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Just completed a Super 8 music video


John Sackey

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Hi all.

 

Just wanted to post this as I got some helpful info from the forums, especially from Mattaius.

 

It was all shot in Sheffield under fairly changeable weather (snow and sweat inducing sunshine) on a nizo 801 macro. I mostly metered with a sekonic 308, so I shot most everything with the shutter at 180. The outdoors stuff is shot at 24 and 54 and the concert footage is 18 fps and just left wide open.

 

The slow motion stuff at the end was all exposed on automatic and seems to be some of the nicest in terms of exposure and seems a lot less grainy than the stuff I exposed with the sekonic. I didn't compensate for the beam splitter though.

 

Hope you enjoy.

 

http://homepage.mac.com/allmodjohns/iMovieTheater18.html

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I really liked your music video! The song is very nice too and Super-8 was a very good choice for this.

There are going to be more Super-8 video clips?

But I agree with Anthony, negs are usually more saturated and it looked washed, but if liked this look so it's great, it's just interesting how it got this look.

 

So great job and I wish too see more and more video clips that was shot with Super 8mm film :)

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But I agree with Anthony, negs are usually more saturated and it looked washed, but if liked this look so it's great, it's just interesting how it got this look.

 

Like I said, I graded it this way. I wanted a less saturated, more natural look. It's supposed to look like an old indie video, like the old Flying Nun Records stuff.

 

I may do more on S8 but it depends on the song. I'm shooting my next couple of videos on video.

 

Thanks for the comments

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oh, I didn't see that, the window was open for awhile so maybe you did your post when I was already on the thread. So if you wanted this look it's graet, but shooting video is not great <_< ( ;) ).

Anyway, I hope you will shoot another with S8 film :) .

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So if you wanted this look it's graet, but shooting video is not great <_< ( ;) ).

 

Ahhh, but what if I want it to look like video? Then it's the bee's knees ;)

 

I did shoot some footage of CSS on 200T last week which turned out quite nice but unfortunately it's not mine to put online for anyone to see. I'd like to shoot some more stuff on S8 but it depends on the band and the track. I originally wanted to do this video on 16 but the budget wouldn't allow me to get film and a camera. Those old videos were usually shot on 16 and a bolex but the S8 captured the same feel I think.

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Like I said, I graded it this way. I wanted a less saturated, more natural look. It's supposed to look like an old indie video, like the old Flying Nun Records stuff.

 

I may do more on S8 but it depends on the song. I'm shooting my next couple of videos on video.

 

Thanks for the comments

Yeah, I think the aesthetic fit the gig very well. I've shot a lot of live music, and the only thing i would have done different is used 500T on the stage, and gone for a contrast scenario with full color and density on the stage.

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hey, mathtiaeuys here. :-) i liked the video a lot, the song too, very good locations and performances from the band members, but i would have opened it differently. the dullest shots with the worst sound sync should never open a video, even if they fit the music well. you need something that makes people want to watch. honestly i almost turned it off after a few seconds. for me the video didn't begin until the flash frame and quick cutting into the live performance. up until then all i could see was bad sync and boring grading, neither of which bothered me after that.

 

all in all still a pretty great video. keep it up.

 

(is that accent genuine? i've been to brighton several times and never really met anyone with an accent at all, schoolbook english everywhere. i loved it but got a feeling perhaps he's imitating some other singer? if so he should stop) ;-)

 

/matt

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hey, mathtiaeuys here. :-) i liked the video a lot, the song too, very good locations and performances from the band members, but i would have opened it differently. the dullest shots with the worst sound sync should never open a video, even if they fit the music well. you need something that makes people want to watch. honestly i almost turned it off after a few seconds. for me the video didn't begin until the flash frame and quick cutting into the live performance. up until then all i could see was bad sync and boring grading, neither of which bothered me after that.

 

all in all still a pretty great video. keep it up.

 

Hi to John & Matt

Liked video, yes some is out of sync but with equipment used good job

John was camera crystal locked, what did you use for playback

 

Matt: what gear did you use to shoot Lisa Lindal video

 

Regard

 

Don

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hey, mathtiaeuys here. :-) i liked the video a lot, the song too, very good locations and performances from the band members, but i would have opened it differently. the dullest shots with the worst sound sync should never open a video, even if they fit the music well. you need something that makes people want to watch. honestly i almost turned it off after a few seconds. for me the video didn't begin until the flash frame and quick cutting into the live performance. up until then all i could see was bad sync and boring grading, neither of which bothered me after that.

 

all in all still a pretty great video. keep it up.

 

(is that accent genuine? i've been to brighton several times and never really met anyone with an accent at all, schoolbook english everywhere. i loved it but got a feeling perhaps he's imitating some other singer? if so he should stop) ;-)

 

/matt

Hi matt, I watched the clip again too see if the sync was so bad and I found it not so bad and it even pretty well, it's not perfect but really not bad. I think it's ok to open with "Dull" shot if you are changing it right after to something more interesting and here it does when the drums starts to play and there is the live performance shot. I liked it, but I won't reject your opinion specially because my knowledge about video clips is not so wide, but I think it was good and I really liked the clip :) .

 

Raz.

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Hi matt, I watched the clip again too see if the sync was so bad and I found it not so bad [...] I think it's ok to open with "Dull" shot

well good for you. ;-) it's a fact though that the sync isn't perfect and the opening shots are a bit dull compared to the rest. the only place where people actually watch a video actively is during the first seconds, then you get away with much more dullness, sloppiness and whatever. in my experience, that's all. i think it's a pretty great video that could be even better with a better opening. that the song doesn't really begin at first is not a reason to not begin the video. i made a similar mistake shooting the mind kaos video, but i think i managed to fix most of it in the editing.

 

as for my lisa lindal video it was kodachrome, canon 814, flashscan telecine.

 

/matt

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well good for you. ;-) it's a fact though that the sync isn't perfect and the opening shots are a bit dull compared to the rest. the only place where people actually watch a video actively is during the first seconds, then you get away with much more dullness, sloppiness and whatever. in my experience, that's all. i think it's a pretty great video that could be even better with a better opening. that the song doesn't really begin at first is not a reason to not begin the video. i made a similar mistake shooting the mind kaos video, but i think i managed to fix most of it in the editing.

 

as for my lisa lindal video it was kodachrome, canon 814, flashscan telecine.

 

Hi Matt

How long did it hold sync ? I am gobsmacked at the quality from K11 do you shoot all you stuff on 8mm

I have 2 814's and 2 Agfa Movexoom 10's

 

Regards

 

Don

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the canon holds sync for several minutes, but only after i measured its speed and adjusted the playback speed to match. here in europe we have to do that anyway since we always telecine 24 fps at 25 fps, so instead of slowing down the song by 4% i slow it down by 5%, which creates a perfect match. all electronically controlled cameras will run at a very steady speed, but since it's not crystal you can never know exactly which until you've measured it.

 

EDIT: oh, and no i don't shoot everything on super 8. most projects are 16mm or hdv, with the occasional 35mm and high end video like imx or hdcam gig. it's just that i own plenty of super 8 gear so when clients have very little money but still don't want dv it's a fun medium to play with.

 

/matt

Edited by Matt Sandstrom
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Hi Matt

Thanks for that, I have as a Sound recordist done a few Pop Video's here in UK and have had to supply playback tapes at various speeds to shoot at different camera speeds mainly shooting 25fps

with Timecode slate.

 

Regards

 

Don

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Hi all

 

Don:

 

The camera doesn't have crystal sync, I just played the track from an ipod connected to some speakers.

 

Matt:

 

While I respect your opinion I don't really accept that you can 'never' open a video with one type of shot or editing style over the other. Unless I've not been given a copy of the rule book :)

 

I wanted the pacing of the video to be that way, starting off slowly then picking up speed. Like the song. As for the sync, it's not that bad. It's certainly not putting people off from watching it as far as the manager and plugger tell me. And as I've posted before the whole thing is supposed to be reminiscent of old indie videos so making it too 'slick' is the polar opposite of the concept which got me the job. in fact a lot of it, including the 'dull' opening shots, are references to videos by the Clean, from around '80, '81.

 

And his accent is real, Murray's from Aberdeen so he really shouldn't change it. They're only based in Brighton to take advantage of the scene and proximity to London labels. And the beach.

 

Thanks again everyone for all the comments.

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Oh, i think you're allowed to open a video any way you like. I was speaking from my personal preference, my attention span is way below average, and my experience of what people want; in my opinion music videos are commercials more than artistic expression. If it doesn't sell it's not worth much and if i wasn't paid to make them i wouldn't bother. ;-) /matt

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hey, mathtiaeuys here. :-) ................ the worst sound sync should never open a video.......... all i could see was bad sync and........

 

all in all still a pretty great video. keep it up.

/matt

 

hmmmm, maybe your computer is not able to keep sync, perhaps it is old and uses dial up. :rolleyes:

 

 

......in my opinion music videos are commercials more than artistic expression. If it doesn't sell it's not worth much and if i wasn't paid to make them i wouldn't bother. ;-) /matt

 

attitude adjustment, consider it.

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attitude adjustment, consider it.

why? the "attitude" i have is the one expected by my clients as well. i call it professionalism. using other people's marketing money for your own personal enjoyment is irresponsible at best (not that i'm accusing anyone of doing that mind you), and going to work without expecting to get paid is stupid.

 

/matt

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In my opinion music videos are commercials more than artistic expression. If it doesn't sell it's not worth much and if i wasn't paid to make them i wouldn't bother. ;-) /matt

 

But you would agree that artistic music videos do get made, no?

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But you would agree that artistic music videos do get made, no?

 

As an argument this could go on indefinitely. Both viewpoints are equelly valid, there are videos with little or no artistic merit (despite their intentions) and they do tend to be in the majority. Then of course there's the Micheal Gondry's of this world who try to make some sort of artistic statement about the song and artist.

 

Either way you'd all spend your time better going to bbc.co.uk/imagine and downloading your own piece of Gilbert and George art. It's only available for the next 48 hrs.

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As an argument this could go on indefinitely.

 

The concept of shaping one's reality would mean that if there ever was a desire (I'm not sure Mattias has such a desire but if he did) to make music videos that are not simply commercialistic in nature, than it starts with the filmmakers. Artistic music videos, or music videos with a story, can then become commercial because they are fun to watch. I am suggesting that although the music video genre may be too commercial in nature, each new music video project should be viewed as a chance to break out from the existing paradigm.

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