My first music video

Hi everyone, I know this is a bit OT for this board but I wanted to share it with my fellow wedding/event people. I'm excited to have just finished my first music video. As many of you probably know my work primarily involves wedding/events and occasionally commercial and corporate work.

At my own wedding this past February I ran into my cousin whom I haven’t seen in many years. Growing up I remember her always being involved with music with a particular affinity for piano. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she’s now a Contemporary Christian artist who just published her first album- available on iTunes and CDbaby (re: Caitlin Jane).

After I got a chance to actually listen to her album I was blown away. It sounded great, and she is extremely talented! We touched base after the wedding and threw some ideas around and decided to produce a music video for one of her newer songs entitled “Unborn”.

The song tackles the issue of teen pregnancy and abortion in loving, non-aggressive way. I was thrilled to be starting such a cool project and, as a Christian myself, to be part of something sending such a poignant message.

Thank you all for taking the time to watch.

Unborn- Caitlin Jane on Vimeo

[John De Rienzo]

Glen, that is superb, absolutely beautifully shot and edited and a great song!

Really liked the use of shots and flow of this piece.

Fantastic!

Cheers,

John De rienzo.

[Stephen J. Williams]

Glen... Beautiful work. Obviously talent is spread throughout your family.
I have recently been in contact with a bride that I don't think my "low light abilities" suited her needs. I passed along a great recommendation to you and your crew. I hope you don't mind. I just think highly of your work.

Steve

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Well, Glen, what can I say? It's well known that you are a top name in the wedding industry, but you should look into the music video industry very seriously after this one. Because this is definetely a mind-blowing work! It's not only superbly shot and edited like John said (to a point that I could hardly believe this is your first one) but you've got the emotional aspect of the song 100% ! And this is the important thing for me because I may get impressed often with various video works I watch around the Net, but I rarely feel emotions like the ones coming from your video (last videos that did that for me were Pacific Pictures' "Snow" and Robert Balasko's "Gupsy Wedding").

If you feel mighty proud of this work, you are absolutely right. This one is ready for the big music stations.

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by Stephen J. Williams

Glen... Beautiful work. Obviously talent is spread throughout your family.
I have recently been in contact with a bride that I don't think my "low light abilities" suited her needs. I passed along a great recommendation to you and your crew. I hope you don't mind. I just think highly of your work.

Steve

Hey Steve, thank you kindly for watching and commenting!

Low light abilities? Don't you shoot with the same cameras as me?

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by John De Rienzo

Glen, that is superb, absolutely beautifully shot and edited and a great song!

Really liked the use of shots and flow of this piece.

Fantastic!

Cheers,

John De rienzo.

Hey John, thanks for taking the time to watch and comment, and thank you also for the comment/like on Vimeo! Much appreciated.

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by Dimitris Mantalias

Well, Glen, what can I say? It's well known that you are a top name in the wedding industry, but you should look into the music video industry very seriously after this one. Because this is definetely a mind-blowing work! It's not only superbly shot and edited like John said (to a point that I could hardly believe this is your first one) but you've got the emotional aspect of the song 100% ! And this is the important thing for me because I may get impressed often with various video works I watch around the Net, but I rarely feel emotions like the ones coming from your video (last videos that did that for me were Pacific Pictures' "Snow" and Robert Balasko's "Gupsy Wedding").

If you feel mighty proud of this work, you are absolutely right. This one is ready for the big music stations.

Wow, just...wow! Thank you so much- that means a lot to me, really. I'm in the same boat- there is lots of work that is visually impressive but stuff that hits me emotionally makes the biggest impression on me. One amazing one was Darrell Boek's video several years ago which was a tribute to a fallen soldier. I didn't know the guy or his family but was brought to tears watching it. IMHO this is what's it's all about. Video is absolutely the most powerful form of media when used correctly.

Thank you for the compliments about the quality of this piece. It was nice not being confined by the difficulties of live events without retakes. There were several aspects of this production that gleaned light on my lack of experience. For one it was overshot tremendously. I shot both performance scenes (piano, and field) ten times! I used various, glass, angles, and varied movement with static/locked-down shots. That came to bite me in post when I realized syncing up ten 1080p angles in multicam was quite a chore for me AND the computer! I did, however, find that the new 422 (proxy) worked perfectly for this.

Again thank you so kindly for your comments. Now I'm off to check out your aforementioned videos! It sounds like we are on the same page in regards to our taste!

PS I would love to expand beyond weddings. I truly enjoy actually having control during shoots. However I must say this is the first project where the majority of the work was BEFORE post!

[Matt Barwick]

Awesome work Glen. Production value absolutely through the roof.

Thanks for sharing this piece and also what it was like producing your first music video as a whole. Was very interesting to hear your thoughts on the experience vs. live events.

Cheers,

MB.

P.S. I think I remember seeing a still shot of the heavy lifter above the pianist so was good to see the final shot!

[Dimitris Mantalias]

I forgot to ask before Glen. What camera did you use?

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by Matt Barwick

P.S. I think I remember seeing a still shot of the heavy lifter above the pianist so was good to see the final shot!

Yes, you are correct! I ran into Dennis Wood (Cinevate, CEO) at a seminar in near NYC and he mentioned liking that shot as well! lol

Matt, thanks for watching and commenting man.

[Glen Elliott]

Originally Posted by Dimitris Mantalias

I forgot to ask before Glen. What camera did you use?

No sweat, 5DmkII. I started shooting this before the firmware for manual controls was out. The entire Piano scene was done with the whole "cover your lens to open the aperture" work-around/trick. lol

Lenses used were: 50 1.2, 85 1.2, 135 f2, 24-70 2.8.

Other gear: Cinevate Pegasus Heavy-Lifter, Redrock Micro Field Bundle

NLE & Software: Final Cut Pro 7, Magic Bullet Looks.

Other notes: Edited offline using ProRes 422 (proxy) and colored online with ProRess 422 (HQ). Probably overkill (re: HQ flavor) but I figured it couldn't hurt especially since I was shifting the huges pretty strong in some shots. The 422 proxy footage just fell apart, as it should I suppose.

[Dimitris Mantalias]

I think that after my objections on the use of DSLRs for events and other stuff, I will say that I was -somewhat- wrong and I will buy a couple of 7Ds in the very near future. Because we too are thinking to experiment with music videos and were thinking between a DSLR or EX1. I think the Canon offerings win in some important departments.

Also, I shouldn't forgot to mention that your cousin is a very talented musician. Congratulations to her also, I will surely check her Itunes page after this one.

[Travis Cossel]

Great stuff, Glen. Especially loved the change in color grading between scenes to reflect the different moods.

Dimitris, you might want to research the 7D more. Quite a lot of people are expressing dissatisfaction on the 7D versus the 5D for certain issues; overheating (seems to be the top concern), image sharpness, low-light performance, overall image quality, cropped sensor. I heard that Canon is coming out with a 24p update for the 5D, which could make it a no-brainer for some people.

[Ken Diewert]

Hey Glen,

That was a very nice piece and cool that you could produce it with a relative.

As the parent of an adopted child, I found the piece really very moving. I hope you find an audience for it.

[Dimitris Mantalias]

You're right about all that Travis. I've done a bit of a research on those Canon models and I am aware about the problems, the most important being the overheating one. I still don't get it how Canon put on sale a camera with such a problem. Regarding low light, although inferior to 5D, it surely will be vastly superior to my FX1s. The advantages I see on buying 7D instead of 5D are
a) price difference, especially if you go for more than one
b) already own some lens that are compatible with the 7D
c) 50p is an excellent option if you use slow motion in your videos (we like it, though some would say it's out of fashion :) )

We're still thinking about it. But I won't lie, main reason is the price of 5D.