KYle Loftus Studios Behind the Scenes BLOG
Articles, posts, and information surrounding video production and what is going on behind the scenes at Kyle Loftus Studios and beyond.
Rhino Dolly - Big Moves for Small Teams
Rhino Dolly - Big Moves for Small Teams
The time has finally come! Rhino Dolly is ready to be introduced to the world! I am personally excited because I was part of this creative process helping ideate and bring this to life. I was able to provide real tangible feedback as a filmmaker and someone who uses sliders/dollies etc in the field. So I am super excited that I've been able to optimize and have input for the everyday content creator and for the optimal video production team, filmmaker, or anyone who is trying to work with a small team or a band. This is only the beginning of something BIG in the filmmaking space!
I had the privilege to be part of the development process and help redefine this new revolution setting space in the video production space.
Now creatives, can get their hands on this dolly shot system that is convenient, efficient, sets up in minutes, and packs away in a single case.
Start capturing mind-blowing shots and streamline your workflow with Rhino Dolly. Rhino Dolly enables small production teams to capture big motorized shots in no time.
Pre-order Rhino Dolly and save 20%
The first all-in-one dolly system to streamline your workflow.
What will you film with Rhino Dolly?
Camera accessory manufacturer Rhino just revealed a motorized dolly that will leave you speechless with the shots it's capable of capturing.
Most dollys are fairly archaic; bolt some skateboard wheels to a piece of metal and buy some conduit from your local hardware store and you have a dolly. Rhino Dolly looks different.
While you can still use it manually, it’s the ability to motorize it with Rhino Arc II that puts it in a completely different class. You’re able to set keyframes with up to 4 axes; pan, tilt, focus, and dolly to create a shot that makes you think it came from a Hollywood set.
If the cool moves aren’t enough, they came up with a way to fit all of the hardware needed for a motorized dolly into a single case. This includes their “Infinity Rails” and even carbon fiber legs to support it so you don’t have to lug around tripods or stands. Even cooler is that the legs have markings on them so you can easily get them all to the same height. Why hasn’t anyone done this with tripods yet?
They have a few kits available for pre-order on their Kickstarter page so go check them out if you’re looking to upgrade your old dolly. Even if you don’t want all the fancy carbon fiber and motion control you can get a “Rental Kit” which lets you bring your rails to the party. All of their pricing is reduced by 20% when you pre-order a unit on Kickstarter.
Pre-order on their Kickstarter page
Rhino launches motorized dolly to streamline pro workflows.
Rhino Dolly has created a fit all of the hardware needed for a motorized dolly into a single case. This includes “Infinity Rails” and even carbon fiber legs to support it so you don’t have to lug around tripods or stands.
Even cooler is that the legs have markings on them so you can easily get them all to the same height. You can manually move the dolly or motorize it which looks pretty easy. Add a belt and attach their motion control head called Arc II which powers the motor built into the dolly.
Arc II works on a keyframe-based system and can even control your focus points using their optional focus motor. The types of shots you can achieve with their motion control are truly impossible with a traditional hand-pushed move.
Pre-order on their Kickstarter page
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How to build a confident & healthy mind...
Manifestation and affirmation are important parts of building a confident and healthy mind. They also help attract that which you aim to attain, achieve and or acquire however, it’s important that you use positive affirmations rather than negative ones as the human mind is incapable of thinking in terms of the negative. Therefore, if you use negative affirmations you are actually pulling yourself further away from accomplishing your goals and objects.
Use positive affirmations that your mind and instill and believe in through habitual repetition and implementation. Lastly, it’s not enough to affirm and manifest. You gotta put the work in. How bad do you want it?
The old saying, “You are what you think” may be true. For example, negative thoughts may lead to a more negative outlook on life, which then can lead to more negative thoughts. This cycle of negativity may result in stress, anxiety, and depression, which can damage your physical health. As a result, affecting your overall performance in your personal and professional life.
The best way to break the cycle is to introduce more positive thoughts into your life as often as possible.
You can repeat an affirmation to yourself as often as you’d like — while brushing your teeth, driving to work, or before you fall asleep. The more often you use an affirmation, the more it can help reinforce your value and self-worth and it may even positively affect your behavior.
Some positive affirmations for better self-care and brighter days:
I am ready.
My efforts help me succeed.
I can make a real difference.
My hard work will pay off.
I am strong.
I have the power to make the right choice for me.
I have faith in my abilities.
I got this.
I am grateful for what I can do.
I am happy to be me.
With so many of us facing new challenges these days, now could be the perfect time to turn positivity into a regular habit. Try using one of these affirmations each week to help you stay positive so you can continue to tackle your goals.
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Mindset | Don't waste your time..
What if you could wake up every day with $86,400 in your bank account but whether you spent it or wasted it would be fine by the end of the night.
I bet you would spend each and every penny if you could. Well, we have exactly 86,400 seconds each and every day. Why are you wasting precious time? All we have is now. Don’t waste your time away.
Use every day and opportunity to learn and grow. Try approaching challenging situations and days from a “learners” perspective rather than a “judger”. Seek to gain clarity and understanding and constantly ask questions.
How do you get to where you want to go in life? One of the key factors to running a successful business is honoring and implementing a time management strategy: first, you have to set goals and know what you want.
Set goals for both your private and professional life. Write down what you want. Get specific. Writing down your goals helps you to start gravitating towards working towards makingyour goals come to life.
Do you want to lose 10 pounds? Spend more time with friends and family? Would you love to take up a new hobby? Jot your goals down and refer to them often to stay focused. Once you have established what your big-picture goals are, you can break them down into smaller tasks that you can consistently work towards.
Each day is a new opportunity to grow internally and externally.
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Forgiveness...
Forgiveness…
Forgiveness isn’t always about the other person. In reality, forgiveness more often than not is about ourselves. Forgiveness is for ourselves.
Through forgiveness, we can find freedom. Freedom from pain, from resentment, freedom from anger, etc.
Yes, it’s important to forgive people for the mistakes they make. We are all human and it’s part of life but what’s more important is that you forgive others for yourself.
Keys to forgiveness:
1. Know what forgiveness is and why it matters: It is not about finding excuses for the offending person’s behavior or pretending it didn’t happen.
2. Become “forgivingly fit”: To practice forgiveness, it helps if you have worked on positively changing your inner world by learning to be what I call “forgivingly fit.”
3. THIS ONE: 3. Address your inner plan it’s important to figure out who has hurt you and how. This may seem obvious, but not every action that causes you suffering is unjust.
These are just a few keys to start forgiving. The more you learned o forgive, the more you grow as a person. You deserve happiness and joy and the longer you hold onto that pain and suffering the longer it’s going to eat away at you, the more it’s going to poison your spirit.
Forgive them today.
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Be the CHANGE...
We all suffer from imposter syndrome at times but it’s important to remember we all have a unique story and something meaningful to offer to the world.
We have all faced challenges and tribulations. We all have experienced our own forms and levels of suffering but one thing we all share in common is we are on this journey called life together.
To me it’s so important to give back to a community and a world that has given me so much in life.
Never give up the opportunity to do some good because you want to do something great. Having ambition is awesome but don’t let your ego and pride keep you from sharing your true value. You have so much to offer. Don’t let your fear of be inadequate stop you from sharing. There are thousands of it millions of people out there that could learn from you and could use your help.
6 Ways to Overcome Your Pride
Be Aware. While pride shows you sufficiently value yourself and your accomplishments and it helps you work toward what you deserve.
Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously, have fund and remember, we are all human!
Ask the Right Questions. Listen carefully and be intentional with your questions.
Be Open-Minded. The more questions you ask, the more you learn and the less assumptions you'll have.
Listen, Don't Talk. Take some time to let it all sink in. Let the information process and learn from listening.
Put Your Business First. If not you then who, type of attitude. Make sure you are always doing one thing each day to help you push your business forward.
Be the change.
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Grow your business | Tips for prospecting....
Tips for prospecting...
Prospecting is a great way to get your foot in the door and garner fruitful relationships with big brands and businesses but often we spend too much time in the wrong places trying to connect with the wrong people.
The key to prospecting is persistence because, in many ways, prospecting is a numbers game. The more calls you make, the closer you are to a sale. Determine your conversion rates and use those to motivate you toward the next sale. The aims of prospecting are to cover the four core prospective objectives are: set an appointment; gather information and qualify; close a sale; and build familiarity.
Create an ideal prospect profile
Take some time to find out your ideal client profile. Do your homework and search through your database and ask yourself who are your top five customers? Who are your worst five customers? Who are your most profitable customers? Which ones are the least profitable? Create profiles for each of these groups.
Once you have done this homework, you can use both the profile list and your existing company list to find other businesses which match these criteria.
Identify ways to meet your ideal prospects
Start by analyzing where you met your "best" customers. Always keep in mind that in most cases, your "best" customers are your most profitable customers. Was it at a trade show or a seminar? Or via a referral? This will help you single out your most “lucrative” places to hang out at.
Actively work on your call lists
You’ve got the cold call list and the warm lead list, and even a lost lead list. Prioritize each list and then take some time each day to call the people on your lists. Don't sleep on this step, it is crucial to building your clientele and help you establish the right relationship.
Demonstrate your sales skills in video format
This is hands down one of the most effective prospecting methods to help you stand out from others! The latest trends point to the rise of the video both as a marketing and sales outreach tool. After all, people buy from people. So, the show lets them get to know you and build that trust-based relationship with you and your brand. It's also a great way to invite potential candidates for your business internally and externally.
Learn how @nicksfort finds and acquires his ideal client in this week's podcast episode of @learnvideography
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How having a mentor has changed my professional & personal life..
A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.” — Bob Proctor.
I love this quote because it really speaks on the truth of what a mentor is and does. And I think finding and having a mentor can bring so much clarity on your journey to carve out your career path. However, I think far too many of us are falling for the quick hacks and courses that claim to change everything for you when in reality the change has to come from within. No course is going to show you the way, sure they can help teach you saving time and cutting corners but a course can only take you so far. A mentor shows you how you are capable of more than the limitations you put on yourself.
Thus, I think it’s vital we all have a mentor or peers to help guide us and give us advice on our path. Even more so I think it’s important to listen to the people actually doing not claiming to have done it. Those who do, do and those you don’t, teach haha all jokes aside there’s some validity to that statement and it reminds me of a quote I love that goes,
“Spoon feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon” - EM Forester
Essentially what this quote is saying is that someone can only teach you so much, you can only pull so much value from listening…the real lessons come in the doing, in the practice, and routine of effort.
Find a mentor. Find someone to help guide you on your journey but make sure it’s a reliable source that isn’t teaching you things based on what they learned 15 years ago when they were “doing it” you need to find someone who’s still got their hands in the dirt, someone who’s still playing with fire 🔥 but willing to share the sauce as well 😋 and believes me I don’t know everything but I’m learning more every day and I’m here to share it all with you.
Day 7 of posting on Tik Tok and IG Reels for 30 days straight to break the algorithm.
Shouts to @willsmith I’m really loving this book and learning a ton of life lessons along the way! Go check it out.
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When’s the last time you set out a plan of attack...
When’s the last time you set out a plan of attack, a course of action for your day and/or business? You cannot seriously expect to be successful without a plan? A plan is what makes everything look easy. We people joke “aww he just got lucky” …there’s no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. People get “lucky” because they set intentions and live a life of purpose so when an opportunity crosses their paths they are prepared.
By being intentional and creating a plan we can better visualize and foresee our path and trajectory. This allows us to move faster and more efficiently towards our end goals rather than zig-zagging around to reach our destination. Conducting your days and business without a plan is like trying to get to a new destination without a GPS, sure you might get there but who knows hold long it will take you and all the struggles you’ll have to go through. With a plan it all becomes crystal clear, we can see down the line. We can look and know when we need to make that next turn or hire that next contractor etc.
At the battle of Gaugamela, Alexander the Great took a Calvary army of 7,000 Macedonias to battle over 40,000 Persian soldiers and won….they mutilated the Persian army. How you might ask? They had a plan of attack, a strategy and they were well trained/prepared.
What was I saying earlier about when preparation meets opportunity… 😉
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DON'T BE AVERAGE!
What separates you from others, DISCIPLINE.
Discipline is what separates the exceptional from the average. We all have talent and we all have motivations in life. However, motivation can only get you so far. Passion can only get you so far, but discipline…discipline can take you anywhere you want to go in life. Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team but through discipline, through practicing relentlessly day in and day out he became the greatest of all time, and even after he won multiple championships Michael didn’t settle. He stayed disciplined. He stayed in the game. He stayed the course.
Discipline will take you where you want to go. Lean the f*ck in!
The three types of discipline are
Preventative: discipline is about establishing expectations, guidelines, and a set of overall rules for behavior to proactively prevent disruptions.
Supportive: Taking measures that support self-control for example by setting limits and having solutions to problems that can arise. As the saying goes, expect the best be prepared for the worst!
Corrective discipline: when facing a challenge or mishap, creating a plan is always a must. If you fail once, it’s ok, learn from what didn’t work and create a corrective plan of action to be followed.
Have consistency and stick with a set routine! Consistency is key when it comes to being disciplined. Once a routine is set in place, you can find it easier to stay disciplined and see results unravel.
Also, follow me on Tik Tok, I’m dropping a video a day for 30 days. Let’s see if we can disrupt this algorithm
