Papert goes shallow with Crystal Bowersox video
 

After preaching against shooting wide open with DSLR because of the incessant focus hunting that inevitably occurs, I have finally shot a project that embraced that look! Ah, how the might hath fallen.


Also viewable on my site

Meiert Avis of Pusher Media, for whom I have shot six or seven videos this year, won the debut video of American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox; he developed a thoughtful, simple treatment and we discussed how to best present it. Since I introduced him to the 1DMKIV he has been an ardent fan. When we started talking about the image of a long strand of yarn unraveling from a sweater, I started to picture stretching it from below the lens to the subject and racking down the length of the yarn with minimal depth of field. Also our exterior location, under the famous 6th St. bridge in downtown LA (where last year I worked with Vincent Laforet on the first 1D video, "Nocturne"), would also benefit from the shallow treatment as it had a lot of construction junk that distracted the eye from the subjects. Largely though, the song is about isolation and distance and this visual approach fit the theme.

I brought in a second camera, a 5D, manned by Gary Hatfield who is now the DP on Community. Gary's nickname is "The Lone Wolf", he loves to go off unsupervised and grab interesting shots. I've used him for this on a number of projects over the years. He has a selection of crazy old lenses for his 5D including some 70's era Sears brand...!

We shot the first half of the day under the bridge; rarely going under a 100mm Zeiss ZE on my 1D (mostly on Steadicam operated by Cedric Martin) and Gary even longer with doublers. I kept the stops down under 2.8, often at f2. My poor AC Markus Mentzer was putting up a brave face trying to hold focus on moving subjects and Steadicam with that little depth of field but he did as well as could be expected.

Later we moved to a room in the Barclay Hotel, an old and largely decrepit residence hotel downtown that is often used for filming. We shot Crystal performing the song on guitar in a few setups in the room. Again, long lenses and wide open stops made for focus challenges galore. Markus groaned when he watched the final video...as for me, I'm still not a fan of searching focus when it's not intentional but it was an interesting exercise.

Lighting on the exterior was a 1200 Par through diffusion for the static shots and a Joker 400 for walking shots to separate the faces and lend a bit of presence. I had thought we were going to crush everything down a bit which would have returned the faces to normal and darkened the environs, but this didn't happen (I wasn't involved in the color correction). For the interior I gave the dingy environs a warm, naturalistic look for the shot with the little boy running into Crystal's arms, which we shot first, but which appears at the end of the video; we then went straight into performance mode without any lighting changes as the director liked the look. I might have softened the key a little for the closeups but with the Steadicam, any given take could range from wide shot to closeup so I had to go with it. I had a 4x4 Kino outside the window to the left as a key, a 650 inside the bathroom to the right, two Dedos above the bed (one pointing down at the pillows, the other as a backlight on Crystal), a Source 4 on the headboard of the bed and another bounced off the carpet in front of her as fill--sometimes I added a piece of showcard if I needed more punch. As we moved throughout the room for other setups I keyed with a 4x4 bounceboard with Source 4 punched into it.

The song seems to be gaining traction so hopefully this video will get some good exposure. It's a strong and emotional piece, certainly not your average pop song.

Wow, no kidding, that's serious stuff. Really liked her a lot on
last season's Idol and it's nice to see this piece starting to get
some traction. Well done, Chas, and thanks for sharing this!

Charles.

Loved her on idol, and this music video floored me in terms of the raw emotion you guys brought out in that film. Loved the whole thing. My wife and I watched it, and we both went silent about 10 seconds in, and were captivated for the whole film.

Wow Charles, great video and thanks for the details on the setups. It really helps those of us with much less experience appreciate what it takes to get a really great looking end product.

The song and video is wonderful. Any idea if it's headed for any of the music video channels? I don't watch them much but it would be great to see something of substance on them other than the hip hop/pop cookie cutter stuff they normally show.

-Garrett

Everything depends on popularity--if a song cracks the charts, the video will surely follow...

In the UK we can't see this latest work of yours Charles - on YouTube - all I get is this :-(

So I watched it directly on your site - lovely stuff!

Excellent all the way around, Charles. I loved her on Idol. I'm happy to see her getting a good chance with a great music video. Shallow is great when it works!

Charles, thanks for posting. I've been shooting some music videos around town and I have to say my hats off. The lighting. The framing. It's all there. More importantly the video moved me. Seeing the girl in crutches with the line about telling the highschool she had fallen down the stairs gave me goose bumps.

I'm dying of curiousity to know what, approximately was that video's approximate budget. Or for that matter what is the typical budget for a music video in your parts.

Thanks all. I agree Matt (and others), the message behind this one is powerful--starts in the song and reflects in the video. The shot on crutches gets to me too--it's intense the way Crystal hits the lyrics at that point in the song.

I don't know the actual numbers on that one but I think it safe to say that it was well under $50K. All the videos I've been doing this year (and all for major-label artists) have been in that range. While that seems like a lot of money if you are shooting an indie project, that doesn't go very far with this sort of thing--locations fees, permitting, police detail, catering etc.

Our next video is for Social Distortion--a lot less money and a two day shoot with 30's period wardrobe and props--it's going to be next to impossible, but naturally we will find a way!

Thanks Charles, we enjoyed it on Vimeo down here too. To quote Matt .. 'it's all there' and beautifully balanced in the right proportions.

Cheers.

I really enjoyed the yarn theme. Well done.

Thanks, I can't wait to see the Social Distortion video. I mean that. Having shot a few videos now, I would not use a narrow DOF for those guys because they're such a wide open band. But I'm guessing you will shoot it in away I can't conceive right now and it will look great. Anxious to see what you come up with.

Don't worry, I'm back to my normal mode of shooting! I don't expect to be going extra shallow again any time soon...

Charles,

PLEASE stop working with people who understand the value of storytelling as a part of work like this!

The industry was nearly convinced that "music videos" are best when they show the world that conspicuous consumption and shiny cars and surgically enhanced females will forever be highest form of modern "artistic" expression.

Now you and your fellow "pros" have to come along and find an artist with actual talent and do something as subversive as finding a visual representation of an abstract idea (unraveling) that both reflects and enhances the emotional content of that artists clearly superior work.

If THAT becomes the freekin' standard, you're going to make it VERY difficult for all the "producers" who earned their title by marrying someone connected to someone powerful in the industry.

THEN where would the industry be???





Oh, seriously. The flaws you see with your experienced eyes are WAY more than lost in the overall excellence of the entire effort. Don't sweat what's not perfect. Revel in being able to create that which is outstanding.
(bravo)