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Congratulations to Art Ibewuike, February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room". Art Ibewuike - #895 Paul-Dan Dragoman - #898 Peter Wingfield - #900 Here's what Art has to say: Thank you so much for ...

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Congratulations to Andre Mckenzie - February 2019 PFRE Videographer of the Month

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Published: 09/03/2019

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Congratulations to Andre Mckenzie from Toronto who has won the February 2019 PFRE Videographer of the Month Contest! Here is Andre's winning video.

Here's what Andre had to say about his winning video:

I am humbled and very thankful for winning the Videographer of the Month. Thank you to the community and all the judges. This property was nearly 9000 square feet on 95+ acres of land with 3 separate buildings on the property. This was my second time filming the property so I knew what I was in for. The first time I shot it was back in the summer of 2017 for a different listing agent. I filmed it on the Sony A7SII with a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 MK2 lens, the Zhiyun Crane 1+ and DJI Phanton 4 drone.

I spent 1 hour filming the exterior with the gimbal in -30C weather which was completely cut from the video other than the second to last shot. Go figure! My drone operator spent an hour filming the exterior/land, which was also cut from the video 🙁 For the interiors, I spent approx. 2.5 hours filming the main house (9000SF) and coach house (1500SF) and an additional hour filming close up detail shots (also cut from the video). The video was edited and colour graded in Adobe Premiere CC 2018. The music was changed 3 times; I had 4 re-edits; and I loved every minute of it! I love what I do and I consider myself to be fortunate to shoot luxury real estate. Thank you to Larry and Brandon for hosting these contests and for creating such a great website/community for me to share and help each other get better. If anyone has questions about shooting video for real estate, feel free to reach out to me. Thanks again guys!

PFRE Videographer of the Month Winners:

Brandon Cooper

7 comments on “Congratulations to Andre Mckenzie - February 2019 PFRE Videographer of the Month”

  1. Congratulations Andre. Great work. Interesting to hear most of the aerials and exteriors were cut in the edit. As I said in the comp notes, for me they would have helped orientate the viewer a bit more. But of course, the clients pays the bills so if they say cut, you cut!

  2. I too am frustrated by not being able to see more of this spectacular property with the weather being so beautiful and unusual for RE coverages. Just flying in a light snow produces such spectacular imagery not to mention the impact of a lightly snow covered landscape. I want more. I mean, as marvelously shot as this video is for the interiors, how many bathrooms and bedroom, dens and libraries can you see all in a row, endlessly. I am happy to see all of them but a break with some of the out door property scenes would have been wonderful especially for such a large property. And it would have given more of a sense of the privacy and exclusiveness that such a large chunk of real estate offers as well as a break from the overwhelming interior shots. I would like to see the "director's cut" to see how this great videography team would have edited the video if they were not constrained by the client. 6 minutes is a long video but this one is a good example of just why you have to let the property itself determine the length not artificial time constraints.

    And I really enjoy the variety of video moves Andre employs so we don't just have endless slider or slider like moves. Ups and downs make a refreshing break as well as the gimbal walk through clips. And the visual choreography is just lovely - smooth, balanced, harmonious with music that does not set your teeth on edge. Great work. I would just personally love to see more of the property itself.

  3. Andre,
    What a massive undertaking!!
    I'm guessing that stills were also used in addition to the video.
    You said that you used Premiere Pro to process the video. Did you use any picture profiles and / or S-logs in camera? Did you use any LUT's?
    Also, what are your thoughts on how to deal with the highlights from the windows? I know there was tons of snow out there.
    Overall, a very fine example of a well crafted video.

    Best regards,
    Pete Malan

  4. The era of silent movies began its end times in 1927, and was over by 1931.

    Real estate video, no matter how well it's produced, won't gain any wide acceptance if it remains stuck in 1926.

  5. Thanks for the kind words guys!

    @Hamish / @ Peter D'Aprix There was a mini snow storm while we were filming the aerials, which I thought was okay, but it turned out that the agent and seller weren't a fan of the snow or overcast skies 🙁

    @Peter Malan I shoot in pic profile 5, no slog for me, no luts. Re: highlights from windows, it was very worried how the kitchen would turn out. The sun was going down and blaring through the windows, plus like you mentioned, reflecting off of the snow. I can't say I was 100% confident it was going to turn out the way it did. I was considering waiting until the sun went down past the treeline to feel a little better about my exposure, but it seems to work out. Shooting with this kind of light over and over again just builds your confidence in knowing what you can do in post.

    @Joe we promote voiceover narration. its a shame more of our clients don't go for it. it is an audio/visual experience after all, so i do agree with you

  6. Andre, I can agree with the problem of over cast skies, but add in that lovely snow and it helps make the video stand apart from most other high end property videos. I saw one a few months ago where it was raining cats and dogs and the video was great. Its all how it is handled and in the right hands, such as yours, its a definite plus. I mean snow, log fires, warm kitchens, a mug of hot chocolate, wood paneled studies, libraries and sundry, what a great combination to suggest coziness and warmth since the North is known for significant parts of the year being cold, rainy, icy and snowy.

  7. Great job Andre. I have one question, well, maybe two. How long did it take to complete this video, editing included in the time, and how much did you charge for it.
    I am working on videos and not sure what to charge.
    Thanks, and congratulations,
    Jerry

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