Music video for Halestorm: Canon 1DMKIV
 

My latest music video, this time for Atlantic recording artists Halestorm.

Those who may have watched the one I shot for The Pretty Reckless will recognize the location; we shot these back-to-back to take advantage of the incredible mansion perched above the Pacific (same production company, different directors). This one is a "storyline" video in a film-noir style, which was fun to shoot. Two 1DMKIV's, Zeiss ZE primes, Canon 70-200 zoom. All was shot at the location (finding a green-tiled service hallway leading to the dining room that would sell as a morgue was a bonus) in a single day, except for the underwater footage which was shot the day before in the director's swimming pool. I used a 20x20 green screen mounted flat over the pool, and we rented an underwater housing (with underwater speakers so the singer could hear playback!!) I was extremely impressed with how Lzzy, the singer, was able to hold her breath and emote underwater while keeping bubbles from coming out her mouth, take after take.

There is probably an assumption that because I work on some big shows that I have a large budget to work with on these videos-- most are extremely low-budget these days and this was no exception. We slugged through an 18 hour day with very little crew and a pretty small lighting package--that's where the 1D comes through as you don't need a ton of light ( a few shots, most notably the girl walking down the hallway into the blue light and the detective walking into the Great Room, were shot 100% available light).

Unfortunately, both the color correction and the effects compositing were done hastily and at the last minute before delivery, so there are a few things that will always stick out to me. Overall though, I'm quite pleased knowing that we made it for the cost of a no-frills car...!

really really well done ,i think this will have a lot of views soon

Very cool!

Can you show some clips of the "pool" footage on how it was done?

Awesome video!

I'm also trying to figure out how she sings underwater too.

Man you are amazing!!! Not only do you do great work you partner with people (bands) that do the same. The song is great the video just as good. Can you elaborate a little on the green screen and pool scene please? The rest I know how you did it... Talent and a great eye. The pool (drowning scene) I'm still not sure on. Green screen above and then a liquid background in AE??? To give the effect. It's clear the girl has some lungs (and pipes) to pull off that kind of take!! That is a great band and good for you for helping them.

On a side note we may know a couple of friends that we have in common. DE and Danny Jeffries (sound tech)

music video
 

Absolutely fantastic! Very cinematic feel and story telling.Also song is very good,not completely my taste,
but i works very well,as i'm not such a kind music lover,makes me turn head;)
overall video feels somehow expencive !

regards

raul

Hi guys:

Sorry, been socked into a night shoot schedule--missed these posts.

Attached is a camera original still of the pool shoot. I mentioned in the post how I used a 20x20 green screen horizontally over the pool (about 4 feet above the water); I also had an underwater Kino as the lighting source. That, the housing and the speaker system was rented from Hydroflex here in LA.

We shot still frames of the appropriate perspective of the mansion as as low as possible to use as background plates (also some clips of the police standing and looking down into the pool). I wasn't involved in the compositing phase--I do know that the effects person gave the director plenty of grief for shooting on the 5D rather than a camera with better color space (he would have preferred even an HVX200). All that flowing hair...

So I'm afraid I can't give you any recipes on the underwater "look" that was applied.

Hey Charles,

Guess I've been spending too much time on Facebook--I was looking for the "like" button...

I wasn't sure what I thought of the lighting at 2:20 until the rest of the scene played out, then I thought it was great! And I loved what you did at 2:39. About the overall lighting, I've always been a little obsessed with being able to see into people's eyes, but I noticed you didn't light that way and it didn't take away from the mood or the impact you were after. Whether your choice or the director's it is another lesson learned.

So the question that keeps me up at night--were you underwater in scuba gear or something with that camera? :)

Hi Lorinda:

The director and I had virtually no discussion about the look--having done a film noir feature together, it was a style we were well versed in! The treatment (reprinted on the band's site) covered most of the bases regarding the look.

For the interrogation scene (2:20), I walked into the room for the first time that day and saw a little slit of sun coming through the heavy windows and liked the effect, so I decided to duplicate it. It's sort of a variation on the classic "bare lightbulb in the eyes" gag that you see in classic interrogation scenes--I was picturing the detective making the suspect sit in the chair and opening the curtains to make him squint. What would have helped the effect would have been to smoke the room a bit, however no-one got the note on getting the smoker ready so by the time we were ready to shoot, it was still on the truck and I had to bail, rather disgruntedly.

Bedroom night scene (2:39)--one light on the girl in the bed (I think a Source 4) and a little edge on the foreground guy. By adjusting the curtains to the left of the bed I added a little bit of fill for that side; another window to the far right delivered the kick off the headboard. They were quick and easy fixes but at the breakneck speed we were working, that was the way to go. Incidentally this is the same room as the setup where she is in front of the mirror (1:40); that required simply a fresnel mounted above her head bouncing into the top of the mirror and a little edgelight with half blue on it. The back of the room where the guy is standing was lit solely by nudging the curtains once again. I played all of that as uncorrected daylight against tungsten on the girl which made her pop out. I used this look a number of times in the video; at :54 when the police enter the Great Room, that's just uncorrected daylight against warm incandescent, all available light. My favorite was at :43, where she walks down the hallway and enters a pool of blue light--again, all available and I just turned practicals on or off and/or opened doors to daylit rooms to achieve the proper contrast and levels. It's a testimony to the singer's camera savvy that as knew to turn to camera as she hit the light.

What makes shooting with the 1DMKIV fun is that you can work with available light even at amazingly low light levels and still get great images. It's not about just turning on the camera and shooting--there are plenty of ways to control existing light sources (I generally put practicals on simple household dimmers, and curtains or sheers are great instant dimmers/cutters for daylight) so you can sort of paint the scene with what is already there. We had an enormous amount of work to do that day so I had to move very quickly and efficiently, not much time to tweak lighting. There are plenty of things I wish I could have spent more time on of course, and I see them every time I watch the video, but that's life.

Genius! Dullard that I am it would have never occurred to me.

Thanks so much for the added info, Charles; I'm going to study this one for awhile with your notes in hand.

Incredible, incredible work.