Music video's

[End of Fall]

Whats the best way to shoot them?

Tell me if I am on the right path.


I would have them sing the entire song fully through, this would be my WS.

I would have them sing it again and I'd do a WS on a dolly, then again and do a MS #1, again, MS #2, again MS #3 then again with a CU w/sticks on singer #1, then again with a CU w/sticks on singer #2, then again with CU handheld on #1, again with a CU handheld on #2.

That would just be for A1

for B1 I would do all the MS's with a dolly, the wide shots with a jib, the CU's on sticks.

Then for C1 I would do all the MS's on sticks, the WS with a dolly and jib and the CU's I'd do on sticks.

I'm trying to see if having them singing it all the way through is a good idea or not.

Issue I'm having is filming the close up's---there is two of them... I could be filming one the entire video and he may only sing for about 45 seconds out of the entire song but in bits and pieces.




Question:

Shutter speed: I had a really good idea with the drummer, we're gonna pour water on the drums so when he drums the watter splashes. What would be a ideal shutter speed with 30p to get the water drops nice and slow.

The idea I have in mind is the water drips off his face with a CU then the drip falls onto the drums and it goes into a MS/WS of the drums and he bangs them and the water flys up.

I don't know AF enough to do it in post so I'm going to do this on location. Any ideas?

This video will be shot on 24pA and the slow motion / shutter speed effects will be shot on 30P

Tips are needed, thanks.

 

[RyanT]

I would definitely tone it down coverage wise...Shooting that performance sounds like it would take multiple days . Figure out what you need, get rid of the rest. They don't need to always sing the entire song all the way through. Say if the song is mellow at the beginning and gets intense at the end, so maybe you want sticks for the first half and handheld for the second. So...then just have them sing the first half and shoot it on sticks, cut, then shoot the rest of it handheld.

Everyone does it different of course, but the music video sets I work on we usually just do one CU on each person, maybe do it all the way through, but maybe not, depending on what other performance shots we've gotten. Then we'll get a wide that usually roams around a bit either on a dolly or jib....Could even be handheld.

And just because you're getting a close up of one person doesn't mean you can't try and get some inserts while you're shooting him as well. Again, everyone does everything differently, but I think you tend to get the best performances when you just let them loose and get the best you can.

Just be sure the water is backlit though, that'll allow you to see it best. Can you shoot at a slower frame rate than 30p? If so, that is what's going to help you see the water nice and slow. Doing a slightly cut shutter might be nice to make the water nice and crisp too. Maybe 144 degrees or maybe even 90. It's up to taste.

You're definitely on the right path. I've shot 4 or 5 music videos and worked on a number of them before I really started getting the feel for how they should be put together. Once you get one under your belt things will become a lot more clear though. Good luck!

 

[JonathanLB]

Well

Well

The key to a great video is lots of coverage, so as long as you can get it, go for it.

My general rule based on experience is that a band isn't going to be able to give you more than about 10 good run-throughs of the song before it starts to lose energy. That's why I like to use two cameras, and get about 20 takes of the song in full. At the very least, though, I want to have about 16 full takes of the song.

It depends on the shoot but that's generally one or two on each person in the band, and then more on the lead singer, and then plenty of wides.

 

[End of Fall]

I'm going to shoot the video in 24pA so I guess that answers your question about shooting less then 30p.

I've got another question for you too, you lost about about the shutter, do you mind going over that again.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I'm going to shoot the video in 24pA so I guess that answers your question about shooting less then 30p.

I've got another question for you too, you lost about about the shutter, do you mind going over that again.

On Real Film(tm) cameras the shutter is indicated in degrees, where 180 gives half open, half closed, for the given frame rate. Hence 180 deg. shutter would be 1/48th second if the frame rate is 24 fps.

Most (many, all???) digital video cameras give the shutter in terms of nths of seconds, and so, a 90 degree shutter at 24 fps would be 1/4 of 1/24 or 1/96th of a second... round it off to 1/100 th second...

You have to try this before the day of the shoot to get the frame rate, shutter setting to max what you are trying to do with the 'water'... is it going to be individual droplets, little flecks of drops, or a foggish kind of look...

(Look up Blue Man Group, I think there's probably some videos on Youtube, where they do the luminescent/florescent droplet look while they're pounding out their rhythems...)

 

[RyanT]

The key to a great video is lots of coverage, so as long as you can get it, go for it.

My general rule based on experience is that a band isn't going to be able to give you more than about 10 good run-throughs of the song before it starts to lose energy. That's why I like to use two cameras, and get about 20 takes of the song in full. At the very least, though, I want to have about 16 full takes of the song.

It depends on the shoot but that's generally one or two on each person in the band, and then more on the lead singer, and then plenty of wides.

Yeah, I definitely agree with the two cameras thing. Things to start to get boring after a while and it's hard for them to keep it interesting for just themselves after 15 or 20 run throughs of the song. Music videos definitely are about way too much coverage, but it's all about weighing the coverage with the performance. After a certain point, all the coverage that you're getting is just going to start to get worse and worse.