videos – Rafi And Klee Studios

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Artist Rafi Perez — 2 Comments

Why Do I Have A YouTube Channel

Some of you know that Klee and I have a YouTube channel where we talk about life, art, tips for aspiring artists, and other goofy content. We even have a small following that seems to be growing every day.

Now anybody that has done any filming and video editing knows how much work goes into producing a well edited short video. If you don’t, it’s a lot of work, like you can hire a team to do it and it would still take time. Considering that I’m pretty much my team with the occasional technical assistance from Klee, it begs the question, why do it?

Rafi and Klee On YouTube — My makeshift solo filming, that’s right, there is no camera man.

Admittedly, I’ve had to ask myself the same question. I mean, I can be creating art instead of videos, and that would make me more of an income than the videos ever will.

But, I just can’t help myself. There is something about the whole creative process that I love. I love the writing, filming, lighting, sound, content, editing, Klee and I bouncing off one another and most of all, I love the creatives who follow us on YouTube.

Our 2018 goal is to release 2 videos a week by streamlining the process. Well, that’s the plan at least.

I plan on introducing new segments as we figure out this whole video side of Klee and me. We want to make sure we remain true to ourselves and that what we do in our videos is stuff we truly enjoy, and not something that doesn’t make sense for us.

We also have huge plans in place for art projects this year, from specific pieces to series. Klee’s has also been working on music, and getting the perfect picture.

I guess the reason I have a YouTube channel is because just like my paintings and sculptures, it gives me the opportunity to connect to people… And I love people.

I think when you are a creative person, you want to connect with people through your creations… And if you are us, you have a lot of expression coming out of all the places.

(No, that was not a fart reference…)

Posted on March 25, 2017March 25, 2017 by Artist Rafi Perez — Leave a comment

Become A Creative Failure To Succeed

Have you ever had someone tell you that you weren’t good enough, that you’ll never make it, or that you would fail? If you have, then welcome to the club, this is a good place to be so don’t fret.

I think we all have some of those people in our lives, that either verbally or quietly disapprove of what they consider our childish ambitions. The truth is that anything that is outside of the norm is considered childish most of the time.

It’s interesting to me that most artists that are revered today for ushering in a new era of art, were considered losers by the art establishments in their day. We usually write this off by saying that the artist was ahead of his time, but I think it has more to do with perseverance than anything else.

Today, we consider Vincent Van Gogh to be one of the greatest and most influential painters of all time, but that wasn’t the case when he was alive. Van Gogh’s work received little to no recognition during his lifetime. His paintings were often described as being too dark and lacking the bright liveliness seen in Impressionist paintings of the time.

The funny thing is that Monet’s Impressionist paintings were rejected before they became popular as well. His work and other Impressionists’ paintings were rejected by society and art exhibitions because it went against the traditional style and method of painting.

Claude Monet — Painting By Monet Rejected By The Paris Salon

Even Picasso was highly criticized by his peers quite often because some of his paintings diverged from the divergent artist movements that were happening already.

The fact is that each one of these artists embraced their craft and just kept creating despite what people were telling them. They painted what they painted because they wanted to, not because it was popular. Eventually, they had a large body of work that just could not be ignored.

Vincent Van Gogh died poor, having only sold one painting to a friend in his lifetime, but he also died young. I think had he lived longer he would have found fame like any other creative person that perseveres through what I call the dark years.

No matter what you want to do in your life, I think if you don’t give up, you’ll get there. If you keep going, creating, and moving forward there is no way you can truly fail. If you quit, it’s like closing a fairy tale book before getting to the end. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a happy ending, you just stopped reading before actually getting there.

Stephanie's Mermaid By Rafi Perez — One of my paintings, because… why not??

People around you are going to tell you that you will fail, and they’re right, but failure is a temporary stretch of road that can lead to a happy ending. But, you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Watch me talk about other creative geniuses who were considered losers in this video:

Posted on October 3, 2016October 4, 2016 by Artist Rafi Perez — Leave a comment

I Won Best Of Show?

So, yesterday I submitted some pieces that I created for a juried art show that takes place at Artel Gallery, in downtown Pensacola.

I’m sure most of you will find it hard to believe, that it was a terrifying act for me. Yeah, only my closest friends (and now you) know that I have an childlike fear of having my art judged by art competition judges.

Let’s make something clear, I don’t mind having my art judged. People judge my art all the time, some love it, some hate it, either way, it doesn’t bother me. Put the art in a competitive setting and I become a nervous third grader.

Artel Gellery Submissions By Rafi Perez — Artel Gallery Submissions By Rafi Perez

Now, I’m fully aware this is ridiculous. I’m an established artist, I have collectors of my work, and I am well known… yet, just because it doesn’t make sense, doesn’t mean I didn’t almost piss myself yesterday.

This video will let you live my experience yesterday:

The theme of the show is about animal life. The show is called “It’s A Zoo In Here” and runs for the month of October.

I decided to enter the show, face my fears, and submit my art… For the past few years, I’ve been working on getting rid of silly fears that stand in the way. Sometimes, I have to push outside of my comfort zones, which seems to be an ongoing thing, so I better get used to it.

I created two pieces for the show called “Rags to Fishes” and “Rehabilitation Of Beauty.” My friend and art collector, Monica Gaskins owns a Zebra sculpture I created recently, and she allowed me to submit it as my third piece.

“Rags to Fishes” is a sculpture I created using old pieces of canvas that I collected from the stretching process. They typically get thrown away, but it seemed like such a waste to throw perfectly good canvas away… that stuff is expensive, and I couldn’t bring myself to just throw it away.

Watch the video above to hear which piece won best of show… That’s right! I won best of show… How awesome is that!

The show reception is Wednesday, October 12, 6pm-8pm. Klee and I will be there, which is also outside of my comfort zone because I got best of show, and there is a part of me that doesn’t know how to handle that… Like I said ridiculous, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. 🙂

The show runs October 4th – Oct 28th, 2016.

Posted on November 14, 2011November 14, 2011 by Artist Rafi Perez — Leave a comment

Special Effects and Filming on a Low Budget

So you are making some videos and sharing them with the world. You want to take it the next level and use special effects to enhance your viewers experience.

What do you do? What program do you use? How do you get it? How do you learn to use it?

I’ve been making videos for a while now and that counts for something but not too much when it comes to the advances in technology in video editing.

I use Sony Vegas for film and Video Sound Editing. I use Adobe After Effects for Special Effects and picture quality rendering (Due to the fact that I use a very cheap camera for the moment) I also use Sony Acid Pro and Audacity for music production and sound effects.

So on a low budget, how do you come across all these programs? Well, Audacity is a free sound and music editing program and you can find it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

The other program are a bit expensive, I reached out to a lot of people and was constantly on the look out for a bargain. I found the programs I was looking for at the Flea Market in a box of stuff that belonged to a kid who had gone off to college and his parents were cleaning out his room and converting it into an office. The interesting thing was that once I found the programs a bunch of people let me borrow their copies.

The next step was learning the programs, I can only speak for myself but the best way I found for me to learn something is to actually play with it. I spent a month filming and playing around with both programs, when ever I wanted to do something specific I looked it up on Youtube… In fact I still look it up when ever I think something up that I don’t know how to do. I think that is key, stretching your abilities by dreaming something up that might be a stretch for you and then making it happen, either way, it will be a learning experience.

To be honest with you, the key to filming something on a low budget is to just do it… Creative ways of doing it usually pop up in your mind once you’ve already started the process of filming. I spent a long time dreaming things up and not taking action on them because I didn’t have everything I needed. This will make your filming experience dull and you may not enjoy the process… In my opinion, why film unless you enjoy making films.

So, if you are a filmmaker and you have no budget, don’t think to yourself that someday you’ll be able to do it… Just do it. Borrow equipment, find good deals, be creative and stay optimistic… And have fun!

Some of the best films I have seen had virtually no budget but a lot of creativity… You can’t buy that, and sometimes necessity breads ideas that are creative and brilliant simply because you were forced to think outside of the box.

Also, display your work… If you watched it more than once and you enjoyed it, put it out there, you’ve got nothing to lose. So, if you are a filmmaker, then make films, and stop using not having a budget as an excuse to not make films… Happy shooting!

http://www.rafiwashere.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiwashereUS

https://www.facebook.com/Rafiwashere

Posted on November 5, 2011February 10, 2012 by Artist Rafi Perez — Leave a comment

Attacked By Aliens

In This skit Klee and I are “parking” and I was totally going to get to second base until we were attacked by aliens.

This was filmed at night, so there was a lot of moving lights around involved and the challenge of keeping the auto-focus from going crazy.

One funny thing about filming this skit is the fact that the alien who is played by my cousin Erik is supposed to be a tiny scary Alien who just sort of appears. Well, the challenge is the fact that Erik is a big dude with wide shoulders.

Erik had to stand on his knees to reach the small alien stature, yet you still see some of the widest shoulders you could ever see on an alien. He was a great sport.

I have to applaud Klee in this skit. Her performance was amazing, and her terrified screams are convincing… When I was editing I had to lower the volume because our dog thought I was killing her every time I played back a scene. It turned out great!

http://www.rafiwashere.com

https://www.facebook.com/Rafiwashere

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiwashereUS

Posted on November 3, 2011February 10, 2012 by Artist Rafi Perez — Leave a comment

What is Rafiwashere Productions?

Chances are if you live in Pensacola Florida you’ve seen a crazy looking truck with the words Watch us on Youtube painted all over it, or maybe you ran across one of the videos by Rafi Was Here on Youtube.

Rafi Was Here is a small (Very small) production company that is focusing all it’s efforts on creating fun and original content on Youtube.

Armed with a cheap camera, an old computer and creativity we decided to see how far we can go and how many people we can make laugh.

In 2009 Klee and I (Rafi) left Chicago Illinois and traveled the country in a customized 92 Ford Explorer. We decided to hang out in Pensacola for a while and focus on filming. So far so good. This Blog will be used for production notes and tips Utilized by us during our filming efforts on a shoestring budget… Luckily we can get pretty creative.

http://www.rafiwashere.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rafi-Was-Here

http://www.youtube.com/user/RafiwashereUS