Production Diary: Music Video

I've started in on the rough cut, and took a break to play around with some color grading options (that's my favorite part, so I tend to mess around with it periodically throughout the editing process). Here's one thing I came up with, layering some prebuilt looks:



I want to go pretty extreme with the grading, since it's a music video (and I feel like I can get away with it more in this format).
 
Very rough cut is done!

I just finished up the (very) rough cut of the video. We're still missing some bits at the beginning and end (that we have yet to film), and maybe one part in the middle, but otherwise it's coming together nicely. The rough cut probably took about 6 hours to put together (not including the time spent reviewing the footage earlier in the week). Matching up all the footage was way simpler than I thought it was going to be. Next up is going over the rough cut with my co-producer to see what he likes/doesn't like, and then filming the last narrative bits. Then it's on to finalizing and locking the edits, adding effects (there are quite a few), and color grading...
 
Zensteve said:
What kind of effects are you adding?

.
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It's pretty basic stuff, but the band footage is supposed to look like a pirate tv signal, so there are parts that will have static, etc. there's also the fake drone footage that needs to have some text/crosshairs/etc. added to it. And there will possibly be some minor green screen with a tv (so the video looks like it's playing).
 
Not sure if you can but it would be great - once post is complete - to see your rough cut versus your completed and color corrected released video. I think that would be very helpful to see. Anyway, just an idea.

It's great it all went so well. Looking forward to seeing the video once released.
 
IndiePaul said:
Not sure if you can but it would be great - once post is complete - to see your rough cut versus your completed and color corrected released video. I think that would be very helpful to see. Anyway, just an idea.

It's great it all went so well. Looking forward to seeing the video once released.
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I may put the rough cut up on Vimeo (with a password) for anyone who wants to take a look. Gotta just double-check with my co-producer to make sure he's cool with that. But I'll definitely do some side-by-side comparison shots with the rough cut vs. the final video when it's done.
 
We have one more bit to film this Saturday evening. Luckily this part is being filmed at my house, so at least that simplifies things. Basically, we're filming a series of shots that will be a guy watching TV.

As soon as we're done filming, my co-producer and I are going to review the footage (instead of having to meet up days later, which of course slows down the editing process). We may dive right into editing, too. That all depends on how late it is.

One thing I'm trying to figure out is how best to light this scene (and any suggestions would be very helpful). Basically, the room is supposed to be lit up by the TV. I'm going to have the TV on (I'm probably going to create some kind of custom video loop to play to get a more consistent lighting scheme from it). But I'd like to add some additional ambient lighting to the room that will mimic the TV. And it's gotta be something cheap and/or DIY.
 
We were supposed to film the final part of the video tonight, but had to push it back a day. So tomorrow we'll film the final narrative parts, and hopefully then I can get it all edited this coming week.

We're still waiting on the final master of the song to come back from the guy doing it.

But otherwise it's all shaping up better than I'd hoped. And the few delays and setbacks we've had seem relatively minor when I read about some of the things a lot of producers and directors deal with on other shoots. And considering we've done this on basically a zero budget (other than what my co-producer and I have spent on gear, etc. out of pocket, and a hundred dollars or so for food for the two shooting days).

Fingers crossed I can get the performance I need from my actor tomorrow night. It's not exactly an easy scene to do, even though it's relatively simple. The main thing is making him feel comfortable enough to do the things that need to be done (which is why there are only going to be three of us there, me, him, and my co-producer).
 
Got the last of our footage filmed last night and this morning. Lighting was an issue. I ended up having to use my old vintage Helios lens because the kit lens I'd been using just wasn't letting in enough light. I needed a static shot of a TV to composite in some footage for one small clip, and I naively thought I'd be able to get a decent shot last night. Way too noisy and looked like crap. So I refilmed it this morning (nice cloudy day so the light is super flat in that room) and added some night-for-day effects in After Effects, and it looks a whole lot better than the footage I got last night looked. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but hopefully I can get it to where it needs to be.

We only managed one take of each of the four inserts last night, mostly because continuity would have been nearly impossible otherwise. But my actor NAILED it. Glad we don't have to use the sound, because we were all cracking up during the whole thing.
 
Just finished up the "final" cut of the video. At this point, the only thing left to do is go over it with my co-producer and make any final changes. I'm pretty freaking happy with the way it's turned out. I can't wait to share it with everyone here.

We'll definitely make our goal of finishing it before the SXSW deadline, so that's a plus.

One thing that screwed me up tonight was that I erased the way I had some of the footage when importing some new clips into the sequence, so that set me back a bit. Luckily it was only 2 clips, so it only took a few minutes to fix it, but it still sucked. Need to be more careful in the future with things like that...:blush:
 
It happens. :)

I'd like to take a look at it when it's done. If you're concerned about posting temp links publicly, just PM it to a few peeps. :bag:
 
Zensteve said:
It happens. :)

I'd like to take a look at it when it's done. If you're concerned about posting temp links publicly, just PM it to a few peeps. :bag:
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My co-producer and I are getting together at some point this week to finish off the edits (I told him that now that we're down to just tweaking minor things, it's going to be a lot easier and quicker to just sit down and do them together rather than me doing them, rendering them, uploading them to Vimeo, etc.), and then I will definitely share a link, either in this thread or privately to whoever wants to see it.
 
A few more color grading options I've been playing around with. I'm still partial to the first one I posted further up the thread, but we'll see what my co-producer thinks...









 
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