more music vids!

I spent this last saturday working for a local record company producing music videos for bands in our university studios.

The idea is that the band pay a set amount (as cheap as possible) and then its film, edited live and handed to the band on the day or asap.

I set the lights up again. Most of what was broken the following weekend did not appear to be fixed so it was a bit of a struggle again. 

Once lighting was done I got to play on the big cameras with some industry proffesionals. I learnt a huge amount from

the guys, mostly the smaller habitual things like locking off cameras correctly and which shots to go for.

I was suprised at how much I understood, a friend of mine had come down to work alongside the sound team and felt that the camera people were talking a foreign lanuage. Luckily I've picked up a lot of the lingo from the training I did before uni. So when i was asked to bash a cable I was straight on it!

I found the camera work itself a huge amount of fun. So far I've dealt with camera work that is going into postproduction. This task felt closer

 to live work as we had to get each take spot on and get through it all as quick as possible. I was fairly unsire of myself to begin with but throughout the day gained more confidence.

I hope to get involved in the next one.

For my module at university looking at all other work done outside of uni, I had some photos taken of me working. I havent got most of the official ones yet, but heres a shot from my camera before the battery died.

I Aint Drunk

Last Sunday I worked with some 3rd year students who were producing a video for their song 'I Aint Drunk'. I was asked to do lighting and I also took my sound guy James along with me. 

The set up was the day before which was too late for us to be able to solve any technical issues that may arise, and they did. The back half of the studio lights w

ould not work so I had to make do with what I had.

The band had requested a high contrast black and white video so the lighting would have been fairly simple, however all i had were backlights and key and fills could only come in from the sides with the exception of 2 lights. We managed though, a couple of shots I feel didnt work as well as I hoped but overall it came out quite well.

The organisation of the event as a whole was not so great. The director had gone completely awol and the poor floor manager was left to take his place with a few scribbled words to use as a storyboard and some pushy artists. James and I stood up and helped out, James stayed downstairs placing people where we tol

d him, I coached our new director and worked on the quality of the shots with him. 

It was all very exhilirating and lots of fun despite the high stress levels.

Its given me a lot of confidence ready for a series of video shoots this Saturday with a local record company. 

here are some photos of the shoot.

Galaxy The Wind Up Robot

I mentioned this vid in October. My first video made at the atrium all by myself :p

artyness

Last night I went over to a fellow art graduates house to try capturing some slow motion shock!

So far we've come up with this

We were happy with the lighting. It matched the artists needs perfectly. We just shot it on the Z1 in DV. It was slowed down in fcp to 4 percent.

I figure I'll have to play with frame rates to get it less blurry. This is something for me to investigate...

Halloween Vid

My Bogiez Halloween video is here

I've tried uploading it directly to blogger but uts taking foever and today im short of time. Sorry.

In other news, I have helped out on a music video with some fellow students doing some lighting.

I am working on another music video later this month with some music students doing lighting again. 

And a day of music videos in december with a local record label.

In the mean time today I shall be doing something different. A fellow graduate from UWIC with whom I studied fine art has gone on to do an MA course and is working on a series of test shots in video.

He wants it dark and moody, with the outline of the head merged into the background. The idea for his work is to capture a moment of shock and to slow it down.

We're all set up and ready to go for later on tonight, it shall be interesting to see the outcome.

Halloween at Bogiez

On the 2nd of November I took the z1 down to Bogiez nightclub in Cardiff bay to make them their halloween promo video. 

It was eventful. The test shots I'd done earlier were very useful, setting up the camera was quick and simple, hoever some of the lights were down and the larger lights could only be switched on towards the end of the night due to them getting too hot or something. So I had to struggle for the most part of the night with lighting.

I used what I had though and spent a lot of time with the customers as they entered the venue and in the smoking area outside until the larger lights could be switched on.

By that time though I also had to compete against the smoke machine that the DJs seemed to be obsessed with and a lot of drunk characters playing up.

All in all though the shots came out quite well, some were darker than I hoped for which has resulted in some noise, but I have enough good stuff to work with.

Despite the lighting situation I had more trouble controlling the action, mostly camera hungry people that were constantly stepping into the shot. It was great to get them playing up to the camera for a bit but I'm not making a documentary about individuals, I needed a plethora of characters. This was solved by a few tactful zooms over their shoulders to get the close ups I needed, and I kept them happy by pointing the camera in their general direction when I wasnt recording.

Getting people in general to pose for me was fairly easy as the alcohol flowed throughout the night and I found it was also obvious to me who didnt want to be shot so I kept the camera away from them.

Overall it was a very fun night. 

I have began sifting through the footage and have a rough edit done. I'm wating on the clubs official logos and stuff to complete the video. Once done I shall upload here. 

Resonance

The band im making a music vid for now has a name! Resonance. I think thats how its spelt anyway.
They announced their name at a charity gig they played at this weekend. I went down to get some filming done for them. I am familiar with the venue so new what to expect. Luckily the walls are the same colour as the ones at band practice, the lighting was a lot funkier the only unfortunate thing was that there weren't many people there. I got as much b-roll as I could though and just left the camera running on a wide shot of the band for the actual track. The boys were very reluctant to play up for the camera off stage though. I'll have to practice motivating people a little more. I managed to get each of them to pull some faces for me and a bit of silliness. I dont know yet if I'll use it or not but its always handy to have. They are all very curious as to why i continue filming them when they're playing different songs. I've been catching their feet stomping, jewellery and belts shining, shadows moving around and close up of kit and equipment, I feel all of this is neccesary even though i wont be using every single shot.

This isnt really the best way to go about making a video, no story board, no shots really planned out. I've slipped into an old habit of mine of just getting as much jumbled up stuff and then just sorting it out in the edit. I havent had a great deal of time to prepare this one at all though, to the point where I hadnt heard the song until 2 days before band practice and couldnt reccy the rehearsal room at all.

The boys are keen to get another music vid out of me though, they'd rather something more dramatised for the next one and im keen to try something new and do things properly. Also it'll give me the opportunity to practice my negotiating skills, taking ideas and opinions from the band but also keeping very much in control of the whole thing to make clear what i think will work and what wont without offending anyone.

I'm waiting on my new laptop now before I can start editing properly, but as I've previously mentioned, I wont get the quality track recording until January anyway so i've got a bit of time.

Next task. Bogiez is this Saturday, I havent a costume and the cameras are all booked out. I'm not panicing just yet as im sure my tutor people at university are going to help me out... *fingers crossed*

Bogiez and Band Practice

bogiez
So I took the Z1 down to Bogiez this weekend. I'm quite proud of myself.
To begin with the shots were awful, I arrived just after the smoke machines had all blasted the crowd and the lights were just flashing on and off. I managed to get some good shots looking down on the dance floor and the stage from upstairs but its the crowd shots from the stage that Tom wants.
He inadvertantly helped me out a huge amount with the lighting though by switching on some static lighting he really doesn't like that go straight over the crowd. I've discussed those particular lights and he's happy to keep them on for me throughout the night. He's also seen the footage and was quite impressed with the effects certain lighting had so im confident he'll be very helpful with what works on camera best.
We've also discussed hooking the camera up to the projector so we can shoot the crowd straight onto is, im not entirly sure what we're going to need to do this. Some investigating needs to be done...
He's also asked me to do a quick edit on the footage that I took with the test shots. Unfortunately I dont have the time nor have I got my new laptop to do this on yet, so i'll be passing the footage onto him to edit for now and I'll do a proper one for the website as soon as I can.
Anyway, I reckon I can get some good footage from Halloween with the Z1 despite what people say. The test shots I have done aren't exact, there'll be additional lighting as we'll have pumpkins on each table and all sorts of ghoulish decor, I'll be using all of this to my advantage though.

band practice
I also went to band practice for my friends this sunday to get some footage for there music vid.
I should explain I havent mentioned the named of their band because they are currently joining forces with another band and renaming themselves, so i dont know their official name yet (But incase your curious, the names of the two bands joining are Diem and Stand Alone).
So, their practice room was very difficult to film in as I had no lighting of my own. Instead I had to suffer with 4 strip lights that would switch on each time in a different way, so i might only get the two back ones, or two back and one right front which would later change to left front. All in all the lighting was bad, the walls were red and the floors were wooden just to ease the situation :/
but its ok, I made do with what I had, I've used the kicks of light from those strip lights off the guitars, jewellery, hair, anything i could to make things look a little less flat. The drummer had very kindly polished and polished his kit so that was bouncing a fair bit of light about and i've come up with some footage I can use. They played the song several times over for me (for nearly an hour) and the sound came out well enough to do a rough cut to.
Next task is to get to the live gig and see what happens there!

Also, here are some pics from band practice I took with my Canon s5

University and other Stuff!

I forgot to mention, university has begun.
The name of my course is Foundation Degree in Television and Interactive Media.
So far projects include a documentary, another video of anything to learn how to edit with premier pro, and an 800 word essay.
My documentary is going to be on 'A day in the life of a windup toy'. Its a bit random, but random is good, I think im going to make it a tale of woe as well.
The other two im not totally sure of just yet.
Rather than go through the mundane week to week blog of university I'll probably only pick out the highlight in this here blog and use it more for my extra stuff!

I have two things planned at the moment.
A couple of friends of mine have asked if I could make their band a music video. I have welcomed this opportunity and arranged to go to rehearsal with them shortly. I think im going to keep this one fairly simple and just concentrate on the band itself and just them playing for this video. They had some ideas of their own to coincide with the lyrics of their chosen song but I feel its going to be a little rushed as theres no time at the moment to sit down with them and story board and stuff. So instead I shall be at their next rehearsal and also at a local gig of theirs on the 26th oct.
My main promblems with this one are that I only have one camera for this, ideally I would have several so I can multicam edit. Instead im going to have to be inventive. During reheasal I can get them to play as many times as I like, but at the live gig I only have one shot. I think plenty of B-roll should give me enough to be creative with.
The other problem is that I shant have a good quality recording of their track until January, which means the final edit shant be completed until shortly after. I can do a rough cut with the sound I can get off the camera in the meantime but i'll still have to wait on the proper recording.

My other little project is with Tom at Bogiez. I have managed to convince him that I should do him a promo video for Bogiez at halloween. Halloween at Bogiez is always fantastic, the costumes are incredible and we always decorate. I envision some lovely focus pulls with the pumpkins in the foreground and some good shots of the massive cue and crowds, Tom as alawys wants 'plenty of crowd shots on the dance floor!'. I'll have loads of control over the lighting in there and I'll be able to get some good reactions and crowd shots since I know everyone and I'll have a micrphone to shout at people with (or get the djs to shout at them).
First things first though. I know the Z1 isnt amazing in low light from what people have told me. I'm going to have to test this out for myself though as I dont ever believe what people say until I've tried it. I'll be taking the camera down to Bogiez to do some test shots on the 18th to see what I can get.

That is all for now

Lighting at Arri

My last little course has been Practical Lighting Operations over at Arri GB in Uxbridge.
The Arri site was huge with so many toys and we were spoilt rotten.
We were taught by a gentleman named David Lock who is a lighting director and has done things like Eastenders as well as a huge variety of tv shows for the BBC, he's now a freelancer.
There was a total of 5 of us on the course and someone taking photos of us (if I ever see the pics online i'll update this post). Together we were shown a variety of different equipment, grips, lights, reflectors, gels, scrim.. there was a huge amount of stuff at our disposal.
We began with a simple 3 point lighting excercise but went really indepth. We were shown how to light a person well, picking out the better features, how to straighten a wonky nose and to favor the better side of the face (avoid the fat side), how to make the face thinner or fatter using light, all sorts of little tricks and techniques to get it just right.
We also looked at lighting more than one person at a time, lighting two people in the classroom and doing diagrams for more than two. We learnt a couple of tricks and cheats to get round various issues in a studio atmosphere but i'll be keeping them to myself for now.

We went on to do a walk through scenario thing where we had to film David walking down the side of the arri building, into the lobby, then into a darkened room and then cut to him sat in front of a window in his office. During this excercise we created out own sun, learnt how to use the real sun to bounce light to where we needed using reflectors, learnt that 2stop scrim is amazing stuff. Most importantly though we learnt the finer points that I may not have considered before this, it was the directions of the shadows, being consistent with the source of light, making a place look sunnier by casting the right type of shadows on the wall etc..
It was all adout picking up on the fine details so that a shot is lit so as no one would notice the lighting as the brain felt comfortable with it (if that makes sense)

there was probably more we learnt but i think its all just soaked in and i am eager to put it all into practice rather than write about it. So off I go to play with lights, cameras and editing stuff!

Final Cut Pro

I now have my Apple Certificate in 'Introduction to Final Cut Pro'
I have never ever touched this program before. All I have on my home Mac is an old version of 'imovie' which is fun but not really that good.
So as a beginner I have learnt all the basics of final cut pro now. Mostly the course was learning all of the shortcuts and editing some hideous whale footage. I have learnt to be a lot more organised now though, making sure all the bins are sorted before i start editing, editing sequences and using markers.
We also went through a bit of multicam, tranisitions and different effects. Theres not a huge amount to really comment on, they gave us the book and training materials to go with it and I passed the exam at the end.
I would like to do the advance course at some point but that would have to be with my own money, so it may be a while...

Learning to use a Z1

I have returned from the first of my little courses.
I spent 2 days in Newbridge-On-Wye with Sir John Lubran learning how to use the Sony Z1 and various camera skills.
He went through all of the settings of the Z1 camera with me and went through the particulars of things like gain, white balance and exposure to begin with. I also had a brief introduction to the Sony A1 camera, merely to point out that it is sometimes difficult to use larger camera in certain situations and smaller cameras can and are used.
We went out to practice using the camera and the tripod, doing pans, zooming and framing the shot. He also showed me how to do focus pulls and using the tripod to do 'Dutch' shots.
The most useful techniques I learnt was using the automatic features manually i.e. holding the auto focus to quickly get the focus near enough where you want it to be and then switching the auto off and manually tweeking (same with exposure). Also zooming in all the way and focusing so before you take a shot that when you zoom in and out everything stays in focus, also exposing the face or area you want exposed and then setting up the shot.
All of these things were to help make me more efficient, the quicker I can be and more comfortable with the camera, the more shots I can do making the editor a very happy person.
We went through shooting sequences and shooting for the edit. Composition was mainly ensuring that people had looking space, head room, close ups, mid shots and full shots (cant remember if thats the right terminology for them).
We also went through recording sound, ensuring nothing goes over 0db, how to monitor it and the possible microphones that can be used.
We also touched upon lighting and grip. We didnt use grip to much but he showed me some dolly and other bits of kit that can be used. We also played with some reflectors, blondes and redheads to create different effects and use filters on the camera and gels on the lights.

There was a huge amount to take in but im confident I have all the new skills to competently use this camera and start shooting!
Sadly though I shall not be able to get near another z1 until university begins. So on with the next course! Its Final Cut Pro in Birmingham!

It begins.

So, I decided to become a camera person.
I figure that years of artiness, creating work, lighting it and photographing it should come in handy with this career choice. Plus its a hobby of mine that I really enjoy.Mostly though its just something I really want to do and I generally tend to go by my gut and do what I want instead of the sensible thing.
So after a few years working in a cinema and digging myself into a hole full of management stuff and never getting to play in projection and learning more about the ability to cook super salted popcorn, I began to devise a plan to return to university.
I applied just in time and managed to get myself onto a foundation degree course in creative technology. I spent the following months being turned down for all types of funding to support me at uni. Most irritating was the 'entry scholarship' as apparently I didn't have the grades to get it (I have a degree!!!)
However I have been extremely lucky and offered a part time course, never been done and first year funded by the Welsh Government. So now I can work and study.
At the same time, rather conveniently, I have been made redundant from a job in a call centre that i was going to quit anyway. From being made redundant I have managed to apply for funding on courses outside of university. I have chosen to do a camera course, editing course and lighting course to ensure im all ready for university.

So off I go, on my adventure to become a Camera Person :D

wish me luck!