Academy Articles

On the Road with blink-182: Equipment Rundown

‘On the Road with blink-182’ is a social media + video documentary about the band, the fans, the music, and a lot of life on the road – all through the eyes of a 19-year-old aspiring filmmaker named Mike. As part of the Wayfinder.TV crew, Mike will be traveling with the blink-182 tour from Albuquerque to LA covering 7 shows. ‘On the Road with blink-182’ is a run-and-gun documentary production. The goal is to capture the most action in dynamic … more

Hanging with (and filming!) Rock Stars 101

By Sarah Weinstein Congratulations! You’ve been assigned to spend time documenting the life of a major rock band – both onstage and off. Prepare yourself for long nights of partying, major pressure to partake in illegal substances of all sorts, random tattooing of your body parts and seriously damaged eardrums. Your parents will not want to hear the stories you’ll come away with. Your clergy will demand years of penance… And now, your … more

Get to Know the Pros: Sarah Weinstein (Filmmaker)

Sarah Weinstein’s video and film career has taken her from the Scottish highlands, to the Grand Canyon, to 20,000 feet up in an F-16 fighter jet. She has a masters in journalism from Columbia University and has worked as a journalist, a music video producer / director, and … more

Get to Know the Pros: Thomas Nybo (Filmmaker)

Thomas Nybo is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker who has reported from more than 50 countries, including Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Sudan, Guatemala, and Russia. He was an embedded CNN reporter in Iraq and has … more

Get to Know the Pros: Steve Stockman (Director)

Steve Stockman is a writer/director/producer at Custom Productions, Inc. in Los Angeles. He has written and directed a feature film (Two Weeks, MGM, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448166/), a couple of music videos, some TV, a Web Series and over 200 commercials… more

Get to Know the Pros: Jeffrey Stepakoff (author)

In 1998, the day after receiving his MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon, Jeffrey Stepakoff drove straight to Hollywood to begin his career as a film and television writer. The big risk and long drive were apparently worth … more

Hot Webcam Rant

(Re-Posted with Permission from Steve Stockman) I admit it. I like this guy. Philip DeFranco’s style of humor may not be yours – I think he’s pretty funny – but we can both admire his production style in this hot webcam rant… more

How to Create a Viral Video, Guaranteed!

(Re-Posted with Permission from Steve Stockman) How to create a viral video, guaranteed? Two words: Naked Celebrity. If you have one, you’ve got a viral video. If not, there’s no guarantee, and anyone who says different can’t be trusted. “Viral” is not a kind of video—it’s a response by an audience. To take a video viral, the audience has to be so excited by it that they urgently and quickly share it with everyone they … more

The Opposite of Viral Video

(Re-posted with Permission from Steve Stockman) I wanted some bad video. Not to watch, at least not all the way through, but to use as an example of how not to do things for my book. Some inspiration from a video that was truly awful. Turns out it’s very, very difficult to find bad video on YouTube. I scrolled through 40 pages of “recitals” and none had less than 1600 view– still way too good for my purposes. I searched for “dance … more

7 Reasons NOT To Check Your Gear When Flying

It's probably the number one travel rule at Wayfinder.TV: never, ever, never – not even if the airline offers to pay you cold hard cash – never "check" your gear when you're traveling by air. That includes any and all baggage containing video cameras, still cams, laptops, battery packs, hard drives, lighting gear, and anything else that can't be easily and inexpensively replaced once you reach your final destination. The most obvious reason for this rule is … more