Black Lab "Lonely Boy" Music Video

aravance

aravance

Well-known member
After much delay, blood, sweat, tears, etc....my next music video is here.

Black Lab is a well-recognized and respected band that has been featured on many Hollywood soundtracks, including Spiderman, Blade: Trinity, Can't Hardly Wait, Varsity Blues, and most recently featured on the trailer of "The Covenant".

The music video features their new single, "Lonely Boy" from their album See the Sun. You can purchase their music right here on iTunes.

You know the drill.

Click the link above the image to watch the video in Quicktime format.

Once again, thank you all so much for all the support and feedback. What a great community.

I'm currently working on Music Video #3. Stay Tuned.

~ Van

Quicktime

blacklab01.jpg
 
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Color correction was handled in FCP and Adobe After Effects by Dan Rubottom and myself.

Dan helped fix a lot of clips that looked too dark, as well as handled the VFX.

We played around with a lot of final looks, but in the end decided that applying a light bleach bypass was the way to go. The lead singer really preferred that look to all the others and liked how it made things 'darker'.
 
Really well done man. The "washed out look" transitions nicely throughout the piece. Some of the best looking stuff i've seen on here.

Did you just use the Leica? Or did you use a 35mm adapter?
 
Neither. We had the Redrock m2 at our disposal, but I chose not to use it at the last minute to save on time. I had just gotten it a few days before the shoot and wasn't really ready/prepared to encounter the difficulties that comes with using it (lighting, focus, etc.). But for my next music video I plan on using and will be ready.
 
I thought the washed-out look was a good choice as well. I found myself wanting to see more of the duplication effects. Leave 'em wanting more!

Well done. :thumbup:
 
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Excellent job! 100% pro all the way.. often my eyes wander when watching, and I was glued for the entire time with this..
It being a really good song helped, but it was just very well done all the way through..
I'd like to see ur other vids.. got a website?

Let us know when it'll be on MTV

- - Justin
 
Sorry for lack of response. I'm supposed to be getting e-mails whenever this thread is updated, but I guess it's been a little behind.

More about the video? Let's see....

The video shoot took about two days. One day we shot all the scenes outside of the loft, and the other day we shot all the scenes inside the loft. We had a crew that consisted of myself, assistant director, lighting director, key grip, and a couple of interns.

We shot it all with just one HVX, using two 4gig p2 cards and dumping the footage to a powerbook G4 to maintain continous workflow.

We had two Arri light kits, but ended up using a lot of the natural light as it just poured through the windows. We also used a doorway dolly and built a half-circle track around the piano. That proved to be challenging for focusing, as two of us were on the dolly (camera operator, focus puller) while the dolly grip pushed us around. I think it would've been easier if we could've used the redrock follow focus, but I don't think I had the right gear that fits around the HVX.

I knew one of the challenges would be keeping up the momentum of the video, as only the lead singer came down to do the shoot. I felt that it would be rather boring just to have him sit there playing the piano the whole time, so I came up with the idea of him moving to different parts of the loft reflecting on past memories and the splitting represents the manifestation of his lonliness.

Feel free to ask any more questions about the shoot. I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

As far as my other work...I posted my first music video up here several months ago.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=55041

I would love for this to be on MTV...that is...if MTV played music videos anymore.

I unfortunately don't know the first thing about getting it on MTV...but I don't really see it as a possibility. Because, come on, at that level it's all political.
 
the video was awesome! great work on all aspecs of it! :)

Can you explain a little bit about the effects you used? The singer cloning, the ghosted images of the girl in the kitchen, etc. I'm new at alot of the effects, so any help/explanations you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :D
 
Nice work...loved the shot through the window. So much for the, keeping the highlights "safe" theory of how to shoot great video.

Thanks for posting
Pete.
 

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I have to agree with everyone else, this video is incredible. Very creative, original, and unique! Congratulations and keep up the great work.
 
For the memory #1 scene of the girl and the multiple lead singer shots in the frame, I used a very simple yet effective technique. All it requires is locking off the camera and shooting the scene twice or more with the subjects in different positions, and then laying the clips right on top of each other in Final Cut Pro and cropping the images to appear as one. Sometimes you'll see where the frame splits (due to lighting inconsistencies, etc.), in which case you can either feather the edges to appear smoother, or use an application like Adobe After Effects to smooth it out more.

For the girl fading in and out, I just used a simple cross dissolve in Final Cut Pro.

As far as the lead singer splitting and merging, that technique is a little more complicated to explain, but I'll try. We basically just recorded one long take of him performing the action, with a bumper for a clean slate. Then in Final Cut Pro, I cut it right at the point where he moves and then reverse the clip underneath that action. That way you get a very natural look when he splits, as it happens on the same frame. I applied a difference matte as a rough sketch for my VFX, but he had to rotoscope it in After Effects anyway to achieve the look I wanted.

Hope that's helpful and not terribly confusing.

And I also hope I didn't give away all my secrets....doh! :)
 
my only critique is that it looks too dreamy and im not digging the super concentration on the white circle in the middle of the video
 
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