Music video HVX200/Mini35/18mm Master Prime

H

hkarlsen

Member
Sorry for doubleposting (also in user film). Thought it could fit here also..
rundt.jpg

Watch it at http://www.hkarlsen.no/rundtogrundt.mov
AND check out my other films and things at http://www.hkarlsen.no/

The story behind this shot is this.

The idea for the shot came from 2 sources. The amazing one takes of "Children of Men", and the not so well known film "Slacker", where you never really have a main character. We decided early on that we wanted a steadicam one-take, on location in Oslo. A insane concept, with limited resources and winter right around the corner. But amazingly, this is actually one of the first projects where I can say that we really accomplished what we wanted, not adapting to "reality" on bit. There is not one edit!

Budget:
We had around 30000 NOK, about 5300$ for the project. We knew that we had a huge technical and professional cost, and also a lot of extras, which dont need alot, but its impossible to get them on set if they are not getting anything. We got great deals from Videoutstyr.no, Blixt, Christian Kvartz Lighting and Twentyfourseven, treating students with smile instead of moronic attitude (cant name names, but for those who know the norwegian industry, and see what name is missing from the list, figure it out). Norwegian prices are high, among the highest in the world, so this is very little money..for those who wondered.


We knew our operator Atle Holtan from before, through his assistant Henrik Horgen, and they are great hardworking guys, trying to break it in the not-so-big norwegian industry. Check out their in-the-making site www.ahhh.no, for more info.

Technical
The shot was made on a steadicam, HVX200 with 2x16gb P2, mini35 adapter, wireless focus and monitor and a huge Master Prime 18MM lens. We originally wanted the superspeed, but the guys at Blixt double booked us, but managed to get us this great lens. Perhaps a bit overkill, but at least it looks good. We shot in 1080 25p, after reading some comments on 1080 being less compressed, regardless of the 1080i problem

Im attending a film&tv education in Norway called Westerdals. The 3. year is built like a company, where students recieve projects from real client for real money, accumulating money for examprojects in the second term. Check out our little page here www.westerdals.no/velfortalt but more importantly check MY page out at www.hkarlsen.no/eng I just updated the english section for you guys, so come make my webhost angry!

A big thanks to everyone involved, and especially my co-producer Lindsay Sanner and director Emilia Danilovic.

Thanks!

UPDATE
Heres the behind the scenes as promised. This is aimed towards aspiring new students for the school, and its content is in Norwegian, but youll see alot of the setup and coreography work.
http://www.hkarlsen.no/bak_bestweb.mov

UPDATE#2
The film won best in show and best musicvideo at Gullkalven 2008 AND Best Norwegian Musicvideo at Grimstad International Shortfilmfestival 2008!!!!
http://kortfilmfestivalen.no/engframeset-1.html


Håvar Karlsen
Writer&DoP
www.hkarlsen.no/eng
 
Last edited:
Beautiful job. I'm a HUGE fan of the continuous sequence shot. You pulled it off as well as the big dogs i.e. Richard Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino etc.
Amazing choreography.

How long did it take to set up? How much rehearsal time? How many takes to get it perfect?

Mad props to your steadicam op. It was flawless except for in the very end when he went back into the house we see a bit of his shadow, but otherwise, it was an impeccable job. WOW! I didn't understand a word of it, but it made me an instant fan.
 
Phil Maker said:
Beautiful job. I'm a HUGE fan of the continuous sequence shot. You pulled it off as well as the big dogs i.e. Richard Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino etc.
Amazing choreography.

How long did it take to set up? How much rehearsal time? How many takes to get it perfect?

Mad props to your steadicam op. It was flawless except for in the very end when he went back into the house we see a bit of his shadow, but otherwise, it was an impeccable job. WOW! I didn't understand a word of it, but it made me an instant fan.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Hehe, now I have to follow two posts with comments, but thats my mistake. Great with feedback from you guys.

We did a testshoot, handheld on HDV, starring ourselves, 10 days before the shoot. When we "nailed" the rough rough schetch during an hour, we felt that we could pull it off. And that testfilm proved really useful when pitching the idea to the professionals and actors, people understood things alot easier. The day before the shot we had the full rig, and actors, but no extras. This day proved also very useful, at least for the steady op, so he could adjust the route and train his framing. He was completely exhausted when arriving inside again. On the day we were 43 people total, more than half crew. The great thing about school, and beeing a 3. grader, is that you can rally crew from your class. We had alot of people-control-crew, ensuring a clean shot. This is the 5. completed take, of a total of 6. The 6 th was bad, and the light dissappeard as it does quickly in Norway these days.

A behind the scenes film is in the making, but its not going to be finished this side of the year.
 
Your school's website looks cool. I'm not able to read the language, I'm still able to look at the videos on the site; great videos. Is there an English version somewhere?
 
Great film! I really liked it and it was very well executed.

Just curious, I saw a flash around 1:34, 1:35. Did someone forget to turn off their flash? Or was that something else?

Great Great job. Did you have to close that entire street down?
 
Oh, I forgot to comment on your video lol, sorry about that. Impressive! Must have taken alot of work and coordination. Feel like something Michel Gondry would do!
 
=Prodigy= said:
Great film! I really liked it and it was very well executed.

Just curious, I saw a flash around 1:34, 1:35. Did someone forget to turn off their flash? Or was that something else?

Great Great job. Did you have to close that entire street down?
Click to expand...

Well observed! Actually, a journalist covering the shot took a picture, and you can even see him in the 360 turn the steadi does before the exit of the taxi. In the street. What a moron, taking flash pictures during recording. But, we actually think its kinda funny, cause he did completely ruin the shot, he just made an easter egg..

We did not close the street, but we controlled the sidewalk. Also, a bus stopped at the bustop every 7th minute, so we had to time the shoot so that we did not get alot of passengers exiting the bus while filming.

Sadly, I cant find any english translation of my schools webpage. I should actually follow that one up, they should have one, considering they have students from different countries. Its a very practical school, with little theory and alot of production.

About the vignetting: Its actually from the lens, its not added. But, it does get more visible after post-production, we should probably look into how we can control the vignetting more, since its not completely even.

Thanks guys!
 
hkarlsen said:
Well observed! Actually, a journalist covering the shot took a picture, and you can even see him in the 360 turn the steadi does before the exit of the taxi. In the street. What a moron, taking flash pictures during recording.

We did not close the street, but we controlled the sidewalk. Also, a bus stopped at the bustop every 7th minute, so we had to time the shoot so that we did not get alot of passengers exiting the bus while filming.
Click to expand...

Ah! Now I see him. I was actually looking for the photographer but didn't notice it was the man across the street. I assumed he was on the sidewalk, but when the camera turned around no one was there. He is very very very hard to notice, so it's nothing to sweat.

As far as the street went, very nice job with coordination. You're lucky you didn't get one pedestrian who stopped and looked into the lens. Every time I shoot in public, one or two people always ruin a shot by walking right into the scene and asking "You makin' a movie?", "Can I be in it?" Then they chuckle like it's original and walk away. I guess you timed it up very well and people in Norway aren't as stupid as they are here.

Again, this is a great video, I've got it downloaded.

Edit: How did they all know when and what to lip sync? Did the camera operator have a boom box duct taped to his chest :) or did someone follow behind him doing a great job of staying out of view?
 
Last edited:
=Prodigy= said:
Edit: How did they all know when and what to lip sync? Did the camera operator have a boom box duct taped to his chest :) or did someone follow behind him doing a great job of staying out of view?
Click to expand...

Yeah, we had a guy behind the cam with a boomblaster. Actually, that almost brought the shoot to a standstill. The boomblaster was crappy, and did not last more than one round before it started to crack and pop. Luckily, it did not skip (sync disaster!), but we had huge issues with the playback, we ruined at least 2 attempts from it. We were a total of 6 behind cam at any given time. Me, director, steadi, steadi-ass, focus puller and playback op...it was a huge puzzle, especially in the thight areas!
 
Did you take production stills? Can we see them? I live in Oslo but couldn't really nail down the place. I'm not native Oslosk though ;-) Really cool video. I love the extra lens.
 
A behind-the-scenes is in the making, and stills were taken. Will try to get a hold of them soon. It was shot around Grønlandsleiret 59, Grønland, Oslo.
 
Extremely well executed!
Cool to see some stuff from Oslo on this forum :)
Congrats on the video.
 
Hot hot hot! My wife and I were watching and although we didn't understand a word their cadences and delivery were butter, and the one take and color treatment were awesome. I uprezzed it so I could watch it on my PS3 and it looked great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top