California Campaign Ad GH13

Ben_B

Ben_B

Veteran

Password: ucscdems

Here is a campaign ad I shot and edited for the College Democrats at UCSC. It's a negative ad (blech) against Meg Whitman (ahhh! I got politics on the board, sorry.) I didn't conceive of the idea for the ad, and I would've liked to do something with camera movement so we'd maybe get a bit more interesting, but the client wanted it nice and simple, so that's how we kept it. Lighting got a little rough for a couple of the shots because we kept trying to change the background but then had to deal with the sun. I used a large gold reflector to bounce light in.

Camera: GH1
Lens: Olympus E.Zuiko 150mm f/4 (an Olympus PEN F lens.)
Hack Settings: AVCHD 1080i/24p (not native) "C" settings.
Sound: TASCAM HD P2, Sennheiser MKH60, Røde boom with blimp and dead-cat. Synced by hand.
Edited in Final Cut Pro, Color graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

Let me know what you think of the technical aspects...as for the creative, I just did what I was asked to do lol. I didn't write it.
 
The first shot is a little blown out on the guys face and shirt; I would have used some sort os sunshade over the talent; a little of the same on the third shot, but not as much. The rest looks fantastic, really professional and worthy of TV. Nice work, Ben.

PS can you please tell us a little about your post workflow, esp. for grading? Do you use Cineform or Prores? etc. Do you find a 422 colorspace more advantageous than 420, or is there not a huge difference?

MANY THANKS and I'm sure I speak for numerous other DVXusers when I say I always look forward to seeing your work.
 
I agree. The first shot is a 'little' blown on the guys face, but other wise you did a great job in direct sunlight... The look was very warm. Good work!
 
Agree with others on opening shot. Rest looks really good -- nice job with the bounce fill too. Seems like the audio levels are a bit low, although I'm guessing you actually had them spot on. Maybe it's just my old ears again. Hell of a thing to be losing your hearing and be in this business. Oh well. Sorry to go OT. Nice job, Ben.
 
Futchibon said:
The first shot is a little blown out on the guys face and shirt; I would have used some sort os sunshade over the talent; a little of the same on the third shot, but not as much. The rest looks fantastic, really professional and worthy of TV. Nice work, Ben.

PS can you please tell us a little about your post workflow, esp. for grading? Do you use Cineform or Prores? etc. Do you find a 422 colorspace more advantageous than 420, or is there not a huge difference?

MANY THANKS and I'm sure I speak for numerous other DVXusers when I say I always look forward to seeing your work.
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Thanks for the kind words.

I edited in ProRes 422. Yeah I think the 422 color space helps when it comes time to grade, and I really like editing in an intraframe codec. I log and transfer all my footage into Final Cut. Then I remove pulldown with compressor, delete the originals, and reconnect or simply import the new files and delete the old aliases. Then I edit in final cut. I had the client pick out the takes she liked the best, and showed her how to mark them in final cut (she's used it a bit before) and then I went through and synced the clips and did the edit. For a project this short I also did all the mixing and stuff in Final cut, with a couple filters here and there in soundtrack (much better EQ than Final cut) although I usually will use Logic to mix longer projects (like longer than a couple minutes.) Then I color graded using Magic Bullet Looks from within Final Cut. Most of what I did was warmed things up a bit, added a subtle film grain, added a little contrast, a little vignetting, and did some really feathered and wide edge softening to try and defocus things in the back a bit more.
 
To be a truly negative ad need to:
1) Change the soundtrack from soft guitar to some darker sounds;
2) Voices made more stern;
3) Shoot under cloudy conditions;
4) Intercut images of forest fires, crowded hospital scenes, street crime, etc. Maybe some images of Really Scary Terrorists for good measure.

Other than that good job ;)
 
svecher said:
To be a truly negative ad need to:
1) Change the soundtrack from soft guitar to some darker sounds;
2) Voices made more stern;
3) Shoot under cloudy conditions;
4) Intercut images of forest fires, crowded hospital scenes, street crime, etc. Maybe some images of Really Scary Terrorists for good measure.

Other than that good job ;)
Click to expand...


heck, that would indeed be a "truly negative" ad :)
 
Also flash minus signs and the words "NO" and "BAD" for 1-2 frames every few seconds. If possible, move the camera the whole time so as to make the viewer nauseous and throw up and then associate that with the candidate. If showing it at school, pay people to sneak up behind viewers and punch them in the face during it.
 
As always, great work, Ben! It looks really good, though I agree with tflak that the dialog seems "low". Maybe some more compression is needed to make it pop.

The college "kids" did a great job with the concept on this ad. It's very simple but effective. Plus I happen to agree with the premise of the spot.
 
This is great - the GH13 can give a truly wonderful look for sure and I cannot add anything more - one observation though - there is some extraneous noise on the audio track. I am listening on super sensitive headphones mind you - Sennheider HD 800s so this may not be revealed on normal speakers. Not at low level either - very noticable - I thought my headphone output was faulty until I paused the vid.

If this is the setup you will use in future productions you may want to watch this - check your signal path - something is introducing the noise - it may be on the guitar track in which case if you didn't record it then no worries.Apart from that - great work..............my 2 cents
 
henryolonga said:
This is great - the GH13 can give a truly wonderful look for sure and I cannot add anything more - one observation though - there is some extraneous noise on the audio track. I am listening on super sensitive headphones mind you - Sennheider HD 800s so this may not be revealed on normal speakers. Not at low level either - very noticable - I thought my headphone output was faulty until I paused the vid.

If this is the setup you will use in future productions you may want to watch this - check your signal path - something is introducing the noise - it may be on the guitar track in which case if you didn't record it then no worries.Apart from that - great work..............my 2 cents
Click to expand...

It's on the guitar track. I like the noise though, at least on the track by itself if not in the video, it sounds like a transfer from vinyl or something.
 
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Shinobi Productions said:
Looked good, the audio did seem quiet and not super clear
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Thanks. I might've mixed it a little quietly, I did it really fast. Turn up your headphones lol. The noise is on the guitar track for sure, the audio out of that mic and a Tascam HD P2 is going to be completely clean....in fact that recorder is known for how clean it is.
 
Jackson Miller said:
Also flash minus signs and the words "NO" and "BAD" for 1-2 frames every few seconds. If possible, move the camera the whole time so as to make the viewer nauseous and throw up and then associate that with the candidate. If showing it at school, pay people to sneak up behind viewers and punch them in the face during it.
Click to expand...

HAHA!

I also find the noise on the guitar track quite annyoing as it sounds like digital artifacts to me. Other than that (meaning YOUR work), good job!!
 
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