Just A Couple More Miles - Latest Music Video!

Hey readers!

So I recently finished and released the latest music video we here at Daniel Rutter Films have produced, and the response has been great. A lot of people asking for a breakdown on how we filmed and what processes we used. I figured I'd write a blog post to break it down a little.

We filmed about 2 months ago over two days, with one day dedicated to the "Story" parts of the video and the other day for our "Live Performance".

Our first day of shooting started off with Bill coming to pick me up from Wellington, and we traveled to Molong and along back roads to Narromine to film our "Outback" shots. Bart Riley, a friend and regular collaborator came along for the shoot and ended up starring in the clip as a wayward city-slicker stuck in the middle of nowhere that Bill picks up.

Poor little city slicker stuck in the country!

Good Samaritan Bill gives the city slicker a ride.

Bart also served as our on-set photographer for the day, snapping off a few photos of the setup I used.

Filming an opening shot.

Although it never made it into the video, we had a guest appearance from a well known Albert showman who runs into Bill on his travels. Unfortunately Jason's clips didn't make the final cut... but it was still great to see him coming along to support us!

Cheers!

Day 2 of shooting happened about a week later, with friends of ours from the Dubbo RSL Music Club standing in as the backing band for our live performance. Tony, the Music Club president, supplied us with all the equipment needed and was also our lighting technician. Raelene (Tony's wife) was our onset photographer for this day.

Tony Dess, lighting maestro and crackin' keyboard player!

All about those closeups!

An early graded shot from the video. I went for a slightly different look in the final edit. Here you can see a little bit of our lighting setup.

My basic setup for the entire shoot was the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera with the Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens, a variable ND filter and a mix of my Benro Tripod with  Koolertron 60cm slider, and my Filmcity shoulder rig. Using the BMPCC was an absolute blast. I shot in Prores LT, though looking back I could have shot Prores HQ if needed. Why did I shoot Prores LT? Because I can't tell the difference between LT and HQ, and LT doesn't take up as much hard drive space.

For the editing process, I simply synced all our performance footage together (17 takes!), edited those down into a small selection of the best shots... and stitched them together. From there I simply edited in all the story footage, and did a grading pass in Magic Bullet Looks. The grade simply saturated the footage to boost the colours (as the original look out of the camera is very flat and muted), added some warmth to the skin tones, and added some flare and haze filtering for a few shots as well (more of a stylistic choice). For the story footage I wanted a more golden look, so for those I changed the grade up a little.

All in all the filming and editing process took about two months. It was a really easy shoot, and the end product was something I'm very happy with. I've said it a thousand times on social media, but without the help from the crew that stepped up we wouldn't have got what we have now. So a big shoutout goes to Tony and the RSL Music Club guys for making our live performance footage actually look live!

I'm really beginning to fall in love with the music video process. There's a lot of creative freedom in these kinds of clips, and I look forward to my next one!

Thanks for reading! Check out the final music video below.

My thoughts on the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera - From a videographers perspective

For a few weeks now I have owned and used the BMPCC/Pocket Cinema Camera for a variety of different types of videos including but not limited to: Music Video, 2 wedding videos, a Promo video, Yoga Class videos and a TV Commercial.

An example of how to make the tiny BMPCC a slightly less tiny BMPCC.

While I was initially overwhelmed by the cameras size, image quality, video file size and flat image (more on this in a sec) I am happy to say that my investment is one I consider the best I've made in a while.

This camera is a workhorse, warts and all. The image quality is amazing and holds up well... even in the current days of 4K. My choice to buy a Full HD Cinema camera instead of investing in a 4K camera like the GH4 came down to my views on 4K still in its infancy (the quality is great though!) and very little in the way of showing that 4K quality outside of a cinema. I don't shoot for the cinema screen, I shoot for the web.

Behind The Scenes - "A Couple More Miles" Music Video shoot.

When I first started using the camera I was shooting in the "Video" colour profile... basically giving me a pre-colour corrected image straight out of the camera (similar to what I'd usually get from my Panasonic GH2 and G6) that looked great. I could then tweak contrast and colour more as I pleased. But after a while I began experimenting with the "Film" profile... which gives me a very desaturated and "Flat" image straight out of the camera. Those well versed in the video world will know what this means, so I won't go into detail describing it. You can look at the images below:

Flat image - Straight out of the camera

Final grade - Utilizing a mix of "Film Convert" and "Magic Bullet Looks". View final video here.

All of a sudden my images were opened up to some serious manipulation. I've dabbled with grading quite a bit in the past, but never got anything close to the images I get now. I still have a LOT to learn about grading an image though.

The BMPCC is an odd choice of camera for a wedding videographer. Many prefer the offerings from Canon (5D Mk2-Mk3) for ease of use. I've been using my Panasonic mirrorless cameras now for two years in wedding environments and they have served me well. Now the BMPCC has thrown a spanner in the works, giving me even better video quality than I could reach previously... but complicating my workflow by adding the extra need to colour grade my image (and match that to those I get from my Panasonic cameras). As a videographers tool, I have to say the BMPCC isn't truly designed for the task (the hint is in the name, particularly the "Cinema" part) but the trick is preparing yourself with research and a little common knowledge in order to "Whip" the camera into the tool you need it to be.

Tony & Della - Ungraded Still

Tony & Della - Graded Still. Final video here.

For promotional video purposes this camera is hands-down the best camera you can get for the money. You will be able to shoot images perfectly capable of web distribution as well as community TV/broadcast. Maybe not at BBC level, but definitely smaller local TV stations.

Reviewing a take - 'Couple More Miles' Video Shoot

I recently used the camera to begin shooting a music video that a local musician wishes to air on a national cable music video channel. This is where the camera proves it is able to produce what it says it's capable of: Cinematic images. Of course, this doesn't just come down to the camera... it comes down to the operator. I'm not a cinematographer by any stretch, but in my opinion this tool has become an extension of myself and my skills.

A Couple More Miles - Ungraded Still

A Couple More Miles - Graded Still

A Couple More Miles - Ungraded Still

A Couple More Miles - Graded Still

To sum it up... this is probably the best camera I've owned... yet. Despite its shortcomings, such as crop factor (which do bother me, but I work around it) and form factor (it's so tiny!)... it packs some serious punch. My only real gripe comes down to how power hungry it can be... but the battery life is a well documented flaw that other reviewers have harped on. There are workarounds, such as my Sony Battery work around... that combat this issue.

I'm looking forward to using this camera for many productions in the future. I would love to see how well it works in a feature film environment!

 Till next time folks!

July/August 2014 - What's up with DRF?

Hey guys!
  
First things first... here is possibly the most exciting thing I have to say in this entire blog entry:

I bought a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera!
I've been watching this camera very closely for the last few months as I've been looking for a new camera to add to my kit. Recently, BMD (the company who make the Pocket Camera) annouced a month long half price sale on the camera... which pretty much sealed the deal for me and I absolutely-had-to-own-one. For a nice tidy $600, I picked one up. I literally hit the "Buy Now" button about 2 hours ago. Hopefully it'll be here next week for me to play with, but I know a lot of places have sold out and are waiting for new stock... so I might be waiting 2-3 weeks or more for it to arrive.

There are a few reasons why I bought the Pocket Cinema Camera... but my main reasoning is that for $600, I have a camera that can shoot extremely high quality 1920x1080 footage in ProRes or RAW (if you're a photographer, you know what that means) and manipulate the image colour (aka "Grade") to something a lot more cinematic. Also, my understanding is that this camera shoots broadcast quality/legal files that can be sent and aired on local TV if I should be so lucky as to shoot for TV again in the future. As well as commercials and such.
Needless to say, I am VERY excited to be getting this camera. :)

What Else Is News?

I've been going hell-for-leather on some wedding videos that have been in the editing stage for far longer than I am comfortable with... and managed to finish two of the three weddings I had pending.



I'm glad to have these done and out of the road, as I can now focus on finishing my second "Our Story" wedding video... the story and wedding of Miranda & Nick. The wedding itself was a very different experience for me, this wasn't a typical wedding at all. Although the ceremony was a pretty standard fare, the reception and everything leading up to the ceremony was very traditional. A whole new experience and exposure to culture that I'm very glad I got to be a part of. It was also the first wedding I got to test out my new GoPro Hero 3 on.

A very fun wedding, and a great bunch of interviews I did with the couple as well. I'll have something out for that in the next few weeks :)


New Logo + New Projects!

I have long talked about updating my logo to something a bit more fitting, and finally got around to hiring somebody to design one for me. Well it's taken me six months to get something I'm happy with, but I got there in the end. I'm waiting to receive the final files, but I will be updating the Facebook page and Website in the coming weeks with that.

I'm also taking on a new personal project, A mini documentary which I will keep the details of to myself for now. But I have long admired a local event here in Dubbo and wanted to tell their story. All will be revealed with that in the future.

Also of note, is the documentary I've been working on with Wellington Business Services about one of our local War veterans has been chugging away in editing for a few months now and should be set and ready to be launched sometime in the next month or so. We're in the process of finalising the edit.

And lastly... I have started rewrites on "The Riley Project"... a web series I was developing and filming a few years ago but never finished. I'm rewriting the script, will most likely develop it as a series of short films.. but that I haven't completely decided on yet. I won't have anything ready to shoot for at least 12 months or so, due to other project commitments and very little personal time.

Also, before I forget... My brothers and I decided to have a spontaneous shooting session a few weeks ago, and I lugged my gear along with them to film a "skate video". Well, it's not a skate video.. but it's something. Check it out:

And that's pretty much everything for July and August. Appreciate anyone taking the time to read my posts! Keep checking back often, I am hoping to write these blog posts every few weeks (trying to aim for once a month!).

~ Dan