Production Diary: Music Video

cameronchapman

cameronchapman

I've mentioned it a few times in various posts here, but the music video I've been in pre-production on since spring is finally moving forward!

Here's where we're at:

- Location for the band footage is secured (it's a Cold War-era military installation on top of a mountain, completely abandoned and run-down and awesome)
- Date has been set for filming the band (after much nagging on my part as one of the band members just would not commit to a date)
- Narrative portions of the video are pretty well figured out, though we still need to finalize them
- I've got 2 inexperienced PAs helping out, and possibly another guy who would act as AD if he can work his schedule around it

I'm working on getting a local but very recognizable celebrity to do a cameo (I'm sure everyone here would know the name, if I get him I'll share who it is).

The guy who founded the band (a close friend of mine) and I are going to go scout specifics on the location this weekend. It's a huge place, and we have permission to basically use it however we want, so I want a game plan before we actually get there on the day we're filming, since we only have one day to get the band footage and I want to do more than one setup.

I'm hoping to get the entire thing done by November 1st (including editing), since I'd like to enter SXSW with it (if it turns out as awesome as we're hoping). The band my friend used to be in almost went to SXSW a few years ago, and another guy in the band is in a band that's signed to a small label and has produced some other stuff, so it's not quite as much of a long-shot as it might sound.

I'll keep updating this thread, and will try to post some pics of the location after this weekend. And of course questions/suggestions are always welcome. Especially since this is the first thing I've done working with other people... :yes:
 
Location Scouting Adventures!

So my co-producer (who's the band's bassist, singer, and songwriter) and I went up to the old military base where we'll be filming today to come up with a more cohesive plan for the day when we actually shoot. I had planned on bringing my GH1 with me so I could make sure shots would work, etc., but of course I walked out of the house without it (I should have just put it in the Jeep instead of leaving it by the door...), so I only had my iPhone to take pics with.

Anyway, here are the photos of what we're working with...



This is the old server room on top of the mountain. We'll be shooting here as long as the weather cooperates.



Here's another view of it.



This is the huge tower that originally had a giant radar dome on top. There's limited access to the inside, but we may end up filming inside if the weather is bad, since it'll be dry.

Here are a few shots of the inside:





That hole in the floor is actually how we'll have to bring in the equipment if we film inside.

(Continued in the next post...)
 
Here are the rest of the location pics...



That's the metal support frame that runs up through the building to support the radar dome.



That's the view from the second floor, along with my co-producer.



Doors to the freight elevator shaft. I wish there was some way to film the band coming through them, but they're welded shut and on the other side of the doors is probably a 15 foot drop.



My fear of heights kept me from going above the second floor of the tower, but that little dot of light you can see through the grate is my co-producer coming down from the 4th floor.



This is the other indoor location we'll probably use. It's an old mess hall and kitchen. Another place that should be relatively dry in case of rain.

So there it is, our main location. There's a ton of visual interest, so we're not going to have any set decorating expenses at all (though we will for the narrative portions of the video).

The only downside to these indoor locations is the volume we'll be dealing with for the day, since this is a metal band. I'll be bringing earplugs for the crew, in case anyone wants them.
 
Cool location! Some little battery-powered LED panels would be great for in there. I have several of these ones (linkage) with an adjustable dimmer-dial on the side. They last a long time on AA's, and are very light. Attach to small lightstands, or just tape to a surface... very versatile. You'll be needing something like that, for the interiors, 'cos I'm pretty sure you ain't gonna have any power out there. :)

.
 
ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
Great location :yes:

If you shoot this video well, it could turn out amazing. I look forward to seeing it :)
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I'm pretty confident we can pull it off. Like, 80% confident. We'll see how it goes once I have some actual footage...

Zensteve said:
Cool location! Some little battery-powered LED panels would be great for in there. I have several of these ones (linkage) with an adjustable dimmer-dial on the side. They last a long time on AA's, and are very light. Attach to small lightstands, or just tape to a surface... very versatile. You'll be needing something like that, for the interiors, 'cos I'm pretty sure you ain't gonna have any power out there. :)

.
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We've got two generators already lined up, one to run a bunch of work lights and clamp lights and one to run our 2000 watt PA system. And I have LED lantern lights for a couple of china balls if we just need a little extra fill light somewhere. The second I mentioned interior shots, the guys in the band had it figured out before I even got a chance to respond to their messages. So yeah, they're awesome to work with. :yes:
 
Oh, you've definitely got it covered then. For some reason, I thought it was pretty inaccessible and lighting was au naturale. I'll go back to my hole. :lol:
 
This is fantastic! I remember your post about securing that location with the property owner. It's a very cool place. You should preserve that relationship with the owner because you might want to shoot something else there. As you know, good locations are hard to come by. Congratulations!

Thomas
 
Zensteve said:
Oh, you've definitely got it covered then. For some reason, I thought it was pretty inaccessible and lighting was au naturale. I'll go back to my hole. :lol:
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:lol:

It's moderately inaccessible. 4-wheel-drive and reasonable ground-clearance is pretty much a necessity, and it's about 5 miles up a mountain from the nearest "town" (which has no store or anything like that, just a school and a post office). The nearest decent size town (one with a gas station and restaurants) is about 10-12 miles away.

But the guys in the band all have Jeeps and trucks, so we can get basically as much gear as we need to up there.
 
Well, one of the characteristics of high-end music videos is their high level of visual and stylistic coherence.
 
_Rok_ said:
This is fantastic! I remember your post about securing that location with the property owner. It's a very cool place. You should preserve that relationship with the owner because you might want to shoot something else there. As you know, good locations are hard to come by. Congratulations!

Thomas
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Yeah, I will definitely do everything I can to foster this relationship. The cool thing is that the guy is really nice, as is the caretaker. I'll probably send them each a thank-you gift when we wrap filming, as well as copies of the video on DVD.

filoco said:
Well, one of the characteristics of high-end music videos is their high level of visual and stylistic coherence.
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This is actually where I feel pretty confident. If we can get reasonably good shots, I know I can make them work in the editing process. We've been talking about the style of the end result since we first started working on the video, so I already pretty much know where I'm going with the look of the footage, and can film accordingly.
 
Another quick update.

I've been wrestling with how to tie together all of the band footage we have planned as well as the narrative shots we want to get. There's a similar theme among the narrative parts, but they're not a story per se.

Well, today it just sort of came to me, to use an element we'd been discussing for one part near the end throughout the entire thing. It'll tie everything together and give it a really strong narrative, without really adding much extra work (we'll just need more shots of one actor, but the location, etc. will be consistent).

I don't want to give away too much this early on, but I'm feeling much better about how the editing will go now!
 
I've been putting together my shot list for the video (for the band footage anyway) and would love some input/suggestions. Basically, if you want to tear it apart, go for it! I want to make sure I'm 110% prepared when we actually get there, since I figure we'll have about 8 hours to actually film, if we're lucky, due to available daylight and the time it takes to get to the actual location.

We'll be filming in 2 possible locations. If the weather holds, we'll do one outdoor (the old server room) and one indoor (the mess hall). If not, then it'll be two indoors (mess hall and tower).

So basically, this is what I'm thinking for shots:

Mess Hall:
  • Long, low, stationary shot of the whole band
  • Side angle of the whole band
  • Low, sharp angle on the singer
  • Then either shoulder rig or fig rig on each member (we'll see how I feel when I'm actually there, I haven't finished my fig rig yet, so I'm not sure how I'll like it)

Server Room (if the weather allows):
  • Side angle of the whole band with the big fan in the background
  • Long steadicam shot of the whole band (not sure if I'll use my DIY tripod steadicam for a low shot or my flycam for this one), going for something that's almost like a dolly shot, but not as stable
  • Low, sharp angle on singer
  • More shoulder rig or fig rig shots of each band member
  • Jib shot of the whole band and/or the drummer (my co-producer is building a jib, I've never used one before, so I'm not sure exactly how I want to use it yet, though I'll make sure I get some practice in before we actually get there)

Tower (only if weather forces us inside):
  • Low angle toward the trench (might even do a Dutch angle here, not sure about the space)
  • Steadicam shot of the whole band
  • Fig rig/shoulder rig shots of each band member (I'm actually not sure about this one, as I'm not sure there's enough space inside)

If time permits, I'd like to do two run-throughs of the song for each shot, but I'm not sure if time will allow. And I'd rather have more possible angles to work with, since we want a lot of movement in the final video.

I also might try a few more creative shots, like through the broken windows in the mess hall, depending on time. I basically want to try to get all the "safe" shots done first, and then get more creative as time permits.

To give you an idea of what I'm going for as far as "movement" goes, Muse's Supermassive Black Hole (live alternative version) was a big influence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPCsUJ0QVFA
 
Fig-rigs are sweet! Even if it's not the best construction, it'll still be better than handheld.

Have you considered using a ring-light? If you and your co-producer are capable of making a jib, a ring-light should be a snap. If you do use one, then of course you'd wanna be sure to use daylight bulbs.

For band-performance-footage, considering you don't have any elaborate sets or special-effects or anything, 8 hours is PLENTY of time. But don't let me fool you into thinking you can relax. Stay busy, stay on task, and I think you'll end up with a heck of a lot more footage than you'll know what to do with.

I think your shot-list looks just fine, but I think you might want even MORE variety. For example, though you might be planning on getting some, you didn't specifically mention any ultra-closeup shots.

I also think you can have some "scripted" shots. One example I can think of is the cheesy bass-and-guitarist-lean-their-backs-against-each-other shot. It's cheesy, it's overused, but fuck it -- it's more variety in your footage. Plus, you can joke about how cheesy it is, and the band will likely have fun with this, especially if you tell them to ham it up.

By the way, is your jib gonna be on a dolly? If not, do you have a dolly? Cuz the video you're referencing as inspiration has a WHOLE BUNCH of dolly shots (I think you should put your jib on a dolly; I haven't done this yet, but am looking forward to doing it).

It seems to me like you've got a solid plan. You should do very well. Cheers! :)
 
We (I say "we" when I really mean my co-producer) were originally going to build a dolly, but decided against it because of time and the location. The floors are horribly uneven, have holes in them, etc., so even with a track it would require a ton of setup to try to get it usable. And because of those same reasons, something like a wheelchair dolly wouldn't really work either.

I'm hoping that my tripod-steadicam (the kind where you partially detach one leg and let it sort of swing) will let me get reasonably smooth dolly-like shots. Maybe.

And I'm sure we'll get some cheesy band shots in there. The three guys in the band are an absolute hoot, so it probably won't even take that much prompting on my part. :yes:
 
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Of course my co-producer has decided that we need to get some footage on the third floor of the tower. The one my fear of heights prevented me from going up to.

I'm gonna suck it up and go. I told him that if all else fails, one of the guys can go behind me and one in front of me and then I'll have no choice but to go. :yes: Honestly, I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll be so busy and focused on other things that day I probably won't even think about it.
 
I spent the last three days at Stowe Story Labs, which was an absolutely phenomenal experience! I picked up a few ideas that I can use on the video when it comes to editing and putting it all together (even though SSL was aimed at features).

But beyond that, I connected with a guy who has an octocopter that he uses for filming. This is not your typical $200-$300 piece of equipment accessible to most of us. I guess it's about a $50,000 rig, and typically has a day rate of about $2,000. We haven't fleshed out the details yet, but it looks like there's a very real possibility that he'll give us an hour of his time to get some aerial shots of the band (I told him we'd of course pay for his gas and feed him, and I've told him that whatever he needs in the future, let me know), which I'll be turning into drone shots in the final video. This is obviously HUGE when it comes to production value.

The moral of this entire video, so far, is if you want something, ASK!
 
cameronchapman said:
I spent the last three days at Stowe Story Labs, which was an absolutely phenomenal experience! I picked up a few ideas that I can use on the video when it comes to editing and putting it all together (even though SSL was aimed at features).

But beyond that, I connected with a guy who has an octocopter that he uses for filming. This is not your typical $200-$300 piece of equipment accessible to most of us. I guess it's about a $50,000 rig, and typically has a day rate of about $2,000. We haven't fleshed out the details yet, but it looks like there's a very real possibility that he'll give us an hour of his time to get some aerial shots of the band (I told him we'd of course pay for his gas and feed him, and I've told him that whatever he needs in the future, let me know), which I'll be turning into drone shots in the final video. This is obviously HUGE when it comes to production value.

The moral of this entire video, so far, is if you want something, ASK!
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Congrats! Events like that are awesome for networking, which is so important. I've gotta get myself to a few of them (or preferably invited!) soon.

So, that octocopter will mean you won't have to dangle yourself off the third floor of the tower? =)

CraigL
 
CraigL said:
So, that octocopter will mean you won't have to dangle yourself off the third floor of the tower? =)
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Unfortunately/fortunately (I'm trying to look at it as the latter) I'll still have to go up to the 3rd floor. That's for a different shot. The tower is actually completely enclosed, it's just the stairwell that's sketchy since you can see straight through the metal-grate stairs all the way to the ground floor.
 
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