Not Posting to This Blog

If you have not noticed, I have stopped posting to this blog.

Here are two other pages you may have better luck finding updated content on:

• My online professional portfolio
• My personal thoughts Facebook page called "Havertz Ponders"

Updates From The Last Year

There are a lot of projects I have worked on in the past year. I have been busy creating videos, studying at Weber State, and working on video research. With all that's been going on, it has not been a priority to update my blog. However, I have updated my personal portfolio. Please check it out to see what I've been up to.

Let me tell you some other projects I've worked on in the past year that may not be on my portfolio:

I participated in a 48-hour film festival. We had to write, produce, and edit in two days. We were working on very little sleep, but it was fun to finish.

I've also worked on several class assignments with groups. It can be difficult to work with other students, but overall it was good experience to learn how to work with people, to collaborate, and to get a project done despite any group limitations. Below are some of those projects I've worked on.

• One video we worked on featured the president of WSU.
• Classmates and I created a fun Halloween piece.
• I worked on a Hockey promo.
• I worked on a video promoting free flu shots on campus.

The project I am most proud of is a profile piece I made on a friend of mine with Autism. This piece is on my portfolio. This video received over 2,000 views on Facebook and can be seen below.

First Lyric Video

I didn't think that my class would pick my idea as one of the top three music video choices for advanced digital media. The song I choose was a Christian song and a lot of times the academic world seems to shun anything centered around God. My idea was a mix between a stop-motion-animation lyric video with a story. I was surprised when my song was the top pick in the class.

I filmed most of the lyric video footage. Another student named Austin directed and shot the story portion of the video. I edited it. There was a group of five of us total working on this.

Credits

Music by The Gray Havens: http://thegrayhavensmusic.com/ 

We are not officially associated with them. This was just a fan created music video.

Producer and Editor: Matthew Havertz

Director: Austin Berenyi

Talent: Lexie Albi

First Assistant Camera: Mason White

Calligraphy: Brock Duncan

Our class advisor (he helped with cinematography and production advice): Jake T. Holt

Two Class Assignments

I am now taking a digital media class at Weber where our goal is to make videos. We've only made two videos so far, but they were fun assignments that I wanted to show off.

There are two things things I'm proud of with the video directly above. One) I misplaced my DSLR camera that day, so I just filmed this with my phone and it turned out fine. Two) All of the sound effects were added in afterward. No sounds were kept from the original video.

This one turned out good enough that my mother-in-law, featured in the video, wants to have me make another video about her sewing. This one was meant to be a video slideshow, not an actual video. It was fun and there are a few shots I'm really proud of.

Pregnancy Announcement Video

Well, the news is out! My wife is pregnant with our first child. I decided to use my video production skills in support of our family. I created this video for family memories and to announce our pregnancy to the world. It was well received by both of our families.

If you watch to the end there are two other videos you can click on and watch as well. One is our first ultrasound and the other explains how we came to the decision to have a baby at this time in our lives.

A Music Video In A Parade!

This was a fun video to work on. I was credited as director on this piece, which was technically my title. However, I feel more like I acted as a producer. I assembled the team together. I oversaw the details for the two Saturday shoots. I got a few Director of Photography's to help me out. Jackson Daneluk was one of them. He's going to film school right now and did a great job!

You could also call my position a parade manager. I oversaw the creation of the signs for the parade. I purchased the balloons, ribbons, fabric, shirts, etc. I also managed two other parades which we also did videos for. Finally, I did rough cut edits of all the parade videos before handing them off the Lucas McGraw to polish up. So, was I really the director? I think I was more of a producer or manager. Did I have a blast? Did I learn a lot? Did I have fun? Absolutely! 

First Time Doing Color Correction

I had the great opportunity to be the final editor and color corrector on a music video for the LDS Youth website. I took a cut that another editor had done and polished it up and made it shine. I also did the color correction. Click here to see the video.

Music Video - Community Film Project

I had the great opportunity to work on this music video for The Community Film Project. Yes, that is me playing the piano in this video. I did the original arrangement of the song in Garage Band. After that Phil Stokes took the song and really made it shine! It was fun to be a part of this.

Filmmaking Workshops In Davis County

I am part of a team that is creating a community film in Davis County. I am very excited for this project. However, before we really begin, we need to have a group of people who are committed to the task of making a movie. We also need this group to know the basics of movie making. So, The Community Film Project is officially offering filmmaking workshops. These workshops have already started, but it is not too late to join! Click here to find out more.

The workshops will include guest speakers who are professionals in their fields. A man who has worked in Hollywood for years is speaking to us this week. He has worked on Prince of Egypt, Holes, Lars and the Real Girl, and so many more movies. In the future we will have the director of Meet the Mormons come and speak to us as well.

Also, don't tell anyone I told you this, but the first workshop you come to is free. You can come and check it out to see if you're interested and if you're not, you do not owe the Community Film Project anything.

Finally, all the money that is generated is going directly into the creation of Davis County's first community film!

Can you guess my photography final?

The following are pictures I took for my photography final this semester. Can you guess the subject I chose for my final?

It was very fun and very helpful to really learn how to use my DSLR camera. It was also fun to enhance my skills in Photoshop. I think this will come in very handy in my career.

Editing Texting

There are a lot of fun youth video projects coming out this year for the LDS Church. I've had the great opportunity this year to come up with several new ideas, help with the scripting, and do editing.

I had the great opportunity to be the main editor on this video. I also coordinated the shoots and I was actually able to shoot a couple of the cell phone shots at the end. Finally, I composed the music at the first seventeen of seconds and the last twenty-four seconds. I did not do the music in the middle.

Editing on Projects That Count

I got to help edit this video last year with Lucas McGraw. I love working on projects that inspire faith and good values in others. The interview footage was incredible. It is tedious to look through hours of interview footage sometimes, but I'm always inspired by the content and learn a lot.

Today at work someone said to myself, Lucas, and another on-call producer, "You guys have the best job!" I thought about it, it is true. There is no other kind of video content I'd rather be helping with. I'm glad to be an assistant on the video projects I get to help with.

Community Film Project - Call For Writers

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been a part of a project called the "Community Film Project." This is a project to make a movie that takes place and is by and for the people of Davis County. On March 21st, we are doing a "Writer's Pitch Meeting," where writers can come and pitch their idea for a full length movie. Here is a video that will explain more details.

My Daily Commute

This was my midterm for my DSLR Photography class. To see an example of the Photoshop edits I did on these photos click here. I tried to keep the photoshop editing to a minimum. It has been so fun getting to know my camera and taking these pictures. Please enjoy.

"Bus Stop"

"Hurry Up"

"John the Driver"

"Commute Home"

"On My Phone"

"Motion Sickness"

"Enjoying Music"

"Can You Come Pick Me Up?"

"My Friend"

"It Gets Dark"

"George, A Nice Guy"

Davis County Community Film Project

This has been a project that I have been quiet about for a while, but our website has officially been released, so I can spill the beans.

A couple of the producers I work with at the Church live in Davis County and have always thought it would be neat to do a community film project similar to community theater. Here is one of our teaser videos:

I will be posting more details on this soon, but in the meantime please check out the website by clicking here. Basically, we are looking for people in Davis County to help us produce a movie. If you would like to volunteer, please click here.

Production Coordinating

This was a very fun project to work on. Lucas McGraw was the producer and director of this commercial. I was the production coordinator and had a lot of tasks including securing locations and props, creating schedules, assisting on set, etc. You can read more about it by clicking here.

Screenplay Writing

During the last few weeks at my job for the LDS Church, I have been writing and writing. My boss (a producer) left to Brazil to direct a ten episode T.V. series for BYU-TV. He asked me to take over for him while he was gone. He was in the middle of pre-production, so that what I've been doing.

I've spent time coming up with concepts for youth curriculum videos. Lucas had three major general conference talks to create videos for. My process has been the following:

1. Read and listen to the talk.
2. Put everything on paper that I can possible think of.
3. Listen to the talk again.
4. Come up with a proposal.
5. Present it to a couple of other producers to get their feedback.
6. Revise.
7. Review and revise.
8. Finalize.
9. Pitch the idea in the meeting.

For one particular video, I have come up with four or five proposals (each having multiple variations). Writing is harder than you think! I have pitched or sent my proposals to the leaders in charge of approving them.

Finally, I have started to write screenplays for them. I use a software called Celtx, which I love and started using at Davis High School back when the software was free. I'm so glad Mrs. Greenwood suggested it for her students. Luckily, I have retained my free subscription. I do not believe it is free any longer.

Anyway, to make a long story short, writing is harder than I thought. I have found when I put all my thinking power into something and then take a break, that's when the good ideas come. I have also discovered that making writing a collaborative effort and getting feedback only improves your story! I am thinking of more creative ways to tell the story. Think about showing your audience, not telling them!

The End.

Wedding Video

This is a video I produced for my wedding reception. I edited this, but a big thanks goes out the photographer, Brittany Cascio. You can click here to see her blog. Also, my good friends, Jackson Danluke and William Hunt helped to film my proposal.

Student Film

It was really fun to help my friend Jackson Daneluk on student project he is producing. The script is really intriguing and thought provoking. He actually used an old film camera. No battery powered digital cameras this time. It was fun to see how that worked. Slowly I've been learning more and more about cinematography from him: aperture, focus, filters, light color, and intensity, etc. It's all been fantastic. I enjoy helping my friends and I hope his project turns out well!

They Changed My Title!

Looking through my deal memos (work contracts for the Media Services Department The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), I noticed that a couple of them listed me as "Post Production Editor." It's crazy! Most of my time spent working for the Media Services Department these days has been spent editing. I love it!

The following is a list of things I have worked on as an editor lately: A video about a mission president in Hawaii, a video about LDS Philanthropies, a video about Catholic Nuns, a video about Peter the Apostle, and a series of video about working the Church different departments. These videos have been for BYU-Hawaii, the Mormon Channel, Faith Counts, and the HR Department of the Church. I've also been able to work under a lot of amazing producers and I've edited on Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro CC. It's been a fun last month!