Making music videos

Recently I decided to persue an old idea I had of making music videos.
So.. naturally, I've been watching a lot of music videos just to get a feel for them.. and you know what? I believe there is some SERIOUS SHIT out there. No, I'm not kidding! Who thought up the idea of doing a 'film/Hollywood dolly + tripod' music video for the metal goodness that is Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow needs to sit down and think about what you feel when listening to metal. If I had been the one behind the camera, I would have shot/edited that bitch until it gave everyone nosebleeds! Metal is hype, exciting, worth screaming to. It's not Hollywood film! You smash cut the hell out of it, mix in some white flashes.. and shake that camera a bit. Let me give you an example of a well made music video:



Before you groan and say "But it's not metal!"... let me explain. It's rap, rap is similar to metal in these ways: It's exciting, it's fast paced... and the subject tends to change quickly. Let's examine the way they made this video. In the first few seconds, we see a nice smooth Dolly/crane shot. Not one shake. Until we cut to a close up, which was obviously shot with a shoulder mounted camera. Progressively through the video, they mash nice "Hollywood" camera movements (Dolly, Crane, possibly steadycam) with those elements of 'nauseacam' or shoulder mounted/handheld work. It's shaky, but its tolerable for your average music video viewer.

This is where slower paced editing, and dolly work is better suited (not that it didn't suit the above video):
(Click the link, Embedding is diabled) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-MvTpOQhCU&feature=related

Even when the band begins to rock out, there is some element of 'shakycam' in there. The director could feel the emotion behind the song, and when the song changed from haunting piano to glorifyed rock ending... he made sure the viewer knew it!

So, my message to those of you who make music videos... for the love of god, analyze the genre of music you're shooting for... and edit/shoot accordingly. Metal videos with just wide shots SUCK... Metal videos that are shot on tripods SUCK. Get in there, don't be afraid to stick a camera in the singer/guitarist/drummer's face and ROCK THAT AUDIENCE!

Thanks for reading.

Developing an idea, turning it into a story

I was just doing some forum posting and I came across a thread where the poster was asking "How do you get ideas for films?". This is a good question, as even I run into problems writing stories and developing them. I've never sat a creative writing class, but I do understand some of the basics.

Finding the idea:

This is what I do. I look into my imagination, take everything that interests me as a person... all those fantasies I have/had, and those are my basics. For my script "Story Of A Hitman" I took my fantasy of wanting to be a professional killer/gun for hire, and wrote it around a character based on me. I took that, developed a dramatic "happening" (any will do really) and then based everything that happened to the character on that dramatic turn. Just like in real life, anything that happens to a character changes their direction in life. It affects their state of mind, their aspirations and their view. For better or worse.

There are some basic storylines that you can work off. Those being: Hero and Villain, Boy falls for girl, etc... it all starts with a basic line. This is where you should start, if your fantasies aren't similar to mine. Just write something that you WANT TO MAKE. What kind of film have you always thought you'd like to make? Or, what is your favorite film? As with most things, storytelling isn't all that original anymore. Just about every aspect of any basic story has been told. The best you could do as a storyteller, is take the best bits of any idea you have... and mash them together.

Developing the Idea:

So you have your bits and pieces written down. Or your one line that will basically sum up your script. Now comes the fun part... turning that line into a developed script!

No doubt you've got your hands on a word processor, or some form of script writing program... but incase you don't, grab Celtx and install it. Start writing notes in a blank text document, such as characters (you should ALWAYS HAVE A MAIN CHARACTER!) and locations... extra bits that might make your story nice and meaty. Got your main character? Good.... now comes the next bit.

Start a new script project, and think of the first place we should meet your character. We should introduce him/her to the audience, either during a dramatic moment... or through dialog (voice overs are a great way to start). In most cases, it'll be smooth sailing from here on. Just write what comes to mind, and it'll all piece itself together!

Taking your 16:9 footage and making it Anamorphic.

Clicking the links will open screenshots ;)

Those of you who live and breath films will know that Anamorphic aspect ratios are pretty much a standard in todays Hollywood film market. What you probably don't know is: How to make your own films look just that little bit more cinematic. You could go out and buy an Anamorphic lens for your camera, which is hard enough to do if you don't own a high end camera; or you can do it digitally with your NLE (Non-Linear-Editor)... which is how, in many cases, Hollywood does it. Maybe not with the same tools, but... they do it cheap ;)

What I will show you today is pretty much the same way Hollywood does it, but cheaper.

Prep.
Now, this won't work for all situations... considering most people don't consider framing when they're filming, but there is a few things you can do to help you out. First off, take some masking tape, and put two strips on the top, and bottom of your Camera's LCD screen. This pretty much simulates where your framing will need to be. For added effect (and it will work SO MUCH BETTER), use a wide angle lens... even for close ups. This will help you fit more into the frame, and will give you as close-to-Anamorphic as you can get without buying the lens. Remember, when framing up with your LCD screen, that where the tape is covering, will be be what you are cutting out later in editing.

After Shooting, and on to editing.

I'm going to show you how to simulate this anamorphic effect in Sony Vegas 8 pro, but I'm pretty sure you can use the same method in Premiere Pro. To my knowledge, Final Cut Pro has a preset built into the program that allows you to actually do this effect automatically.
Bear in mind that my method isn't quiet accurate (but it does the job) and that you will probably want to experiment to get it just right.

Firstly:
Import your footage. Before you begin to crop and split your footage, make sure you DO AS I SAY. If you don't, you will spend a lot of time going through all your little snippets doing this one bloody thing. If you don't want to do it this way, you can always edit, render your file, and then re-import the rendered file... and do it this way. Quicker, easier... simpler. Your footage can be in 16:9 or 4:3 format... but bear in mind that A LOT of your footage will be cut out. Heres my footage imported into SV8


Once you've rendered out/imported a clip into the time line, right click that clip, and select 'Video Event Pan/Crop'. Type in the following details, and disable the 'Lock Aspect Ratio' button to the side of the dialog box.


You may need to tinker with the framing depending on your source file (in my case, I'm editing the stock .m2t file that I imported from my HighDef cam... in your case, SD DV may need tweaking) Also keep in mind that my timeline is set at a PAL DV preset (I chose 4:3, for DVD tranfer) and not HD. This method WILL work when rendering out in 720p or 1080p, but will look a tiny bit different.
Rather than type in every single number on every single clip, just click the box with the preset title 'Unknown', type in 'Anamorphic' and hit the save (floppy disk icon) next to the box. You can then simply cycle through the presets later on and select the custom preset. Once you've finished editing, render out and play in your preferred video player.

With my own clip, I added a bit of colour grading to give it some more cinematic effect.

Just experiment, you'll get it ;) HAVE FUN!

For those shopping for a Camera!

OK, so those of you who follow me on Youtube will know that I bought myself a new Canon HV30 some months back. This camera is a great little cam, perfect for short films and such... with the High Def, external mic jack, Headphone In jack and all on DV tapes. The only real issue I have with this camera is the zoom. The built in lens is simply CRAP for wide angle capturing (You need to be a state away from your subject just to give the wide effect!), and pretty shit for close-ups too. If you're gonna buy one of these cameras, I suggest you buy the 43mm lens kits (Go for Raynox, if you can afford it... or just buy the lens' from Canon) and filters as well. That way, you get the WHOLE picture, not just a small piece. The wide angle lens really does help for those who will end up converting they're footage to 2.1 aspect ratio, as you can capture a lot more in frame, and not lose half of the picture when converting!
Anyway... Canon HV30 + Canon lens kit is upwards of $1000US ($1500AU) but totally worth it. It's also cheaper than the XHA1... but the image quality isn't as crisp. Check out YouTube for all the test footage :)