McAlister Kemp - "Hell Yeah" Music Video

We had two shoot days for the "Hell Yeah" music video. One for the main performance shots and the second for the narrative element of the clip. The track is a great party anthem and we really wanted to capture the band giving a great performance that was quite inclusive of the audience. The video culminates with the boys getting some of the crowd to join them up on stage for the last chorus and has a great energy to it. Nick DeLaine & Jay MacNeill put together a great lighting package for us that absolutely took it to another level on the day. We shot this clip with the Canon DSLRs again and find that we get through quite a few more setups using these cameras without compromising on the look that we want. I was shooting off the dolly track with my 7D Zacuto cage rig that's setup for studio style shooting with follow focus and rear rods for mounting an SDI splitter box and also a Marshall Monitor on a Zamerican arm. My lenses of choice were the Canon 16-35 zoom and the Zeiss 50mm 1.4. Rob was going mostly hand held with the Canon 70-200 and also off a mini jib for some shots.

Rob mounted a 5D with 16-35 Canon lens to the hood of a car for the driving shots which we really enjoyed getting. The interior was lit with an LED light panel gaffer taped to the dash... in hindsight we probably could've used another light panel to get them both lit properly on that car interior. There was also one or two visual FX shots in this one. The scene where the couple enter the bar actually had no neon sign there. I added it in post to just sell the shot a bit more. They were actually entering a shoe shop and that's just not very rock n roll is it? I did it in Motion 4 and brought in a still image of a neon sign and added some glow to it with some keyframe animation on the intensity of the glow and also motion tracked it to another sign in the background that I blacked out. The end result just gave a bit more authenticity to the idea that they were entering a live music venue.

The music video for the Steve Forde track “Hurricane” was a classic rockin’ performance video. We got a fantastic location of the old Eveleigh train sheds in Sydney. It has a great gritty feel to it which was really suited to the style of clip Steve wanted to make. The band were awesome and kept the energy up take after take and as you can see from the behind the scenes video Dave Robinson had to double time it on the drums a few times so we could get some slow motion footage of him playing to the song. In order to do that and have it sync up perfectly with the original track, we have to make a version of the song that runs at exactly double the speed. Then we roll the cameras to record twice as many frames per second as normal. So we run them at 50 frames per second and then slow it down in post production so it plays back at 25 frames and this gives a nicer, cleaner slow motion than simply slowing down regular speed footage.

We shot the clip with Canon EOS cameras and a mix of Canon and Zeiss glass. The small size of these cams allowed us to easily mount overhead shots on a c-stand and get some different angles that way. The shoot was mostly off sticks with a few shots from the Kessler Pocket Dolly. The main rig that I used was my Zacuto Z-Cage which I have customized a little with rear extension rods to allow for my HDMI-SDI converter box and also to mount the Marshall field monitor. The Z-Cage has handles all round which I love for carrying it around from setup to setup and also for added stability when doing whip pans or any camera movement in general. Thanks to our crew and cast for another enjoyable shoot.

Harmony James - Good Enough

For Harmony James’ track “Good Enough” we ventured out to Luddenham in western Sydney to a fantastic location. It was a cottage that was over a century old. We used minimal lighting on this clip with a single light source outside the window providing a natural looking glow in the room where Harmony would perform. The cameras we used on this were the Canon EOS 5D, 7D and 550D with a combo of Zeiss and Canon L glass. Shooting in the house provided some great textures on the old walls and floor and also a beautiful ambient light, but the rickety floor boards and creaky structure meant that we couldn’t lug too much gear into there so it was great shooting with a light camera setup on this one.
The other location was the horse stud where we got some nice coverage of Harmony riding the horse at dusk. We used a jib and also the Kessler pocket dolly to get some of the camera movement out in the field and the Zacuto shoulder rig for the handheld shots. It was quite bright out there and the Z-finder came in very handy to help get us a decent exposure when operating off the shoulder. The music video was edited and graded by Muy Lang Linda Ung at LitUp Digital.

Mandi Jarry Video Shoot

Another music video that Robb Cox and myself have co-produced through Rusty Gate Films. This one is for Mandi Jarry's single "I Believe". We shot this over a two day period in Camden on the outskirts of Sydney. To say it was cold for the night shoot would be an understatement. By the end of the shoot we had ice forming on our equipment and later found out that it was the coldest day in 60 years. But Mandi, the band and the crew pushed through the weather and we're really happy with the result. We shot the whole clip using DSLR cameras which I am growing more fond of using every time I shoot with them. We used a combo of Eos 7D and 550D for this shoot with a variety of lenses. The Canon 16-35 f2.8 L, Canon 70-200 2.8L and my favourite the Zeiss ZF 85mm 1.4 and Zeiss ZF 50mm 1.4. I really like the Zeiss lenses, they have quite a cinematic look to them. Robb also used a jib for the night time performance shots which gave some nice movement. We broke out the Kessler Pocket Dolly for the daytime grassy field shots as well. Using the DSLR and pocket dolly combo is quite a time saver when compared to laying down track, as you would normally have to do for some of these shots if using a bigger camera. We had the famous Pix On Location van on this one and it was great to have it for data wrangling and make up and to get out of the drizzle that occasionally bugged us. We had a great crew again for this shoot which makes working so much more enjoyable. Thanks to the crew, Jennifer Eady, Linda Ung, Joe Florian and Ben Harris. Here's the behind the scenes video of the shoot.

This clip is a look at the making of the music video "I Believe" by Mandi Jarry.
Music Video Produced by Rusty Gate Films
Directed by Mick Jones & Robb Cox
Behind The Scenes produced by Muy Lang Linda Ung
Location support: Joe Florian & Ben Harris @ Pix On Location
Thanks To David Wakeley

Bec Lavelle Music Video Shoot

Over the past few months I have seen the popularity of shooting DSLR video rise at an exponential rate. These cameras are becoming increasingly popular to use for music videos and clients are requesting more and more to use them specifically instead of HD camcorders. I think they are so great for music video work. There's usually a lot to get through and a minimal crew so the small size and ease of set ups makes the shoot day quite productive. Robb Cox and myself have been collaborating under Rusty Gate Films to produce music videos and we recently shot a clip for country music artist Bec Lavelle. We used a combination of DSLR and Sony EX-3/NanoFlash with Letus adapter for the clip. The sensitivity of the DSLR was great for small lighting setups and the size and weight of the DSLR meant we could use it on the Kessler Pocket Dolly quite easily for dolly shots out in a field with high grass. We used the EX-3 on the jib arm for the main performance coverage. Robb had some Canon glass with manual controls on the front of the Letus. I also used the Zacuto shoulder mount rig for some hand held shots. The clip is currently being edited and we will post the final result over at rustygatefilms.com

When it comes to workflow we run it fairly tight so we ensure the data integrity. We have always put an emphasis on the importance of data wrangling & workflow from shooting lots of P2 footage over the years. We cycle the cards off the DSLR's and Nano Flash regularly and transcode it into final cut pro using the Pro Res codec. From there we replicate the Final Cut Capture scratch on another drive so we have two copies of it straightaway on separate drives so we can safely re-format the CF card. Here is a behind the scenes clip of the production.

TDC Day 3

The third day of the Tour de Cure saw us traveling from the Hunter Valley all the way to the country music capital, Tamworth! It was a 4.30am start and the longest ride of the entire tour. Some spectacular shots were there to be had as the sun rose and the fog cleared. It is by far the most challenging day of the ride at 284kms. The group left before dawn and arrived into town at sunset with many of the riders pushing through the pain barrier to achieve a personal best in terms of an endurance ride. With the motivation of raising over $1.35 Million for cancer research it was a proud day for all involved.

Tour de Cure begins

The journey begins on the Tour de Cure, a 10 Day charity cycling event raising money for Cancer research.

We have 4 crew who are hitting the road in order to cover the event for a 1 hour documentary. Adam Dodd, Mick Jones, Linda Ung and James McCloy piled into the Britz camper and set off on the 1400km journey up the New England Highway towards Mooloolaba. We are shooting the entire production with DSLR cameras that shoot HD Video. We are taking two 7D's and two 5DMkII's along with an arsenal of Zacuto DSLR rigs, Canon and Zeiss lenses, Glidecam 4000 and the trusty Kessler Pocket Dolly. It will be a technical and creative challenge and we are looking forward to sharing the stories and the amazing generosity and determination of the riders on the Tour de Cure.