Music Video Suggestions

Jamie Metzger · July 1, 2006

I am shooting a video on the SR3 next weekend, and I'd always appreciate suggestions on camera setup and even Idea's for the video.

Apparently the producers want this shot in an all white room, which I always hate, but we've come up with some visual effects/cg work that could spice it up.

Does anyone have any suggestions for prime lenses that are awesome, but still fairly cheap?

any camera equippment that might be overlooked, but could be essential?

Pretty vague, I know, but any suggestions help.

Rik Andino · July 1, 2006

Ah the typical white-room Vid...

Shot one of those this week--they're great because very easy to set up.

But you better hope you got a damn good performance

And equally useful a damn good editor.

You should get a standard set of Zeiss SuperSpeeds...

If you can afford them the Cooke S4's always look nice

Also get a fisheye lens--it's always cool and very useful

The Optex 4mm is a very cool lens

As for other camera accessories...

Well your AC will always remind you of the usual...

Follow-Focus (with Remote control always cool)

Video Tap (very necessary with Producers paying huge bucks)

Matte Box with a full range of useful effect filters

Get extra mags so you can move quicker speed is essential in Vids.

Etc, etc...

But besides all the cool toys for the camera

One very necessary item always neglected on first-time vid shoots

A Jib Arm...you want those cool swooping motions and crane shots.

Especially when you're shooting in a studio...with bland art direction.

Also get a dolly that and jib arm will make your shots very mobile and dynamic.

If you could afford it add a Steadycam Opt onto the budget...

But you could always just go handheld if you're running low on cash.

Good Luck

Jamie Metzger · July 7, 2006

Damn. Literally, you hit the nail on the head of what I got, and looked at for this production. And I read this after i got the camera stuff.

I checked out the 4mm optex, but it was too wide, making the nose distorted.

I'm using the SR3 5.5mm Lens, superspeed set, jib arm, dolly...etc.

Hilarious, I knew we weren't going to be doing anything origional, but that's scary.

Daniel Clark · July 8, 2006

Advice for the video: no matter how narrow constraints are you can still create something interesting if you let your mind wander, and avoid doing anything because others have done it and it's "cool". Be original. Play on what other people ahve done if you have to, but if you're making a music video you want it to stand out which it won't do it's all fish-eye, bleached out lighting, shallow focus, high-shutter speed. Experiment, play around (within budgetary reason). So wondering and originality. Vague but true.

Edited July 8, 2006 by Daniel Clark

Jamie Metzger · July 9, 2006

Advice for the video: no matter how narrow constraints are you can still create something interesting if you let your mind wander, and avoid doing anything because others have done it and it's "cool". Be original. Play on what other people ahve done if you have to, but if you're making a music video you want it to stand out which it won't do it's all fish-eye, bleached out lighting, shallow focus, high-shutter speed. Experiment, play around (within budgetary reason). So wondering and originality. Vague but true.

That's all I really had for an option.

I just got home from production, and it was actually a pretty good experience. We used the sr3 which was a ncie camera, but with my 5'' transvideo adapter, it ate batteries like no tomorrow.

We basically kept the jib arm on mitchell sticks on the doorway dolly and moved it around where need be. Shot on the 5.5 Optex lens, a super nice lens to work with and was the work horse.

Had S mount cooke prime lenses with a PL adapter that didn't let focus spin once inserted, so we could only manage to use the 25mm.

Should be an interesting video. Background was 2 stops over, and I was over exposing 1/3 anyways.