a white dress shirt and selections of ties if you do a lot of corporate/industrial work. Pastel colors such as pink and baby blue are working well as casual looks for women, so bring those as well. If you fail to bring the proper clothing choices, we will not re-shoot, or re-schedule, so please pay attention and prepare carefully.

HAVE FUN!!! – I provide a fun, relaxed environment and I want you to have the best possible shoot. We will take a lot of pictures and you will have plenty of time to loosen up and get into the groove and get a great shot. Don’t stress out about minor blemishes, etc., all of that can be taken care of in photoshop.

COPYRIGHT

In all situations, Kerry Beyer retains copyright of all images. If you purchase a digital copy, you are not buying the copyright. You are purchasing a non-commercial license to use and reproduce. This means you can use images on social media, to promote yourself, your business etc., but you can’t use or sell the images to a third party or as part of an ad campaign. For example, Coca Cola wants to use the pic on a billboard… they would need to license the image. Please contact the studio for commercial use.

REFUNDS/RESHOOTS

Sorry, no refunds or reshoots.

July 29, 2014 by Kerry Beyer

GH4 AUDIO SYNC ISSUES?

Does the GH4 have an audio sync issue? Or is it Final Cut Pro X? All of the footage I have shot with the GH4 is out of sync by about 2 frames, when in a FCP X timeline. I’ve shot in 4K and HD, both in 24P and 23.98. I’ve used the built in microphone for testing, and I’m using version 1.1 of the firmware.

I’ve imported the footage into Final Cut Pro X, and used a timeline native to the frame rate and size of the test footage.

Take a look at the image above. Notice the playhead has moved past the slate waveform, yet the slate hasn’t made contact. The audio is about 2 frames early.

I uploaded test footage to Vimeo directly from the SD card, and made the original file available for download.

In searching the web, I found that Dave Dugdale had a similar issue with the GH4 footage in Premiere Pro (see a screen grab here). (Dave has an excellent blog on DSLR filmmaking, and I highly recommend you check it out).

If anyone has insight into this issue, please contact me. I’ll keep this page updated as I find out more information.

UPDATE: 7/30/14 – Thanks to Neil McClure for downloading my original GH4 clip from Vimeo and putting it in a FCPX timeline. Yes, indeed the clip is 2 frames out of sync in the timeline. It’s seems that FCPX is not interpreting the files correctly from the GH4.

Thanks to Frederick Williams for downloading the file and pulling it into Avid Media Composer, where he found no sync issue.

UPDATE: 8/11/14 – Another user confirmed the sync issue in FCPX and in Vegas.

UPDATE: 10/27/14 – Firmware version 2.0 has not fixed the sync issue in my testing.

June 10, 2014 by Kerry Beyer

CONSULTING

Need career guidance?

Are you an aspiring actor looking to break in? Are you a filmmaker who needs production guidance, distribution, or marketing? Are you a corporate professional looking for ways to expand your brand with video?

With 25 years experience in the entertainment industry, both in front of, and behind the camera, I can help guide you through the process of taking your career to the next level.

What do I know about the biz? Well, I’m a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Winner of the Slamdance Anarchy Film Showcase. I’ve produced, directed and distributed feature films starring Academy Award nominees. I’ve fought Chuck Norris… and lost. I’ve produced and directed successful corporate marketing communications videos for Fortune 500s… everything from infomercials to aerospace technology. I run one of MovieMaker magazines top coolest horror film festivals, SplatterFest. Here’s a link to my IMDb.

How can I help you today?

Contact the studio today to setup a Skype consultation. $100/hr

photo [at] kerrybeyer.com

June 10, 2014 by Kerry Beyer

ACTING DEMO REELS

Need a great acting demo reel? You may be missing out on auditions without one. Your current reel could be riddled with mistakes that are actually hurting your chances of success.

An acting demo reel is an essential marketing tool for an actor. The main purpose of a demo is to get your foot in the door. Considering that most roles get upwards of 1000 submissions, a demo needs to be short and sweet, with the main objective of letting the casting director know that you are going to be worth the time to bring in for an actual audition.

I recommend keeping demos extremely short – 1 minute, tops. Short clips showcasing a range of character types. That’s it. Cut everything else out.

Editing demo reels is an art, much like editing movie trailers, and is done best by someone who has a little distance from the material. As actors, sometimes we are too close to our own material to be objective. This is why I recommend getting someone who has experience editing and marketing actors to cut your reel.

I know, as an actor, you want to showcase all of your work, and include every nuance of your performance. The sad truth is that casting directors are only watching about 15 seconds of your performance. They just don’t have time to view everyone’s demo reel in it’s entirety. Did you waste those 15 seconds on an opening montage of images or a flashy title intro?

If you have access to your footage, or a DVD, I can create a great reel for you. If you don’t have footage, contact me to discuss staging a few scenes to build a reel.

Rates:

$150/hr for editing services. (Most demos can be done within 2 or 3 billable hours).

I will need footage in quicktime .mov format, or DVD. (please note: ingesting footage from DVD will incur billable time for the transfer).

If providing DVD, please note the timecode of the clips desired.

Completed demo reels will be delivered in quicktime .mov format via hightail.com

Please contact me with any questions you may have.

June 10, 2014 by Kerry Beyer

AUDITION TAPING & COACHING

Want to book your next audition? Professional audition taping and coaching is essential to booking a role. As you probably know, more and more auditions are being submitted on tape (digital video), and as a result, more actors are going up for the same roles than ever before. Competition has skyrocketed.

A role that may have had a few hundred submissions previously, now has THOUSANDS! How will your audition stand out?

Sure, you can self tape, but even seasoned professionals can benefit from an experienced coach directing their performance. The difference in that polished performance could be the difference between booking the role, or languishing as a struggling actor.

My experience directing feature films, working with Academy Award nominated actors, allows me to guide performances to better match what producers and directors are looking for when they are casting.

AUDITION TAPING:

Professionally lit and filmed in HD, with high quality audio. (Most coaches are filming with a camcorder, using poor quality on camera mics. I use the same HD production camera I use for my feature film work, with an overhead condenser boom mic, providing superb audio).

Rates:

$150/hr (1 hour min.) $50 each additional half hour.

I will edit and deliver a quicktime file to you or your agent via hightail.com