2016 Democratic National Committee Fundraiser (Austin, Texas)

Every year, what feels like a deluge of people make there way here to Austin, Texas for SXSW, an Interactive, Music, and Film festival with global appeal.  This year seems to be the biggest year yet, with the arrival of President Obama (a first in the festival's history).  

While I didn't have the chance to hear him speak on his Interactive panel, I was given the opportunity to see him speak at a fundraising event for the Democratic National Committee. The event was hosted at the Austin Music Hall on Nueces, a pretty large venue which somehow still maintains an intimate feel. 

Of course, I brought my Sony NEX-5T (now the a5000) along with my Sony telephoto lens (55 -210mm). 

Before he arrived (my friend Grace was following the hashtag POTUS, and updating us every few minutes), producer Will.I.am gave a quick introduction for musical guest J.Cole. 

Will.i.am was apparently one of the sponsors of the event.  He spoke briefly about the president's tenure and of course the need to continue working towards a better future. 

I love bringing my Sony to events like this because I get the true range of the telephoto.  The above picture gives a more accurate perspective of my distance from the stage, while the below is using my telephoto to its full potential. 

Once J.Cole was introduced the crowd went wild.  He performed about 5 songs, a small set by Austin standards, but it was still great to see him live.  Again, I used my telephoto to get some up close shots. 

What surprised me the most was the level of detailing my Sony was still able to pick up, even with the mood stage lighting. 

Once J.Cole finished his set, it was time for President Obama to take the stage. Needless to say, I took A LOT of photos of the president, but this one is by far my favorite.  I really wanted to catch him smiling. 

SXSW is a pretty hectic time for most Austinites especially if you're not planning on participating in the festival, but it was great to catch POTUS before he leaves office. 

While at the event, I was able to use the Sony's Wifi capabilities to send these high quality photos to my phone to share on social media. I posted my photo of J.Cole to twitter and was immediately retweeted by SXSWHipHop! 

The wifi capabilities is one of my favorite features of the Sony cameras, I use it constantly while vlogging and blogging. 

Are you all coming down for SXSW? Let me know what you're most excited about seeing! 

My Trip To London

What a whirlwind the end of the year has been! If you follow me on social media then you know for the first week and a half I was in London for HPE's Discover Conference.  I spent the first week of December at the ExCeL Center in the Docklands interviewing different companies about their HPE products. 

Me holding the new HPE logo

Recently HP (Hewlett Packard) split into two new companies HP Inc and HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise).  For the second half of 2015 I spent much of my time co-producing content with Big Picture Lab for this conference. 

Once the work was done, I stayed a few extra days in London to take in the sites! 

Trying some Butter Beer at the Harry Potter Studio Tour

Mr. Hallease came to join me for 3 days in London, and we tried to jam in a lot of the major sites into the visit.  We ended our stay by doing The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brother's Studio Tour! As a producer, it was so much fun seeing the attention to detail and the creativity behind all the different sets and various props. I, of course, took my camera and documented a little bit of our experience while in London, but to be honest, I didn't record as much as I usually do. I really just wanted to soak everything in, and enjoy the fruits of my hard earned labor this last quarter. 

I broke up our adventures into two videos. The first catalogs my time spent at the Natural History Museum. The second video focuses on all the different things Mr. Hallease and I did once he joined me. 

2015 has been a great year for me in regards to Travel.  I've left the country 3 times, twice for vacation and once for work, and have gotten the opportunity to see parts of the US that I would not visit otherwise.  I hope in 2016 it's more of the same! 

- Hallease

#GEAR || My Monopods

I don't own a traditional tripod.  I found that for the type of videos and content I make they weren't entirely necessary. Plus, when traveling, I like to keep things light and a lot of times traditional tripods get in the way.  

For me, monopods seemed like an appropriate alternative. I own two monopods now that I interchange when shooting.  

My Manfrotto monopod is a nice sturdy monopod that I have owned for going on 2 or 3 years now.  It's incredibly reliable, gives me great range of motion to create dynamic shots and relatively affordable.  I use the Manfrotto mostly for my YouTube videos and when shooting vlogs at home.  

I also own a VEO Vanguard monopod with the Benro S2 video head.  This monopod is GREAT for traveling.  It's really light (weighs around 4lbs), compacts even more than my Manfrotto (great for my camera bag), and can hold a comparable weight.  

Both monopods have their pros and cons and I made sure to detail them in the videos.  As I state in both videos, it's not about having the most expensive gear and products.  It's about having equipment that enhances your abilities and enables you to try new things.  Before purchasing monopods, I hated bringing my tripod anywhere to create content, and as a result my video quality suffered. It was too big and bulky and frankly slowed me down.  Purchasing the monopods, was a well placed and strategic investment for me as a producer, enabling me to up the production value of my YouTube content. 

Do you use monopods? What do you think?

#YouTube | Collaboration with Evelyn From The Internets

Hello hello! 

I'm excited to announce that for the month of November, I'll be hanging out on Evelyn From The Internet's YouTube channel.  Since we both live in Austin, and run in the same social circles it seemed fitting that we would collaborate on a project or two.  

We've collaborated in the past to produce contact for the 4C Hair Chicks YouTube channel, a channel geared specifically for women with a kinky/curly hair texture.  That was in February of 2014. Feel free to check out that series here! 

We're really excited to bring you this new content for next month, so please let us know in the comments (or by liking and subscribing!) if you enjoyed the series, and maybe...just maybe...we could make it a regular thing. 

Maybe. 

Rebranding my YouTube Channel

Hello hello hello! 

Apparently all the cool kids have channel trailers so I decided to make one for my YouTube channel.  As the channel maintains its steady growth, I keep getting approached by different networks trying to get me to sign a contract.  

...which lets me know that maybe, just maybe...I'm doing something right...

I wanted to create a trailer that was around 2 minutes long and shows the wide variety of topics I cover on my channel, I also wanted to figure out a consistent color scheme and style that I could incorporate into future videos. 

I built this style from a pre-made template in AE, and fashioned my "branding" around it.  

My new banner on YouTube mimics the style of the video as well.  I don't really want my YT to pigeon hole me to one specific topic, so I came up with the tagline "I just make videos." 

Let me know what you think! 

#FollowMeTo || Cancun

About two weeks ago my husband and I decided to take a little vacation to  celebrate our 4th anniversary together.  When we first got married we made a deal to take vacations instead of buying each other anniversary gifts. 

This year we went to Cancun, Mexico and had an amazing time. In true producer fashion, I brought along my Sony NEX - 5T to shoot and had the great idea of incorporating a #FollowMeTo approach to filming our adventure.  Luckily, Mr. Hallease is always willing to indulge my shenanigans. 

Let me know what you think! 

#Shooter #VideoEditor | Shea Moisture Professional Line

Over the past two months I've been collaborating with NaturallyCurly.com and Shea Moisture to bring this mini series using the Shea Moisture Professional Line. 

The premise was simple, use each line on 3 different hair types.  For each hair type do a different style that highlights the diversity of the hair but also the diversity of the lines.  

It was so much fun working with the NaturallyCurly team on these videos.  I shot the whole thing using my Sony NEX - 5T with the kit lens and my telephoto lens. I used my Zoom h4n for sound and my iKan temperature control panel lights where necessary.  All three videos were shot in one day (14 hour shoot! Whew...), and I'm really happy with how they came out.  Make sure to check out NaturallyCurly's full post about the videos! 

To edit these videos I used Premiere Pro CC 2014 and AfterEffects CC 2014 for the opening title graphics. 

#Travel | Miami

I'm currently in the middle of co-producing a huge project with Big Picture Lab for HP, and because of that we have been consistently traveling all over to gather interview and b-roll footage of various HP campuses.  

Last week I went to Miami, Florida to talk with HP's channel partners.  While there I worked with Daniel Deloach to gather b-roll with HP devices. 

The final morning we woke up at 5:30a to get the sun rising over the beach. 

#MyPhotography | Miami Beach, Florida 

After that we drove around trying to find the best views of the city for Danny to fly his drone and get good aerial shots.  We ended up at a little bluff that gave a really great view. 

Check out the montage video I created and let me know what you think! 

#Travel | Wisconsin & Back in 48 Hours

Hey everyone, I recently went to Wisconsin to interview executives with Big Picture Lab.  The trip was really quick. I arrived in Wisconsin on a Monday and left out the following day.  Before leaving I decided it would be fun to bring my Sony NEX - 5T and catch some video documenting the trip.  

When I returned I threw it all together into a quick montage to showcase some of the highlights of the trip.  I've never been to the Midwest before so I wanted to document the experience.  We had a lot of cheese! 

Hope you enjoy the video! 

#Promotion | Featured In Bustle

My friend Doyin Oyen writes for Bustle, an online magazine.  This week she posted an article discussing women and their insecurities as children. While talking about her own insecurities as a young girl she also referenced other women who submitted stories.  

Check out the article!

#VideoEditor | CurlBoss, Lisa Price Founder of Carl's Daughter

Another sample of my editing work! I edited this video using Premiere Pro CC, and used AfterEffects CC for the text graphics. 

#BTS | HP Discover Vegas

If you follow me on Instagram then you know I was at HP Discover in Las Vegas earlier this month.  While there we got some great footage that we'll use for videos soon to come.  

I cut together this quick one minute video to give an idea of the amazing energy at the conference while also promoting a lot of the videos that premiered there.  Make sure to check out the annotations at the end to see that content.

A Big Picture Lab Production

#VideoEditor | DIY Oil Video Feat. Lisa Price of Carol's Daughter

It's nice to work on content that moves away from the technology and focuses more on health and beauty.  I was approached by NaturallyCurly.com to edit this video, and it was a lot of fun. One thing I really enjoy about editing tutorial-like content is it gives me a chance to learn a lot about that particular topic.  

The concept was simple, Lisa Price (founder of Carol's Daughter) shows everyone how to make a DIY Oil for your hair and skin. 

My main take away from this video: I had no idea Jojoba oil is technically a wax! 

Check out the full post (including the recipe) on NaturallyCurly.com's website! 

I edited this video using Premiere Pro CC. The opening title was created using AfterEffects CC. 

#Gear | Think Tank - Urban Approach Mirrorless Camera Bag

Hey everyone, 

Over the weekend I went by Precision camera to pick up a stand bag. While there I came across this Think Tank Mirrorless Camera Bag and I'm absolutely in love with it!

Finally everything I need consolidated into a small, light, and low key bag. 

Check out the video for my full review, and breakdown. 

#YouTube | 2015 Wash N Go Regimen

I finally made an update to my wash n go regimen.  I mostly do wash n gos on my hair unless i'm stretching it out for work.  I wash my hair using the Terressentials mud wash.  This mud wash has been a staple product in my hair regimen for over a year now and I absolutely love it. 

My regimen mostly focuses on moisture retention.  I wash my hair 2 to 3 times a week depending on how active I am since my scalp is prone to buildup and flaking.  When washing my hair I make sure to give my hair ample time to soak up the moisture from the water before I begin cleansing, this is very crucial since my hair is low porosity.  Combine that with it's thick density and I need all the water I can get. 

If I'm wearing my hair out for the day, it'll shrink up by about 75%.  The finished look usually gives the appearance that my hair is only 3 or 4 inches long (it's actually around 10 inches all over).  

#SetLife | Pet Store Print Ad

My first modeling experience! 

Yesterday I spent the day on set for a pet store print ad. I was paired with a Golden Retriever...well... a few Gold Retrievers. (The lights and people made a lot of them nervous.) 

I will say it's pretty fun and WAY less stressful being the talent on set. Just sit around, chat with a few people, and then go and take some pictures! A lot different from being a producer or PA on set lol. 

Here's my outfit along with makeup.

HAIR PREP (The night before)

1. Separated my hair into two sections on either side
2. Used ACV to do a quick pre-cleanse treatment let sit for 5 minutes
3. While in the shower washed each section with the Terressentials mud wash
4. Towel dry with microfiber hair towel 
5. Break up hair into 4 sections from the 2.
6. For each section: Use my Vatika Hair Oil to seal in moisture. NOTE: To Purchase seek out your local Indian grocer it will be exponentially cheaper than purchasing online.
7. For each section: Lightly blow dry until hair is about 50% dry. 
8. For each section: apply a quarter size amount of Eco Styler Gel and smooth through
9. For each section: braid into 3 braids.
10. In the morning: unravel and fluff

SKIN PREP (The night before)

I use the terressentials mud wash as a face exfoliant as well. Let it sit while I work on my hair in the shower and rinse off at the very end. 

SKIN PREP (The morning of)

Did an oil rinse using some coconut oil. I apply the oil and massage into my face before getting into the shower.  While showering I leave the oil on so the steam can work its magic.  Once I'm finished washing my body, I take my washcloth and massage and scrub the oil off my face while under the warm water. 

I find doing an oil rinse every now and then (once or twice a week) gives my skin that extra elasticity and buoyancy. Combined that with drinking enough water and a decent diet and my skin stays looking pretty good.  

---

I'll update and let you know about the finished product. I'm assuming it will take a while before I see the ads. 

#YouTube | Using A Menstrual Cup

Happy Mother's Day! 

It seemed fitting on this fine day that we appreciate, and dote on our mother's for bringing us into this world - that I would post this video.  

I wrestled with the idea of posting such private content but finally settled on the fact that having a period is COMPLETELY normal and part of every healthy woman's life. It's one of the main reasons we even have mother's day! So, get your cringes over with now and go check out the video :)

PS: Be sure to check out the comments section, there are a lot of women posting really great tips and tricks as well as other healthy alternatives to tampons and pads. 

Happy Mother's Day! 

PPS: The head wrap is from The Wrap Life. It's their Mojo Matrix head wrap. 

#SetLife | Tesla Spec

Last month a colleague of mine asked me to help out as a PA for him on his Tesla spec and I had a blast!  Whenever I'm on set I love to take BTS (Behind the scenes) footage and stills - while also helping out of course!  To keep everything light I used my Sony NEX - 5T.

I've never been up close and personal with a Tesla before (they retail for somewhere around $50 - $100k) so it was cool to see the Model S.  We spent the day going around to different areas of the city, to give the car a nice backdrop. 

#MyPhotography | Mansfield Dam, ATX

One of our locations was the Mansfield Dam. I've lived in Austin since attending the University of Texas in 2008 and had never been there. It's a beautiful location, and not quite as loud as Barton Springs.  We ended the shoot out in Spicewood, Texas at Muleshoe Bend Park, about a 40 minute drive from Austin. There were endless acres of bluebonnets. I saw quite a few people out there taking engagement photos and portraits (a Texas tradition).

#My Photography | Spicewood, Texas

One thing that is really neat about the Tesla is the key. It's a miniature version of the car itself. 

#MyPhotography | Tesla Model S with key

The key acts as a sensor, when you approach the car with the key in hand or on you, the car unlocks automatically. You can also control the sun roof and the trunks from the model key by pressing on the areas respectively. 

This car is completely badass, and I can see why people are going crazy over it. Even if I could afford this thing, I'm not sure I would ever get one - just because I'd be too scared to get it scratched! 

#MyPhotography | Crew selfie 

The whole spec was shot on a combination of cameras: primarily used was the RED dragon, next was the Mark III and Panasonic GH4, finally a few GoPros and my Sony Action Cam for action shots while driving. 

A lot of the crew I already knew through other productions, so it was nice to spend the day with mostly familiar faces. I'm usually not a big fan of being on set, but when it's with people you know and trust it ends up feeling like a big hang out session rather than work. 

Daniel Deloach is an award winning producer/director/cinematographer that is producing this piece (he's the one holding the car key in the crew selfie on the far left). He was one of the first people I met in the business, and I consider him a mentor of sorts. He has an AMAZING aerials reel using his phantom that you must checkout! For the past year he's been traveling around the world for various projects and has had the opportunity to capture some really breathtaking footage. 

A compilation from the last 8 months of flying...

His website is DeloachFilms.com

Have you ever driven or ridden in a Tesla before? Let me know what you think! 

Ireland | Great Value Vacations

For spring break my husband and I went to Ireland for 7 days. It was an amazing trip! I had already been to the country before but this was his first time leaving America. We booked the entire trip through Great Value Vacations.  We did their castles of Ireland tour, which allows you to stay in 4 different castles along the northern coast of the republic. While on the trip, I documented the experience, including the hotel accommodations and local attractions. 

I love to travel, and using Great Value Vacations made it a lot more affordable. I liked this package because it was more of an independent tour. GVV handles the international flight and all hotel accommodations, once you're in the country everything is fair game, you're not stuck with a tour guide or a large group of other people. 

After coming back, I also made a video giving tips and advice as an American about visiting another country, including different social cues and customs to consider. 

#CoProducer, #ColorCorrection | HP Pro x2 612

A Big Picture Lab Production

This video was very pre-production intensive.  The goal was to show the versatility of the product within an office space so, the executive producer/director, Raina James, came up with the idea of using a single take walking through an office space. 

We worked with casting and choreography to block out all of the movement as well as set dressing. This is one of the coolest videos for a tech company I've co-produced by far. I love the sleek design.  

While on set I also put together a behind the scenes showcasing the complexity of the project as well as the work done in post production. 

Let me know what you think!