Music Video -- Shot with XH-A1

[James Binder]

Here's a music video...

http://www.vimeo.com/835920

...created for my wife for an internet singing competition. If you like Rascal Flatts, you'll love this! It was a great project that really put the camera though its paces (lots of steadicams shots). Make sure the 'HD' button is active on the video at Vimeo -- looks WAY better than the standard def version.

If you like her perfomance, go give her a vote as well! :-)

http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/Video...&pbvi=13833610

BTW -- the compression quality is horrible on the competition site, that's why I put it up on Vimeo for others to see (who have a more critical eye :-). Check out the Vimeo link first!

Jimmy

[Jim Miller]

Great job! The location and steady cam shots worked really well. Nice editing too.

[James Binder]

Thanks for the feedback Jim --

Yes -- I love the locations. The shots with the graffiti on the building/walls are pretty cool. However, it was a VERY challenging location in which to fly the camera. The terrain was very uneven, rocky, with bricks, debris, etc. all over the place. Kind of dangerous.

In some shots I was running up and down 100 yearl-old (steep) crumbling brick stairs to capture those moments that look like (hopefully) crane shots.

Thaks again --

[Jim Miller]

On the shot where she was walking toward you on the tracks with the bridge in the background, were you using a light or reflector? The lighting on her was very nice. also were you using any particular preset?

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

Great video. I looked at some of the other entries and they don't even come close in production quality, creativity, and sound.

I noticed on Vimeo that you used the standard lens. Did you use any special presets or do color correction in the NLE?

By the way, she got my vote!

[Antonio Ricca]

Very nice video! Professional results and stunning steadicam shoots. Beautiful song too.
A question: which transiction effect plugin you did used?

[Jason Bowers]

Great job. Were you using the single arm or dual arm smooth shooter. How did you find balancing the A1?

[James Binder]

Jim --

No light -- I scouted the location earlier and made sure I shot at a certain time when the light would be good (late afternoon).

Preset -- Steve D 'Vivid RGB' (although it may be an earlier one). In retrospect, I'd probably go a bit more neutral as I ended up adding Magic Bullet (overall) – as well as additional color correction on individual shots.

Marcel -

Preset mentioned above. Color correction -- Magic Bullet (overall) and some color curves, saturation and gain adjustment where needed.

Antonio -

I edited this completely in Vegas Pro 8. I do use After Effects, but did not use it at all for this project -- mainly because I needed to turn this project around quickly - and I wanted to see what I could come up with completely within Vegas.

There are several transition effects used throughout this video. I wanted very organic light wipes, film flashes, etc. Since Vegas does not come with any of these (except for a very basic 'flash'), I used other internal effects to create the transitions -- i.e., 'glow' and 'film effects' in various amounts and configurations. I also used Digital Juice 'Swipes' (Liquid light) for a few of the transitions. Here I resized (and sped up) the light wipes and put them onto a track set to compositing modes, 'add' or 'burn.'

One other transition I used was simply using a shot of the sun (with lens flare) as I paned down over the roof of the building. Again I put it on a track set to 'add'.

In some instances, I created a combination effect, using two of the above methods together.

Jason --

Single arm. Haven't bought the double arm yet. I'm curious to see how that is however -- or perhaps I might graduate up to a beefier Steadicam rig.

Balancing the A1 is fairly simple -- I can do it pretty quickly now. I do wish it were a bit heaver. I use to fly my XL1 and the extra weight helped. I will add however that I put the smooth shooter through some pretty rigorous conditions and the resulting shots were very smooth.

As I mentioned above the terrain was incredibly uneven, ruddy, bumpy, rocky, etc. There is one shot where my wife is in the corner of the building surrounded by grafriti. What you don’t see is the hill in front of that recess/corner that was strewn with rocks, bricks and wood. I must have run up and down that hill twenty times to get the shots – tripping and stumbling all over the place. How I didn’t destroy myself, my rig or the camera escapes me. However, I saw it as a unique opportunity to get a cool jib/crane shot look for no added expense!

Thank you all for your compliments and comments. Much appreciated –

[James Binder]

edit to remove double post -- sorry!

[Julian Frost]

Hi james,

The usual questions... what were your camera settings for your video shoot? 30F, 24F? I loved the general overall quality of the video. Now I may have to look into getting a Glidecam 2000Pro or 4000pro! Sigh!

How did you accomplish syncing the various shots? I imagine it was quite a task!

[Ray Johnston]

James,

That was wonderful! I think you hit the colors and lighting perfectly. I really enjoyed the composition, both video and song.

Thanks for sharing!

Ray

[James Binder]

Julian –

Shot at 60i, 1/120 shutter – because:

In post, the video was slowed down to 75% of normal speed. I wanted very smooth fluid slow motion – that’s why I ‘over-cranked.’

From my HDV 1080i project, I rendered out to 24p .

Sync was pretty interesting. But wait you ask, “the singer was in sync with the vocal even though in slow motion!” Yes, during shooting she had to sing to a special playback CD sped up to 125%. Very strange for the singer (my wife), but she got used to it. The end result is great though.

I did have to manually match up/sync each shot in post after slowing down each shot to 75% normal speed. Somewhat time consuming, but worth it. The whole video takes on a very fluid easy feel – perfect for this song.

Ray –

Thanks for the kind feedback – appreciate it!

[Randy Panado]

Originally Posted by James Binder

Julian –

Shot at 60i, 1/120 shutter – because:

In post, the video was slowed down to 75% of normal speed. I wanted very smooth fluid slow motion – that’s why I ‘over-cranked.’

From my HDV 1080i project, I rendered out to 24p .

Sync was pretty interesting. But wait you ask, “the singer was in sync with the vocal even though in slow motion!” Yes, during shooting she had to sing to a special playback CD sped up to 125%. Very strange for the singer (my wife), but she got used to it. The end result is great though.

I did have to manually match up/sync each shot in post after slowing down each shot to 75% normal speed. Somewhat time consuming, but worth it. The whole video takes on a very fluid easy feel – perfect for this song.

Ray –

Thanks for the kind feedback – appreciate it!

Very creative! I really enjoyed watching the video. I especially like 1:25-1:32 (outstanding editing technique, matches music well) and 2:49 on, nice subtle touches. Has a very professional feel, nothing cheesy imo.

Thanks for sharing and good luck to your wife!

[James Binder]

Thaks Randy for the nice words and specific feedback-- much appreciated!

I'll pass the good luck wishes on to my wife --

Jimmy

[Travis Cossel]

Very well done. I voted for her!