Getting involved with Blood By Design

Before video production was even a spark of an idea, Jacob was asked to be involved in this album by contributing a guitar solo.

For Jacob, the writing process for this project presented a unique departure from his usual approach. Typically, he excels at crafting solos that seamlessly complement existing chord progressions, intuitively weaving melodies within harmonic frameworks. However, the particular solo section Jake provided was distinctly rhythm-based rather than chord-centric.

This presented an exciting and stimulating challenge for Jacob, pushing him to explore new creative avenues and ultimately conquer unfamiliar territory.

His initial method involved a period of deep immersion. Jake first sent Jacob a concise audio snippet of the section he would be soloing over. True to his meticulous and introspective solo style, Jacob allowed himself a few days to simply “sit with it.”

This initial incubation period was crucial for him to internalize the rhythmic intricacies and subtle nuances of the track. His primary goal during this phase was to identify which musical fragments or melodic ideas would organically fit best within the rhythmic landscape.

Jacob’s philosophy for developing solos is rooted in a playful yet persistent exploration: “Just play around with it until something sticks, then build on top of those guitar licks.” This iterative process involves a great deal of experimentation, trying various melodic motifs, rhythmic patterns, and expressive techniques. He allows himself the freedom to improvise and discover what feels right, what resonates with the core of the music.

 Once a compelling lick or phrase emerges and “sticks,” it serves as a foundational element. From there, he systematically builds upon it, layering additional ideas, developing variations, and expanding the initial concept. This organic, exploratory, and additive methodology is what ultimately leads to a fully built-out and cohesive guitar solo, even when faced with an unconventional rhythmic challenge.

This process highlights how amazing the internet can be for somewhat long distance collaboration between creatives. Jacob sent the solo that he recorded over the section of rhythm guitars, drum, and bass back to Jake who lives about an hour away from Lubbock and Jake was able to review the solo and sign off on it.

The next step of the process was to organize a time for Jacob to travel to Lamesa, TX where Jake lives and do a final studio recording of the solo for the full length album. As most creative endeavors go, this process too wasn’t without roadblocks. There were some technical issues when they reached the studio that couldn’t have been foreseen.

Jacob traveled from Lubbock to Jake’s home studio and loaded  his PRS custom 24 SE guitar, his PRS MT15 Version 1 Amplifier head, and his accompanying pedal board. After about half an hour set up, it was time to proverbially rock and roll.

This is when the issues came into play. For whatever reason, unbeknownst to either Jake or Jacob, Jacob’s MT15 was clipping the signal going into

Jake’s interface. This led to quite the delay, but eventually they stuck with just the guitar and plugged it directly into Jake’s interface where he loaded up some of his favorite digital amp emulations for guitar solo tones.

Jacob was fine with this, because he wanted to honor Jake’s recording process more than anything else.

With the recording complete Jacob had dinner with Jake and his family, and then hit the road back to Lubbock. During that hour trip, a thought crossed Jacob’s mind to talk to Jake about doing a promotional video for the release of this new Blood by Design Album.

Once Jacob arrived back in Lubbock, Jake sent over a mix of the solo section they had just recorded and Jacob mostly forgot about the promotional video. That was the case until Jake reached back out to Jacob to invite him to the Live Premiere of “Gods of the Elements” that he had arranged with Alamo Drafthouse in Lubbock.

Alamo drafthouse is the premium theater in Lubbock that offers more of a dining experience for its patrons.

During this phone call is when the idea of shooting a promotional video for Blood by Design’s release triggered in Jacob’s brain again. So we talked about it and approached Jake to see if he’d be interested in doing something like this to announce the live premiere of the album.

Naturally, as Jake is, he was ecstatic with the idea and his wheels started turning as to what that promo could look like. He was slightly hesitant as he’d never done anything like this in his life, but we told him we would handle the storytelling as long as he can answer questions in the interview. This is how we like to approach our interviews with people new to the process anyway.

For a project like this, we have several key goals to achieve with our interview:

First, we want to approach the story like no one is familiar with the subject. We had Jake break down the beginning of Blood by Design to set the stage for the audience and to briefly give them some context on the project as a whole.

We never want to assume anyone knows anything about any given project which is great for a first introduction because it reinforces knowledge for those who are familiar with it, as well as succinctly informs those who are hearing about it for the first time. A great example of this on a really large scale is MARVEL. Think about the 10+ origin films, along with a myriad of television shows they have for various characters since 2008. 

Second, we want to dive into what’s happening currently with the project. This dives into the meat of the reason our audience is watching. So this is where Jake really talked about this new Gods of the Elements project for Blood by Design and gave a basic overview of the story.

Much like what you read earlier. This is to engage the audience further and get them emotionally invested in the story. It’s imperative to hook the audience with this information in the interview because then they are ready for the last piece of the puzzle: the important information they need to know to act on now. That’s the information on how they can watch the premiere of the new Blood By Design Album Live! 

Third, Jake would need to outline the core aspects of the occasion, beginning with the exciting news that the video would debut at the Alamo Drafthouse, situated on the north side of Lubbock, Texas. This popular cinema location was chosen for its excellent facilities and ability to host a significant number of attendees.

He would then need to provide crucial information on how individuals could secure their seats for this exclusive viewing, emphasizing the importance of reserving tickets in advance due to anticipated high demand. This segment of his talk would be critical for ensuring a smooth and accessible experience for all interested parties.

Furthermore, Jake would have to set expectations for what attendees could anticipate at the premiere itself. This would likely include details about the screening format, any special introductions or Q&A sessions, and the overall atmosphere of the event. Such foresight helps guests feel more prepared and enthusiastic about attending.

Finally, Jake delivered what we refer to as the “call to action.” This vital component of any presentation provides the audience with clear, actionable steps to engage further with the content or event. In this specific instance, the call to action directly guided the audience on how to obtain their seats for the premiere, transforming their interest into concrete participation.

When conceptualizing the promotional video for Blood By Design, the initial and most critical decision revolved around the shooting location. The essence of the project, with its unique subject matter, immediately ruled out conventional settings like a typical home or corporate office. Such environments would have simply felt out of place and failed to capture the raw, visceral energy we aimed to convey.

After careful consideration and brainstorming, we ultimately decided to leverage one of our most reliable and creatively versatile spaces: our father’s workshop. This choice wasn’t made for its aesthetic polish or modern appeal; quite the opposite, in fact. The workshop, undeniably, is far from “fancy.” Its walls bear the marks of countless projects, its surfaces are layered with the patina of time and labor, and its overall ambiance is decidedly unrefined.

However, for the Blood By Design album release video, “fancy” was never on our checklist. What we truly needed was “gritty,” and the workshop delivered in spades. Its inherent ruggedness and authentic, unpolished character perfectly mirrored the thematic elements of the music. Every rust stain, every splintered board, every oil smudge contributed to an atmosphere that felt genuinely lived-in and powerfully authentic.

Beyond its compelling visual qualities, the workshop offered another invaluable asset: readily available power. This seemingly minor detail is often a significant logistical hurdle in video productions, but here, it was a non-issue. The ample power supply ensured that all our lighting, sound, and camera equipment could run smoothly and efficiently, allowing us to focus entirely on the creative aspects of the shoot.

In retrospect, the workshop proved to be an absolutely ideal setting for the Blood By Design album release video. It provided the perfect blend of visual grit, practical functionality, and an undeniable authenticity that helped us bring our creative vision to life. The resulting video not only showcased the band’s music but also immersed viewers in a world that felt as real and impactful as the sound itself.

For the sake of our shooting schedule, we only set up one camera for this production. It was by design that we decided that most of the video b-roll would be art work from Gods of the Elements. In this shoot we decided to shoot on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Full Frame with our Meike PL to L mount adapter. The lens of choice was one of our favorites, the Tokina Cinema Vista 50mm lens.

The full camera build consisted of a Blueshape Batteries 140wh granite mini, the Osee G7 high bright monitor, the Tilta Nucleus wireless follow focus, all parked on our Teris tripod and color balanced to 5600K. 

The lighting was more involved than it plays on camera, which is nearly always the case. We wanted a lot of color saturation and contrast in the image, so we went with our standard Aputure and Amaran lighting kit for those needs. The key light was the Aputure 600C shooting through their lightdome 150 with the honeycomb and 2.5 stop soft diffusion balanced to daylight so we got proper saturation in our color choices.

The fill light was the amaran 300C shooting through the Aputure lightdome mini and the 1.5 stop diffusion. The backlight was an Amaran 150C set to more tungsten amber with the standard barn doors. Across the back we had a myriad of colored lights to enhance the backdrop. 

To the right of the camera we had an amaran 150C with the amaran spotlight mount to cast a cool red brick pattern behind Jake on the garage door. On the right of the frame you can see there are two more colored lights highlight the table with power tools in the background.

That table is top lit with an Amaran T4C four foot tube light set to green as well as another amaran 150C with the barndoors and a 30 degree honeycomb set to blue. All these choices made for a really interesting color background. The lighting helps the audience understand it’s a serious project and they typically pay better attention than when it’s just a cell phone selfie video. 

The interview took under an hour to shoot overall, as Jake had practiced what he was going to say and prepared all of that before we got into the shoot. This is a wise practice to consider when having your clients give a testimonial or you have someone speaking on behalf of your brand. Your production company will thank you, if the case is indeed just a testimonial and not a written script.