We actually filmed this music video on December 21st 2011. Here is a little behind the scenes clip:
NOTE: See post shoot commentary at the end of this blog:
Tonight a director that I work with sent me a song for an upcomming video that we are shooting in December. These are my thoughts on the song. If you are into making music videos, maybe these ideas will interest you.
Link to Song
First when I heard this track I imagined this slow-motion shot looking up into the sun but the camera is underwater in a pool and there are bubbles coming up and the camera is close to the surface of the water, we make some waves in the pool and then it comes out of the water and shows a lenses flair shot of the dude standing there or of something else.
Then I was trying to think of something that makes a similar sound to the grindy instrument that is playing the main melody. I think something we should start trying to do is, I got the idea from watching Michael Jackson videos specifically beat it, in that video the director made things happen at specific times and the things that happened seemed like they sort of fit the instrumental sound in the song.
Okay this is a link to beat it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0&ob=av2n click to the 3:00 mark when the doors open? So there is a sound in the actual song that kind of fits that dramatic thing of the doors opening but I also realize that they rolled audio on the set or did Foley and dubbed into the video sound effects... we never do that and that is actually pretty cool....
anyways, the grindy sound in the track that you sent me, I was trying to think of what visuals this would remind me of and the best thing that I could think of is a system in a car bumping hard.. if we could find a cool car like a muscle car or something old and beat up but cool and fits a possible vibe for teh song then I think it would be cool to TRY to get some shots of the system just blaring, maybe we play the song through the cars system and then record that part and get those vibrations... could be something cool to cut too.
Also for this track I was somehow imagining a field, maybe wheat, some kind of crop and the guy is standing out there and we film at night and we use lots of LED's to backlight him and we put the LED's at the height of the wheat so that as the crop shifts it plays with the light. Just an idea and maybe an idea that will not be feasible.
I can imagine for part of it, that car on a windy road flying by but we speed the footage up so it is going faster than it looks, if there is a way that we can do this so that it still looks smooth and the appropriate cool speed that is cool. I could see filming this with bungy cam and the car moving. And then it cuts in and out of that with the speakers in the back of the car bumping and vibrating. Maybe a car mount shot if it is possible on the back of the car facing forward getting the speakers vibrating and the road ahead. that is probably impossible but if we had the right car. Just an idea.
I can see using a drum set and lighting it really cool, somewhat high key and very bright and then getting an extremely shallow depth of field and doing crazy focus throws maybe to the beat and mixing that in as B roll especially coinciding with snare hits in the song. then another idea is to find a location, and use the Jib and "go vertical"... get those focus throws of the drum set looking down on it and then bam jib lifts up to a higher level to reveal the chorus singer at a mic singing with some people behind him dancing.
alright now he's talking about Bellagio... it would be a major cop out to not go to Vegas and get some insane strip footage. I don't know if they are down for that but we might have to get a really really smooth car and a bunch of cameras and take all the car mounts and get shots. Or take my truck and rig something where we can use the bungy cam without drawing too much attention to ourselves. bring the car that we are using for the video in and get some bungy cam shots of it rolling. if there was something we can do with the shutter speed and frame rate to make it have a really eery and fitting effect that would be great. we have never tried long lenses on the bungy cam yet, I am wondering if that would work.
At this point I doubt that they have the budget to cover this stuff and we are only about 2 minutes into the 4 minute song. if we can get a really really hot girl though then we can do some kind of steamy love part in the hotel, literally steamy, like we get a steamer and steam some shit up.
As I listen to this song, one thing that got me thinking, maybe after the vegas part if there could be a vegas part with the steamy part.. seriously doubt they have the budget for all this but you never know..
anyways, when I saw that Beyoncé video where she is in the trailer park and J Cole is in it, that video kinda struck me because that is such a different life. If you really love somebody you can have all these fantasy lives with them and it doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing it only matters that you are together. That trailer park thing was crazy because that was such a unique type of life. Maybe we could try to construct some unique type of life that the artist and his girl could go into after the Vegas part but when you see it you know that it is a fantasy and is not real that’s why the viewer doesn't give it a hard time they just go with it and pretend and start to imagine that life style for them and their loved one. I don't know what that unique type of life style could be. That Rihanna song "fell in love in a hopeless place" is huge, but its also the message in it that is huge, a place isn't hopeless tho when you are in love so maybe we just find some kind of. idk. Maybe we could go into some crraaazy ass fantasy, of this fake world that is all weird and then it cuts into the two of them in bed and the girl just woke up and she is telling him about the dream and he is listening to her and smiling and holding her hand and then he kisses her and then it fades away.
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Post shoot commentary:
Sooooo this shoot was pretty strange, not what I expected AT ALL. Had some problems, we did our best. One of the issues that came up is that we tried to get some nice shots in Malibu and I think that we did pull off some nice shots in a beautiful area, the only thing is that we didn't know exactly where we were going to shoot before we went there and so we had to end up looking for a place... we found a place but it ended up being on a fire road and the gate was only open because some workers were doing construction. We filmed with the steadicam and the artist in a beautiful mountainous coastal area and I think we got some great shots. While Ryan Spencer shot this I got the Jib ready, unfortunately there was not very much time to get Jib shots before the sun had completely set, we may have gotten SOMETHING, with the jib though. It was really just something we were trying to do really fast. Then, PROBLEM, the gate was locked at 5 and we were trapped with our cars behind the gate in the fire road... That was bad, it took a while to get out of there and when we did, we headed to Compton... Now.. There is Compton... adn then there is COMPTON... I did not realize that we would be shooting in COMPTON!!! I rolled up to the apartment complex and noticed about 10 or more Bloods chillin, at about 9pm... I was like wow. And the basketball court that we were going to shoot in was not close to where my truck was... In that neighborhood I needed all of my gear out of my truck.. It was not a good look at all and I never ever would have shot there if I was scouting locations. I am just keeping it real. If you want to book me with my best gear you need a place that is accessable and free of gangsters otherwise I will get upset. Also the basketball court was surrounded by apartments and I knew we were not going to be able to shoot there long despite the fact that I was being told otherwise... Regardless of this adversity I believe we pulled something off, we filmed another scene away from the basketball court. Ryan filmed a previous day and so I think he has enough footage for this music video.
The song IS kind of long, and what we filmed was definately not what I expected, but just wait, this might be an entertaining music video. ;-)
I speak of the problems and adversity as a warning to future people who work with me, I do not ask for much, ultimately you will get the video that you work for, I will definately do my best at all times!
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