A music video I shot for director Miles Crawford is up on YouTube and Vimeo. We shot this video using the 5D and a GoPro camera. It’s right up there as one of my favorites. Congrats to Miles and all involved. Hope you enjoy it and if so, please share with your friends.
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New music video soon…
Have a new music video to share soon. I shot the video for director Miles Crawford (our second music video together). For this project we again used the Canon 5D as well as the GoPro for some fun POV shots. The video is for a fantastic song and for it we’ve shot a warm hearted story that I’m very proud of – looking forward to sharing the video as well as more details very soon.
Stuff I did is now online
Director David Green just put up a slew of projects he and I worked on together.
“Meltdown” (on Funny or Die & Vimeo)
Meltdown made it to the to front page of Digg.com and became a “Staff Pick” on Vimeo.com on the day David debuted it online. I’ve posted plenty of times the awards this project has received since we made it but I’m especially proud of the numerous Audience Choice awards it’s won here in the US and as far away as South Korea. Now, you too can finally see it in it’s entirety. This was our first project together and my first with the third member of our triumvirate, Producer Ryan Hendricks. In recent day’s it’s gotten a slew of press. Watch and enjoy.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/fd62a2e666/meltdown
http://www.vimeo.com/23464277
“This Must Be The Place” (Cover) – music video for Miles Fisher
http://vimeo.com/19379399
Liquid Flow Commercial
http://vimeo.com/20691529
Trojan2Go – Sri Lanka
http://vimeo.com/20695069
2 Weeks, 3 Music Videos
No. 1: It’s been a fun, albeit difficult, two weeks. In that time, I had the opportunity to shoot three music videos, all very different and all with talented directors with whom it’s our first time working together. The series started with a video for the very funny Rachel Bloom. Her video for a song called “I Steal Pets” is about… well you figure it out. The video was directed by Paul Briganti. Can’t wait to share when it’s done.
UPDATE: It’s online and ready to be viewed. Enjoy it at CollegeHumor.com
No. 2: The second video is for a contest being held by Moby and Saatchi and Saatchi for the Hello, Future competition. The video is directed by Peter Johnston for the song “Be The One”. This one got done real quick in time for the competition deadline and you can see it on Vimeo now or here:
No. 3: The last one is for a band from New York called Tiny Animals. While in town playing a few shows, they hooked up with friend and the video’s director, Josh Garrell. I can say precious little about the concept except a beach, glow-in-the-dark rave sticks and a moonless night with awesome results. It was great working Josh again (I’ve worked with him in his other life as an Assistant Director) as well as the always fun to be with make-up artist, Jessica Hoffman. Also in the works and will show it for sure when it’s done.
On to the tech stuff. All the project were shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with the first two using my personal Picture Style profile and the last using the new Technicolor CineStyle profile (very nice). We used a host of lenses but mostly the Sigma 24-70mm lens (T2.8), Sigma 15-30mm (T3.5-4.5) and Canon 50mm macro (T2.5). My thoughts on the Technicolor profile? Best so far for maximizing the dynamic range of the camera’s HDSLR features.
Congrats to all the directors, it was a blast. On to the next one…
fan music video shoot…
Between having fun with my new son, I was able to get a couple of days in shooting with Miles Crawford again on a music video for the Sufjan Stevens song “Futile Devices“. Much like how the Darwin Deez DNA music video started out, it’s not an “officially” sanctioned video by the label but like DNA, hopefully it will be.
It’s an endearing little video for a wonderfully endearing little song. Can’t wait to share more soon but for now here the lowdown on some of what we did. We shot again with the ubiquitous Canon 5D and this time also with the GoPro Hero. The 5D served as our narrative camera and the GoPro as a point-of-view camera. The video takes place in one apartment east Hollywood. It’s all very natural in its visual makeup with moments of strong and graphic compositions. Most of the video was shot with a Sigma T2.8 24-70mm still photography lens and a few shots using the Canon 50mm Macro T2.5 lens.
Hopefully the video will be ready to view in a couple of weeks – I’m sure by then it’ll be purrrfect, in fact it might be the cat’s meow. (dropping hints)
The GoCam about to spring into action atop of our lead actor, the very funny Barak Hardley. It’s a good look, kitten.
Prepping the “cat” POV camera. ← Me on the left and → Miles (director) on the right. Meow.
Darwin Deez “DNA” on MTV UK
Oh to be recognized in one’s own country… maybe someday soon. It seems that progress is happening with a music video I shot earlier this year. The video for Darwin Deez, “DNA” is airing in the UK on MTV. The project was directed by Miles Crawford. (Hopefully we’ll be seeing more from him very soon.) Below is the official TV version of the video. A version with a longer intro is online at the director’s YouTube site .
YouTube / Cracked.com music video
Talk about a last minute music video project. I think I got a call from the director, Justin Viar, on Sunday for a shoot on Wednesday with a delivery on the following Sunday. Wham, bam… The project is a comedy music video commissioned by YouTube.com through Cracked.com. The video takes place at a camp fire sing-along. When one of the little tykes decides to be a clown, he is quickly put in his place by the camp counselor and other kids. Dark? A little, but hopefully fun and funny.
We shot it with the old but still reliable Panasonic HVX200 and one overhead shot where we used the Canon 5D off a “menace-arm”.
Lighting came from the always generous Luka Grip and Electric in Burbank and consisted of 1200HMI, Image 85, Kino 4-bank 4′ and 2′, and assortment of tungsten heads and a small gaggle of gripage.
The video should be done this weekend and should have a link to the video next week.
Here’s the lighting plan (click to view).
Here are some pics from the shoot:
Gaffer: Drew Aiello
Grip: Eric Tolzmann
Swing: Brian “The Beard” Eastveld
DNA music video…
At last I can share and you can enjoy the latest music video I shot. The video is for the song “DNA” by Darwin Deez. It’s been noted as the “un-official” video since, while it has the blessing from the artist, it isn’t the official video for the song.
I
had a happy moment the other day because when I scrolled down the YouTube page for the video, the first comment I saw said, “I love this DP”. Delightful!
From today…
In case you misread, “masterpiece”… Recognize!
The video was directed by Miles Crawford with choreography by Jashua Pelatzky. We shot it on the Canon 5D (Canon: 35mm, 50mm Macro, 85mm – Sigma: 28-300mm, 15-30mm).
Great job to all involved.
15 June:
One last thing. I read this review for the video from 9 June. Very nice things to say.
http://www.inertia-music.com/2010/06/video-darwin-deez-releases-kooky-dance-video-for-dna/
16 June:
Another very nice review for the video:
http://inoneear.co.uk/news/8983-darwin-deez-announces-tour-unofficial-video
Baby Maker music video
UPDATE: Mar 6: Funny or Die picked “Baby Maker” as a featured pick today and linked to in on the front page. Hope the momentum keeps going…
UPDATE: Mar 3: It’s up and ready for you to shake your money maker to. Keep you’re eyes out for the baby maker dance, it’s gonna be big at the clubs yo.
Baby Maker – watch more funny videos Please visit the site and vote for this video.
Feb 20: Shot a music video called “Baby Maker” for Reno Wilson (aka Lil’ Problem). It’s a parody of rap videos and it’s real funny. The video is directed by Andy Lerner (wish I had a cool nick name for him, but I got nothing). Shot here in Los Angeles and Torrance using two Panasonic HVX200 we managed to cram lots of locations into two very productive days. The video has since been finished and should be available for viewing very soon.
Reno (er’ Lil Problem) looking sporty on the green screen
Working the choreography in the padded room
Andy (Dir) with the ladies (dancers)
Andy again with the ladies
Watching playback of the madness that just happened on the Anytime with Bob Kushell set with Blair Underwood as the host
Crane, crowds, kids, cars, and Jason Mews – It’s a good day.
Miles Fisher music video
2009 Aug 7: Over the half million mark on break.com (531,145) and on YouTube.com it’s at 123,188. Awesome!
2009 July 25: Combined hits has reached over 400,000!!! The video can be viewed at the following sites:
http://www.break.com/index/amazing-american-psycho-music-video.html
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1917592
http://www.milesfisher.com/music.htm
Do a search for “Miles Fisher” and you’ll find dozens upon dozens of links to the video and links to the video on YouTube. Please hit 1 million soon!
2009 July 21: It’s here… children of the 80′s rejoice. I can finally talk about the music video I worked on recently. The video was for Miles Fisher . It’s a re-imagined take on the Talking Heads song “This Must Be The Place” set to a musical version of American Psycho. Inspired! The project is directed by David Green, produced by Jake Avnet and Ryan Hendricks and lensed by your truly. I’ll post some picture and post some stories from the shoot after I’m done with the feature I’m shooting right now. Until then, here’s a link to the video so you can watch. Comment, share and enjoy. It’s wicked cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29d6RDSK1c
Here are some pics from the shoot. I’ll write more after I finish the feature I’m on.
2009 July 19: Final cut and final color is done on the video. There should be an online version Wednesday. Hope you all like it.
2009 June 29: Just finished an awesome music video. I am, sadly, sworn to secrecy until it comes out. Curious much?! Here’s what I can say and I mentioned this on Facebook… great artist, great song, great concept and a great super model. Tantalizing isn’t it.
Jeff Caudill – music video
This turned into quite a cool project. It’s a music video for Jeff Caudill and his new album, Try To Be Here for the song “Remember the Time”. The project was directed by long-time friend and music video collaborator, Guy Julian.
↑ Guy J. (director) talks about the shot.
→ Here’s a quick-and-dirty frame of what the final video will likely look like. While on set we wanted to see if the green will composite well – and it did. In addition, we added a mild vignette and as you see, the green in the frames have been replaced with a black-and-white image.
In the final video, the picture frames will have a still image or a series of animated still images.
Are you ready for your close-up?
More news in the coming weeks (or given my schedule, maybe next month).
Fifi Larue – “The Gothic Killer Clown”
Are you ready to rock?!
I’m not gonna lie – my first reaction was, “Whaaaaa?!” But that faded faster than a knife fight in a phone booth soon after hearing the song and seeing the photographs of the band. It reminded me of when music videos were called “music promos” (probably a better name) and KISS was king of the airways.
The video was for the band Fifi Larue and for their song “The Gothic Killer Clown”. It was directed by Jonathan Bowen for whom I’ve shot two other bands with earlier year and with luck we’ll be shooting a short film very soon. This video was part of a series for a book he’s writing on making music videos. This one happens to be the no-budget video. Here’s a brief breakdown: we had four hours to shoot, two cameras, practically no lights and three crew folks total (the director, myself, and an additional camera operator). Crazy tight but, in the spirit of the endeavor, we came at it guns a blazin’.
Despite it being a small project, lots of thought went into it. For one thing, Jonathan proposed using a plugin for the video called “Toonit” by Red Giant Software that makes live action look like animation. Commercials for the investment company Charles Schawb have used the look as well as movies like A Scanner Darkly. The features of the plugin coupled with the high contrast, concert-like look of the location and the band’s fun and “animated” appearance I think will be a good marriage for the final look of the piece. In thinking about how to shoot it, I decided it would be a good time to bring back the fast zoom. I proposed the idea to Jonathan and he liked it. Setting the camera to manual zoom, I racked the zoom in and out like a crazed monkey to the beat of the music or lyrics of the song. Add to that a slightly high shutter speed (1/120) and what you get is a look like a series of rapidly cut still images that bounce back and forth from MS to CU or MS to WS. It’s surprisingly effective and visually impacting.
We shot with two Panasonic HVX200 cameras set to ƒ2.0, 1/120 shutter, and 12dB. The camera was set to my personal neutral settings trying to get the most out of the shadows detail. We shot in Anaheim, CA at Mirror Image Studios. It’s a place for rehearsals but also used to showcase bands. The lighting was all there but we did add one light on the lead singer for the stage shots.
To break things up, I proposed shooting just the lead singer for the chorus with two lights hitting him from slightly rear, three-quarters back. It’s a look I remember used in the Pink music video for the Charlie’s Angels sequel. In that video, the image was made two tone and sprinkled throughout the video. Shoulder’s of giants…
My friend Guy Julian is know to say, “You’re never rocking as hard as you think you are.” Well, one of the guitar players did. So much so that he banged his eyelid with the head of the guitar, possible by one of the tuning keys. Got himself a one inch gash that kept wanting to bleed from time to time and when it did, it was as welcomed as an outhouse breeze. Did I mention we only had four hours to shoot?
Jonathan did a great job putting it all together, the band couldn’t have been more gracious and now, with luck, you should be able to see it very soon. Till then…
Autumn Tragedy music video
23 Sept 2008
It’s cut and ready to see – here’s a link to the music video. I’ll also post it on my resume page in the coming days. Turned out very nice. I’ll likely still add a few more touches to the color correction. Enjoy.
15 Sept 2008
Just finished a music video for the band Autumn Tragedy and their song, “Ignis Fatuus”. Shot in a warehouse space in Corona. The project was directed by Jonathan Bowen with whom I also shot the music video for the band Winded earlier this year.
The following are frame-grabs from the shoot. I’ve been playing with some looks, so while they’ve been affected, it isn’t the final look of the project. A million thanks to the crew for all their help today! Can’t wait till this project is edited and we can go to grading. It’s gonna look good!!
Who says the production community isn’t making an effort to go green.
Rockchild – music video
Band: Rockchild ( mySpace page )
Song: Winded
Director: Jonathan Bowen
It was a fairly quick start to the shot. I met with the director a couple of weeks before shooting and within a few days, we took a look at one building near the Warehouse District. It offered a great view of Downtown and the building had a great “aesthetic of decay” but was lacking what we needed for the narrative portion of the video. When the UPM (Aaron R.) came on board, he suggested Willow Studios – a place he’d shot at recently. For what we would have paid to do the production design at the other location we got a location with several pre-existing sets already dressed. It worked out better than we could have hoped.
The video breaks down to performance footage shot by day and night and a narrative element also shot by day and night.
LIGHTING PLAN & SUN PATH
↑ ↑ My shutter speed/foot-candle cheat sheet (click to view).
↓ ↓ My notes for the lighting of the performance footage. The notes are just that, notes. The shiny boards were focused and moved around as needed and the notes on camera placements for A- and B-camera changed slightingly too, but you get the idea. I always get a kick when I see the lighting plans realized on set.
For the night performance, we danced around 80-120 foot-candles. This accommodated the higher shutter speed we were using – usually around 1/120 or 72°. All the MolePARs were aimed straight ahead with the globe’s patterns spread horizontally. All the lights were plugged into 6K Magic Gadget Shadow Makers on a fairly fast and random flicker. For the day performance, we used shiny boards to edge light the members of the band and a 1200HMI to fill faces.
We shot with two Panasonic HVX200 cameras to capture as much coverage of the performance footage as we could using. The editor was on set downloading the footage was soon as a scene or block of footage was shot.
↓ → The next image indicates where the sun would be in the sky at given times of the day. I used SunPath to generate the coordinates and Intaglio to create the text on the map from Google Earth. It’s a quick visual indicator of where the sun will be without breaking out a compass.
↑ ↑ Day performance with downtown skirting the background.
↑ → Jib shots. Rock on!!
↑ ↑ Night performance on the roof above LA.
↑ ↑ Now that’s a damn sexy shot.
↑ ↑ The show’s other rock stars, Key Grip Dwight S. & Chief Lighting Technician Josh D.
↑ ↑ Trust me, she looks so much prettier when the curlers are gone.
→ → The director and 1st AD, Josh G. talk about what’s next. The decision? Lots more cool stuff!
↑ ↑ Someone save Josh!!!
Map of where we shot – Willow Studios.
All in all, it was a fairly smooth running show.
This video couldn’t have been a cool as it was if not for the generous support from Luka Grip & Lighting. Thank you for all your support on this and previous productions.
Luka Grip & Lighting : +1 (818) 565-5580
The gear: 2-Ton Grip Truck, 600Amp Genie, MolePARs (MFL), Barger Baglight 6K, 5K Junior, Kino, Arri Light Kits, 1200HMI, 5x MG Shadowmaker
"The End of You" – CD release party & music video
Tonight at the Roxy was the CD release party of Sara Mann’s album “End of You”. The night included her performing in concert and showcasing the first music video to kick off the CD. The video is for the title song “End of You”, directed by Guy Julian and shot by yours truly. (You may have already read about the making of the video in an earlier entry.)
Here are some photos from tonight’s event as well as a link to the video.
Click here to watch the video
↓ ← The album’s cover art
↓ → The video’s a.k.s. guy – Toby Wallwork & the director – Guy Julian
↓ ↓ My wife (the show’s food stylist, production designer and make-up) with our friend and show’s drummer Miles
I do love the black and white.
"The End of You" – music video
What a glorious weekend – shooting a music video for singer/songwriter Sara Mann. It’s for a song from her upcoming album. You can listen to the song, “The End of You”, on her mySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/mannsara The video should be available for viewing by Valentines day. Keep a look out for it.
From a home in North Hollywood, the video includes both a performance and a narrative story element. The project is directed by Guy Julian – a name you’ll see often in the music video section of my resume. We shot the project using the Panasonic HVX200. As you may have read in a previous entry, I recently purchased a Lensbaby 3G and have been mostly using it for still photography. The Lensbaby is a selective focus lens. But after having seen it used on the feature film, “The Butterfly and the Diving Bell”, this seemed like a good device for what we were doing and a fine, real world test for an upcoming short film I’ll be shooting where the Lensbaby will get some use. To get the Lensbaby to work with the HVX, we used a Letus35 Extreme lens adaptor (↓ see photo). The Letus35 is an adaptor for using 35mm lenses on video cameras. Both worked extremely well in this application. The frame below was shot with the Lensbaby without any iris rings (ƒ/2.0). As expected from some testing my friend Clay and I did with the camera a few weeks back, the camera performed as expected. In this configurations, the camera is performing with an EI of 200.
↓ ↓ The following two photos are from shots that we did in hallway were we zoomed out on the camera enough to see the edges of the ground glass and partially see the mirrors on the Letus35. Personally, I love this stuff. It’s reminiscent of things I’ve gotten during telecine. Here we used a Nikkor 50mm (ƒ/1.8) lens.
↓ ↓ Below is the final lighting plan for the performance footage. In this room, hundreds of cards were hung buy fishing line – it’s an element of the song. The Lekos on the fireplace have Alice Blue (incidentally, the color is named after Alice Roosevelt Longworth – her favorite color and who happens to be Theodore Roosevelt’s eldest daughter). These lights flickered by using a Magic Gadget flicker box. They had been meant to wash the room with blue but they ended up being a blue wash for the background. Still good and perhaps better this way. The band is mostly backlit by Dedo lights and 420 Pepper lights which are also on the flicker box. They’re kept low to hit the lens from time to time as they pass through the hanging cards as we dolly back and forth. By and large, we shot wide open on the camera (ƒ/1.7) and with a 1/250 shutter (35°)
↑ ↑ From L > R: Phil Hurley (guitar) / Miles Crawford (drums) / Michael Eisenstein (bass) – Phil is in a band call “Stoneyhoney” -n- Miles has played in “Stomp” for years -n- Michael with his wife Kay Hanley were part of “Letters to Cleo” and is currently producing. If you look at the photo on the left toward the bottom right you see she show’s mascot, Maya.
↓ ↓ For the verses, we dolly in to one set of for two lines in the lyrics, then the set is changed and we then dolly out from the new set. We shot some balloons against a greenscreen and that’ll be composited between the shots. Many thanks to my wife for doing the set design and make-up.
↑ ↑ Guy directing Sara on our New Year’s set.
We had one set that needed to look like a dinner scene. Steaks for the shot where browned using a propane blow torch. Since my wife is a chef and she’s done food styling before, the trick not only worked it was fun too. I know because I got to brown one of the steaks – boys do love fire . The only thing that went on the steaks is a sprinkle of course salt. As I browned the one steak, I was struck by how like painting it was. I would darken an area and them move to the edges and fry the fat and blacken the bone and then darken another area until I felt it was done.
Vendors:
Camera : Indie Rentals
Grip & Electric : Wooden Nickel
Drum set sound dampeners : SIR
Ah yes… your moment of Zen. (Toby, our IT guy, our playback guy and all-round good guy.)
"My Beautiful One" – music video
Here’s a quick-look-see at some frame grabs from the latest music video I lensed featuring the singer Damon Dae and directed by Teo. It’s a great R&B song, which is a nice change (the “great” part is not a dig but rather the fact that it’s an R&B song is nice) and it’s helmed by a smart director (which is always nice).
We shot it using the Panasonic HVX200 in DVCPro HD. We also did some off-speed playback. Our playback was sped up by 150%, 133% and 125%. The effect is that when our singer sings he appears to be in slow motion by is still singing in time with the music. I know it’s a bit of old-hat for music videos but I still love it. You’ll perhaps be surprised to find out that the exterior footage, while looking like it was shot at night, was actually shot during the late morning under the full sun of a clear Indian summer sky.
{ view the video }
UPDATE: The music video screened tonight at the Bungalow Lounge to an audience of friends, family, and industry folk. It was very well received – let’s hope it turns into more shoots!
Straightedge music video
11 June
Well, I didn’t get to shoot that straightedge movie last year but now it looks like I’ll be shooting a straightedge music video. The band’s called Deathstar. The director is Frank P. – he was to be the director of the feature. We’ll be shooting in the “909″.
Fyuzion telecine
Our first look-see of the footage since we shot it and I have to say, “not bad, not bad”. It definitely doesn’t look like a hip-hop video. The transfer took place at Entertainment Post in Burbank.
It rained today. Our colorist, Guy, was a half hour late as were we. It could have been a sign of things to come but it wasn’t. Our use of high speed and high shutter angle had me terribly worried but most of that worry didn’t materialize. All but approximately six shots turned out better than I had anticipated. The six or so were casualties of too little time and too many expectations. I think they’ll be salvageable when during the online session. We transfered the footage to DVCAM. It was a one-light transfer with Keycode and timecode burn-in.
So what happens next. The footage will be edited in the coming week by editor Tony Hope. Once the director is happy with the cut, we’ll conform the EDL for 24 fps. That EDL is then taken to our post facility, “Tunnel Post” and the selected shots are then scanned at 2K from our camera originals. (Some might be scanned at 4K for zoom and re-composition.) Compositing and dust-busting are done in Apple Shake or After Effects and a very preliminary color-correction is added and the image is cropped to 2.35:1. Final color-correction is done on Silicon Color FinalTouch in 2K. We’ll likely go back to CFI for our film-out, D-beta, etc.
Or at least, that’s the plan… stay tuned.
Fyuzion if finished…
…well at least the shooting is done.
We finished out a lovely 16 hour day yesterday in the OC. Photography for the video is all but done. The only thing left are the plates for the greenscreen. We returned to the music studio in Garden Grove.
Not much to report. It was busy and slow and off and on – a hurry up and wait sort of day. But the footage is really quite good. I can’t wait to show some stills of the footage in the coming weeks. I’ll write more later…
(Victor (1st AC) and Katie (1st AD) – notice the shirt (how appropriate!)
(Roscoe enjoys a Cup-o-Noodles between takes)
(spiky hair day)
(the last set-up of the show – sans the green screen plates)
(shot from the monitor)
(click on thumbnail to see lighting plan)
Notes for greenscreen lighting plan
This was totally low-budget but it worked surprisingly well. Here’s the low-down:
#1 - 1K Fresnel with 216 diffusion and three doubles on a “beaver board”
#2 - 650w Fresnels with 216 diffusion and two doubles on C-stands / 2 near the bottom (1′ off the ground) and 2 about 8′ off the ground
#3 - 2′ 4-bank Kino with Orange gel to simulate sodium vapor night light – approx. 5′ off the ground
#4 – 2′ 4-bank Kino as front fill on faces – approx. 4′ off the ground
#5 – 1K Fresnel on a C-stand with Orange gel to simulate street lights. NOTE: the light was panned, then shut off after it cleared the actor, reset to its first position and then panned again with a four second interval – approx. 9′ off the ground
#6 - 1K open face – not used but set to simulate an oncoming car light – approx. 4′ off the gound
The greenscreen was 11 feet (20 fc) from the car and varied no more than .3 of a stop. We shot at ƒ2.8 on a 35mm lens.
In total, we shot just under 12,000 feet of film. Our lab is CFI/Technicolor. We’ll be transferring a best light to DVCam and then a 2K scan of the footage for final color and visual effects. More on that later.
(Clay Delauney (Director) in the middle of an “Oh, my!” moment.)
(The crew flanked by our producer and our hero, Jeff Cole (far right))