See this HOT MUSIC VIDEO coming soon to MTV

Final cut ready soon

Final cut ready soon

Obin,

I'm glad you like what we've done so far. We actually are playing with various color looks and doing final tweaks now. We originally intended to do the final color work at Riot Santa Monica or Company 3 but the budget simply doesn't allow that. All our color work is being done at the desktop level in post right in Final Cut Pro using a fabulous plug-in package called 55mm by Digital Film Tools.
http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/55mm/

The cut that we posted is a rough cut. We expect to replace that with the final cut by tonight and the main changes are a few shot replacements and more color styling.
 
Very good video. I am impressed. Somebody can direct! What are typical prices for color correction on music videos by companies such as Riot or Company 3? I think what Obin is refering to is that the colors seem a tad washed out. Slightly more contrast is the popular look that would add the final nail. You guys are GREAT!
 
Color correction

Color correction

Nik,

I'm sure Xandy appreciates that you recognize his directing skills. Color correciton at Riot or Company 3 is $400-$800 per hour depending on which colorist you select to use. If you do your color lab work after your final cut of your music video, you should be able to get a good supervised color session completed in 2 hours. Believe me, it is WELL WORTH the money if you care about making your colors pop.

The washed out appearance of the performance scenes are due to a bleach bypass filter that was applied to those scenes in that version of the cut. We are tweaking the color correction today and by late tonight we should have the true final cut posted.
 
Yes, right on the money. WELL WORTH IT.

well said. That is why we spend so much time on our work in post with color timing.

55mm is a cool set, but very limiting IMHO, we use Digital Fusion most of the time.


Shooting our 5th funny short tonight..wish us luck!!
 
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I agree. The lighting and the color for the narrative scenes is amazing. Great job!

Did you get the greens to stick out that way through color correction in FCP?
How did you achieve that greenish tone?
 
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still more answers

still more answers

Obin,
We have had great results with 55mm over the years and we do have other plugins in our toolbox as well. GenArts Sapphire is good for enhancing images and effects but we didn't use it on this project. We are 100% Mac so PC software like Digital Fusion isn't anything we would ever come across. Good luck on your 5th funny short!!!

Aravance,
You asked about the greenish tone of the narrative scenes, we shot those scenes cool. We used green gels on the lights and we adjusted the balance on the camera to cool the image. But then we really worked with filters in 55mm to complete the greenish look we wanted.

The final tweaked color corrected final cut will be posted late this evening.
 
This video was very well done. I watched some of the other vid's and you definitely have an eye for composition. Great camera movement as well!
 
state of man video = state of the art video
again, great job!
One question: I tried the "slo-mo lipsinc singing" once. The song was pitched to double speed, to later slow it down again in post. But the band was playing punkrock - and the double speed version was so fast they couldn´t even try to do the playback...
Is there a "technical" rule (eg bpm) when you can do this effect and when not...?
 
"Roll Playback!..."

"Roll Playback!..."

Spartacus,
The technical rule for any performance by any artist that is very experienced or brand new/green: Have them rehearse whatever you expect from them at least a few days before the shoot. If there is going to be a poor performance you want to see it in time for them to tighten it up so YOUR music video doesn't look bad. It's not their music video, it's yours. You'll put your name on it and consequently you get all the credit or all the blame.

When we have challenging timing issues in slomo or anything that involves any change frame rate in our image sequences we use Twixtor Pro 4.5, a great improvement over previous versions. http://www.pluginz.com/product/11031?from=news We have not used Twixtor Pro 4.5 on this particular project (yet).
 
awesome.. wasn't really into the end shot with the stage door but everything else was really really great.
 
Hot video! The story scenes look like 35 for sure -- latitude and all. I can't say that the music is my cup of tea, but definitely well produced. My only suggestion would have been to tone the blinders down a bit during the performance shots (label execs love SEEING their talent) but that's about it. Love the par can accents too. I just shot an all-composited video for a friends band on the HVX, and it is truly a magic tool. I was skeptical, but pieces like this seal the deal for me (and I'm hard to please, coming from an all 35mm/S16/VariCam background).

Keep up the good work!

Henry
DP/Gaffer, NYC
 
Glad to see all the kind comments. Thank you. 90% of the magic is lighting. As for 55mm, it has been used as a quick and very nice fix for a few scenes, particularly a couple filters which just offer a nice combo of a few effects I usually achieve using many separate filters in Final Cut. The green is mostly Final Cut's 3 Way Color Corrector, layered a couple times with some secondary correction as well. I used a 55mm filter for contrast and as Adam mentioned, the lights were lightly gelled and the camera was balanced cool. Much thanks to Mike the DP executing the look so well.

I am used to shooting 35mm and some Super16 and have to say that this looks incredible on a proper monitor. I would probably guess it was 35. The web version just doesn't do it justice, particularly the performance scenes, which some have pointed out as washed out. We have toiled over many different grading tactics and keep coming back to what grasped us at first. It really does pop on a proper monitor. I do agree with the comment about the blinders being a bit hot, though. It was due to both a technical issue with the complex dimmer board (which had two people manning it) and a slightly over-zealous use of the hazer in the wide shots. Not much you can do to get back blown highlights in video, and crushing the blacks to pull at least the contrast back in, ruins the image when the lights go down.

Everyone who worked on this is very proud of it and has referred to this forum many times before. Thanks again for all the fantastic and helpful feedback.

-Xandy Smith
Director
 
got a question for you HDproducer, what type of fog did you use on stage, I have a small fog machine but it seems it's not the same as the big fog used on stage and sets I have seen....
 
obin said:
Yes, right on the money. WELL WORTH IT.

well said. That is why we spend so much time on our work in post with color timing.

55mm is a cool set, but very limiting IMHO, we use Digital Fusion most of the time.


Shooting our 5th funny short tonight..wish us luck!!
Click to expand...

Do you have a link for Digital Fusion? I am interested....

Cheers,

Adam
 
Awesome!

Quick question, what are your editing system specs? We've been trying out the DFT 55MM set as well, we love them, but once a filter is applied to HVX200 footage, the video track is consistently thrown back approximately 3 frames.
 
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