Production Diary: Music Video

First really big setback: the guy with the octocopter isn't going to make it. I've sent an email to a couple people he recommended I get in touch with, but since the shoot is less than 36 hours away, I'm not hopeful.

My backup plan is to strap my gopro to a kite and send it up. I've got the app for my phone, so I can see the footage as we're recording and control the camera. I'm just hoping the housing will handle it if (when) we crash it...I'm guessing it will.

Of course, if anyone has other ideas, let me know!
 
cameronchapman said:
First really big setback: the guy with the octocopter isn't going to make it. I've sent an email to a couple people he recommended I get in touch with, but since the shoot is less than 36 hours away, I'm not hopeful.

My backup plan is to strap my gopro to a kite and send it up. I've got the app for my phone, so I can see the footage as we're recording and control the camera. I'm just hoping the housing will handle it if (when) we crash it...I'm guessing it will.

Of course, if anyone has other ideas, let me know!
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That's a shame but the octocopter was not crucial. If you safely climb to a higher level can you get a good 'look down' shot?

I guess it's too late to see if someone from say the radio control club has a chopper that you could mount the GoPro too. The kite could work but you risk wrecking the GoPro if the landing is bad.
 
IndiePaul said:
The kite could work but you risk wrecking the GoPro if the landing is bad.
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I'm hoping the housing will protect it against any too terrible landings. And hopefully they way I mount it will also provide some protection (still working that part out).

CraigL said:
With your new jib, you could stick that out a window from that tower thing you and do some sweeps or pedestals with it, kind of simulating the flying part.

CraigL
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If there were windows on the correct side of the tower, that would work. But I don't think there are. I'm not sure about roof access, but that might be a possibility. Of course with my fear of heights there's absolutely zero chance I'd go to the roof, but one of the two guys helping me out I'm sure would have no problem going up there (one used to work for the circus, so he's used to heights and precarious situations).
 
cameronchapman said:
I'm hoping the housing will protect it against any too terrible landings. And hopefully they way I mount it will also provide some protection (still working that part out).
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Mounted to a suspension cradle inside a rigid chassis? Kinda like a mic shock mount inside a lightweight soft plastic tub perhaps?

The go-pro + kite will be light, so not too much kinetic energy on impact at least. The cradle will help buffer any vibrations in flight too.
 
A.D. said:
Mounted to a suspension cradle inside a rigid chassis? Kinda like a mic shock mount inside a lightweight soft plastic tub perhaps?

The go-pro + kite will be light, so not too much kinetic energy on impact at least. The cradle will help buffer any vibrations in flight too.
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Might do something like that. Not entirely sure yet.

The most important part of the production preparation is now underway! I'm baking cupcakes for everyone for tomorrow! :lol: (Desserts are kind of my thing, and I figure I can withhold cupcakes to bribe them into doing things...)
 
Taking a second to post while the band gets their gear loaded. So far today has gone far better than I could have hoped! We're about to head into the tower for a final shot before calling it a day.
 
cameronchapman said:
Taking a second to post while the band gets their gear loaded. So far today has gone far better than I could have hoped! We're about to head into the tower for a final shot before calling it a day.
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Sweet!!! Am filming today too (not a cool video shot unfort). Just taking 30 mins break because we had to switch the freezer back on - ruins the audio otherwise.

Final shot of the day for you already. Nice! :)
 
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IndiePaul said:
Sweet!!! Am filming today too (not a cool video shot unfort). Just taking 30 mins break because we had to switch the freezer back on - ruins the audio otherwise.

Final shot of the day for you already. Nice! :)
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Yeah, our day went really smoothly. Ended up with about 35-40 takes of the guys playing (I think they were ready to throw me off the tower if I'd made them play it much more), plus some other cool footage of them doing things, just taking advantage of what the location had to offer.

My two PAs set up a zip line while I got some shots of the band playing, which solved our drone shot issue. And I ended up changing some of my plans on the fly as far as shots went. But I think it worked out better.

My hula hoop fig rig worked way better than I could have hoped for, as did my tripod steadicam. I set the GoPro up under some sheet metal to get some low super wide shots of the band while I was getting some tripod shots (that was fun, as my PAs were working on the zip line, which meant I was controlling two cameras and starting the music all by myself (workflow for anyone who's interested: start recording on main cam, run over to start the music, and then immediately start the GoPro with the wifi remote or phone app)! :yes: )

Also, a tandem (side-by-side) baby stroller works AWESOME as a dolly. Super maneuverable. I think that might have been my favorite set of shots from the day.

Here's one of my favorite behind-the-scenes shots of the day (my co-producer/bassist warming up while I set up my camera)...



And here's the hula hoop fig rig in case you didn't see the other thread I posted it in:



The main thing is that we all had a great time, got some great footage (I have yet to review it, but I'm sure it's mostly great), and no one fell in a hole (that was my one rule for the day). We've got a couple more scenes to shoot for the narrative parts of the video and then it's on to editing. Want to have it finished by the first week in November so we can enter SXSW (the drummer has played in the music portion of the festival 8 or 9 times, I'm hoping that will give us some kind of advantage, no matter how tiny).

I'll post more pics as I get them from the rest of the crew/band.

ETA: Here's the baby stroller camera dolly. Super maneuverable. Able to do all sorts of funky movements with it. (The idea was from the tall guy behind the stroller, who used to work for the circus and I guess has been involved in some filming for them).

 
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That all looks so cool. So good to hear that everything went so well. Hey, that looks like a pretty serious tripod head. What is it? Can't wait to see the video.
 
richy said:
That all looks so cool. So good to hear that everything went so well. Hey, that looks like a pretty serious tripod head. What is it? Can't wait to see the video.
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It's a Pearstone VT-2000. Nothing special, got it for about $80. It's a semi-fluid head so if you're really careful you can get decent panning shots with it.

So today I'm working on getting my new MacBook Pro up and running, as my old one won't handle the 2.7k and 4k footage I got with the GoPro (it barely handles HD footage anymore). As soon as I get some basic color correction done, I'll post frames.

We got so much footage yesterday that I'm not sure we're going to film all the narrative scenes we had planned and may scale that back quite a bit. We'll see if we have any big gaps once I get really into the editing process. With 35-40 takes of the band, I'm not seeing that as likely, but who knows.
 
The general consensus along the band members is that yesterday's shoot was awesome ("best day ever" was used more than once) and that it totally exceeded expectations. That's a huge deal for me, since this is my first music video, and really my first film project that actually includes other people. As soon as I finish migrating everything to my new MacBook, I can start the editing Of what we have...
 
GoPro Frame Grabs!

Here are a couple of frames from the GoPro. No color correction, no adjustments whatsoever, this is just the raw footage. Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed by it. I'm sure I could get more out of it with some practice, too.

This one is 4k, shot from the zip line on its way down. (I did rotate this one, as the original footage is upside down).



This one is 2.7k, shot from the edge of a trench in the floor looking up at the band.



Next post will have some frame grabs from my GH1.
 
Here are some frames from my hacked GH1. It's a custom hack, but I'm pretty sure I based it on the Blackout Powell 42 hack...







Look at that motion blur! :cool:

The next one I'm really impressed with. It was done kind of on the fly. All we had for lights were two battery-powered warm white LED lantern lights (with no lanterns), and a flashlight. My two PAs (both very tall guys) held the lights and aimed them for me as I walked around the band guys, who were all standing with their backs against this post. ISO was set to 400 I'm pretty sure (might have been 640, but I think I was getting some very ugly noise at that setting, so I dropped it back down). Aperture I think was 4. And this was the result:

 
Spent the afternoon with my co-producer going over all the raw footage. I made some notes about which parts we liked in each take, which takes we can pretty much just toss, and how we might want to edit certain sections. He also told me some things to watch out for.

We found a few funny clips where one of my PAs is actually stretched out in the background napping (yes, that's how smoothly things were going, my PAs had time for naps). We decided that we want to use those clips, because it pretty much looks like there's a dead guy in the background. :lol:

Now I've got to put everything we have so far together into a rough cut. I'm hoping to get that knocked out this weekend, honestly. Then he and I will go over it again and see if there are any shots we want to swap out, where things need to be tightened up, etc., and then we've got a bit more narrative footage to incorporate (once we get it filmed).

I'm still shooting for a first-week-of-November completion date, so we can make the late deadline for SXSW. After seeing all the footage, I'm actually feeling okay about our chances (like I said in previous posts, the drummer has played SXSW 8 or 9 times, has toured Europe, etc., and my co-producer was in a band that almost went to SXSW, but they broke up about the same time the invite came).

I may post a few short clips once I get the rough cut done, to get some feedback.
 
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