Edgy Music Video - 'Shot with a Pen'

[robertwatcher]

I know this isn't about using video for landscape subject matter - but shows how useful even the low priced $650 Olympus E-PL1 with kit lens and 720p video can be - - - depending on the end product required.

I have completed a Music Video for my son Ryan's new song - "The End of Things". An Edgy video style was used to match his quirky and darker song writing style. We really wanted a feeling of the video being shot with film instead of a video camera. The finished piece that started with my Concept and Story Board a few weeks ago, is exactly what Ryan had envisioned:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iR9_a5-Lc

BE sure to change the quality Setting from 360p, to 720p to watch in High Definition as shot.




- - - SHOT WITH A PEN - - -

Shot  exclusively with the Olympus E-PL1 and 14-42mm kit lens.

Zero budget with  video clips being shot in only 2 small rooms and lighting supplied by  the 50 watt and 100 watt halogen modeling lights from 2 studio strobes (that's all I had available to me).

Manual focus, and settings of 1250 ISO for all scenes. Aperture Priority  exposure was set to minus 1 to 1 1/2 stops depending on the mood I was after. Shutter speed was set to  1/30'th second and colors post processed for contrast and colder tones -  for a more film like look. The video was edited using Sony Vegas Movie  Studio Platinum 9.0 (inexpensive consumer video editing software).

The  E-PL1 cameras Diorama Art Filter was used for the effect on the  graveyard scene and closing flower scene. Ryan is a really good performer and high energy with short quick thrashes when playing live on stage - - - and so we tried to incorporate that sensation with the quick sharp movement in clips like some of the lead guitar parts.  

[robertwatcher]

A remark: I checked out the video and thought it looked very digital, especially in the highlights. It would have helped to re-grain after post, with a gaussian noise (frame-animated) that affects the highlights as well. I've used cheap cameras myself to make movies for the big screen (cinema projection that is) and proper graining will make it look much sharper and more film-like than you would ever expect. It will also get rid of many digital artifacts.

Nice song.

Thank you for that tip. Now I will just have to expand my knowledge and figure out how to "gaussian noise (frame-animated)" with my video editing platform of Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0  

My efforts with this (first serious video) project, were to provide a more film-like look by subduing the gorgeous skin tones that the camera provides (even at the 1250 ISO setting we used) and move into the cyan/blues that are evident in movies shot with film - along with add contrast, which did blow out some highlight detail but the grunge look suits our purpose in this case. I guess what I was referring to was what we ended up with when comparing to the test footage out of camera that we shot the week before ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecwYLOsIHOo ).

I can totally understand what you are saying about noise and blur adding to the film effect as well as camouflaging  some bumps and imperfections - - - and that is something I will definitely try and work on and incorporate in future projects like this.  

[robertwatcher]

Thanks.

[bcooter]

Thanks.

Robert,

I don't know your history, but you can do some very interesting color effects with footage in Photoshop 4 and 5 Extended.

It doesn't integrate to Final Cut Pro as easily as Color, but in some ways it is more featured and if your skilled in photoshop it is a fairly easy learning curve.

Just import your footage as a Smart Object and do all of your corrections on Adjustment Layers. You can even add solid layers that can be used for vignettes, color gradients, etc.

Then before outputting save the document as a PSD and you can use the same settings to drag onto the next clip.

One thing to mention is most professional colorists and effects artists take dslr footage (which is usually H264) and convert it to prorezz 422 HQ.   That will run more seamlessly and without a lot of extra rendering in Final Cut Pro and also cut down on the artifacts.

There are a lot of workflows out there, a lot of convertors, (Chris S posted a good one for batch processing that is free) and I believe that all use the Quicktime engine to process.

I know nothing of Vegas, though I hear it's pretty good, but the standard today is FCP, probably even more than AVID.

Either way if your going to produce more of this work learning and AVID or FCP system would probably be worth the investment, as there is a lot of information, plug ins, workflows for those two non linear editors.

Anyway, liked your video, nice job.

BC

[fredjeang]

Robert,

I don't know your history, but you can do some very interesting color effects with footage in Photoshop 4 and 5 Extended.

It doesn't integrate to Final Cut Pro as easily as Color, but in some ways it is more featured and if your skilled in photoshop it is a fairly easy learning curve.

Just import your footage as a Smart Object and do all of your corrections on Adjustment Layers. You can even add solid layers that can be used for vignettes, color gradients, etc.

Then before outputting save the document as a PSD and you can use the same settings to drag onto the next clip.
One thing to mention is most professional colorists and effects artists take dslr footage (which is usually H264) and convert it to prorezz 422 HQ.   That will run more seamlessly and without a lot of extra rendering in Final Cut Pro and also cut down on the artifacts.

There are a lot of workflows out there, a lot of convertors, (Chris S posted a good one for batch processing that is free) and I believe that all use the Quicktime engine to process.

I know nothing of Vegas, though I hear it's pretty good, but the standard today is FCP, probably even more than AVID.

Either way if your going to produce more of this work learning and AVID or FCP system would probably be worth the investment, as there is a lot of information, plug ins, workflows for those two non linear editors.

Anyway, liked your video, nice job.

BC

Thanks for this information B.Cooter. I wasn't aware it could be acheive in extended Ps.
I got the 4 ext.

Knowing that integration has always been Adobe's strengh, I'm asking how could it be with Premiere and Photoshop. I have an old Premiere version, obsolete now. But it should be more than with FCP (I mean with Photoshop as it is the same house).
I think there is still a lot that is produced with Avid but it is true that FCP for its simplicity+efficiency is really what we could call a standard.

But still, I'm curious about this Adobe Premiere Pro after the B.C post.

[ImplantImages]

There are quote a lot of music videos being shot with DSLR's its very interesting times we live in.

I know this was shot on a dslr; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tHhcDZ_FrE
and I heard this track was as well : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvGKas5RsU

Nick

I know this isn't about using video for landscape subject matter - but shows how useful even the low priced $650 Olympus E-PL1 with kit lens and 720p video can be - - - depending on the end product required.

I have completed a Music Video for my son Ryan's new song - "The End of Things". An Edgy video style was used to match his quirky and darker song writing style. We really wanted a feeling of the video being shot with film instead of a video camera. The finished piece that started with my Concept and Story Board a few weeks ago, is exactly what Ryan had envisioned:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iR9_a5-Lc

BE sure to change the quality Setting from 360p, to 720p to watch in High Definition as shot.




- - - SHOT WITH A PEN - - -

Shot  exclusively with the Olympus E-PL1 and 14-42mm kit lens.

Zero budget with  video clips being shot in only 2 small rooms and lighting supplied by  the 50 watt and 100 watt halogen modeling lights from 2 studio strobes (that's all I had available to me).

Manual focus, and settings of 1250 ISO for all scenes. Aperture Priority  exposure was set to minus 1 to 1 1/2 stops depending on the mood I was after. Shutter speed was set to  1/30'th second and colors post processed for contrast and colder tones -  for a more film like look. The video was edited using Sony Vegas Movie  Studio Platinum 9.0 (inexpensive consumer video editing software).

The  E-PL1 cameras Diorama Art Filter was used for the effect on the  graveyard scene and closing flower scene. Ryan is a really good performer and high energy with short quick thrashes when playing live on stage - - - and so we tried to incorporate that sensation with the quick sharp movement in clips like some of the lead guitar parts.