I shot a very quick music video yesterday ( only had a half hour... ) with my ex1..... quite pleased considering the rush.

http://www.witzke-studio.com/peterbg.m4v.zip


went to a coffee shop and edited it in about an hour in FCP on MBP... and uploaded it via wifi from the coffee shop to the server...... don't we live in a wonderful time?

Wow!!!

That was so so so so GOOD!

Very impressed! Very clean and smooth.

Even crazier to think you did this at a Coffee shop on your MBP! Interesting times to live in indeed!

Portable video shooting and editing on a MBP and the EX1...Life is Good!


Great music too!

Man this is just so good I had to reply again!

Good stuff!

I take it you filmed several takes of the same song or ...do you have two cameras/two people filming?

And what band is this? They are amazing! Great sound...great voice!

thanks for the kind words....

shot about 5 takes.... just one cam. no DOF adaptor... just wide open at -3 gain, 3200k, 1080p HQ 24 @ 1/48th.... no pp's.

synced to a wave file of the audio in FCP. simple desat with 3-way cc.

the artist is peter searcy.... a louisville native.. this song " i believe" was picked up by oprah for her give away special. also used for an ad for a new TV show called "lipstick jungle"

looks like were going to shoot some more footage in a few days with the rest of the band.... I'll post a final when ready.

looks like were going to shoot some more footage in a few days with the rest of the band.... I'll post a final when ready.


Well, I'm standing in line for the show! :)

You guys should put some coffee on for us line waiters. It's cold out here!!! ;)

Great video!
I did a test and made a SD DVD out of it - it looks sooo great on my TV! Soo great, I can't wait to get my EX1. On TV it's like watching an actual movie from the big ones. A friend of mine didn't believe this was shoot on such a "cheap" (sorry!) cam!!! And this was without any adapter like letus etc. ???

Looks dang good!

You might want to work on the visual / audio sync though..

yes I know.... quick editing there. I'll get the sync right for the final.

We are reshooting tonight with the whole band in a fancy recording studio with purdy sonix wall panals and large condenser mics and such.

I tell ya though.... the difference between my old z1's and this EX on my 30" apple display at full screen in 1080p is HUGE! the EX is just so clean and makes the Z1 look like SD.

I'll put up a 1080 24p file when edits are done.... might be about a gig though.

also.... I shot some green screen the other day for another music video... and it key'd much better then I thought it would. I'll post a little snip when I get a chance.

Video looks and sounds awesome played back full screen on my crappy Westinghouse 32" LCD. My old G4 dual 800 couldn't keep up with the video frame rate.

How did you compress it to mp4 and how long did it take?

Wow, shot and edited in a few hours with hardware and software under $10k!

Looking forward to the completed video.

ok..... here's the reshoot.....

http://www.witzke-studio.com/peter3.m4v.zip

This time took about 3 hours to shoot and 2 for edit. I'm sure there will be some more edits....

I added a little bit of vignette blur & darkness.... tweaked sat and levels with the 3-way in FCP, saved full size ( 1080 24p ) then opened in QT and exported as appletv setting.... that's it.

I wish the room was nicer and bigger, could not hide the lights.... no abbey road, but oh well.

Did I say I love this camera? well, I do!

Nice film look and saturated colors. It has that high-end "glassy" look.

The background lights bothered me this time. I liked all the close-ups and the b&w from the last video.

This video is less intimate. It needs another layer or two of intimate cutaways with the lead singer interacting with the subject of his lyrics at other locations, which I'm sure you will get done!

If it were Jersey, he'd be down the shore on a Saturday night at the boardwalk in the summer with his date.

yeah... but I don't think his wife would like that.

in a perfect world I'd prefer to shoot in a sound stage with lights up out of the way, but as things are with 8' ceilings in a dinky recording studio.... it's all I've got to work with.

I actually prefer the look and feel of the 1st shoot..... but I'm just the hired camera/production and not the visionary ( in this particular situation )

I gotta tell ya though... in 1080 up on my projection screen it's stunning.... I can count the nose hairs!

Great Job Christopher !!!

Thanks for sharing sir
Paul

ok... here's how it stands right now.....

http://www.witzke-studio.com/ibelieve-bg.m4v.zip

I'm still going to tweak it a bit when I get a chance.

they wanted that "70's look" so I did a bit of bleach and gamma work on it.

I'm downloading the lastest version right now but I loved the first. I have to ask.....the DOF is very shallow for having no DOF adapter. I currently have and XLh1 and can get this look if I can get back a little and zoom in. However several of you shots seem to be "medium" shots yet still the wall behind the singer is blurry, despite appearing to be only 4-5 feet away. Is this what I can expect from a 1/2" sensor? Cause this video really looks polished for sure and the cinematography and selective focus are a big reason for it. There are some other shots that are in black and white that seem to be about the same distance where the DOF is much deeper.....can you elaborate or am I imagining that?

Great work.

yep.... 1/2" does make a big dif. I had Z1's before this cam and could not get this look without being back much further.

I shot everything wide open ( f1.9 ) and was only a few feet away....

I really feel no need for a DOF adaptor ( I had an early letus a few years ago ) with this cam. and believe me.... I shot with a 85mm f 1.2 wide open all the time with my canon 1ds3.... so I know what extreme DOF ( or lack of ) looks like.

The other thing I love about this cam is the CMOS chips handle flair much more like film..... I love to back light, and love flair. CCD chips would smear and just look like video to me.

and did I say I love the workflow? I don't miss tape at all!

Thanks for the input. I will seriously consider this camera...the only drawback is I still need to do some longform event recording to continue to fund my "creative projects" so I still need a longer recording medium. Any clue on a firestore device for this unit?

I will post my thoughts on the 4th revision after a while. Sorry to go off-topic slightly......now back to your regularly scheduled program.

ya know you can just swap cards to and fro while recording with the ex1...... might want to lock it down pretty good to keep from jiggles though.

and one can use the sony hvrdr60 hard disk recorder as well.... but only in sq 25mb hdv setting.

Great looking footage, that totally destroys my dsr 300. I am glad i won't be giving up any depth of feild when I switch. One thing though, is that rolling shutter on the drummer shots?

no those are rubber sticks... hehe..... might be a little roll, but mostly 1/48th shutter blur. Does not bother me.

Chris, I finally had the chance to watch the 4th version of the video and liked it a lot, however from a technical point of view, the DOF seemed to be much deeper overall. I'm not dogging it when I say this but it looks more like footage I have shot on my XL-h1, which is still very good, but just a little more videoish.....in my mind. Any ideas? Did you shoot with different settings?

Thanks.

I played it safe and the angles where much wider.... so the dof is deep.

I'm with you and love sdof.... but sometimes you gotta do what the client wants.... they write the checks!

by the way.... check out the specs for getting this video on itunes.... how old school!

"Preferred tape format is beta sp / digi-beta / DVCAM

We may also send broadcast quality digital files provided they meet the
following requirements or are equivalent to the specs below. Please note
that submission of media as data files may result in an additional charge
based on any required time in their edit bay to output this content to tape
first.

If we wish to send a digital file, here are the desired specs: NTSC:
720x486, 29.97 fps"

such a shame.

ok.... here's the final edit.....

http://www.witzke-studio.com/labelx/ibelieve.m4v.zip

and here's the mpeg2 file that the itunes server requires.... (288MB)

http://www.witzke-studio.com/labelx/ibelieve-ntsc-2997-mp2.mpeg.zip

please be aware that this video has been graded for a certain look... grain, glow, and s-curve.

great video, i really like the intimate feel to it. It would be hard not to like to be honest. I like the look you have chosen aswel, suits the piece nicely.

Man, I think you just sold me on the EX1, and that's a good point about the back lighting and flair--I love that kind of stuff!

very impressive.
Could you gives us the steps you took in having this look so fluid?
It's so consistent, it looks like a multicam shoot.

I've been watching this thread since you first posted. I like the final version much better than the first (B&W acoustic). How involved were you in the artistic direction? I love the fact that everyone is singing along and smiling even though they aren't mic'd, and the drummer's stick tricks add great nuance. And Peter's spitting all over the sm57 was great to...like he's really singing and not just lip-syncing. Criticisms: we only saw the piano player like twice! and one other minor faux pas...that scarf Peter is wearing is soooo short! Honestly, it's distracting!

The video work is great though! very good, thoughtful shots. you have a real talent, especially if this was a one-man, one-camera job. I find myself in this situation a lot, and I am usually hard pressed to get results like this. I hope they paid you well!

Looking forward to more great footage from you! You've sold me on the camera, and Peter Searcy (I just bought Spark on itunes for "I Believe.")

-Jonathan

as for artistic direction.... peter picked the location (a working recording studio) and had the basic concept in mind... happy band members and b-roll of them gearing up mixed in.

everything else was up to me..... I'm a one man gig and do all my own grip, lighting, shooting, steadicam, editing, etc. Hell... I don't even like others helping me carry my gear back to the car.

great you bought peters album..... he's been at it a long time and works really hard at it. check out some of the other bands on the labelx label. Digby is one of my favs and hope to do some work with them in the future.

I'm a one man gig and do all my own grip, lighting, shooting, steadicam, editing, etc. Hell... I don't even like others helping me carry my gear back to the car.

You and me both man, I rarely even let people touch my stuff :), though as I've gotten more and more gear ( and I hate making more than one trip of course :) ). I have begun to let people take a couple of stands etc... if I'm offered.

Nice video, and I gotta say that from what it looks like there, I don't have a lot of concerns on the "rolling shutter" business, because even with just a hint of it on the drummers sticks where it was making the largest amount of movement it sure wasn't all that bad.

Thanks for sharing.

Dave

very impressive.
Could you gives us the steps you took in having this look so fluid?
It's so consistent, it looks like a multicam shoot.

I basically did the wide shot 1st.... and never altered the camera settings ( other than focus and zoom ) for the other 5 takes. 1080 24p HQ, 3200wb, -3 gain, f4-ish, 180 degree shutter, no PP's.

the musician on the piano had to leave after the 1st take.... so you only see him a few times and there was a lot of clutter behind him so I did not put much light over there.

Thanks, Looks good.
Also, that song is powerful. Amazing