How video producer Quinn Murphy uses Runway to create videos for Alicia Keys
Hi Quinn! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Yes! I’m a content producer in New York City. I’ve been shooting and editing for five or six years, and I’ve been freelance pretty much the entire time.
I create content for companies and people, then I also make fun stuff on my own too. A lot of it is social media stuff, short-form filming for events or visuals for products and people.
What sort of projects do you tend to work on?
It's sometimes like product videos or filming events and creating event recaps. Sometimes I’ll work with an artist and capture the behind-the-scenes of a moment and edit that together.
Can you tell us how you got into this line of work?
I've been making videos since I was a kid. My beginnings were making Lego stop motions on my mom's VHS camera. Ever since then I'd film anything and everything. I always loved creating, so I knew it would carry over into my adulthood.
How big is your team, most of the time?
Honestly, it's usually just me and myself. I come up with the idea, shoot, and edit it. Sometimes I pull a few people to help me. Very rarely, I'll work on a commercial with an actual set and team of people. But most times, it's people who just come to me because they like my specific style and look, so that's usually what I'm delivering.
How would you describe your style?
I would say it's very lively. I really try and make something that's just visually very cool and interesting. A lot of color. I don't really make a lot of serious things. They're kind of fun, stop motion-y. So it's very fun. I try to make it just like fun things.
Which creators have influenced your work, the most?
Kevin Parry, Casey Neistat, Cache Bunny, Alexander Unger.
How did you discover Runway?
I had heard of Runway through my friend Josh Olufemii. He has a YouTube channel called Olufemii that teaches video editing. He has a set of teachers, and I’m one of them. He's always looking for new cool stuff to teach or to learn about. He had told me about this in-browser editing software. Immediately, I was like, whoa, that sounds crazy to have. I was like, how is it possible to have editing software within your browser?
I've been so used to just using actual programs. So that alone intrigued me to be able to hop on from anywhere and edit and not have it be super laggy. So that was the initial intrigue.
He also mentioned the green screen effect and how you guys used AI. I don't know VFX very well, I'm not super technical when it comes to editing. So to have a program that could do effects really quickly and easily was amazing to me.
How much time were you spending on effects before?
In Adobe, it takes hours and hours to rotoscope and render, and even then you have to go in and tweak little things. When I hopped onto Runway and I just did three clicks on a subject and it was perfectly masked out, I was like, Oh my God, this is lifesaver! It saved me a few hours.
How has Runway changed your process?
You know, the biggest thing for me is like being able to have things done really quickly. I'm usually working with really fast turnaround times. I’m traveling around. To be able to log onto my computer anywhere and not carry around three hard drives is huge. I can just quickly upload, edit, use one of the effects, and then pop it out. That’s huge, to me.
For example, one of my clients is Alicia Keys. With her, I’m usually traveling somewhere with her and it’s last minute. Like I was just in Miami with her and she wanted some video to post on social media right away. Runway allowed me to do that.
What sort of projects do you want to work on next?
I really want to create more eye-catching visuals. Things that make you wonder how it was made (since I love watching those kinds of videos from others). So things like stop motion, VFX, and overall capturing moments that stand out. I'm always trying to push myself as a creator and step out of my comfort zone.