Rawls College 25th Anniversary Video

Most of the requests for proposals we receive are filled with corporate fluff and buzz words. They feel almost like someone googled “terms and questions to ask your videographer” and there is no real information to help us actually form a proposal.

This was not one of those requests. They clearly laid out exactly what they were looking for. Sure we had a few questions for clarification so we could be as precise as possible, but, they were minimal.

Our questions were addressed promptly and we were off to the races. 

A few days later, we submitted our proposal and, in turn, they had some clarifying questions for us that we were quick to answer.

I wouldn’t call it a rule of thumb, but, at Hamil Bros Studios, we typically submit a proposal like this and forget about it because it is a rarity that we will ever hear back.

We went on, business as usual.

Imagine our surprise when we got an email back that we had won the bid!

The feeling was, “we have arrived! We are Lubbock incarnate!”

After 15 years, we were an overnight success.

The Texas Tech Rawls College of Business had reached out to us and we won the bid.

One of the requests we had received was to assemble storyboards. 

In our first virtual meeting, we brought up that, given the nature of this being a live event and we had no idea what the aesthetic or layout was going to look like, we would like to do an event walkthrough in lieu of storyboards.

They quickly understood and were happy to oblige.

Before the Christmas break, we made our way up to the Rawls College of Business and they took us on a tour of what the event flow would be. 

Much of the walkthrough was hypothetical since we were nearing the end of the fall semester and the event wasn’t until the end of January. 

After the walkthrough, we had enough of a plan to continue moving forward without storyboards, which was a good thing because nothing turned out how we thought it would.

The time arrived and we hit the ground running.

There was to be a public event, followed by a VIP event full of dignitaries.

First up, we had to get cameras set for the public event. 

We would be covering this part with 3 cameras: a Blackmagic Pocket 6k Gen 1 with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens and the Blackmagic Pyxis with the Tokina 85mm Cinema Vista, both from the back and, finally a Blackmagic Cinema 6k Full Frame Camera with a Tokina Cinema Vista 50mm lens set just to house right of the stage to catch crowd reactions and a special award that was given to Jerry Rawls’ wife.

We had made plans on where we would put the cameras, but those plans went right out the window when the public event ended up with more attendees than anticipated.

For audio, we were able to plug out Zoom F8n Pro into the sound mixer and get a clean feed of the room with no trouble whatsoever. Given the 32-bit recording capabilities of the F8n Pro, there was no need to have anyone standing by and monitoring the audio feed.

Once the public event started, aside from how little space there was due to the incredible turnout, was a gigantic screen behind our speakers that cast a blue hue and flared the lenses.

It was completely unavoidable, but we were able to take care of that with ease in the color grade.

After the public event wrapped up, it was time for the cocktail hour.

While Jacob ran around with our DJI RS3 and gathered candid b-roll of the guests, dignitaries, and live musicians, Ross and Haley began moving across the building to the room where the VIP dinner was going to be happening.

This room presented a lot more challenges. 

So many people had RSVP’d that there was a lot less room than was originally anticipated. 

The room was full of tables, chairs, and people. We were hoping for 3-camera coverage in this room as well, but that was simply not going to happen. 

The main tables had been adorned with some amazing centerpieces, but, as gorgeous as they were, they were very tall and difficult to shoot around because they obstructed all but one view to the lectern where the dinner speakers would be making their presentations.

In the end, we were able to get 2 cameras set and got enough coverage to fill the edit.

Once the event was over, we were beat. Our feet were tired from all of the back and forth between the two rooms and the staging room where we kept our equipment. But it was the satisfied kind of exhaustion that tells you that you put in a full day’s worth of good work.

It was a great event and there was a lot of activity to capture. 

We may have even snuck in a photo or two with Raider Red.

Post Production

If you know Texas Tech, you know their colors: red and black. Naturally, the mood lighting everywhere was red. If you know anything about red lighting, or really any highly saturated lights, they wreak havoc on cameras. 

If you’re looking for something extremely stylized like science fiction or cyberpunk, it’s great. Lean into it. 

When it’s an upscale event, you have a problem on your hands.

Between the house lights being tungsten, the windows being daylight, and the accent lighting being red, this was a nightmare for white balancing. It was virtually impossible. 

Nevertheless, we put our best into it and we overcame these obstacles.

Using PrimeGrade from PixelTools (you can get it 10% off with code hamil10), Ross was able to get the skin tones correct and force the rest of the colors to a normal color.

Bringing the Rawls College To Life

Jacob was able to get the assembly edit knocked out rather quickly and he realized we needed more footage.

Not more from the event, but just some extra b-roll of the college facilities to help tie everything together.

After a couple of trips to the university campus, we had the footage we needed.

The downside was that this was at the end of winter and everything was dead.

Waiting for spring wasn’t really an option so Ross went on a visual effects war path.

Using several assets we’ve acquired over the years and some creative color grading, Ross motion tracked the shots and added live trees and birds to the shots of the front of the building.

Fun fact, birds in the sky always make for better exterior building shots.

Next, using Red Giant Looks, Ross greened up the grass to finish up the landscape. 

This project, more than most, had a ton of revisions. Now, oftentimes, revisions come with a certain level of headache, however, this was a great, if not the best, experience we’ve ever had with revisions.

None of them were unreasonable. Mostly shots that needed to be replaced with something else and, with the amount of dignitaries, we had a lot of corrections on name keys so that the speakers names and titles were all uniform. Super easy. Jacob got these knocked out very quickly.

We got the final version delivered and the Rawls College of Business staff were incredibly happy with it.

In the end, this was a great experience. All of us at Hamil Bros Studios are fans and supporters of Texas Tech and, to have the opportunity to get to work with the university at such a high level was an incredible experience and honor. 

The Team at the Rawls College were not just accommodating, they really went above and beyond to give everyone an incredible experience; attendees and vendors alike. 

The flow was well executed; the atmosphere was perfect; and the Rawls family was proud to have been associated with such an elegant event.