Production Diary: Music Video

My co-producer seems to be leaning toward option 1.

I'm so eager to get this finished so that I can share a link with all of you! This is really only my third video project (the first was so bad it'll never see the light of day, and I'm actually pretty sure I don't even have a copy of it anymore), so I was nervous about being able to do what I wanted to with it. But so far it's exceeding my hopes. And everyone who has seen it (the guys in the band have been sharing my rough cuts with some other musicians) is impressed and has mentioned wanting me to do videos for them. Which I guess means I'm going to have to figure out what to charge for this kind of thing...:huh:
 
If you're exceeding the band's expectations and are feeling good about your own work and other bands are seeing the talent, then I bet it will be a success!
 
We finished up the video tonight! Took a couple hours of fine-tuning things, moving some clips around, messing with the color grading, etc. But I just did the final render and uploaded it to Vimeo (privately so the band, etc. can see).

I'm not ready to post the video link here yet, but if anyone wants to see it, either shoot me a PM or post here and I'll message you the link and password.

Next up is figuring out how we're going to launch this. We're definitely entering SXSW, and we're talking about doing a local premiere at a restaurant/bar/music venue. That part hasn't been figured out yet, but we'll decide soon. And at some point, once we have those things figured out, I'll post it publicly.
 
So despite "finishing" the video a couple days ago, I've noticed a couple issues with it that I'm going to take the time to fix. They're minor things, in the end, but super noticeable to me. I'm guessing this is pretty typical...
 
I'm converting the final video to upload to Vimeo as I type this. I had some last-minute changes that my co-producer deemed were necessary yesterday, and let me tell you, I don't think anything went right!

The biggest thing was that after creating a new comp in After Effects, it REFUSED to render correctly. I had to replace a clip in the video with the same clip set inside a TV screen (which happens a couple times during the video). So I'd check the timecode, match up the clip in After Effects, check it frame by frame to make sure it was right (it was only a 62-frame clip, so not a big deal), and render using Media Encoder. Pop the new clip into Premiere Pro and suddenly it wasn't matching up! I went through this three times! Finally, I rendered the video directly within AE and it worked. I'm still not sure why ME wasn't working, other than I noticed that in ME it was saying the clip was 2:18 when it was really 2:14 (which is what showed up in the AE render).

Then I was having massive issues getting the video to render. I rendered all the comps from AE and replaced them with ProRes clips, thinking that would massively speed things up. But renders were still taking 2+ hours, regardless of what settings I was using. I finally just left it to render overnight. And I'm finding that rendering a lossless clip from Premiere and then converting to additional formats with HandBrake is MUCH quicker (it takes, on average, about 5-15 minutes to convert the clips in HB).

Overall, though, this has been an awesome experience. I may post this final version here for everyone to see, I'll have to check with my co-producer first.
 
I spoke too soon. My co-producer is still not happy with a couple of trouble spots. :rolleyes: I think he and I are going to have to sit down together one more time to figure out the best solution. This is one of those times when I wish I had just a few more takes to pull footage from...because unfortunately I don't think we have anything close to a "perfect" clip for these spots. So it may be a case of "which clip has the least noticeable issues".

But I know in the end it's going to be worth it!
 
Maybe post a vimeo link here w/ password for some eyes on it? Perhaps the trouble spots aren't that troublesome or won't be that noticeable? Someone could chime in with a reasonable fix. Just a thought... :)
 
Just watched it - great job. :)

It was so cool getting to see the video after reading all your posts and knowing the huge amount of work and time that went into making it. Super stuff.

As for the hunter-killer UAV near the end, cool!

If you want feedback on what did not work for me, I'd say the KFC-eating-guy at the start was featured for too long. I would have cut to the band much earlier.

Overall, I thought you did great. :)
 
Beard rock!

Congrats on reaching the finish line! You must feel good to be done?

If I had to comment... my least favorite part: the blue shirt guy eating chicken went on too long and could easily be swapped out with more engaging content and footage that looks way better, especially since it's the first part of the video. But since you're done and not making edits, the kid stays in the picture. ;)

The band footage was decent, although more close-ups and some stylized slo-mo shots would have been useful in editing. But from what you mentioned in the diary you were feeling like you didn't get enough coverage so that's understood.

It's a solid first video with a lot of effort put forth, no doubt about that, but from a filmmaker's POV, a bit more finesse would help to ratchet up the end result.

Here's hoping you and the band have a successful run with it online and at festivals! :)
 
Thank you guys both for your feedback!

The next video (we're already planning it) is going to be way more involved. We're going to return to the radar base and film at the lower base, as well as in a cave at an abandoned copper mine (gotta secure permission on that one). We're going to involve more people, too.

My co-producer and I are going to go check out a music video shoot for one of our favorite bands this weekend, so I'm going to pay close attention to how they do things. Hopefully pick up some pointers.
 
Just sent off our SXSW entry for the video. I know it's a long-shot, but figured it was worth trying.

I'm also working on getting a premiere for the video set up at a club that does regular metal shows as part of one of their showcases. It's in the largest city around here, so it would be good exposure. I emailed them a couple days ago, just asking if they'd be interested in ever including a music video premiere, and they were definitely interested. So I emailed them the link to the video this morning (and name-dropped the drummer, who's other band is playing at this club next month). Hopefully they'll be down with it. I haven't told anyone in the band yet (including my co-producer) that I'm trying to set it up...
 
I have a question for you, Cameronchapman, Not sure if it is too personal, but around how much did you charge? are we talking hundreds? thousands? ten thousands? Just out of curiosity since i myself do music videos and don't really always know what to charge. I did realize you did spend ALOT of time on this, so thats why i'm curious.
 
rogypro said:
I have a question for you, Cameronchapman, Not sure if it is too personal, but around how much did you charge? are we talking hundreds? thousands? ten thousands? Just out of curiosity since i myself do music videos and don't really always know what to charge. I did realize you did spend ALOT of time on this, so thats why i'm curious.
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This video was done for free, actually. My co-producer (who's also the bassist/vocalist for the band) and I pretty much split the expenses on it. He's one of my closest friends, and I'm currently trying to build up a decent reel so I can start going after some paid gigs. We're talking to two other bands about doing videos (one is another band the drummer in this video is in, the other is a band we're huge fans of), which we'll also do for free.

Honestly, I have no idea what we'll end up charging once we start actually getting paid work. From what I understand, bands in the Boston area generally pay in the range of $3,000 to $5,000 for a basic video. So it will most likely be somewhere in that range.
 
We're in the process of scheduling our premiere for sometime in December (I'm talking to the music promoter for the bar we want to premiere at, and he's just trying to get other bands booked around the video).

But I thought an equipment list might be of interest to everyone here. Especially since almost all of the equipment used was DIY.

So, here it is:

Hacked Panasonic GH1

Panasonic 14-42mm lens (yes, the kit lens)

Helios 44-2 50mm lens (for the couch shots)

Pearstone VT-2000 tripod

Hula hoop fig rig (equal parts duct tape and glitter)


Spider steady (as seen on Film Riot, eBay and Amazon)

Tripod steadicam (built with a $30 walmart tripod)

Homemade jib


And that was it! I have a Flycam Nano DSLR, but I can't seem to get it balanced properly, and I get much better results with my fig rig and tripod steadicam.

So there it is. All the equipment combined was less than $1000, including the camera!
 
Bravo! A lot of moving parts in any production. Congrats on managing it all! And a fine end product to boot! Man, that is a great location to have in your back pocket, wish I had something like that near me! (anyone know maybe there is?)
 
wheatgrinder said:
Bravo! A lot of moving parts in any production. Congrats on managing it all! And a fine end product to boot! Man, that is a great location to have in your back pocket, wish I had something like that near me! (anyone know maybe there is?)
Click to expand...

Just Googling "abandoned places" and your state/town, or "abandoned military bases" and your state/town will return a ton of possibilities. From there, it's just a matter of tracking down who the owner is (I called the town clerk (like the county clerk in other places) in the town where the base is located and asked who paid the taxes, got a name and address from that), and then asking nicely.

When we finished filming, I sent the guy a thank you card with a handwritten note telling him we'd love to use the base again for future projects and I'd be in touch when that happened.
 
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