'Habit' Music Video - Shot with D-SLR (looks RED-like) at DVinfo.net

Christopher Ruffell · February 12th, 2010, 12:15 PM

Would love to hear what you think! Alternative rock music video shot with a D-SLR at 60P, slowed to 24P for some scenes to create slow motion. Edited in 24P, in FCP.

Shot entirely with Primes with 2x crop Factor - lenses were Nikkor 50mm F1.4 (from 1969), a Nikon 105mm F1.8 and a 24mm prime (don't have make and F-stop in front of me). Shot with handheld, slider and car-dolly shots.

*Note: all the 'effects' are entirely in camera. No flares of any kind were created in post.

Dustin Alcock · March 27th, 2010, 12:05 AM

I love the video, love the song. Love the lens flares. How do I go about getting these flares naturally?

I'm impressed that 75% of the music videos I'm finding from forum members are shot with SLR cameras, really makes me wish I got one instead of my HV30. Oh how nice it would be to have a dual purpose device. Exactly which camera was used?

Great job!

Christopher Ruffell · March 27th, 2010, 01:57 PM

Glad you like it Dustin - thanks for chiming in and saying so, I really appreciate it!

The flares were created naturally by bright light shining into a 50mm F1.4 lens (that had it's aperture wide open at F.14). The DP did a great job of pointing the open-face lights in the background at the lens of the camera - neat effects. With a 24mm prime we used, in some of the wide shots there are some great looking horizontal flares that showed up as well - reminded me of anamorphic lens flares.

There are the flares, but there are also interesting light 'artifacts' too.. those may be what you're most interested in and asking about.

No one's asked what they are, or how they were created - you're the first! I find it surprising, as they're rather unique and I can't recall of any other video having used the technique I used as camera operator.

There are glass-light bulbs hanging an inch away from the lens of the camera - they were triggered to flash randomly, so that's why the artifacts come and go. What you're seeing is the filament, completely out of focus, light up! I moved the camera around behind the bulb to get different effects, and it appears to have worked well. I'm not sure why no one else has asked how it was done.. I don't think I would have figured it out unless someone told me.

The camera used was the Panasonic Lumix GH-1. It's very similar to the new Rebel T2i, but it's been out for 6 months to a year already. The T2i has an even higher bitrate, so it'll be a camera to expect great new work from!

Dustin Alcock · March 27th, 2010, 10:56 PM

That's awesome, thanks for the information and something new to try out. Definitely something I don't think that I've seen before.

On a somewhat different topic, storage. How big of SD card do you have and how much video does it hold? I always felt like they would fill up ultra quick shooting in HD.

Christopher Ruffell · March 27th, 2010, 11:02 PM

I use a single 8GB SD card - one of the fast ones. I have a backup 2GB card, but I've never had to use it. I have a Dell Mini 10v with me on location (hackintosh) that has an SD card slot, so if I need to dump a card's worth of footage, it's an option!

James Clarke · March 28th, 2010, 12:24 AM

great work i like the look and feel of the video

Dustin Alcock · March 28th, 2010, 01:18 PM

What made you choose to shoot at 60p?

Christopher Ruffell · March 28th, 2010, 01:26 PM

@Dustin, the majority of prime-time music videos in the genre I was working in have a slow-motion aspect to them. 60P enabled me to slow the footage whenever I'd like, 2.5x to achieve a beautiful slow motion effect. The final video was all 24P - some shots 'realtime', some slowed (the alley for instance).

I have a Decklink HD Extreme card and an HDTV - the difference between 720P and 1080P is minute enough that the gain of shooting slow motion (temporal resolution) over a larger pixel number was worth it by far, in my opinion.

I also wanted to keep the video the same throughout the post-production process, so, only dealing with 720P footage was nice (though I was using a mix of 60P and 24P footage - all in a 24P edit timeline of course).

February 12th, 2010, 12:15 PM	#1
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	'Habit' Music Video - Shot with D-SLR (looks RED-like) Would love to hear what you think! Alternative rock music video shot with a D-SLR at 60P, slowed to 24P for some scenes to create slow motion. Edited in 24P, in FCP. 'Habit' Music Video - Cole Grifter Band GH1 60P on Vimeo Shot entirely with Primes with 2x crop Factor - lenses were Nikkor 50mm F1.4 (from 1969), a Nikon 105mm F1.8 and a 24mm prime (don't have make and F-stop in front of me). Shot with handheld, slider and car-dolly shots. *Note: all the 'effects' are entirely in camera. No flares of any kind were created in post.

March 27th, 2010, 12:05 AM	#2
Dustin Alcock Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Jackson, MI Posts: 34	I love the video, love the song. Love the lens flares. How do I go about getting these flares naturally? I'm impressed that 75% of the music videos I'm finding from forum members are shot with SLR cameras, really makes me wish I got one instead of my HV30. Oh how nice it would be to have a dual purpose device. Exactly which camera was used? Great job! __________________ I like cake.

March 27th, 2010, 10:56 PM	#4
Dustin Alcock Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Jackson, MI Posts: 34	That's awesome, thanks for the information and something new to try out. Definitely something I don't think that I've seen before. On a somewhat different topic, storage. How big of SD card do you have and how much video does it hold? I always felt like they would fill up ultra quick shooting in HD. __________________ I like cake.

March 28th, 2010, 12:24 AM	#6
James Clarke Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: BARBADOS Posts: 125 Images: 4	great work i like the look and feel of the video __________________ There Can Be Only One

March 28th, 2010, 01:18 PM	#7
Dustin Alcock Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Jackson, MI Posts: 34	What made you choose to shoot at 60p? __________________ I like cake.

March 27th, 2010, 01:57 PM	#3
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	Glad you like it Dustin - thanks for chiming in and saying so, I really appreciate it! The flares were created naturally by bright light shining into a 50mm F1.4 lens (that had it's aperture wide open at F.14). The DP did a great job of pointing the open-face lights in the background at the lens of the camera - neat effects. With a 24mm prime we used, in some of the wide shots there are some great looking horizontal flares that showed up as well - reminded me of anamorphic lens flares. There are the flares, but there are also interesting light 'artifacts' too.. those may be what you're most interested in and asking about. No one's asked what they are, or how they were created - you're the first! I find it surprising, as they're rather unique and I can't recall of any other video having used the technique I used as camera operator. There are glass-light bulbs hanging an inch away from the lens of the camera - they were triggered to flash randomly, so that's why the artifacts come and go. What you're seeing is the filament, completely out of focus, light up! I moved the camera around behind the bulb to get different effects, and it appears to have worked well. I'm not sure why no one else has asked how it was done.. I don't think I would have figured it out unless someone told me. The camera used was the Panasonic Lumix GH-1. It's very similar to the new Rebel T2i, but it's been out for 6 months to a year already. The T2i has an even higher bitrate, so it'll be a camera to expect great new work from!

March 27th, 2010, 11:02 PM	#5
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	I use a single 8GB SD card - one of the fast ones. I have a backup 2GB card, but I've never had to use it. I have a Dell Mini 10v with me on location (hackintosh) that has an SD card slot, so if I need to dump a card's worth of footage, it's an option!

March 28th, 2010, 01:26 PM	#8
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	@Dustin, the majority of prime-time music videos in the genre I was working in have a slow-motion aspect to them. 60P enabled me to slow the footage whenever I'd like, 2.5x to achieve a beautiful slow motion effect. The final video was all 24P - some shots 'realtime', some slowed (the alley for instance). I have a Decklink HD Extreme card and an HDTV - the difference between 720P and 1080P is minute enough that the gain of shooting slow motion (temporal resolution) over a larger pixel number was worth it by far, in my opinion. I also wanted to keep the video the same throughout the post-production process, so, only dealing with 720P footage was nice (though I was using a mix of 60P and 24P footage - all in a 24P edit timeline of course).