2014.01.15: Billie Zizi - "I Don't Mind" music video shoot

I've spent most of my life in denial of what I've wanted to do. First it was a denial of my interest in anything outside of the sciences in school and now I'm a photographer. Then it was my desire to shoot more than still photographs. And, soon after, even my assertions that I am not an artist but an art director's tool and that I don't date models and non-Asian women. But let's stick to discussing video and incorrectly open just a single clean room at a time. Take this music video for example:

My good friend's sister, Billie Zizi, who's father is also my violin instructor wanted something visual done for her new song so she contacted me. Together with Janet Savill as a camera operator and to do the final editing and Marc-Julien Objois to help with lighting, active lighting operation, and to be an all around cool guy on set we shot a music video. Krystle Ash was responsible for Billie's makeup (find her on Facebook or Linked In . . . will update with a link to her website once it is available). On top of this, Billie brought on an incredible recording engineer, Harry Gregg of Big Dreamer Sound. Harry's mix of his recordings from this very uncontrolled environment blew me away and perhaps more exciting than working like hacks with the gear with had instead of the equipment that I had ordered but had failed to arrive in time for this shoot is the prospect of working with him again on future projects like these and not just because his sound was so good that the video itself could have been a quarter as presentable and yet still be compelling. =)

Billie wanted jellyfish somehow incorporated into the set so we found some royalty stock footage and looped it and then projected it on set with a Panasonic PT-AE4000U projector that I typically use in my studio but has been temporarily relocated to my bedroom pending the completion of my new studio. In addition to the projection we lit the set with four 12V 100W tungsten Dedolight heads with one modified with a softbox, an ETC Source Four Junior Zoom, two old Altman Fresnel tungsten lamps, a Chimera Triolet with a 575W third generation tungsten bulb in a Chimera Medium Video softbox with a Lighttools 20degree Soft Egg Crate. You'll find more technical details in the captions of the photos that follow.

Earlier in the day. You can see a light stand with three small Dedolight condenser heads attached and another lightstand with two old Altman Fresnel lamps and a remote dimmer. Having a dimmer was necessary to allow for control of lights while we were filming but also would introduce audible noise in recording equipment if it were powered from the same circuit. We needed to do some planning for power distribution to ensure that our limited number of circuits and power cords could run everything we needed without putting a dimmer on the same circuit as any recording equipment.

As ambient light levels dropped we could start seeing our light and the projected images.

One of a few extra still shots taken with the Sony RX1r. We created a fairly large light design so that the performers could move around the set and still be illuminated interestingly and with adequate light level while keeping everything within the limited exposure latitude of the Panasonic GH3 and the Sony NEX 6 and 7.

A still to give an idea of brightness levels from a camera angle closer to where we were shooting video.

A backlit example. If we didn't need as much light texture in the foreground using the Chimera Medium with the 20degree Lighttools Soft Egg Crate would have given us a more flattering light over a smaller area than using multiple small light sources to try to make a single large compound light source.

A still of the wrap up. Janet was operating the GH3 on the jib while I usually used tripods or the Steadicam Merlin. Some of the footage that made it to the final video was handheld when I felt that the NEX 6 with the 50mm F/1.8 Sony E-mount lens would have been perfect for some shots.