Music Video with Rebel T1i, super special private screening just 4 U!

Rakesh Jacob

Rakesh Jacob

Veteran
EDIT: Just went public, we did a 3 day exclusive premiere with WSHH where we got over 6 million views!!! F--- MTV, they don't show videos anyway!





Just finished editing this last night, really this morning.
Shot with the Rebel T1i end of September before the 7D came out.
Locking in the right exposure is a pain in the ass but still doable.
Shot with just the 50mm f1.8. There is a whole another section of shots with the HVX for the wides that I didn't use. I'm a bokeh head, what can I say, at least I can admit it :)
Recorded at 30p obviously but edited at 24p by slowing the footage down to 80%. The music was played back at 125% for the performances to compensate.

Hope you like

http://vimeo.com/7392418
password: eos


EDIT: The format of the song is very unusual. It's not the typical intro, chorus, verse, chorus, etc... It's a long intro, long ass verse and long outro with chick singing. Strangely it works.
 
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Very nice work!
I remember watching only some parts of it you once uploaded. I love the song's format, works well indeed!
 
Really outstanding work, Johnny. I like the transitions you used and it tells a good story. Seems to me the only thing that was constraining you (well, not really; you worked around it) on the t1i was the lack of 24P. You used the 50mm 1.8? I didn't see any hexagonal bokeh which I've come to usually dislike on this lens. Great song, too.
 
Thnx for checking it out guys.

Jordan_Sopinsky said:
Really outstanding work, Johnny. I like the transitions you used and it tells a good story. Seems to me the only thing that was constraining you (well, not really; you worked around it) on the t1i was the lack of 24P. You used the 50mm 1.8? I didn't see any hexagonal bokeh which I've come to usually dislike on this lens. Great song, too.
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The lighting was very even because it was so overcast, but had there been distinct points of light like a street scene at night or something, then you would have seen those hexagonal difussion points in the bokeh. But I have some much better lenses now and some more coming in, that's why I'm finally selling my old gear, normally I'm a ginormous pack rat. Guess I still am, I'm just upgrading what I'm pack rating LOL
At least lenses hold their value unlike cameras, I really do love this whole DSLR thing!
 
killacam said:
good stuff johnny
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ha I guess I should have said rakesh. anyway, nice to see you pulling this off with the t1i by the way- it makes me feel a little better ordering my cheapo cam while I pinch my pennies for the next upcoming announcement of an announcement of the red scarlet.
 
No problem man, when I joined this board back in the summer of 2005, I had no intention of being a filmmaker, I was doing research for a business plan to turn my record label into a multimedia company. Johnny Cola was just one of the stupid sounding nicks I used ot use in yahoo chat rooms. Remember those? LOL
I put in a request for a name change but... nada
 
If it's a change to your real name, they'll do it faster than green grass through a goose.

Which lenses did you order?
 
Since this video I got in:
-Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS, 7D kit lens, I actually like it, I didn't think I would
-Canon 50mm f1.4, classic all purpose, if I could only use one lens, this would be it
-Canon 17-55mm f2.8 IS, pricey, Tamron has a simmilar lens coming out at almost half the price, but I'm very happy with this, no remorse, just want people to know there are good options

Ordered and on their way:
-Sigma 28mm f1.8 Macro, I went with these over the Canons because of the macro capability, should come in handy, and Sigma is known for decent quality
-Opteka 85mm f1.4, this is the cheapest version of the Samyang 85mm lens, I almost certain that the build quality is shoddy at best but since this lens will get limited use, I figured it'll be fine
-Sigma 18-50mm f2.8, got these for my T1is and I plan to get more 7Ds so this will be a cheap alternative when I get those compared to the Canon 17-55mm

On the short term wish list:
-Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, can't find these anywhere in stock for Canon :(
-More Canon 50mm f1.4s when I get more 7Ds

On the long term wish list:
The ultimate collection of L lenses when the following happens, the Universe aligns in my favor, mad money falls out of the sky as a result and a full frame Canon DSLR with DigicV is released, 5DmkIII maybe! It's gonna happen, I know it :)
 
Wow, that's ALL the T1? It came out excellent. What's the codec data rate in that cam? Did you do the music also? Like you said it's not your typical music format but it works. Did you do any color grading or is this straight from the camera (not sure if you mentioned it)? I liked the addition of those dramatic scenes...kinda took me back to "The Wire"....

As usual great job..
 
Ian-T said:
Wow, that's ALL the T1? It came out excellent. What's the codec data rate in that cam? Did you do the music also? Like you said it's not your typical music format but it works. Did you do any color grading or is this straight from the camera (not sure if you mentioned it)? I liked the addition of those dramatic scenes...kinda took me back to "The Wire"....

As usual great job..
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Thnx man. All T1i, I shot a bunch of wides and couple other scenes with the HVX but decided to keep it all T1i, I like the look that much better. I believe the bit rate is somewhere around 27mbps. I didn't do the music, the last Trae album I produced music on must have been '04 or '05, I quit making music around that time. All the dramatic pieces were graded; slightly crushed the blacks and tinted it green. The rest of the music video I set up in camera for the look I wanted and only corrected a couple clips to even out brightness and 2 shots where I corrected for white balance. I really trust the LCDs on these cameras, they really work well for my eyes, focusing is a little harder on wider shots but overall I feel confident with what I see. A ZFinder or some kinda Loupe would definitly be usefull in bright sunlight though, that's next on the wishlists :) A shoulder rig would be nice, but I'm ok for now going straight up hand held. Since this one I've been getting better at hand held like the club scenes from the music video I did with the 7D.
Best thing I've done since I've gotten into filmmaking is go DSLR! It has it's issues but the benefits MORE THAN make up for it, I've never had more fun or an easier time making things look good. :)
 
Hey Johnny,

Great work man. Awesome to see it all strung together. Love the narrative intercut with the artists. What's next for you man?

p.s. I actually would like to see a slightly more aggressive color grading on the narrative pieces to separate them from the musicians. Maybe something more "grim" or "cold", you know what I'm saying?
 
Johnny Cola said:
Best thing I've done since I've gotten into filmmaking is go DSLR! It has it's issues but the benefits MORE THAN make up for it, I've never had more fun or an easier time making things look good. :)
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I hear you. About ten years back a buddy of mine had a friend that was shooting music videos and after school specials for HBO and other networks. The cams he rented back then were in the range of $100,000. In watching some of your work I have to sometimes ask myself “what separates your stuff from what I see on MTV or BET etc” …and the answer is always nothing. What amazes me is that no one is going to be able to discern the quality of camera used to put these videos together. As long as you continue to get the types of shots you’ve been capturing and keep the content worth watching people will continue to eat it up as nothing but professional work. Good stuff.
 
edsonkwushu said:
Hey Johnny,

Great work man. Awesome to see it all strung together. Love the narrative intercut with the artists. What's next for you man?

p.s. I actually would like to see a slightly more aggressive color grading on the narrative pieces to separate them from the musicians. Maybe something more "grim" or "cold", you know what I'm saying?
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Thnx man.

I really wanted to use a MUCH MORE agressive look for the narrative. But J-Dawg, the lead actor's skin tone was too dark and his features kept getting too burried with various looks I was trying. It was a hard call for me to go with this tame look, but I thought he did an amazing job and what was best about it for me was the subtlety with which he played that part and those subtle facial gestures would get lost for me in the more agressive grades.
 
Matter of fact, that's why I used the "film clutter" composites as transitions cause there wasn't a dramatic enough difference in grading for my tastes :(
 
Johnny Cola said:
Matter of fact, that's why I used the "film clutter" composites as transitions cause there wasn't a dramatic enough difference in grading for my tastes :(
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I'm assuming your using FInal Cut and these transitions come included? I love those "Film Clutter" transitions and I have been looking for something similar for Vegas but I cant find anything.

I thought the video was really cool man. I was a little melow color wise but other than that I could have been watching this video on MTV. That scene with the tinted blue Charger rolling by the the bus stop made my heart skip a beat dude. I didn't grow up in such a great hood and it took me right back. good job!
 
Well I can finaly go public on my sites with this!!!
We did a 3 day exclusive premiere with WSHH and got over 6 million views.
Now that it's off of their front space I can put it where I want :)
 
Johnny Cola said:
-Opteka 85mm f1.4, this is the cheapest version of the Samyang 85mm lens, I almost certain that the build quality is shoddy at best but since this lens will get limited use, I figured it'll be fine
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I have the Rokinon version of this lens and I think you'll be surprised by the build quality. It's no Canon L lens by any measure, but it's not bad at all - actually I quite like the way it feels and I use almost all "L" quality, professional lenses, I have very few "consumer" grade lenses. The lens hood is actually the only thing that feels really flimsy about it, but that can be easily replaced. I think you'll be impressed by it, especially for the money. I'm very happy with mine until I upgrade to a Canon 85mm f1.2 L...but at what...5-6x less expensive than the EOS version of that lens, it's impressively good...I'm just a speed demon when it comes to lenses so I'll eventually pony up for the Canon 85mm f1.2 L. Until then, this suits me very well and can deliver professional quality results.
 
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