Keith Medley - "Ancestors" on Vimeo

I shot this on my Canon EOS 7D with Leica-R series lenses from the late 70's & Lensbaby. Also shot GoPro HERO HD on headstock for a couple inset shots.

Keith is an amazing talent as a musician, guitarist and master luthier. He designed and built his Medley 27-string guitar in order to play the music in his head.

(Special thanks to Stacey David of Gearz TV for letting us use his garage/studio to shoot in.)

All I can say is WOW!! I was mezmorized. Great song / sound. The video was, in my opinion, done perfectly. Great job.

Second that. Thanks for the share, a real delight.

Thanks very much guys. My goal was to create a simple, elegant video that highlighted Keith's hands and instrument to really convey how he plays this guitar. You can see that he's all over the place. His instrument is totally unique and the fact that he is a master luthier and designed and built this is pretty incredible. We plan to do more videos later on that will probably be very different conceptually, but the goal with this 1st one was to really focus on how he plays it.

Jon,

First of all, I really enjoyed that piece on many levels. Loved the monochromatic look, the harsh lighting and angles, the picture-in-picture, and certainly the great music. Thanks for making and sharing this, it's the most enjoyable thing I've viewed in a while!

Wow. This is great.
I really enjoyed this elegantly simple video. Especially liked how the headlight gave his head this nice glow, the black and white also intensified the whole gloriole look. Concept fits perfectly to the music.

Could you please describe how you set up the lights.

Thanks very much =)

Cheers

Thanks! Pretty basic lighting actually. As I remember a small backlight from up and above; maybe a 150 or 300w; can't remember. Key lights from front were a mix of 300 and 650's; in most of the front shots I was trying to make sure I lit Keith and the guitar pretty equally; on the lensbaby shots, I used back light and side fill only and turned his position to camera. Once again the goal of this video was to put Keith's hands and guitar on display. I really like the dramatic, artsier vibe to the Lensbaby shots but that would not have worked for our needs throughout.

Planning right now with Keith to do another; different and more abstract concept.

Glad you like it!

Fantastic stuff! Hard to believe it's a real instrument, reminded me of Animusic | Previews | Resonant Chamber (http://www.animusic.com/previews/previews2.php?clip=resonant-chamber)

all I can say is wow. I could watch this video over and over again... and I have lol

To those of you who liked Keith's video, I'm producing a simple webcast from the Frist Center Museum of Visual Art. Tune in to see and hear Keith play!

Keith Medley performs live from The Frist Center Museum in Nashville, TN at 6PM CST on Thursday, December 23. 2010. Keith designed, built and plays his one-of-a-kind 27-string Medley guitar. He will perform original compositions and special arrangements of holiday favorites.

Keith Medley with his 27-string Medley guitar on USTREAM: Keith Medley performs live from The Frist Center Museum in Nashville, TN at 6PM CST on Thursday, ... (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/keith-medley-with-his-27-string-medley-guitar)

Please visit KICKSTARTER.com at this link to learn more about my new full-length film:
"Creative Spirit" - Keith Medley & his 27-string guitar

"Creative Spirit" - a film: a 27-string masterpiece (http://kck.st/27stringGUITARaFILM)

This film, “Creative Spirit”, will follow Keith's creative process with detailed documentary of the guitar building process, 3 performance music videos conveying the sights and sounds that result, as well as an ongoing narrative and conversations with Keith. Viewers will understand how Keith's creativity manifests itself, his philosophy and his optimistic attitude to achieve these goals as he literally invents new instruments and playing techniques. Questions of what motivates his creativity, who and what inspires him, how limits and parameters must be imposed in order to reach completion, what are his most difficult challenges, are all topics that will be covered in depth. And most importantly, how does this all translate to viewers in ways that can help them learn and achieve in their lives?