Talented filmmaker Dillon Novak had submitted a couple music videos to us a couple of months back. We’re just now able to show them to you. The first that we will be featuring is Swan Song, beautifully shot and set to some really cool locations. I think you’ll notice a difference in the color compared to HDSLR footage as this was shot on an Panasonic HVX200 which has broadcast quality 4:2:2 compared to the 4:2:0 of HDSLR’s. That’s one thing that I’m hoping that will change either this year or the next. With some of the rumors surrounding Canon and/or if ever RED produces Scarlet/Epic I think we can expect greater color sampling. I’ve developed an eye now for footage shot on HDSLR and can tell when they are used on a project. We still use them extensively but the footage is difficult to grade and doesn’t yield as many creative options. An important tip to pay attention to is their use of overcrank on the singing vocal shots, this can be accomplished by speeding up the music the right amount in order for it to sync, creates a very cool dramatic look. Dillon shares this technique on dvxuser (link at the bottom of the post). Anyways, been really busy so haven’t had as much opportunity to post. Working on various projects and in the process of remodeling our house to set up a home based color grading suite. Will add pictures later and explain some of the set up. Hope you enjoy this fantastic music video. It was Dillon’s first big music video so our hats are off to him for doing such a wonderful job.

Montauk Media

Band Brightwood

Production write-up:

Swan Song

I was seventeen when I started the pre-production for the video, I wrote up my treatment and pitched it to several bands asking them if they would like to make this music video. There weren’t many bands that wanted to be involved, because of my age and lack of experience. Fortunately, after a lot of persistence, Brightwood wanted in on the project. Funds were slim to nothing so I raised a good portion of the budget and used some of my own funds to help get the video on its feet. The video ended up running about 2K. We shot on location at The Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. It was absolutely breathe-taking filming there.

It was a six-person crew, shot in one day. We filmed on the HVX-200a with the SgBlade 35MM adapter with a set of old Nikkor Primes. At the most we used three or four shiny boards and a 12×12 silk for the memory sequences. We used a Mathews Doorway Dolly for all of the dolly movements, a DvRigPro HD for shoulder support and a Panasonic HD monitor for focus. I learned after this shoot that if you are going to shoot outside, you better have something to pull over your head and the monitor if you are pulling focus. A Hoodman won’t do the job on it’s own. It was my first time actually shooting on the HVX, so I was pretty intimidated when it came to setting up the first shot. Nobody else on set knew how to operate one, so I was screwed if I messed something up. I over prepared and printed out the entire manual; luckily I didn’t need to use it.

It took forever to get everyone’s gear from the parking lot to the location. The island we shot on was half a mile across a whole mess of streams and wet sand. But when we got ready to take picture, it was totally worth it.

We had just finished pushing through the drummer’s entire set when suddenly this giant sand/wind/rain storm came out of nowhere. The wind was so strong that it practically blew us off our feet. To say the least, any equipment standing was knocked over. It was a good thing I thought to bring some tarps just in case it rained. After the storm passed, we assessed the damages. (Wasn’t anything a towel or compressed air couldn’t fix)

(A still from footage during the storm)

The clouds parted, so we brought out the reflectors and it looked gorgeous. The wind was so brutal that it cleared out all of the tourists in the background. We had the whole park to ourselves. It was awesome! We ended up scrapping the entire set of overcast shots we had just done with the drummer and filmed three new ones while the grips were setting up the dolly.

On the technical side, we used an over-crank technique known as Slow-Motion Lip Sync with the band, which is speeding the song up on playback and then recording the band playing over-cranked. If you do this correctly, it will look as if they are playing/singing in slow-motion but their lips and movements will be timed correctly to the music. It can be better explained precisely here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=90776

It was my first big music video, and even now I consider it as the best day of my life.

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