Behind the Scenes of our Meditation Video

A few weeks ago we were honored to be asked to create a video for one of my favorite apps called Calm. Calm is a mindfulness and meditation app that has several guided sessions to help you live a more mindful, present life. I had received a few questions about the video shoot so I thought I would take you all behind the scenes and answer some of those questions.

Question & Answer

Where did you shoot this?

We were visiting my family in Cave Creek, Arizona and the video was shot in the desert open spaces within my parent's neighborhood.

What camera/lens did you use to shoot it?

We borrowed a Fujifilm X-T2 from a good friend when we shot a campaign with Spoonful One (here). We loved it so much that we snagged one up on Amazon when it was on sale. It's very user-friendly, and within a few hours of playing around with it, we felt comfortable enough to shoot with it.

This video was shot using an 18mm lens. Because this camera is crop sensor, the 18mm acts like a 35mm (and if this doesn't make sense to you, read the difference between a crop sensor and full frame, here). Don't worry if this concept is confusing, it took many patient photographer friends explaining it to me several times before it made sense. Basically, a 35mm lens shoots as wide as an iPhone does. So if you have an iPhone, you kinda can tell what a 35mm on a full frame or an 18mm on a crop sensor would look like.

How long did it take you to shoot?

We shot for about three hours. When we uploaded the raw footage we had 37 minutes of clips to work with. The toughest part is narrowing the video down into one minute or less!

Who did your hair/makeup?

My sister grew up with Amanda from @thebeautypaige_. She is a new mama and soooo talented. She taught me a lot during this session. I plan to do a tutorial on how we achieved this look. I wanted a warm bohemian natural look with beachy waves and by golly did she hit the nail on the head with this one. I took pictures of everything she used and bought it all the next day! I can't wait to do a tutorial for you guys. If you are in the Phoenix Metro area and need your hair or makeup done, go see my girl, Amanda!

What are you wearing?

Ok, so this dress from Urban Outfitters fits like a glove! It's made of 100% linen and the button details are to die for. I want it in every color. I am wearing a size small. The cardigan in the shot is also by Urban. It's oversized, so I sized down to XS. 

How was Winter during the shoot?

Trying to film with a toddler in an open space is like going into the battle zone. I was sweating by the time we were done. Winter also happened to skip her nap that day (out of all days that we were in Arizona), so she really wasn't into listening, regulating her emotions or basically being a decent human being at all, haha! The trick was to get her involved in activities like splashing the water and eating a muffin (food bribery!). 

There was one point where Perry was laying down at the bottom of the hill setting up a shot. Winter ran down it and fell on top of him and started to cry. She was totally fine, but because she hadn't napped, she cried a lot. Thankfully, the whole video didn't need to be shot with her so once we were done at the park, we dropped her off with family while we shot some more scenes. 

What program did you use to edit? Did you use a filter?

We used iMovie. Perry has some background in editing and my dear friend, Nicole from the @thedigigirls, FaceTimed with me to get us started on the basics. We plan to switch to Adobe Premier so we can have some more creative control, but iMovie is really good for us right now. I adjusted some settings manually, but I also used the Western filter on iMovie. I couldn't resist since we were in the southwest. 

How long did it take to edit?

We spent about one whole day on and off on the video. It took us about eight hours to edit. 

Where did you find the music?

Search "YouTube royalty free music"! There are a lot of songs that you can use that you don't need to buy the rights to. Anytime you are doing a sponsored post, you need to buy the rights to the song, which can get expensive. Most songs from song purchase sites run about 100 bucks to buy! Yah, no thank you.

Are you planning on shooting more videos?

Yes. We had a blast doing this and I can't wait to do more.