I’ve been shooting a spot for a local pizza shop in the northern suburbs. I did cover shots last week, and stand-ups yesterday. The client couldn’t have been more gracious and accommodating, and the taco pizza they made for me was spectacular – perks of the job.
Our pitch man was running late, and after setup, we kibitzed about all things pizza. The client began recounting the lurid tales of the delivery business – a pizza man confessions of sorts.
While I’m not going to recount them here, I will say, there are all kinds out there. I was amazed by the number of people that answer the door with little or no clothes on. I mean really… Who orders a pizza and doesn’t bother to get dressed when it arrives?
The client was quick to point out that it’s never like you imagine it – your Angelina Jolie types always answer the door fully clothed – so my hopes of becoming a delivery-man-for-a-day were quickly dashed. They didn’t have stats, but it seems to be a guy thing – in that guys are more likely to answer the door in some weird & strange manner. I find this odd, but not surprising.
It did get me thinking though… With all of the reality shows out there, I’d love to see a series on the trials and tribulations of a pizza delivery person.
Hmmmm… Maybe Dominos might let me do a few ride alongs, you know, “Cops” style.
I’m a sucker for ergonomics, and I’m constantly trying to improve my comfort level while working.
As my gear has expanded, I found myself outgrowing my workstation. There wasn’t enough room for both computers, mice, controller, drives, keyboards, etc.
So it was off to IKEA, the most magical place on Earth, for a new desk. Because IKEA stuff is modular (and all kinds of awesome), all I had to do was buy a new table top, and use the legs from my current desk.
My work area has expanded and there’s now room for everything. I still have some ergonomic issues to work out – I need a new (bigger) trackball mouse and a chair with arms. There there’s the matter of exact placement, but it’s coming along. Having everything in one place is worth it’s weight in gold.
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I personally think they’re a waste of time, effort and resources. I prefer the Nike slogan – “Just Do It…”.
So, with that said, I’m hitting the ground running in 2011. My album, “Love and Acrimony” is complete, and I’m currently running through the administrative process – copyrighting, ASCAP and ISRC registrations, CD Baby and iTunes distribution, etc. These tasks are boring and time consuming, but I’m an advocate of protecting one’s work as much as one can in our “New Media” age.
I’m also going to begin cutting “When I’m Not With You” that was shot between Christmas and New Years in Chicago. I’m extremely proud of what we did. I’m almost afraid to work on it, because the edit has to do the project (and the song) justice. I’ve organized and grouped all of the shots, and all that remains is to sit down and cut it.
This also marks the 1st time that I shot a music video with assistance. I’m used to working alone, but it was so much easier having the extra help. The shoot was not without some mild difficulty, as my help was also a principle in the video, but we got through it. This was due to excellent pre production and scripting. We developed a shot sheet prior to shooting, and stuck to it faithfully. This opened us up creatively after we had all of our shots. I can’t say enough for pre-planning and production. Total production time was about 4.5 hours over two days.
On the tech end of things, I’m really in love with my Canon 50mm 1.4. It’s taken a while to warm up to it, but now I can’t imagine shooting video without it. I love my Tamron for stills, but the 50 is where it’s at for capturing moving images.
I said that I wasn’t into resolutions, but I guess I will resolve to get one Canon “L” series lens this year. Oh hell, I’m on a roll now – another resolution is to continue to push the bounds of what is possible with a DSLR (or an iPod for that matter, as the video these babies is incredible).
On Thursday (and seemingly out of nowhere), I decided to shoot a music video. Ok… I tend to do that when I’m full of nervous energy, and since I cannot control, or make the holiday’s go away, I had it in abundance.
Rather than give in to Scrooge-like behavior, I opted for a more positive outlet.
I didn’t really have a concept. I just wanted to keep it simple. I’ve been way into David Fincher’s work lately – dark, moody, with hints of planned randomness. It also gave me the chance to play with my Canon 50mm 1.4 fast prime. I keep falling back on the Tamron 2.8 zoom because of it’s flexibility and my own laziness. You have to plan your shots with the Canon, and it’s focus can be unwieldy in low light.
I shot a bunch of stuff around my apartment, and enjoyed the DOF orgasm that I get whenever the 50mm is mounted. Knowing that none of these items would mean anything directly to the song, I went with things that were “kinda” related, or that meant something to me.
The performance takes were tricky. It’s hard as hell shooting a music video by yourself with a regular video camera, and even harder when using a DSLR with fast glass. Lucky for me, I invested in some tools that proved to be indispensable.
My 7″ Lilliput LCD monitor saved my ass big time. With an extended HDMI cable, I tethered it to the T2i, and could hold it for adjustments. It was a pain working like this, but it allowed me to stand in the lit shot for focus checks.
I did 6 takes – 2 wide and 4 close ups. I switched to the Tamron once for the shot of me at the keys. I tried a few other shots with the Tamron, but ended up not liking them. The 50mm was giving me what I wanted, so I stayed with it.
The guitar solo was also difficult. It’s funny (and not that uncommon) for guitar players to struggle with recreating a solo note-for-note on video. A considerable about of time has passed since I recorded the song, and it took more than a few minutes to remember how I played it. My natural instinct was to play it differently than what you hear on the track. *sigh* We had the same problem when I shot “Gravity”.
I cut it in FCP, and attempted to do a 4 angle multi-cam edit, but my MBP wasn’t going for it. So, I took the best wide and close up shots and multi-cam’ed those. I then cut in the other angles and the random shots over the top.
I was too lazy to send everything over to Color for grading, so I did a quick and dirty grade with plugins and FCP’s native effects.
I really like the crushed blacks and smooth filter look I achieved. I pushed the green/blue cast that was already present from shooting with fluorescent lighting. I have a lens filter to prevent this, but again – quick, dirty, lazy…
All in all, not bad for something I did at the spur of the moment in between work, Christmas shopping, and drinks with a friend…
I realized that I spend a good chunk of my life in front of a computer (namely my laptop), and ergonomics are super important. I’ve been experiencing neck pain lately, largely due to poor posture and craning my neck while looking down at my MacBook Pro.
While out shopping for new hard drives yesterday, I stumbled on to a little riser/stand thing, and boom… neck pain gone. I highly recommend one for laptop users that sit at a desk.
I’m going through hard drives like crazy with all the freelance work, and needed to find a better solution. I already own a single Thermaltake BlacX dock, but after some research, I decided to pick up the Duet version.
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So far, I’m super happy. I have 4 enclosures, and it felt great to liberate the drives and plug n’ play them at will. I’m still not sure if I should be running them in the dock, as my usage is pretty aggressive, but I’m hoping it holds up.
The plan is to keep my LaCie d2 Quadra for travel & portable work, and swap bare drives in the dock as I need them – my own poor man’s Drobo system. SATA drives are crazy cheap these days, so it makes sense to replace ‘em as I fill ‘em. The other big plus was gaining 4 outlets on my power strip, and being able to clean up some of the cable mess under my desk.
My work space now has a sleeker, cleaner look, and is no longer a pain in the neck…
I was just over a Em’s site (cheesycam.com), and he posted footage flying the new Canon 60D on his Glidecam rig for a music video shoot. His work is exceptional, and I was struck by the similarity between the video he worked on, and the Gravity video I did for Spy Division last February – particularly the 1st shot.
Em pulled it off way better than I did, and I can only image how much better my video would have been if I had a Glidecam. I say that as I reach for my credit card…
I was fortunate enough to participate in the Giant Steps event yesterday. It was a one-day, interactive conference of entrepreneurs, artists, and path-forgers. I volunteered my photo services, and backed up Justin, the filmmaker documenting the event. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on my feet all day, and I’m still tired.
A lot of information was presented at the various panel and breakout sessions, and I learned a great deal. Guests were treated to valuable insights from record label owners (Twin Tone & Rhymesayers), visual artists, Dj’s, and musicians.
I got to work, play and network all at the same time. A special thanks to Susan Campion for allowing me to be a part of such a wonderful day. I also caught up with several of my former students from High School For Recording Arts.
Shout outs to Crystal a food writer (her blog is awesome) and Patrick Pegg, Program Director at Beatology 101. Be sure to check out his blog. Patrick hooked me up to a collaborative website that allows musicians to work together globally. Send a track (or parts of a track) and others can add to your creation. Cool stuff. He also recorded all of the audio for the event using Ableton Live.
Following the 8 hour conference, there was a special concert @ Cause Spirits & Soundbar by M.anifest & Desdamona (both of whom served as event planners and panel participants).
Minnesota music and arts are not only alive and well, but thriving…
Yeah, I know… I’ve been slacking on the blog lately. It always seems to go like that – hot for a while, then… Well, you get the drill.
The problem? I’m involved in two incredibly demanding (and time consuming) disciplines – music and video, and I’ve spent that last 3 months focused on video. Thankfully, all is well in that department. I’m booked solid for the near future, and have been averaging 2 commercials a week. The camera has been great, and my workflow is improving with every shoot. It’s a different world shooting with DSLR’s, and one can’t go on auto-pilot while working. There are simply too many “gotchas” waiting at every turn.
One of these “gotchas” is audio. I can hear you now – “How can YOU have audio issues? Aren’t you an audio guy?”. Well, the biggest gotcha of them all with DSLR’s is the lack of audio monitoring. Simply put – you can’t plug a pair of headphones into the damn thing. I’ve been bringing my HF-10 to record audio separately, but I got lazy on the last shoot. It’s a PITA to setup another camera just to record audio, but it must be done. I recorded a standup using my wireless pac, and the audio came out distorted (but usable). I’ve since padded it down to 18db at the transmitter pac, but haven’t tested it out yet.
Anywho, since the camera stuff is in good order (minus some tweaking here and there), I’ve gone back to music. I hit it pretty hard the last few weeks and I’m paying for the lack of sleep. I can now say that the project is in it’s final stages. The revised plan is to release an EP of the best material I have. I hate the idea of “filler material” just to pad out a full length album, so I’m not going that route.
I have 8 really, really good songs, so that is what it’s going to be. In between takes, I decided to have some fun. I had just added live drums to “Stuck In A Room”, and couldn’t help sharing the love. Kel loves the song, so that means you might too.
Ok, I’m pretty happy with my camera setup. I’ve settled into a nice shooting and editing workflow. I’m happy with my file maintenance, although I need to start making regularly scheduled backups – I’ll configure a spare 1TB LaCie as a Time Machine drive.
The next weak link in my production chain is lighting. I’m old school. I’ve worked with the tungsten stuff for years, and I know very little about LED and fluorescent lighting. I have an inexpensive ProMaster Cool Light (3 in 1 fluorescent) with soft box, and I’m experiencing some of the pitfalls of the newer photon technology.
Improper color temperature is seriously mucking with my video. I’ve been lucky so far in the field. Having fast glass has allowed me to cheat, or get by, without additional lighting, but at some point I’m going to have to adequately light an object or person.
However, when practicing at home, I’m getting green video with the fluorescent. As I read more, I’m finding out that it’s a common phenomena. Then there’s indoor/daylight color temps, and every camera seems to white balance differently.
Whew…
I have a great deal to learn about the newer stuff, and I don’t want to waste money trying out different instruments. I’ve heard mostly good things about the Cool Lights CL-LED600. It runs about $400, and I’d need at least 3 of them. Yikes…
Lighting (or GOOD lighting) is expensive, so like everything else, I’ll start small. The el cheapo kits that you see online are a waste of money. Professional wisdom is you’ll eventually end up buying quality instruments anyway, so why not start with them.
I’ve been shooting a spot for a local pizza shop in the northern suburbs. I did cover shots last week, and stand-ups yesterday. The client couldn’t have been more gracious and accommodating, and the taco pizza they made for me was spectacular – perks of the job.
